Jakob Westergren: But now tell me how this drink is made: Four essays on the enactment of school competition

Abstract

In this doctoral dissertation, I investigate the enactment of competition among upper secondary schools in the Swedish educational system. Following extensive market-inspired reforms in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the responsibility for schools was decentralized to municipalities and a voucher system was introduced aimed at increasing pedagogical diversity and improving school quality through competition. However, the transformation of schools from agents in a public education system to competitive actors has proven to be complex and challenging. The reform sought to stimulate pedagogical innovation and greater student involvement, yet many schools appear to have struggled with following through on this vision. Privately owned schools are increasingly questioned, and several schools struggle to provide pedagogically relevant offerings to students.

Two research questions guide this inquiry: (1) How does a school become a competing organization? and (2) How does a school create a competitive offering? To make sense of these questions, I draw on institutional organization theory and consumption scholarship. Emphasis is placed on the necessity of legitimacy in competition. Schools must not only have the legal authority to act autonomously to compete, but they must also be socially recognized and accepted as competitors, and their competitive offering must also be legitimate, yet distinct.

Previous research has largely examined the effects of competition on educational outcomes and schools’ competitive behaviors without investigating how schools become legitimate competing actors in the first place. In other words, legitimacy is assumed. The purpose of this dissertation is then to problematize how schools become competitors and enact competition. Through four empirical papers, I explore how schools navigate the challenges of competition, construct their offerings, and struggle with legitimacy as competitive actors. 

I find that schools enact competition by stumbling, fumbling, and rumbling. Trial and error seems to define the process of becoming a competitor. Furthermore, enacting competition appears to be much more intrusive than previously suggested as it affects the field of organizations, the very identities of these organizations, and the subjects in those organizations, including students and school leaders. This dissertation therefore contributes to a deeper understanding of the marketization of education and the social construction of competition.