“Quality Problems” in Swedish Municipal Adult Education : The Micropolitics of Quality Construed in the Audit Society

Abstract

The aim of this thesis was to analyze and critically scrutinize how quality is construed in an audit process in Swedish Municipal Adult Education (MAE) and the discursive effects. Drawing on adult education policy documents and observations of a quality audit process, as well as the Swedish Schools Inspectorate's (SSI) Day, this study also contributes to the uncharted field of how the micropolitics of "quality" is being produced in the Audit society within adult education. By applying Carol Bacchi's post-structural, Foucault-influenced 'What's the "problem" represented to be?' approach, it became possible to analyze the politics of "quality" on a micro level. The results indicate that quality seems to be construed as a 'lack' or a 'problem' in Swedish MAE policy and during the quality audit that SSI carried out in MAE. Moreover, principals, teachers and heads of education seem to be held responsible for this lack as the increased need for flexibility and individualization is stressed as a solution to the 'quality problem'. There also seems to be an ambiguity of how quality should be addressed, defined, audited, and produced in MAE, as the SSI seem to struggle with making quality measurable for it to be auditable. The analysis shed light on two different logics that underpin the way that quality is construed; on the one hand, it is construed as something elusive that can be used to pinpoint quality in teaching and schools. On the other hand, it is construed as something quantitative and limiting that has effects on what can be said and done in MAE. There also seems to be a hierarchy between different 'problems' during the SSI's audit of MAE which also have consequences for what can be said and done about quality in this context.

Problemets politik: En forskningsbaseret antologi om Carol Bacchis poststrukturalistiske policy- og interviewanalyse i pædagogik og uddannelse

“…it. An example of this can be drawn from the fourth article where the MAE student is produced as a specific kind of student in relation to distance education (Mufic, 2022b). Subsequently, talk about students "jumping in at the deep end" or "biting off more than they can chew" seems to produce them as responsible for failing or succeeding with their studies, regardless of how the adult education system is organized.…”

“…Lived effects draw attention to how discursive and subjectification effects play out in peoples' lives ; the material aspects and impact of problem representations . This concept was also used in the fourth article to scrutinize how flexibility demands in policy played out during a quality audit (Mufic, 2022b).…”

Discourses on quality in Swedish adult education

“…Furthermore, Ball et al (2012) have ascertained that there are certain policy discourses that express what, for example, 'good' teaching is, as well as discourses that define schooling. Two central policy discourses that have been identified in Swedish adult education are individualisation and flexibilityhowever, the master discourses that define Swedish adult education concern employability, skills supply, integration, and perhaps most of all marketisation (Andersson & Muhrman, 2022a, 2022bMuhrman & Andersson, 2022). In this article, however, policy enactment is examined with a focus on descriptions that can be related to quality in marketised adult education.…”

“…Andersson and Muhrman (2022a) show that quality is often measured via statistics which, for example, relate to throughput or student achievement of goals. But Mufic (2022bMufic ( , 2023 argues that quality in MAE is more than what can be captured in numbersit is also about what students and school staff involved in the education system describe as quality, which is in the focus of this article.…”

“…A different path to privatisation is, e.g., the historical private-public partnerships with influence from religious and other ideological interests, and a high level of privatisation of education, in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain (Verger et al, 2017). Regardless of such developments, 'quality' is still a central concern in adult education (e.g., Armstrong, 2007;Boshier, 2006;Egetenmeyer & Käpplinger, 2011;Mark, 2004;Možina, 2014;Mufic, 2022b). This article provides examples of how quality is discussed and enacted in Swedish MAE.…”