Skolråd, bidrag och inspektion : Den fortsatta etableringen av ett statligt skolväsende mellan åren 1871 - 1882

Sammanfattning: This study investigated a local aspect of theSwedish elementary school modernization process between the years 1871-1882.Previous studies have been drawn from the school inspectors own reports andshow that the schoolboards housed a negative and resentful attitude towardsreforms and the school inspectors often felt that the parish priests were moreinclined to changes than the schoolboards themselves.  Other research on elementary schoolmodernization has stressed the matching grants as a major cause of developmentand further establishment. In this study, however, a schoolboards own notes inthe form of meeting protocols during an eleven year period as well as a letterby a priest Erik Lundberg, Redogörelseför skolhusfrågan i Tierp dated 6 October 1880 were analyzed to see if theprevious explanation of school modernization, in particular with regard to thereluctance to change by the schoolboards goes to demonstrate and confirm. Theresults of this study have shown that even if the schoolboards do notimmediately follow the school inspectors instructions, it seems not primarilybeen due to resentment. Reforms within the school world are well known forbeing time-consuming but for the current period, as this study concerns andwithin this specific parish there were conflicts of interest which are notshown when only the inspector’s accounts and reports are examined. The late 1900thcentury was a time with a great deal of overwhelming and overthrowingreformations and changes witch challenged its previous social structuresthrough industrialization, urbanization and new political currents. Developmentand change occurs faster than news of it could travel, and it has been aninteresting journey to study these documents and to get a glimpse into how aschoolboard in a rural parish dealt with expansion and change.