Ojämlikhet i den svenska skolan: Ett problematiserande av kvalitet och jämlikhet i den svenska skolan utifrån Skollagen och Sveriges utbildningspolitiska historia

Sammanfattning: The Swedish educational system has during the last few decades gone through a process of liberalization and privatization. The political reforms and processes shaping the state of the Swedish school today have to a large extent changed the shape of the Swedish welfare state in general and the overall view on education in particular. This paper attempts to locate and dissect ambitions of equality and quality as expressed in The new Education Act (SFS 2010:800) within the context of Swedish education policy, understand if and in which ways the Swedish state fails to achieve these and subsequently relate these shortcomings to structural obstacles caused by political decisions in the past. The differentiating state of the Swedish school system is aimed to promote individual freedom and opportunities for children across the country by emphasizing the possibility of choice and mobility in relation to education. This paper, however, argues that the liberalization and privatization of the Swedish school risk working as a segregating and discriminatory mechanism which allows some individuals to make informed decisions in regards to educational choice while other parts of the population is in danger of suffering increasingly slim opportunities to affect their futures. To achieve this purpose, this paper primarily employs theories of social reproduction and educational opportunities. The educational system has the potential to work as an empowering institution. This paper shows that political decisions has been a contributing factor to entrenching social hierarchies in Swedish society and that political reforms are necessary to improve equality in Swedish schools and subsequently achieve the ambitions expressed in The new Education Act.