Institutional Maintenance Work as a Response to the Introduction of Inspections in Swedish Schools 2003-2008

Authors

  • Caroline Waks Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University, Sweden
  • Maria Blomgren Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University, Sweden

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58235/sjpa.v23i1.8674

Keywords:

school inspection, hybrid professionalism, interdependent relationships, institutional maintenance

Abstract

This paper focuses on a national governmental school inspections program that was reintroduced in the Swedish school system in 2003. The program included controls conducted by governmental inspectors whose task was to strictly inspect, ignoring activities such as consulting and advice-giving. In the article, we show that while the reintroduced school inspections pointed to the contours of a stricter audit regime in Sweden, studies of micro-level processes provided a more complex picture. Based on an interview study including inspectors, teachers, principals and public employees in the Swedish school system, our results show that the practices of the inspectors did not change dramatically. The inspectors participated in institutional maintenance work that kept institutionalised practices more or less intact. The paper contributes to the discussion on institutional maintenance work by investigating the role of hybrid professionals (inspectors with dual loyalties and obligations both to the state and to their professional peers) and how their interdependent relationship to stakeholders affected the conditions and character of institutional work activities.

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Author Biographies

Caroline Waks, Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University, Sweden

Caroline Waks is an Associate Professor at the Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University, Sweden.

Maria Blomgren, Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University, Sweden

Maria Blomgren is an Associate Professor at the Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University, Sweden.

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Published

2019-03-15

How to Cite

Waks, C., & Blomgren, M. (2019). Institutional Maintenance Work as a Response to the Introduction of Inspections in Swedish Schools 2003-2008. Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration, 23(1), 3–22. https://doi.org/10.58235/sjpa.v23i1.8674

Issue

Section

Original Articles