Conference 2000Sweden
Parents
in school decision making around the world
The Swedish Experience
1.1
Recent and current legislation
1.2
Fundamental principles and legislation for state schools
A
fundamental principle of the Swedish education system
is that everybody must have access to equivalent
education, regardless of ethnic and social background
and place of residence. Compulsory school and upper
secondary school are both comprehensive, designed to
accommodate all members of the young generation; and
all schools are co-educational.
The
curricula for compulsory and upper secondary
education are valid nation-wide. State regulations
for the education system are set out in the Education
Act and in a number of ordinances. From 1 January
1998 state regulations for pre-schools are included
in the Education Act.
The
present Swedish Local Government Act of 1991 contains
provisions about both consultative and managerial
user participation. In some special laws there are
also provisions about consultative participation.
1.3
Parental Participation
The
majority of municipalities report that they have some
form of joint collaboration or are on the way to
establish this. These collaborations can operate
differently and can use different terms but
essentially they are not so very different from each
other.
On the
whole they can be categorised into two types: either
simply information and consultation bodies with the
headmaster as decision-maker or some form of
collaboration where the headmaster has conditionally
delegated certain decision making powers. Only in
exceptional cases are there collaborations where
parents are in the majority.
1.4
Consultation
In
accordance with the Swedish Local Government Act of
1991 (chapter 6, paragraph 8) various committees of
the municipalities shall work towards consultation
with those who use the services. For instance
pensioners councils, disability councils or
administrative councils at schools. These councils
have first and foremost the function to be a forum
for the exchange of information and discussion. There
are no instructions as to the ways in which user
influence shall be realised and the representatives
for the users in these types of councils lack
decision making powers.
1.5
Conditional Delegation
Conditional
delegation means that the user representatives are
allowed to participate when an employee (in this case
headmaster) makes a decision which has been delegated
down from the Local Education Authority (Swedish
Local Government Act chapter 6, paragraph 38). Those
who have used the services (in this case parents)
should be given an opportunity to put forward
proposals or to speak out on issues before decisions
are taken. Alternatively, the employee may make a
decision only if the user representatives have
approved the decision.
1.6 User
controlled self-governing bodies
As a
third alternative for parental influence are the user
controlled self governing bodies. Since 1st
July 1994 in accordance with Swedish Local Government
Act chapter 7 there is a possibility for the users at
local facilities or institutions to have the right to
participate and make decisions about their operation.
A user controlled self governing body shall consist
of representatives of those who use the facility or
institution and the employees. The user
representatives shall be in the majority.
In March
1996 Parliament decided that during a five year trial
period the municipality could, if they wished,
establish a local governing body in the nine year
compulsory school and schools for those with learning
difficulties. The government bill (1995/96:157) was
based on the School Committee’s interim report
"Parents in self-governing schools" (SOU
1995:103). The trials take place between 15 July 1996
and 30 June 2001 and the National Agency for
Education was assigned to evaluate these trials.
During the trial period the Local Education Authority
may delegate some of the responsibilities and
decision making functions (which currently lie within
the scope of the Local Education Authority or
headmaster) to the local governing body with parental
majority. The trials are governed within - Ordinance
for trials with local governing bodies in the School
(SFS 1996:605).
Through
a change in the ordinance (SFS 1997:643)
representatives for the students, as from 1 August
1997, may be a part of the local governing body. The
headmasters are always members of the governing body.
From 1 August 1998, pre-schools and after-school
recreation centres have also been part of the trials
(SFS 1998:749).
2.1
Membership and power accorded to local school boards
The
local governing bodies with a parental majority,
established by the different municipalities, are
regulated by the provisions governing self-run bodies
(as stated in the Local Government Act of 1991).
Parents must form a majority of the members. The
trials from 1996 are voluntary for the
municipalities. The local government assembly
authorises the local school board to enter into the
experiment and delegate to it a number of tasks
enumerated in the ordinances. Thus the tasks of the
local school board can vary from one school to
another and from one municipality to another.
An
excerpt from the trial ordinances (SFS 1998:749) will
provide an outline the membership and key tasks::
A
local governing body can include a whole
school or part of a school.
In
a local governing body the members shall
include representatives for the
students’ guardianship and for those
employed in the school. The headmaster must
always be a member of the body.
Representatives of the students are also
entitled to be members of the governing body.
The Local Education Authority is allowed to
decide on who else can be a member of the
body.
Representatives
for the students shall have the right to
attend and express opinions at the meetings.
The
following tasks which, in accordance with the
legislation for compulsory education
(1994:1194), rest upon the Local Education
Authority may be delegated to a local
governing body:
to decide on the
distribution of hours
to be responsible for
offering students a comprehensive choice
of subjects from which to chose (in
accordance with chapter 2, paragraph 20),
and
to decide on teaching.
Ordinance (1997:643);
The
following tasks which, in accordance with the
legislation for compulsory education
(1994:1194), rest with the headmaster may be
delegated to the local governing body:
to decide on outdoor
activities
to decide on the school's
election, and
to decide on the school
work plan
In
addition the following tasks which rest with
the headmaster may be delegated to a local
governing body.
the responsibility for the
local work plan,
design of the school’s
work environment,
the competence development
which is necessary for the teaching staff
to be able to carry out their duties
professionally,
the development of forms
for collaboration between the school and
the home and developing ways of informing
parents about the school’s
objectives, ways of working and choice of
alternatives,
the establishment,
implementation, follow-up and evaluation
of the school’s plan of action to
prevent and counteract all forms of
abusive treatment, such as bullying and
racist behaviour among students and
teaching staff,
3.1
Relationship between the local and central government
Sweden
has a long-standing tradition of local
self-government and has actually 289 municipalities
and 21 counties after the latest municipal
amalgamation reform. The representatives of the
self-government of both municipalities and counties
are elected by the inhabitants through proportional
representation.
The
local governing bodies in the municipality are
self-governing and have been established with support
from the Swedish Local Government Act and the
ordinance on trials with local governing bodies in
schools. The local governing body reports to the
Local Education Authority and is responsible for the
operation of the school. Tasks normally within the
authority of the headmaster or Local Education
Authority can in this way be transferred to the local
governing body. The local governing body’s
responsibility and authority is regulated in a set of
rules and procedures which shall include the
governing body’s tasks, constitution, method of
work and term of office.
4.1 The
process of selecting and electing parental
representatives
The
initiative to set up a local governing board is meant
to be local. This first step is often taken by the
headmaster or a group of parents who set up a working
group. Its purpose is to investigate the interest to
commit oneself to a local board.
The
working group, or interim governing body, has the
right to put forward suggestions on how many members
and substitute members shall be part of the local
governing body and how the seats shall be divided
between the different groups represented in the
governing body. Who is eligible to be elected shall
be discussed and defined, along with how the
nominations and voting procedure shall be
implemented. At one school all the parents had the
right to hand in a written nomination for a
representative to the headmaster. One could nominate
oneself and other candidates. The headmaster then
analysed these nominations to see who would stand for
election. The parents were then able to vote for the
nominated candidates. The election of chairperson and
vice-chairperson is often transferred to the local
governing body for themselves to decide.
The
Local Education Authority decides on the composition
of the local governing-body. Representatives of the
parents or guardians must form the majority. The
board must include representatives of the teaching
staff and other employees of the school. The
headmaster is always a member. The Local Education
Authority can also decide if representatives of the
students or representatives from the school
management district shall participate as elected
members of the board.
The
rules laid out in The Swedish Local Government Act on
decision making and the recording of minutes in the
committee shall be adhered to by the local governing
body.
5.1 The
nature and provision of training for parental
representatives
The
trials with local governing bodies with a parental
majority have come about in most cases through local
initiatives. This implies that any arrangement for
training of members in the governing body depends on
their qualifications and needs. The training, as a
general rule, is planned locally with the support of
the headmaster and the Local Education
Authority’s approval. There are still
municipalities which have planned training for the
parents from a central level. This training, when
offered, has shown to be of interest to the school
teaching staff who want to learn more about how a
school is organised and run.
There
has been no financial support or reference material
given by the state. The purpose of the National
Agency for Education is to follow closely the
developments so they are able to evaluate its
progress. Evaluations are initiated at regular
intervals and the results from these evaluations will
form the basis of the final evaluation with
suggestions for how parental influence should be
strengthened in the future.
Approximately
one quarter of Sweden’s municipalities
participate with one or more schools in the trials.
6.1 The
National Agency for Education’s first evaluation
The
National Agency for Education’s first evaluation
during the spring of 1998 focused on the background
and prerequisites for establishing local governing
bodies. To capture the process when schools decided
to establish local governing bodies, group
discussions were carried out with representatives for
parents, students and teachers. In-depth interviews
were held with headmasters.
For all
the schools in the study, with one exception, staff
expressed varying degrees of fear when the
establishment of a local governing body was first
mentioned. The fear principally concerned an
uncertainty over the parents’ mandate. Today,
however, all the interviewed teachers expressed a
more or less positive attitude towards the existence
of local governing bodies. Some are very positive and
see that members of the governing body have
accomplished things which otherwise would not have
been achieved. As one teacher said, "At first
I wondered what their role would be. Will they have
opinions on how we work in the classroom? But now,
when I see how it works, I think it’s
great".
In
schools where staff thought the local governing body
had not actually accomplished much they nevertheless
had confidence in the governing body’s future
efforts. It also emerged from the report, that all
schools participating in the trials, in different
ways, were heavily involved in some form of change
process. This change process, to a greater or lesser
degree, made its mark on the whole school’s
activity. Another common characteristic was that
headmasters were very positive and in most cases
strongly pushing to create a local governing body.
One headmaster claimed he had not experienced a
decrease in his authority. "Absolutely not!
In one way my authority has perhaps been strengthened
and I enter into discussions in a different way, more
methodically. It means that I secure support at a
very early stage. I think that affects my ability to
promote development at this school."
A
characteristic of all the investigated schools was
that it took time, in most cases a very long time, to
establish a local governing body. The person
responsible for schools in the individual
municipalities, when interviewed, was positive or
very positive to the establishment of local governing
bodies. Despite this basically positive attitude they
still voiced a number of reservations.
Concerns
over the practical and financial
restrictions.
The
many new things going on in the school
created elements of uncertainty.
That
perhaps it worked just as well with active
parent and teacher associations.
The
local governing bodies created extra work for
the headmasters.
Headmasters
were not sufficiently motivated.
It
was difficult, in general, to get
parents’ commitment.
Reservations
from the staff.
It
was cumbersome with so much formalisation and
administration.
7.1
Conclusion
With
the above as a background it is likely to be a
delicate balancing act for those municipalities
wishing to establish local governing bodies. The
interest has to develop locally and the local
authority should not decide over the heads of the
proposed local governing bodies. The best foundation
for a local governing body is probably that parents
and staff are given a free hand in defining the
framework for its activity. It is also important to
have support from the local authority, who should be
willing to meet each local governing body and discuss
the specific needs and requirements as defined by
that local governing body.
Interest
in creating local governing bodies has levelled out
after a considerable rise during the second year of
the planned trials, but new bodies are still being
set up all the time. Findings from the second
evaluation (which takes place in the spring of 1999)
are expected to be published. The governing
bodies’ internal work will then be focused. In
many municipalities the local governing bodies have
been met with great confidence and have taken on
extensive responsibility. They are allowed to decide,
not only on the questions concerning the trials, but
they have also received the mandate of their
municipalities to take on a greater responsibility
for the school’s operation.
The
local governing bodies have come to stay, but not
presumably to be forced on the whole of Swedish
compulsory schools and schools for those with
learning difficulties. If the parents, teaching staff
and management, locally, and on their own initiative,
want to create a local governing body it should be
possible. An active user influence presumes a local
commitment, not central decrees.
John
Evertsson
Reports
Demokrati
pa prov. Erfarenheter av fö rsö ksverksamheten med
fö raldrastyrda skolor, (Democracy on trial -
Experiences of the trials with parent governed
schools.)
December
1997, Adreas Duit and Tommy Moller, Institution of
Political Science, Stockholm University.
Fö
raldrar I skiolan - ar det na’t att ha
(Parents in school - is it something to have?)
A
description of what happened when a number of schools
decided to establish local governing bodies with
parental majority, September 1998, Elisabeth Ritchey,
PhD Pedagogy
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