In 2011, I spent a week as part of a group visiting schools in Malmö, seeking to discover “fresh ideas” and “why Sweden is held up as an example”. The blog I wrote afterwards – entitled ‘Why is Sweden held up as an example of school success?’ – explained that: “the radically different priorities of the Swedish education system forced us to re-examine our beliefs about what educational success is”:
As a strong welfare state, Sweden prizes the development of the individual and the pursuit of equality. Schools seek to build good citizens, with life skills and an intrinsic desire to learn. Testing is of limited importance, and goals are based around a long view of success: the adult who becomes, not the grades a child achieves; responsibility lies with the student to achieve this… In the classroom, relationships are close: students, dressed in their own clothes, address their teachers by first name. Students took pleasure in…
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The Echo Chamber 