Tenacious Documents : Exploring the Allure of Documentation in Swedish Compulsory Schools
(2025) In Lund Dissertations in Sociology- Abstract
- The Swedish education authorities are up against a tenacious problem. Teachers have for years expressed dissatisfaction over increasingly prolific and pervasive demands for documentation that hijacks time that could have been invested in pupils’ learning. Over the past 15 years different Swedish governments have sought to remedy this problem but to no avail. The ‘burden of documentation’, as it is commonly referred to in Sweden, persists. The Swedish education system is not unique in facing this problem, but offers a particularly germane case for the study of it due to the concerted efforts, and joint failure, by actors from across the chain of governance to solve the problem. This thesis sets out, then, to understand the tenacity of... (More)
- The Swedish education authorities are up against a tenacious problem. Teachers have for years expressed dissatisfaction over increasingly prolific and pervasive demands for documentation that hijacks time that could have been invested in pupils’ learning. Over the past 15 years different Swedish governments have sought to remedy this problem but to no avail. The ‘burden of documentation’, as it is commonly referred to in Sweden, persists. The Swedish education system is not unique in facing this problem, but offers a particularly germane case for the study of it due to the concerted efforts, and joint failure, by actors from across the chain of governance to solve the problem. This thesis sets out, then, to understand the tenacity of documents through exploring the allure of documentation in Swedish compulsory schools. It asks how documents and the work of documentation alternately, and at times simultaneously, come to be understood as solutions to problems and as problems in and of themselves.
Methodologically and theoretically, the problem is approached by foregrounding the documents as material semiotic artefacts. Through ethnographic fieldwork at schools, semi-structured interviews with school staff and document analysis, the thesis employs a performative understanding of documents, where documents and the practices that go with them are conceptualised as multifaceted, unpredictable and constitutive of the social relations that they enable and enact. The arguments that emerge draw on Science and Technology Studies, Institutional Ethnography and ethnographic, or practice-oriented, approaches to documents.
The analytical chapters demonstrate how documents tend to have multiple purposes, both intended and unintended. These multiple purposes often appear as self evidently co-existing in the manner they are outlined by various key actors who define teachers’ document demands, such as governing educational agencies and digital learning platforms. In practice, however, they are frequently in considerable tension and conflict with one another. What is more, despite being deeply concerned with the everyday ongoings at schools, the teachers experience that the documents tend to become detached from the very processes that they are meant to be implicated in, such as quality work or counteracting degrading behaviour. This thesis examines how this detachment and distancing happens in the everyday ongoings of schools.
The thesis concludes that we must understand these tenacious documents as existing in an unresolvable tension between realising democratic ideals and perpetuating domination. It is argued that this tension does not primarily exist on an ideological or ideational level but is socio-materially produced in the everyday activities of school staff. (Less) - Abstract (Swedish)
- De svenska utbildningsmyndigheterna står inför ett seglivat problem. Lärare har under många år uttryckt missnöje över alltmer utbredda och genomgripande krav på dokumentation. En hel del dokumentation stjäl tid som annars skulle kunna läggas på elevers lärande och att utveckla undervisningen, lyder klagomålen. Under de senaste 15 åren har olika svenska regeringar försökt åtgärda detta problem, men utan framgång. Den så kallade "dokumentationsbördan" kvarstår. Det svenska utbildningssystemet är inte unikt i att stå inför en ökad administrativ arbetsbörda, men det utgör ett särskilt relevant fall att studera på grund av de samlade insatserna, och det (hittills) gemensamma misslyckandet, av aktörer längs hela styrkedjan att lösa problemet.... (More)
- De svenska utbildningsmyndigheterna står inför ett seglivat problem. Lärare har under många år uttryckt missnöje över alltmer utbredda och genomgripande krav på dokumentation. En hel del dokumentation stjäl tid som annars skulle kunna läggas på elevers lärande och att utveckla undervisningen, lyder klagomålen. Under de senaste 15 åren har olika svenska regeringar försökt åtgärda detta problem, men utan framgång. Den så kallade "dokumentationsbördan" kvarstår. Det svenska utbildningssystemet är inte unikt i att stå inför en ökad administrativ arbetsbörda, men det utgör ett särskilt relevant fall att studera på grund av de samlade insatserna, och det (hittills) gemensamma misslyckandet, av aktörer längs hela styrkedjan att lösa problemet. Denna avhandling syftar därför till att förstå dokumentens ihärdighet genom att utforska dokumentationens dragningskraft i svenska grundskolor. Den ställer frågan hur dokument och dokumentationsarbete växelvis, och ibland samtidigt, kommer att uppfattas som lösningar på problem och som problem i sig själva.
Metodologiskt och teoretiskt närmar sig avhandlingen problemet genom att framhäva dokument som materiellt-semiotiska objekt. Genom etnografiskt fältarbete i skolor, semistrukturerade intervjuer med skolpersonal och dokumentanalys använder avhandlingen en performativ förståelse av dokument, där dokument och de praktiker som följer med dem konceptualiseras som mångfacetterade, oförutsägbara och konstituerande för de sociala relationer som de möjliggör och iscensätter. De analytiska kapitlen visar hur dokument ofta har flera syften, både avsedda och oavsiktliga. Dessa multipla syften framstår ofta som självklara i hur de beskrivs av olika nyckelaktörer som definierar lärarnas dokumentationskrav, såsom styrande utbildningsorgan och digitala lärplattformar. I praktiken är de dock ofta i betydande spänning och konflikt med varandra. Det är även så att trots att dokumenten till synes är djupt involverade i skolornas vardagliga verksamheter, upplever lärarna ofta att dokumenten tenderar att bli frikopplade från de processer de är avsedda att påverka, såsom kvalitetsarbete eller att motverka kränkningar. Denna avhandling undersöker hur denna frikoppling och distansering sker i skolornas vardag.
Avhandlingen drar slutsatsen att vi måste förstå dessa seglivade dokument som existerande i en olöslig spänning mellan att förverkliga demokratiska ideal och att upprätthålla kontroll eller dominans. Det hävdas att denna spänning inte främst existerar på en ideologisk eller idébaserad nivå, utan är socio-materiellt producerad i skolpersonalens vardagliga aktiviteter. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/ec97c80c-1ba3-47c0-9fd8-d7c0605f0a51
- author
- Morris, Freja LU
- supervisor
-
- Malin Åkerström LU
- Axel Fredholm LU
- opponent
-
- Professor Asdal, Kristin, University of Oslo
- organization
- alternative title
- Ihärdiga dokument : En studie om dokumentationens dragningskraft i svenska grundskolor
- publishing date
- 2025-01
- type
- Thesis
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Documentation, Education, Governance, Ethnography, Science and Technology Studies, Knowledge production, sociology of quantification, sociology of statistics
- in
- Lund Dissertations in Sociology
- issue
- 138
- pages
- 232 pages
- publisher
- Media-Tryck, Lund University, Sweden
- defense location
- Socialhögskolans hörsal (Sh128) Allhelgona kyrkogata 8, Lund
- defense date
- 2025-02-14 13:15:00
- ISSN
- 1102–4712
- 1102–4712
- ISBN
- 978-91-8104-339-6
- 978-91-8104-340-2
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- ec97c80c-1ba3-47c0-9fd8-d7c0605f0a51
- date added to LUP
- 2025-01-15 11:44:06
- date last changed
- 2025-04-04 14:33:17
@phdthesis{ec97c80c-1ba3-47c0-9fd8-d7c0605f0a51,
abstract = {{The Swedish education authorities are up against a tenacious problem. Teachers have for years expressed dissatisfaction over increasingly prolific and pervasive demands for documentation that hijacks time that could have been invested in pupils’ learning. Over the past 15 years different Swedish governments have sought to remedy this problem but to no avail. The ‘burden of documentation’, as it is commonly referred to in Sweden, persists. The Swedish education system is not unique in facing this problem, but offers a particularly germane case for the study of it due to the concerted efforts, and joint failure, by actors from across the chain of governance to solve the problem. This thesis sets out, then, to understand the tenacity of documents through exploring the allure of documentation in Swedish compulsory schools. It asks how documents and the work of documentation alternately, and at times simultaneously, come to be understood as solutions to problems and as problems in and of themselves. <br/>Methodologically and theoretically, the problem is approached by foregrounding the documents as material semiotic artefacts. Through ethnographic fieldwork at schools, semi-structured interviews with school staff and document analysis, the thesis employs a performative understanding of documents, where documents and the practices that go with them are conceptualised as multifaceted, unpredictable and constitutive of the social relations that they enable and enact. The arguments that emerge draw on Science and Technology Studies, Institutional Ethnography and ethnographic, or practice-oriented, approaches to documents. <br/>The analytical chapters demonstrate how documents tend to have multiple purposes, both intended and unintended. These multiple purposes often appear as self evidently co-existing in the manner they are outlined by various key actors who define teachers’ document demands, such as governing educational agencies and digital learning platforms. In practice, however, they are frequently in considerable tension and conflict with one another. What is more, despite being deeply concerned with the everyday ongoings at schools, the teachers experience that the documents tend to become detached from the very processes that they are meant to be implicated in, such as quality work or counteracting degrading behaviour. This thesis examines how this detachment and distancing happens in the everyday ongoings of schools.<br/>The thesis concludes that we must understand these tenacious documents as existing in an unresolvable tension between realising democratic ideals and perpetuating domination. It is argued that this tension does not primarily exist on an ideological or ideational level but is socio-materially produced in the everyday activities of school staff.}},
author = {{Morris, Freja}},
isbn = {{978-91-8104-339-6}},
issn = {{1102–4712}},
keywords = {{Documentation; Education; Governance; Ethnography; Science and Technology Studies; Knowledge production; sociology of quantification; sociology of statistics}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{138}},
publisher = {{Media-Tryck, Lund University, Sweden}},
school = {{Lund University}},
series = {{Lund Dissertations in Sociology}},
title = {{Tenacious Documents : Exploring the Allure of Documentation in Swedish Compulsory Schools}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/205959046/Morris_Freja._Tenacious_Documents_2025_.pdf}},
year = {{2025}},
}