1.The Myth of Swedish Education Equity -- 2.Education Differentiation Within Contemporary Globalization: A Meta-ethnographic Analysis of the Conferral of Power and Status in Modern Education Systems -- 3.Performativity, Creativity and Personalised Learning -- 4.Twelve Years of Upper-Secondary Education in Sweden: The Beginnings of a Neo-Liberal Policy Hegemony? -- 5.Social Class Stereotypes in Upper-Secondary School -- 6.Higher Education Expansion and Student Choices: A Critical Analysis -- 7.A Meta-ethnography of Research on Education Justice and Inclusion in Sweden with a Focus on Territorially Stigmatised Areas -- 8.Education Markets and Inequalities -- 9.Conclusions: Reconsidering Sweden’s International Contemporary Recognition and Historical Standing in Regard to Matters of Educational Justice and Equity.

While Sweden is often viewed as a benchmark for equality within education, this book examines this assumption in greater depth. The author argues that Sweden’s education system – even prior to the global spread of neoliberalism in education, meta-policies and privatization – was never particularly equal. Instead, what became apparent was a system that offered advantages to the upper social classes under a sheen of meritocracy and tolerable inequalities. Combining ethnographic and meta-ethnographic methodologies and analyses, the author examines the phenomenon of structural injustice in the Swedish education system both vertically and diachronically across a period of intensive transformation and reform. This revealing volume offers a mode of engagement that will be of value and interest to researchers and students of injustices within education, as well as policy makers and practitioners.