New political directions for the Swedish school

In the Swedish school system new levels of governing are gaining ground at the expense of the old highly centralised state governing. Those new levels are on the one hand local and regional, on the other supranational and glo bal. New governing mechanisms are also at stake: stronger parental influenc e, more liberal legislation for 'alternative' schools, a new virtual (and n ot controlled) curriculum and teachers' and pupils' exposure to the Europea n Union's policy for work and education. We describe school policy and ideo logy for Sweden since the first legislation 1842 in three historical phases , and we focus particularly on the changes during the last two decades. Beh ind those changes we discern a new-liberal ideology and rhetoric, and also deep structural changes at European level. We argue that the new governing mechanisms probably will be more influential in the future, and that new co nnections and combinations between them will be possible.