A School for Less Than All in Denmark

Abstract

Political and public sectors develop at different speeds and in diverse directions. The aims of economic policies are often different from the aims of education policies, and the tendency is that policies on economics outpace those of education.

‘A school for all’ has been a dominant vision in Denmark for about a century now. Political majorities have gradually amended legislation to describe a comprehensive school for all with no streaming. Basically this was done in order to develop a school that was able to form the next generation to take over the desired knowledge, values and norms. The Danish Folkeskole (primary and lower-secondary school) was in the first part of the twentieth century intended to contribute to nation building, following defeats on the battlefield of 1864. In the second part of the century, following the Second World War, the Folkeskole was intended to raise democratic young people, in mindset and actions, who were able and willing to avoid war. This development culminated with the Folkeskole Act of 1993, which produced a comprehensive school with no streaming at all.

However, the education policies did not reflect the economic policies. Education policies aimed – more or less until 2006 – at creating a welfare state, while economic policies aimed at creating a competitive state, especially from the mid-1990s and onwards. Or, it could be maintained that the education policies in the post-war period reflected the economic policies, which however saw a shift in priorities. It shifted from a welfare state orientation focusing on developing the mass of talent in all to a competitive state orientation focusing on developing the talent of the individual to its utmost potential.

Different values underpin these two kinds of societies: equality and participatory democracy for the welfare state and competition and job readiness for the competitive state. The contradiction can be illustrated by the shift in dominant discourses on education. Until recently a majority of politicians have argued, with support from the Salamanca Declaration, that it is unfair to deprive children with learning difficulties of inclusion in a community of peers. Today, however, it is increasingly more common to hear politicians argue that we need to take more care of the talented, excellent and gifted pupils by supporting special schools or special offers in the Folkeskole.

In this case study, we explore the long-term interplay between education and economic policies to understand how the dichotomy between welfare and competitive values has developed and how it affects a ‘school for all’.