Olovlig frånvaro i skolan som problem och diskurs. Rättigheter och skyldigheter i den samtida utbildningspolitiken
TruancyUnauthorized absenceEducation policyTruancyUnauthorized absenceEducation policy,Discourse analysis.
The purpose of this study is to examine the changes in law and other types of politicialregulation regarding unauthorized absence during the reformation of the Swedish schoolsystem in 2010. How was this ?new? approach on unauthorized absence established; whatmade it possible and which view on ?unauthorized absence? does it implicate? The study hasa discourse analytic approach in which it examines central policy documents regarding thetopic of inquiry. The study has found that the alliance-government?s education policy onunauthorized absence is pervaded by one hegemonic discourse termed the mono-culturaldisciplinary discourse. The delineation of the discourse order also reveals a subordinatedcounter discourse, the rights discourse. Each discourse holds a latent construction of theunauthorized absent pupils, ?the guilty? and ?the vulnerable?, and among those who wish toget authorized absence, ?the religious? and ?the high-achievers.? The hegemonic discoursereveals a liability shift. The transformation of the axiom ?school responsibility? is amanifestation of a political shift to ?advanced liberalism? here characterized by aresponsibilization of the pupils and their guardians regarding unauthorized absence as a socialproblem. Furthermore, this study shows that the political struggle over financial aid in highschool ? which discloses the ?new? view on unauthorized absence - is inextricably bound tothe power struggle between the rights discourse and the mono-cultural disciplinary discourse.