Since New Public Management's alteration of the public administration during the 1980s and 1990s, the role of the state has shifted from producing the welfare services itself to instead taking a regulatory position. The shift towards an increasingly decentralized welfare has resulted in an increasingly extensive public audit, and a contradiction within the public administration has been made visible: the relationship between control and trust.The purpose of this study is to contribute to a greater understanding of the relationship between public audit and professional autonomy; in this study, the Swedish School Inspectorate's quality inspections are a case of public audit, and teachers' discretion is a case of professional autonomy. By applying a qualitative content analysis this study investigates how the Swedish School Inspectorate's quality inspections have changed over time with regard to its possible impact on teachers' professional autonomy; whether the changes indicate a strengthened or weakened professional autonomy. The results of the study show that the quality inspections have become more comprehensive, and that the Swedish School Inspectorate has become more detailed in its definition of quality and more specific in its feedback to the schools. The combination of an increased external control and a more detailed and elaborate method could weaken professional autonomy. However, more research is needed in the area, partly to enable an explanation for the changes, partly to be able to gain more evidence that the professional autonomy has been weakened.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-513576 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Danasten, Julia |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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