2021/06/10 by Jonathan Lilliedahl · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies #Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy #Global Educational Policies and Reforms
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/00220272.2021.1925971
crossref issued 2021/06/10 · crossref published 2021/06/10 · crossref published-online 2021/06/10 · openalex publication_date 2021/06/10 · crossref created 2021/06/11 · crossref published-print 2022/03/04 · crossref deposited 2022/04/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/29 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
As a result of international neoliberal and neoconservative trends, the status of the arts has been devalued in secondary school curricula. This paper examines why the arts are not considered core educational knowledge in pedagogic discourse arising from the New Right policy agenda. In a case study analysis of Swedish educational policy debates, curriculum codes and their underlying principles of recontextualization are weighed as they bear on the arts. Discursive positionings and socio-political networking between political standpoints and stakeholders have been analysed based on official Swedish documents associated with the legislative process of curriculum revision.Our findings show how justifications of arts education clash with coding orientations arising from a strong classification between what is presumed to be valuable and non-valuable knowledge, which in turn is due to an underlying principle of visibility. While advocates argue that artistic practices promote transversal competences and have intangible benefits, this same argument unwittingly strengthens the non-autonomous status of the arts. The illegitimacy of the arts also stems from the belief that they are only marginally related to visible market values. Taken together, the arts are not considered core knowledge because of their perceived relative unimportance for higher academic learning or vocational competence.