ABSTRACT
During the last three decades the Swedish educational system has undergone a process of continuous reform from a system of parallel schools to a comprehensive school system. Several circumstances have contributed to the speed and extent of the changes, perhaps the most important of which is the fact that the Swedish educational system is highly centralized. Sweden is one of the very few countries that has a central non-political board, responsible for implementing political decisions and thus for the application of reform policy. This board — the National Board of Education (NBE) — is detached from the Ministry of Education and has central responsibility for primary, secondary and adult education. Although there are currently trends towards decentralization of decision making and responsibility for the educational system, the NBE will remain the central authority on educational matters and thus will be responsible for implementing two main educational principles in Sweden: uniformity of school structure and equality of educational opportunity.
Educational research and development (R & D) — as a consequence of this overall centralization — also has a centralized administration. This means that the NBE is responsible for a large part of educational R & D, and toward this end the Board has increasingly had funds at its disposal since 1962. A discussion of the impact of educational research therefore cannot be fully understood unless the reform strategies and the role of R & D within these strategies are described.
Educational R & D has been evaluated by a government-appointed committee, which presented its recommendations to the Minister of Education in February 1980. This article summarizes some of the conclusions drawn by that committee, especially as regards the impact of research.
