ABSTRACT
There is a long-standing assumption that in ‘centralized’ education systems such as those of France and Sweden, teachers’ practice is more closely controlled than in ‘decentralized’ systems such as that of England or the United States. 1 This paper sets out to show that such an equation of strong control with a high degree of centralization is misleading for it fails to take into account less obvious and generally much more powerful sources of control and constraint.
