Transforming Insecurity into a Commodity: Using the Digital Tools Unikum and InfoMentor as an Example in Swedish Education

Abstract

New forms of activities now shape and govern the Swedish education system, based on governance through comparison. The focus on comparison can be regarded as soft governance and different types of (self-) evaluations and valuations are, at present, deeply embedded keystones in the decentralised education system. Recently this has, together with the transformation of the Swedish education system, led to an increase in the number of documents being written in school for quality assurance and in order to assess, follow-up and evaluate students' learning and development. To address these challenges, different commercial actors have become part of school practices and market, e.g. digital tools for assessment. The government's acceptance of this industry has allowed the rise of neo-liberal ideas that are required in so-called ‘knowledge economies’. The aim of this article is to report the findings from three empirical studies of how digital tools for documentation are viewed by teachers and used in practice. Our findings show that the digital tools shape both students’, as well as the professionals’, identities through their role of governing activities and processes. The usage of the tools could jeopardise teachers' profession and there is a risk of de-professionalism.