“Quality Problems” in Swedish Municipal Adult Education: The Micropolitics of Quality Construed in the Audit Society

The aim of this thesis was to analyze and critically scrutinize how quality is construed in an audit process in Swedish Municipal Adult Education (MAE) and the discursive effects. Drawing on adult education policy documents and observations of a quality audit process, as well as the Swedish Schools Inspectorate’s (SSI) Day, this study also contributes to the uncharted field of how the micropolitics of “quality” is being produced in the Audit society within adult education. By applying Carol Bacchi’s post-structural, Foucault-influenced ‘What’s the “problem” represented to be?’ approach, it became possible to analyze the politics of “quality” on a micro level. The results indicate that quality seems to be construed as a ‘lack’ or a ‘problem’ in Swedish MAE policy and during the quality audit that SSI carried out in MAE. Moreover, principals, teachers and heads of education seem to be held responsible for this lack as the increased need for flexibility and individualization is stressed as a solution to the ‘quality problem’. There also seems to be an ambiguity of how quality should be addressed, defined, audited, and produced in MAE, as the SSI seem to struggle with making quality measurable for it to be auditable. The analysis shed light on two different logics that underpin the way that quality is construed; on the one hand, it is construed as something elusive that can be used to pinpoint quality in teaching and schools. And on the other hand, it is construed as something quantitative and limiting that has effects on what can be said and done in MAE. There also seems to be a hierarchy between different ‘problems’ during the SSI’s audit of MAE which also have consequences for what can be said and done about quality in this context. Syftet med denna avhandling var att analysera och kritiskt utforska hur kvalitet konstrueras i en granskningsprocess i svensk kommunal vuxenutbildning (komvux). Det empiriska materialet bestod av samtida vuxenutbildningspolicydokument, observationer av en kvalitetsgranskningsprocess av komvux som utfördes av Skolinspektionen och en observation av Skolinspektionens dag. Avhandlingen fokus guidades av frågan: Hur mikropolitiken om ”kvalitet” produceras i vuxenutbildning inom granskningssamhället. Därmed bidrar avhandlingen till det ännu outforskade fältet kring effekterna av mötet mellan komvux, Skolinspektionen och kvalitetsbegreppet. För att kunna analysera och kritiskt utforska hur kvalitet producerades på mikronivå användes Ca