School management, cultures of teaching and student outcomes: Comparing the cases of Finland and Sweden

In this article we highlight the relation between school management, cultures of teaching and student outcomes in Finland and Sweden. We analyse how these two national cases of teaching cultures, as constituted by institutional logics, relate to alternatives in steering mechanisms by a reanalysis of a cross-national database. Our results show that the Finnish case embraces more of a professional logic and the Swedish more of a market logic. This is compared to the trajectories of the countries' PISA results, where the Finnish system is recognized as more successful. The identified patterns are discussed in relation to school management. •Two national cases of teaching cultures compared regarding management strategies.•The logic of the market was embracing the cultures more in Sweden than in Finland.•The logic of the profession had more impact in Finland compared to Sweden.•These findings were related to international comparisons of school results.•We questioned claims of efficiency of marketization and NPM in education.