May 18 Education Forum 2022: An Interview with the Speakers
By Jana Milosavljevic
The month of May in Gwangju is for remembering thousands of Gwangju citizens who rose up against the military junta oppression in May 1980, those who survived, and those who did not, and as such, is marked by various events and vigils. Among the many events keeping the spirit of the Gwangju Democratization Movement alive, the May 18 Education Forum took place last May 27 under the title “May 18 Democratic Uprising Meets Swedish Civic Education.”
The Forum focused on exchange in the area of democratic civic education through a conversation with the invited educators from Sweden, where political participation through civic education has already become commonplace. Following presentations and discussions, the speakers, some of whom were present at the Gwangju Institute of Creative Convergence Education venue, and some of whom joined online, engaged in a real-time online Q&A session with teachers and education staff in Gwangju. The speakers also took the time to answer a couple of questions and share their experiences and impressions of the Forum with our Gwangju News readers.
Gwangju News (GN): First of all, thank you for making time for this interview. It was our great pleasure to have you as speakers at the May 18 Education Forum. To begin with, could each of you tell us briefly about yourself, including your background?
Jonas Bolander: I have a teaching degree in social science and Swedish for years 1–7. I worked as a teacher for 11 years and as a vice principal for eight years before I became a principal. When I worked as a vice principal, I was responsible for children enrolled in compulsory school for pupils with learning disabilities. Being responsible for students with learning disabilities has given me good insights into how to compensate these students in education.
Joakim Östling: Currently, I am the head of the school department at Österåker Municipality.
Maria Filipsson: I currently work as head of educational development and quality for the public schools in the municipality of Österåker. Before my current position, I worked as a principal for many years, and prior to that, I was a teacher who loved when I got together with students that required a lot of support.
Sunjoon Hwang: I used to work as a head of a policy analysis department at the Swedish National Agency for Education. In 2011, I also worked as the director of the Seoul Education Research & Information Institute (SERII), as well as the director of the Research Institute of Education under the Gyeongsangnam-do Office of Education, and in 2018, as a member of the National Education Committee in Korea.
GN: Very interesting, thank you. Would you let us know to what extent you were familiar with the events and details of Gwangju’s May 18 Democratic Uprising prior to your invitation to join the Forum?
Maria Filipsson: Prior to your invitation, I didn´t know much about Gwangju’s May 18 Democratic Uprising. When we started to talk to Sunjoon Hwang, I began to read a lot about the uprising and all the struggles you have been through to get democracy in your beautiful country. When I understood more, I felt even more honored to be invited to speak at your important event.
GN: Now, let us move to the topic of education. From the perspective of your various backgrounds and experiences, how would you describe the need for civic education in 21st-century schools? What, in your opinion, are the most important elements of civic education?
Jonas Bolander: In Sweden today, the conditions for students have changed because of the variety of backgrounds among the children. The schools and the teachers have an important task in trying to compensate for the inequality among the students and help them to get equal opportunities in life, no matter their background.
Maria Filipsson: In Sweden, we have compulsory schooling, and all children have the right and obligation to go to school. It is my job as a principal, and now as head of educational development and quality, to ensure that education upholds a high quality for every student. Not just the ones that have parents who are engaged and come from a high socioeconomic background, but every student. In Swedish law, every student has the right to an equally good education no matter what. No student is to be left behind.
GN: Furthermore, in light of recent events, could you share a bit about Sweden’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and perhaps compare it to that of Korea? Based on that, what advice could you give to Korea, especially when it comes to operating the educational system in times of crisis?
Jonas Bolander: Coming to school every day is one of the most important factors for the mental health of our children. The Swedish government decided early in the pandemic that Swedish schools would remain open as much as possible to maintain the mental health of the children at a time when society was in crisis. This made it possible for us to continue the children’s education in a normal way to an extent. There were periods of time when the government decided that some of the regions had to close down due to the spread of the virus, but that was only for a couple of weeks at a time. Each day, we had to evaluate the pandemic situation to make sure that it was safe for the students and teachers to come to school and to make sure that there were enough teachers to teach the children. The schools made a lot of changes to make it possible for the students to come to school: They got their lunches in boxes, we had extra cleaning, and we divided the classes into smaller group, among other things.
GN: Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Now I would like to ask some individual questions. Mr. Sunjoon Hwang, following your in-depth research and work experience in both countries, could you give us a summarized outlook on the main points of comparison between the educational systems of Sweden and Korea?
Sunjoon Hwang: The education system itself in Sweden is not that different from Korea. However, what I would like to mention as specific to Sweden is the concept of educational autonomy in terms of who decides what. In the case of Sweden, this concept is implemented in three forms. It consists of the division of roles between government, municipal governments, and schools, autonomy in the curriculum and syllabus, and autonomy in budget allocation and use. While education goals and directions are set by central agencies (councils, governments, and national education offices), implementation of education is made by 290 local governments and schools.
How to educate is the teacher’s unique area, and it is discussed with students by selecting teaching and learning methods or textbooks. In this sense, it can be said that educational autonomy in Sweden is achieved at the school level. Educational autonomy is essential to develop school democracy. Concerning not only the roles between the central government, education office, and schools, but also the re-organization of the curriculum and education budget, principals and teachers at schools should be given much greater autonomy and discretion than they are now to take responsibility for leading quality education.
GN: Mr. Joakim Östling, in your presentation, you mentioned the importance of differentiating the two terms “being democratic” and “working democratically.” Could you elaborate a bit further on this through the example of the schools in the municipality of Österåker?
Joakim Östling: Many pupils exhibit a distrust of formal democracy in school. They often feel that the school pays little attention to the questions or wishes from pupil councils. This could be due either to a lack of resources, to the children simply not being taken seriously, or to students not being given a mandate to express opinions or make decisions on important issues. The pupils’ distrust of formal democracy in school also affects their attitudes towards formal democracy in society. If democracy is only perceived as a form and not content, people’s faith in democracy as a fundamental value is undermined.
We try in Österåker to work in a way that pupils feel they have an opportunity to influence the content of the learning subjects. The degree of influence varies from teacher to teacher, even in Österåker. But the point I try to make is that it is of importance for the students that education in schools is a combination of being democratic and working democratically.
GN: Mr. Jonas Bolander, you spoke about three different areas in which the students in your schools can have an impact on their own education. Could you tell our readers what those are, and in short, present each of them?
Jonas Bolander: There are three different areas in which the students in my schools can have an impact on their own education: free school choice, different student councils, and formative assessment. In Sweden, all parents are allowed to choose a school for their child. When the students are enrolled in school, there are different parts that they can have an impact on in their education. One of the subjects in Swedish schools is “elevens val,” which means that the students can choose one of the subjects in the curriculum and study it with the purpose to get a deeper understanding of the subject and reach a higher grade. Another way for the students in our schools and preschools to have an impact on their education is through the different councils that the preschools and schools have. Ljusterö and Roslagskulla schools have a student council, class council, food council, a council for the students that are in the after-school program, and a council for the parents. In the councils, the students get to discuss their opinions and ideas about education with the school management.
The third area in which the students have an impact is education in the classroom. All education in Sweden is supposed to be based on scientific research and proven experience. The formative assessment is a method that is scientifically proven to have a positive effect on children’s learning. The teachers in our schools use formative assessments actively in their teaching. An example of how formative assessments could be used in the classroom is writing the learning goals for each lesson on the board at the beginning of the lesson; this helps the students keep focused on the learning objectives throughout the lesson.
GN: Ms. Maria Filipsson, as the head of educational development and quality in the municipality of Österåker, could you briefly illustrate how Swedish schools develop the values that Swedish society is built upon?
Maria Filipsson: It is not easy to illustrate briefly, but I will try. It is in our values and in our actions, in all the big things, but perhaps more important, in every little thing we do. We start from when our children are very young. We truly listen to them and let them be part of a democratic society, the family, the school, the classroom, and so on. To us, it is important what they have to say. That is how we can adjust our way of teaching so that every single student will learn. We also hold them accountable for many things at an early age. We train them to think for themselves and to not be afraid of making a mistake or failing at something. We want our students to be full members of our democratic society and to contribute. We let them make a lot of choices. We need their thoughts and knowledge to keep on building our society and to always improve.
GN: What, in your opinion, are the most important takeaways of the Q&A discussion during the May 18 Education Forum? And what are your outlooks on the future of democratic civic education in the post-Covid-19 era?
Jonas Bolander: I learned that the Swedish and Korean school systems are very different. I would like to learn more about the Korean school system, since your students have better results than Swedish students. The Korean school system might be interested in how we work with student democracy and entrepreneurship in our schools.
I think that Sweden handled the pandemic for our children in a good way. The children were able to live an almost ordinary life during at the time, except for sports and afterschool activities that were canceled.
Maria Filipsson: We would have loved to be there on stage and meet everyone. I am still glad that we could join via Zoom. That is one thing that the Covid-19 pandemic has really shown us: We can be together and participate even though we are not in the same building. During the pandemic, the educational system in Sweden was almost the only thing that held us Swedes together. Schools remained more or less normal. Thanks to that, our students were able to keep on learning and developing. One thing I took away was all the graciousness that was shown to us and the sincere willingness to learn and develop. I think that is one reason for your high results in school – your external monitoring and enthusiasm to develop. I also learned that our school systems are very different, and we have a lot to learn from each other. That is why I would love to continue our cooperation to learn from each other.
Photographs by the World Human Rights Cities Forum and the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education.
The Interviewer
Jana Milosavljevic was born and raised in Serbia. She currently lives and works in Gwangju as a GIC coordinator. She loves exploring new places, learning about new cultures, and meeting new people. If you are up for a chat, she can talk to you in Serbian, English, Korean, Japanese, or German.