This article analyses the Swedish case of the government’s funding for equity, which annually provides over 600 million euros to improve equity. Being one of the largest funding schemes ever for work towards educational equity it also provides full autonomy for local education authorities (LEAs) to use the money at their discretion. By studying local decisions through interviews and analysing applications and plans in nine cases, we deepen our understanding of governance relations between state, LEAs and schools. Our findings show that funding is used mostly for general purposes, rather than for specific measures to improve equity. Dynamics of governance that mitigate improvements in equity are also found. LEAs take advantage of their position as receivers and distributors of the funding to local schools, deciding what equity is and how to invest in improving it, rather than passing funds to their school units and let them decide on its use.

This article explores how provision of educational support is influenced by tensions between organisational and professional logics in two Swedish lower secondary schools. Based on extensive fieldwork over three academic semesters, including interviews and observations, findings make visible how the dominance of organisational logics hinder equitable provision of educational support. Findings are analysed with the theoretical framework of organisational and professional logics, using the concepts of time poverty, ethical stress, and empaperment to highlight the implications of the tensions between organisational and professional logics. Documentation is made instrumental for purposes of accountability rather than enhanced teaching, leading teachers to spend time on reporting tasks they have a hard time making meaningful. In response, school staff simplify or defer tasks, which can result in illusional support – support that is documented but not meaningfully enacted. This aggravates ethical stress and time poverty at the same time as it undermines equitable access to educational support, particularly disadvantaging pupils from migrated families. The concluding discussion addresses that the dominance of organisational logics compromises both educational equity and professional practice, and that the domination of organisational logics – if persistent – can mitigate efforts or reforms intended to improve the situation for teachers and pupils in schools.

This article analyses problematisations of school failure and their implications for the provision of educational support. A study conducted over three semesters in two lower secondary schools in Sweden gathered empirical data including observations and interviews conducted with a total of 104 pupils, parents and school personnel. Four main problematisations of school failure were found: attitude, absence, migration and neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDD). These amount to an overarching problematisation of school failure that relieves schools and their personnel of responsibility, attributing it mainly to pupils and their parents. As a result, micro policy is created contidioning provision of educational support, although the Education Act mandates unconditional and universal provision when a pupil is at risk of school failure. The micro policy evident in the findings imply limiting the provision of educational support to (for example) pupils with NDD-diagnoses, native parents and desired attitudes. While prioritising support might be understandable in contexts characterised by scarcity of time and resources, it is nevertheless defaulting from mandates of the Education Act and ultimately compromising educational equity. For this reason, the widespread acceptance of micro policy on defaulting is harder to understand and should prompt researchers and practitioners to address its risks and find ways to challenge it and to provide educational support when educational needs require it.