Education Reforms and Special Needs Education in Sweden : Five Case Studies in Western Sweden

Sweden is one of the Nordic welfare states, Over the course of the 1980s and 1990s the Swedish welfare system has become progressively more locally autonomous. In the 1990s the former centralized educational system has also evolved into a more decentralized one. In this paper, after describing both general facts on Western Sweden and the Swedish system of child care and education, educational reforms will be examined in connection will special needs education through five case studies in Western Sweden, in order to better analyse educational administration and school reforms in Japan.