Ordning, reda och reglementen : en studie av disciplinen i tvågotländska folkskolor

Questions about discipline have always been current within the Swedish school system, from the sixteenth century until today. The purpose of this study is to compare the discipline in two old-time elementary schools, located on Gotland, with each other. This study will compare an old-time elementary school from the countryside with an old-time elementary school from a town to show the differences in discipline between the coun-tryside and a town. This study will also focus on how questions about discipline changes from 1847 to 1937/1941. In order to do so I have studied the regulations from the two schools and compared them with each other. When I discuss discipline I will use Michel Foucault’s theory concerning the development of power and discipline in modern society. My study shows that it did not differ much in questions of discipline between the two ex-amined old-time elementary schools. However, changes in discipline between the two ex-amined periods are evident. Changes in society that follows in the footprints of liberalism and democratic progress are prominent in the latter period that I have studied. These changes in society have obviously effected questions about discipline as they appear in the regulations. The early form of discipline, often in the shape of a salient teacher using force to discipline the pupils, has transformed into a more subtle form of discipline. A new way to carry out dis-cipline, that uses other indirect forms of discipline such as grades and examinations, are tak-ing form during the nineteenth century and are probably still doing so