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Early childhood education in Sweden has long had an international reputation for being a systemic and integrated approach to children's needs, a family model of preschool centers and an interest in the holistic development and well-being of children. However, traces of this reputable past are hard to discern today as the neo-liberal agenda for education that is infl uencing education around the world has impacted Sweden. The changes in Sweden, however, have successively occurred since the 1980s, due to the failure of the Swedish economy to provide the necessary surplus to support the extensive social and welfare reforms that previously gave Sweden its international reputation. The effects of the neo-liberal agenda along with the reforms implemented by the Social Democratic government and the Conservative government have had and continue to have an impact on early childhood education in Sweden. As more and more governments are faced with economic problems, the case of Sweden and the measures taken by both the Social Democrats and the Conservative parties over the last few decades make a study of the Swedish reforms of early childhood education relevant and interesting for other countries. In this article early childhood education in Sweden will be presented and discussed from a historical and a conceptual perspective, focusing on its objectives and features and explaining the shifts make by political parties vis-à-vis early childhood education in Sweden.La Educación Infantil en Suecia ha tenido una gran reputación internacional, por tratarse de una aproximación sistémica e integrada a las necesidades de los niños, un modelo familiar de centros prescolares y por su interés en el desarrollo holístico e integral de los niños. Los cambios recientes acaecidos en la educación en Europa y en otros lugares, junto con las reformas emprendidas por el gobierno conservador que ha estado en el poder desde 2006 en Suecia han tenido y continúan teniendo impacto en la educación de la primera infancia. En este artículo se presenta y se discute la educación infantil en Suecia desde una perspectiva histórica y conceptual y se debaten las implicaciones que dichas perspectivas tienen en la educación infantil de este país en la actualidad.

As the saying goes, "a beloved child has many names". So, too, is the case with the concept to be dealt with in this paper. Over the years various concepts have been used to denote education in a lifetime perspective, such as "education permanente", recurrent education and lifelong learning. There are many who have disputed the correctness or appropriateness of one or the other concepts. Boudard (2001), for example, argues "some researchers maintain that today the concept of recurrent education, originally advanced by OECD, is the most widely recognized as the strategy that leads to lifelong learning, although the concept of lifelong learning often comes to mind", citing Tuijnman, 1989; and OECD, 1973. Given the lack of clarity in the above argument, it is not surprising that confusion abounds as to what lifelong learning is, what the "strategy" entails and who it benefits. The aim of this article is to present a critical perspective on lifelong learning, such as it has developed over the years through my own work and the work of others. First, however, it is important to consider the birth of this "beloved child", to understand from whence it came and under what circumstances. Despite the fact that much has been written about this topic, there are few who mention the fact that as Minister of Education (1967-1969) Olof Palme introduced in Sweden the concept of "återkommande utbildning", which literally translated means recurrent education. Palme himself motivated this reform strategy as a means by which "to rectify after the fact, to break down the class barriers to education" . In other contexts, the same concept has been viewed as a political strategy to divert attention from the failure of the Social Democratic party to expand access to higher education at the rate promised (O'Dowd, 2000).

This article deals with probable causes for missing values when using the Revised Class Play instrument for peer assessment of social behavior. The study was conducted with 10 – 13 year old primary school children in Sweden. The findings reveal that missing values may be caused by the cognitive and linguistic complexity of the instrument (RCP), as well as by gender stereotypes.The results indicate that investigating the causes of missing values provides valuable information about the validity of the RCP. This information can be used to improve the instructions on how and when to use the RCP.