In Scandinavian school politics most accept comprehensive public schooling as a cornerstone of an egalitarian society. Still, strong national disagreements exist, especially between Denmark and Sweden, regarding the implications of cultural diversity for the type of citizen that schools should foster. While Denmark has refrained from changing an officially monocultural approach, Sweden has done the opposite with a public praise of diversity and an intercultural school approach. This divergence gathered momentum in the 1990s. Swedish school politics began emphasizing more strongly cultural diversity, the individual and human rights in contrast to more exclusive notions of nationhood. In Denmark, the notion that a historically grounded national culture is the foundation of Danish democracy, welfare state and identity kept its dominance. Exploring the ideational, institutional and political context for the political decisions taken since the mid-1990s, this paper offers an explanation of why Denmark and Sweden approach citizenship education so differently.
