‘And suddenly it’s not so flexible anymore!’ Discursive effects in comments from school leaders and staff about distance education

Abstract Distance education has received a lot of attention in contemporary policy as something that makes it possible for more students to participate, but also involves a certain set of challenges. When it comes to distance education, Swedish municipal adult education (MAE) stands out with its long history of flexible education, often provided on distance. Applying Bacchi’s poststructural WPR approach, the aim of this study was to scrutinise how distance education is construed, and the discursive effects of this, in comments by MAE school leaders and staff during a quality audit. The analysis shows that it becomes difficult to question or think differently about distance education within the flexibility discourse in adult education. Moreover, the blame for students’ lack of goal attainment and increased dropouts seems to be put on external providers, municipalities, and the students rather than on the way that the adult education system is organised or the demands around flexibility in adult education policy. What seems to be left out is a discussion about the pedagogical and didactical implications of distance education.


Introduction
In recent transnational educational policy, distance education seems to be construed as a 'challenge' that affects both the quality of the education and students' participation rates (UNESCO et al. 2021).In Sweden, the concept of distance education has been highlighted in adult education policy and practice in relation to the flexibility of the adult education system.This has been especially the case in recent years, when almost all adult education in Sweden had to be carried out online due to COVID-19.Recent reports from the Swedish National Agency for Education (SNAE 2020a) and audits from the Swedish Schools Inspectorate (SSI) 1 (2020) have focused on distance education and contend that the flexibility of the education system needs to increase even more.In light of the recent pandemic and the resulting increase of distance education, more research is needed into this specific form of education which concerns a large population of students and educators worldwide.
In contemporary Swedish adult education policy, there are explicit demands for municipal adult education (MAE) to be flexible (SNAE 2017).In practice, this means that adult education is organised in many different ways, such as being outsourced to external providers through tendering-based procurement, 2 run under the municipalities' own direction, school-based 3 and/or distance based.In 2022, 34% of students enrolled in basic and upper secondary education at MAE in Sweden were studying remotely (SNAE 2023b).In MAE policy, distance education is defined as a form of education that is delivered using information and communications technology (ICT) while students and teachers are separated in both time and space (SFS 2010, p. 800, Chp 1, §3, Chp 22, §11).There are few restrictions that regulate the way in which distance education is organised in MAE, except for the stipulation that it should be individualised and accessible for everyone.The organisation of distance education in MAE can vary significantly.In certain instances, it is individually based, while in others, students interact on online forums or through synchronous tutorials.The level of teacher engagement also fluctuates, with some courses featuring interaction with students, while in other cases, students follow a predetermined set of self-paced learning materials.The courses are internally developed, and they have no external requirements, as long as they align with the MAE curriculum.Each of the MAE courses leads to a specific qualification, depending on the chosen program.Consequently, these courses enable students to pursue further studies or become well-prepared for the labour market.
Even though MAE has a long history of distance education (Rahm and Fejes 2017), there still seems to be a need for more knowledge about this form of education in MAE, which can serve Swedish teacher training programmes and the research field alike.In a report from the SSI (2015), it was concluded that students who study at a distance achieve poorer grades and are more likely to drop out than those who study in person.Moreover, the need for municipalities to review the quality of distance education has also been stressed (SNAE 2020b).In previous research about distance education, the specific context of adult education seems to be unaddressed, which is also the case in most teacher training programmes in Sweden today (Fejes 2019).Consequently, this study aims to scrutinise how distance education is construed by MAE school leaders and staff and the discursive effects of this, and thus contribute to the educational field, practice, and policymaking.The study sets out to provide much-needed new contextual-based perspectives on distance education which make it possible to problematise and open up ways of rethinking it.
In previous research, it has been concluded that distance education is steadily increasing all over the world and that this has led to a form of individualisation on a massive scale, with the independent learner in focus (Lee 2009, Fejes et al. 2018).It has also been concluded that the shift towards distance education in education has been following a logic where 'technology is considered the solution to all problems' (Lindblad et al. 2021, p. 577).On the one hand, the advantages of distance education, such as removing barriers to participation (Zembylas 2008, Ziegler et al. 2014, R€ uter and Martin 2022) and increasing flexibility (Figlio et al. 2013), have been highlighted in research.On the other hand, certain disadvantages have also been observed, such as potentially increasing social inequalities (Bormann et al. 2021) and the risk of students dropping out (Bettinger et al. 2017).Previous research has also concluded that distance education has increased the Matthew effect (Desjardins 2015, Boeren 2016, Ba gci 2019, Boeren et al. 2020) among students.The Matthew effect can be described as the effect of accumulated advantage (Boeren 2016, Ba gci 2019), whereby the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.When it comes to distance education, this means that students with more resources are less affected by the disadvantages of distance education compared to students with fewer resources.
Moreover, contemporary research indicates that students' well-being and performance have both been negatively affected by the recent shift towards more flexible distance education (Di Pietro et al. 2020, SNAE 2020a, Andersson and Muhrman 2022, Babb et al. 2022).All of these studies provide important knowledge about flexible education and how it affects students in different ways and in contexts such as regular school and higher education.However, there is still a need for more knowledge related to the specific setting of adult education.In policy, distance education seems to be presented as a way for the municipalities to meet the policy demands for more flexibility, but what do school leaders and staff involved in adult education talk about when they talk about distance education?And what can be learned from the Swedish case?By applying Carol Bacchi's ( 2009) 'What's the "problem" represented to be?'approach, which can be used to critically examine what seems to be taken for granted in a broad range of policies, the aim of this article is to scrutinise how distance education in MAE is construed as well as the discursive effects by focusing on school leaders and staff in involved adult education.

Swedish municipal adult education
MAE, which was introduced in Sweden in 1968, is free and often framed in policy as a 'second chance' (Ministry of Education 2018, p. 71).It enrols more students than upper secondary school and the target group is students who have not completed their schooling or need to reskill in order to be employable and thus have the legal right to participate.MAE is regulated by the Ordinance on MAE and the Education Act (SFS 2010, p. 800) and is a part of the national education system.One of the more extensive changes to MAE took place during the 1990s when the Swedish education system was reorganised and decentralised.As a consequence, local municipalities took over responsibility for MAE from the state.As Sweden has 290 municipalities, which differ in size, resources, and population, the conditions for organising education vary.In 2022, MAE had 372 000 students compared to the 364 000 students in upper secondary school (SNAE 2023a(SNAE , 2023b)).Thus, around 3.5% of Sweden's population, which is approximately ten million people, are enrolled at MAE.Just over one in five students who start a vocational or higher studies preparatory program in upper secondary school do not complete their studies or graduate with incomplete grades.
Over the years, MAE has become more flexible and individualised to meet adult students' needs (Henning Loeb 2007).This means that students can select separate courses according to their goals (instead of studying whole programmes as is the case in upper secondary school) and that the intake onto courses is continuous so that students can enter every week or month (Holmqvist et al. 2021).Moreover, there are no summer breaks in MAE, and courses can be offered either at a distance, on site or in hybrid mode, and during either the daytime or the evening.Municipalities also have the right to choose whether they want courses to be delivered by themselves or by external providers, or by combining these options.Either way, it is the municipality that is accountable for the overall quality of the courses.

The Swedish schools inspectorate
The SSI was introduced in 2008 and commissioned with the task of improving equivalence (R€ onnberg 2014), mainly to ensure every student's right to equal opportunities and quality education to enable them to achieve their goals.The authority's task is regulated in the Education Act and various policy documents.By order of the Swedish Government, the SSI conducts two different kinds of audits of MAE: regular supervisions and quality audits.The regular supervision focuses on whether the municipality is following the laws, legislation and curricula, while the quality audit focuses on different quality aspects of education.Underpinned by goals, guidelines, proven experience and research, the SSI identifies success factors and areas for development within the framework of a quality audit.Thus, the authority interprets national policy in order to audit quality.
What's the 'problem' represented to be?
This article draws on Bacchi's (2009) poststructural, Foucault-influenced What's the 'Problem' Represented to be (WPR) approach.This approach targets how 'problems' are construed as specific kinds of 'problems' in policy, due to its focus on understanding how policy issues are framed and perceived.By scrutinising how problems are constructed, identified, and communicated, the WPR approach provides invaluable insights into the underlying assumptions, values, and interests driving policy decisions.This method sheds light on the often implicit ideologies shaping policy agendas, making it a tool for questioning and reframing 'problems' and unquestioned ways of thinking.
The WPR approach is underpinned by three key assumptions.First, that we are 'governed through problematisations' (Bacchi 2009, p. xxi).As policies are written in order to make changes, they include notions of what it is that needs to be fixed or remedied, hence the 'problem'.The second key premise is 'that we need to study problematisations by analysing the problem representations that support them' (Bacchi 2009, p. xxi).For something to become a 'problem' in policy, a lot of simplifications are usually made.Subsequently, Bacchi proposes that the problem representations that underpin the 'problem' are interrogated in order to see what they include and exclude.Put differently, by focusing on how 'problems' are construed in policy, different forms of rule or rationalities can be identified and then critically scrutinised (Foucault 1990(Foucault [1987]], Dean 1999).
From this point of view, governing becomes a problematising activity (Rose and Miller 1992) as Bacchi (2009, p. 3) argues that 'we are governed through problematisations rather than through policy'.Policies are also seen as creative and active because they cannot get to work without 'fixing' something; thus, they must target a 'problem' and subsequently also suggest what needs to change, hence 'solutions'.The third key premise is 'that we need to critically scrutinise the effects of these problem representations' (Bacchi 2009, p. xxi).From this perspective, policy is seen as being elaborated in discourse and thought about as forms of knowledge that are produced socially and set limits for what is possible to think and say (Bacchi and Goodwin 2016).Therefore, the way in which an issue is represented carries implications, or discursive effects, for how the 'problem' is thought about and talked about, and how individuals understand themselves and others.Consequently, it becomes apparent that the underlying 'problem' or area requiring 'fixing' can be discerned from particular policy proposals or action plans (Bacchi and Goodwin 2016).For instance, if the focus is on implementing activity routines for children to combat childhood 'obesity', the perceived 'problem' revolves around children's lack of physical activity.In contrast, when regulations are proposed to restrict fast-food advertising during primetime children's television, the 'obesity' issue is framed as aggressive or even unethical advertising practices.In this example, 'obesity' is being problematised in two different ways.Since addressing something as a 'problem' is a way of governing, the WPR approach argues for a problem-questioning rather than a problem-solving approach to policy.

Operationalisation of the WPR questions
As Bacchi (2009) points out, problem representations need to be made visible by asking critical questions because they are not always explicit in policy.To scrutinise such 'problems' and their discursive effects, the analysis was guided by three of Bacchi's six questions 4 (Bacchi 2009).
The analysis took its point of departure in Bacchi's first question (Q1): 'What's the "problem" represented to be?'.The first question is supposed to initiate the analysis by the identification of a problem representation (Bacchi and Goodwin 2016).The WPR approach encourages the researcher to 'work backwards' (p.20) from policy proposals to see what is problematised.The analysis that was carried out within the scope of this study took its point of departure in the way that distance education was Table 1.Application of Bacchi's (2009, p. 2) questions.proposed by the interviewees as a change to address certain challenges in MAE such as increasing dropouts and decreasing goal attainment.
The second part of the analysis draws on Bacchi's (2009) second question (Q2): 'What presuppositions or assumptions underlie this representation of the "problem"?'This part of the analysis digs deeper into the problem representation as it scrutinises its premises and underlying rationales by highlighting binaries and key concepts.Binaries suggest an 'A/not A relationship' which often implies a hierarchy and indicates that complex relationships have been simplified (Bacchi 2009, p. 7).In this study, the binary of distance education/school-based education was highlighted in the analysis.In this particular case, distance education seemed to be construed as more desirable than school-based education within the flexibility discourse.Key concepts like 'health' and 'quality' are commonly mentioned in policies and can be described as flexible abstract labels as they are filled with different meanings (Bacchi 2009, p. 8).By seeing distance education as a key concept, it became possible to probe more deeply into the way that 'specific meanings of concepts are embedded deeply within governmental practices' (Bacchi 2009, p. 8).Moreover, by identifying rationales that underpinned the problem representation, it became possible to identify what seemed to be taken for granted and what was not being questioned.In line with the second question, the analysis targeted 'unexamined ways of thinking' (Foucault 1991, p. 58) to be able to scrutinise what was sayable during the interviews.
The final part of the analysis was guided by Bacchi's (2009) fifth question (Q5): 'What effects are produced by this representation of the "problem"?'This question was selected because it targets both expected and unexpected effects of problem representations in policy proposals (Bacchi 2009, p. 48).Thus, the WPR approach encourages the critical scrutinising of policies to see 'where and how they function to benefit some and harm others, and what can be done about this' (Bacchi 2009, p. 15).One way to do this is to place attention on discursive effects, i.e. the effects which follow from the limits imposed on what can be said and thought.From this perspective, discursive effects are about identifying ' … deep-seated assumptions and presuppositions within problem representations, the discourses which give expression to these, and the silences these discourses contain' (Bacchi 2009, p. 16).Moreover, the focus on discursive effects sheds light on the identified problem representations and the discourses that contain them, which would otherwise be difficult to think differently about.In this study, discursive effects were identified such as where responsibility for the 'problem' was being put.This opened up space for questioning and reinterrogating such 'truths '. 5  Given that the aim of the study was to scrutinise how distance education is construed by educators and the discursive effects of this, the WPR questions Q1, Q2 and Q5 were selected as they guided the analysis in relation to the aim.Three of the questionssuch as Q3, which focuses on historical genealogy, i.e. how a specific representation of the 'problem' has come aboutwere excluded due to the scope of the article and the fact that the empirical material consisted of contemporary audio recorded interviews and not historical documents. 6Within the WPR approach, the focus is on policy proposals, which implies that texts are understood in a broad and inclusive sense (Bacchi and Goodwin 2016).Thus, all kinds of data can provide grounds for analysis if they contain a proposal.As such, proposals can be seen as a 'guide to conduct' (Foucault 1986, p. 12) and thus can also be critically analysed because they suggest changes and therefore also, directly or indirectly, construe a 'problem' that needs to be resolved.Some sources that Bacchi (2009) suggests for analysis are interviews, observation of meetings, political debates or newspaper articles.

The empirical material
As the aim of this article is to scrutinise how distance education in MAE is construed as well as the discursive effects, the empirical material consists of audio recorded and transcribed meetings between school inspectors and staff, 7 from a quality audit on MAE that was carried out by the SSI during the period 2018-2019 (SSI 2019).The audit focused on individualisation and flexibility in adult education and consisted of meetings that were conducted by school inspectors who interviewed heads of education, principals, guidance counsellors and teachers in 30 different municipalities in Sweden (SSI 2019).Some of the interviews were group interviews (teachers and guidance counsellors were often interviewed together) and some were one-to-one (principals and heads of education were often interviewed alone).
As the audit targeted flexibility and individualisation in MAE, topics like distance education were discussed in relation to the municipality's capacity to fulfil the demands for flexibility in educational policy.The recorded audit meetings, where several proposals were made regarding distance education, provided fruitful material for critical analysis.Hence, the empirical data have the potential to illustrate how different actors talk about different 'problems' and how these problematisations play out during the interview.In line with the WPR approach, what is said during the audit interviews can be seen as a 'guide to conduct' (Foucault 1986, p. 12) as different forms of change are suggested.Even though school leaders and staff probably would have said different things if they had been interviewed by a researcher instead of a school inspector, the empirical material highlights how distance education is construed in the specific setting of a quality audit.Since a part of the state's way of steering MAE is through policy which the SSI translates in order to conduct their quality audits, questions of power and governance can be highlighted in this specific type of material. 8Thus, the analysis of the empirical material sheds light on distance education and the way that it is talked about and problematised in MAE, a school form that has not yet received so much attention in previous research.
In total, the selected material consists of 20 interviews from six municipalities and includes 522 transcribed pages.Before the interview, both the school inspectors and school staff signed a consent form wherein their right to withdraw from the study was explained.The researcher was granted access to observe the audit process in six of the 30 municipalities that the SSI targeted.The six municipalities varied in size, geographical location and population.However, due to issues of anonymity (as the audit report contains the names of the municipalities), more information about the municipalities will not be provided here.After the audit interviews had been recorded, they were transcribed and analysed in NVivo.The analysis was guided by the questions that were introduced in the previous section (Q1, Q2 and Q5).
Quotations from the interviews are used throughout the text to illustrate the analysis.The author has translated all quotes from Swedish to English.

Ethical considerations
The study specifically examined the behaviour of professionals within their professional role, without intruding into their personal lives or private information.As such, the study did not involve any sensitive personal information, and the risk of harm or discomfort to the participants was minimal.Therefore, it was concluded that the study did not require ethical review, as it fell within the exemption criteria for minimal risk research, as stated in the Swedish Research Council's (2017) ethical research demands.Despite not undergoing ethical review, the study ensured that all participants were fully informed about the research, its purpose, and its potential implications.Participants were provided with a clear explanation of the study's objectives, procedures, and expected outcomes.They were also informed that participation was voluntary and that they had the right to withdraw from the study at any time without repercussions.Furthermore, participants provided written consent to participate, indicating their voluntary agreement to be part of the study.This process upheld the principles of autonomy and respect for participants' rights, in line with The Swedish Research Council's (2017) ethical research demands.Moreover, the study maintained the confidentiality and anonymity of participants by ensuring that no personal identifying information was collected or disclosed.The study minimised harm and discomfort to participants by focusing solely on their professional behaviour and avoiding any intrusion into their personal lives.Lastly, the study ensured that the research was conducted with integrity and professionalism, upholding the principles of honesty and transparency.

Findings
In order to scrutinise how distance education is construed in the comments of school leaders and staff, and with what discursive effects, the analysis has been divided into three different parts.The first part focuses on how distance education is proposed as a change to help meet flexibility demands in policy.The second part scrutinises the concept of distance education further by focusing on underlying assumptions and presuppositions in the problem representation.The third and final part focuses on the discursive effects of the way in which distance education is construed.

Distance education as a way to meet flexibility demands in policy
The first part of the analysis constitutes a stepping stone to the rest of the analysis, as it focuses on how a more flexible MAE is proposed as a change in policy to address certain 'challenges' in education.Flexibility is outlined as an aim in the MAE curriculum, and should always be acquired.It concerns the place, time, and form of study (SNAE 2017).In other words, the purpose of flexibility is to make it possible for the adult student to study while also working or meeting other commitments.Thus, flexibility is introduced in policy as a way to address certain challenges (Mufic and Fejes 2022) such as increasing dropouts, decreasing goal fulfilment, and the varying prerequisites that different municipalities have for organising adult education.In this context, the concept of flexibility is described as a way for municipalities to increase the quality of adult education, and thus also increase students' ability to meet their goals and decrease dropout rates.
However, in an audit report from the SSI (2019) focusing on flexibility and individualisation in MAE, it is contended that standards in these areas are commonly not being met.Moreover, the SSI states that opportunities to study at flexible times and in flexible forms continuously during the academic year are in many cases limited.As different municipalities have different prerequisites for organising adult education, they have found different ways of fulfilling the explicit demands around flexibility in adult education policy.One such commonly used solution for municipalities is distance education: I think the advantage of distance education is that it really can be combined with other activities.Because you can study at any time around the clock.It was one of those things that I felt we had a hard time fully living up to when we were school based.(Head of education, Municipality 5) Thus, distance education seems to be introduced as a solution to fulfil flexibility demands in policy, where many municipalities seem to have had difficulties in both providing a wide range of courses and maintaining continuous admission.However, the implementation of a more flexible MAE system in the form of distance education also poses certain challenges according to school leaders and staff in the different municipalities, as exemplified by the following quote: We have continuous admission every five weeks, and then we start new courses.Then you could say that the summer is always a hot potato in adult education.You must have it continuously and we do have it, but it's clear that it shines through.Not many people study during the summer either.But for those who do, we make sure that they can finish their courses [ … ] but there is also the reality that must also in some way be considered.The students, they work in the summer, and they go on vacation and wherever they're going and … (Principal, Municipality 4) Here, the idea of flexible, continuous admission throughout the whole year, which is proposed as a change in policy, is instead questioned by the principal.On the one hand, the municipality provides continuous admission according to regulationsthey 'must have it'.On the other hand, the principal talks about a 'reality that must be considered' which, according to him, is that not many students actually want to study during the summer.Because of the demands in policy, the municipality is still responsible for providing continuous admission, regardless of whether they have students who want to study or not.Hence, the proposal for change in adult education policy about the need for a more flexible adult education system differs from the proposed change in the quote from the principal, who questions the need for continuous admission during the summer.Thus, there seems to be a tension when it comes to how the need for more flexibility is proposed in MAE policy and the way that these demands play out in practice, according to school leaders and staff.The next part of the analysis will dig deeper into how distance education is construed by scrutinising underlying assumptions and presuppositions.

Underpinning rationales
In the comments from school leaders and staff, two different rationalities about distance education seem to be discernible.On the one hand, distance education is construed within a flexibility discourse as offering possibilities to meet demand from both policy and students for a flexible education system.On the other hand, distance education is also construed within an economic discourse, as it is also talked about in terms of being the most economical solution for the municipality.What seems to be left out in these discussions are the pedagogical and didactical implications of the way that the concept of distance education is construed.

A flexibility-focused rationale
By looking at distance education as a key concept, it becomes possible to scrutinise how it is filled with different meanings during the audit interviews.In many of the quotes from the school leaders and staff across municipalities, the benefits of distance education are mentioned.Thus, distance education seems to be construed as something 'good' and 'positive' as it solves certain challenges for the municipalities.This is exemplified by a quote from a guidance counsellor highlighting the wide range of courses that the municipality can offer because of outsourced distance education: I think the [course offer] is damn good!If I may say so?Because we have a large selection of individual courses.Thanks to the fact that we have External provider 1! (Guidance counsellor, Municipality 5).Thus, distance education seems to be construed in relation to the greater variety of courses it enables.Distance education also seems to be construed in terms of continuous admission, for example: Many students decide that 'now I have to study,' and then they want to start quickly.They would rather start on Monday![ … ] Before, when we were more school-based, there were perhaps very few start dates per year, and then you had to wait quite a long time and then you preferred to study at a distance because it can sometimes be difficult to organise daytime [courses] so flexibly.(Quality manager, Municipality 4) As this quote indicates, the municipality found that it could not live up to policy demands when all of its education was school-based.Moreover, the need for distance education is motivated from a student perspective, as the students, according to the quality manager, want to start their studies as soon as possible.This rationale for introducing distance education goes in line with several other quotes from school leaders and staff from different municipalities.A third quote from another municipality offers another example of the flexibility focused rationale for offering distance courses: We have parents who have chronically ill children, and even though we have schoolbased courses, we send them to External provider 2 if they feel they can handle it.And now we have some students who combine studying with parenting because of their life circumstances.So, then they get better conditions to be able to … (Principal, Municipality 6).What all of these quotes have in common is that they highlight the need for distance education as it enables the municipality to offer flexible education to students via continuous admission and a wider range of courses to choose from.Distance education also provides better conditions for students to study from home.As a key concept, distance education seems to be construed as something with positive connotations as it provides municipalities with ways to address certain challenges within the flexibility discourse.Another common feature that most of the quotes share is that the 'new way' of distance education is construed as being in binary opposition to the 'old way' of schoolbased education.Distance education seems to be talked about as flexible, while school-based education seems to be referred to as limiting or 'inflexible', thus, signalling a hierarchy between the different forms.The rationale for increased flexibility through the means of distance education seems to align with the way that flexibility is described in MAE policy.However, there are also instances in the quotes where distance education is questioned and criticised.

An economic-focused rationale
An example of how school leaders and staff question distance education can be found in the following quote from Municipality 4, where the school inspector asks the guidance counsellors whether there are more students who would like to study schoolbased courses: School inspector -But do the students express dissatisfaction with the fact that there are more people who would like school-based study on site?

School inspector -It happens?
Guidance counsellor 2 -Because they're so strongly forced to take it at a distance, perhaps because it's the only option available for that particular course.

School inspector -Okay?
Guidance counsellor 3 -But we don't know how many [students] there are; that is, who would rather have it on site than at a distance?But it's constantly criticised.
Here, there seems to be a tension between the flexibility demands in policy and the way that these demands play out in practice, according to the guidance counsellors.Hence, many courses are only provided at a distance because otherwise the municipality cannot live up to the flexibility demanded in policy.The paradox then becomes that, by increasing flexibility in practice by changing from school-based to distance education, flexibility actually decreases in one way at the same time as it increases in another.
Guidance counsellor 3 -Educational providers choose what they want to offer.But the risk is that you theoretically risk having no classroom-based teaching, or no on-site teaching.Because there's no regulation that this should be offered on-site.That's probably what I feel is a big risk, or how to put it, with the model.
Guidance counsellor 2 -And suddenly it's not so flexible anymore!Guidance counsellor 3 -No!Because then everything will be at a distance, and that's, yes … Guidance counsellor 2 -It's about finances quite a lot, that is, economics governs things.
What we see here is that even as the shift to distance education makes it possible to live up to the demands of policy, it also produces new challenges, as some courses are only available at a distance.Within the economic focused discourse, students seem to be affected by this situation, since some of them want to study school-based courses.However, at the same time, the municipality appears to benefit from distance education, as 'economics governs things'.Another quote from the same municipality also exemplifies the economic focused rationale: Quality manager -… more and more students choose distance today, but there are still some who want to study on-site, but they are fewer, and it will not be as economical.
School inspector -So it's the economics that decides it isn't possible to offer teaching on-site?Quality manager -I think so.Often.
Head of education -We can probably assume that this is the main reason because it's difficult to get the finances together for education providers to offer certain courses that not enough people choose.That's how the school voucher works.So, it's probably reasonable to assume that it's mainly due to economic reasons.
Thus, the transition to distance education seems to be not only a solution to meet policy demands but also something that is done for 'economic reasons' because it is cheaper for the municipality to organise, according to the head of education.
To sum up, the second part of the analysis has highlighted that distance education seems to be introduced by municipalities as a way to live up to the flexibility demands in policy.However, the implementation of distance education seems to lead to a 'flexibility problem', construed within the flexibility discourse as a situation where the flexibility decreases in practice even as the organisation seemingly becomes more flexible.Accordingly, distance education as a key concept filled with different meanings seems to be underpinned by both an economic rationale and a flexibility rationale.Moreover, distance education and school-based education are construed in the interviews as a binary, where distance education is talked about as something new and flexible, while school-based education is talked about as something old and inflexible.What seem to be left out in the discussion of distance education are the pedagogical and didactical implications for students.What is included and what is left out in the discussion of distance education also has discursive effects.These effects will be explored in the third part of the analysis.

Discursive effects of distance education
The third part of the analysis illustrates the discursive effects of distance education are construed and where the responsibility for it is put.The first quote that will illustrate how such responsibility is construed comes from a teacher at an external provider that only provides distance education.
… in the municipalities where the students apply by themselves, there will be a lot [of incorrect registrations], not just that they get onto the wrong courses.But it's also the case that they then quite often have different expectations from what we can offer them.So, it works much better for us in municipalities where the student has to go through guidance counsellors or another administrative organisation.(Teacher 2, External provider 2) Within the flexibility discourse, some of the municipalities seem to be held responsible for the incorrect registrations by the teachers from private providers because they let the students apply to courses by themselves.Thus, when a municipality 'fails' to prepare students for studying at a distance, the students do not know what to expect.The comment 'there are very, very many incorrect registrations' (Teacher 2, External provider 2) illustrates that this is construed as a challenge, both for the students, who lose time if they sign up to the wrong course, and for the educational providers, who must put in a lot of work to correct the registrations.The way in which course registration is organised is also questioned by a principal from Municipality 4.Not many people apply for school-based MAE upper secondary level courses as they choose to study at a distance instead.And it's easily done because they just tick boxes and then they're accepted without us having looked at their conditions or discussed it with them.
In this quote, applying for an MAE programme is equated with 'ticking a box', which corresponds to the previous quote from the teacher from a private provider.Hence, it is perceived as too easy for students to sign up for distance-based courses.The principal also holds himself and the municipality responsible for students' failure and stresses a need for more control when it comes to how admissions are organised in MAE.The proposed change in both quotes is that the municipality should control admissions more carefully.The same notion is also expressed in the following quote from a principal from another municipality: As this principal points out, the requirement to provide flexible education with continuous admission almost makes it 'too easy' for students to apply in order for the system to run smoothly.As a result, the dropout rate is perceived to increase, according to school leaders and staff.The three quotes above have many things in common.On the one hand, the MAE student is construed as someone who is 'not capable' of self-registration, and in effect, the municipality is held responsible for not guiding the student and for not controlling the admission system enough.Within the flexibility discourse, the MAE student is also construed as someone who is not only unfit to self-register, but also lacks knowledge about what it takes to study at distance.Thus, it becomes the municipality's responsibility to guide and assist the students.However, according to two teachers at an external provider, the municipalities also seem to lack knowledge about distance education: Teacher 2 [External provider 2] -The municipalities would need a little more knowledge about what it [distance education] is and where they send their students.
[ … ] It feels like they don't really know.It can be an easy way out sometimes, 'yes, we register the student here and see if it works'.Teacher 3 -A quick fix!As the second teacher puts it, distance education seems to be used as a 'quick fix' because the municipality does not really know very much about this particular form of education.In effect, this has consequences for the student, as distance education might not be the best solution for all.But it is not only the municipality that is held responsible for students' failure, as illustrated by the following quote: I feel that more students have overconfidence that, yes, this thing with distance is just sitting at home at the kitchen table, and then they will pass.It [distance education] is quite advanced and requires a lot of discipline.(Principal, Municipality 1) Within the flexibility discourse, not only the municipality, the external providers but also the students themselves seem to be held responsible for the increasing dropouts and lack of goal fulfilment because they are 'overconfident'.Or, as the head of education in the same municipality points out: We see a small tendency, especially among the External provider 2 students, that they like to take on more than they can manage, and some may drop out and don't complete [courses].
As distance education takes a lot of self-discipline, according to the principal, students seem to be held responsible for their 'success' or 'failure' because they are perceived to have a 'lack of knowledge' about what it takes to study at a distance.In effect, it seems to be both the course provider and the students who are held responsible, since the former 'fails' to adapt the courses to all target groups while the latter is 'lacking in knowledge' about what it takes to study at a distance.In effect, the proposed change in several of the municipalities becomes to introduce and/or increase local support or supervision at home: Supervision at home is one such measure that we've taken to support students at External provider 2, because far from everyone is suitable for studying at a distance.Somehow this becomes a hybrid solution, so that you still have support from home.(Principal, Municipality 2) To sum up, the way that distance education is construed in the audit interviews has different implications for individuals who are involved in MAE.The discussion about distance education is not about whether it is suitable for the students or not, but rather about who is to be held responsible for the increasing dropout rates and students' failure to achieve their academic goals.Staff at the external providers seem to put the blame on the municipalities, who they describe as having a lack of guidance and knowledge.School leaders and staff at the municipality meanwhile seem to put the blame on the external providers, pointing to a lack of student support.What these different instances seem to have in common is that both, besides blaming the other, also put blame on the students for their lack of knowledge about the admission system and what it takes to study at distance, and for overrating their own abilities.Within the flexibility discourse, the focus is thus shifted from what is the best way for the individual student to study to how to be as flexible as possible in order to live up to policy demands and to be economical.Hence, the discursive effects of the way that distance education is construed seem to be that distance education itself becomes difficult to question or think differently about, as the focus tends to shift to how to facilitate this particular form of education.What seems to be left out is a discussion about the pedagogical and didactical implications of distance education.The proposed change thus seems to become to increase hybrid solutions in place of school-based courses.

Discussion
Even if distance education is not introduced as the 'solution to all problems' (Lindblad et al. 2021, p. 577), in MAE, the educational format is still discussed as a solution to several challenges -both regarding flexibility requirements and economy.However, while distance learning can enable participation for certain students, it creates barriers for others as dropout rates increase (Bettinger et al. 2017, Boeren et al. 2020;Muhrman and Andersson 2022).In the interviews, distance education is pointed out by school leaders and teachers as a possible reason for the rising dropout statistics.Instead of questioning the existence of distance education, the focus shifts to providing students with hybrid solutions involving on-site guidance.In the few selected cases that were a part of this study, the concept of distance education thus seems to remain unquestioned and taken for granted in several ways (Bacchi 2009).
Something happens when these various policy demands meet and are implemented in MAE.Hence, as Bacchi (2009) points out, there might be several different and/or nested problem representations in the same policy proposal.Just because flexibility is achieved through continuous enrolment doesn't necessarily mean that the teaching is truly flexible and adapted to students' needs.On the contrary, demands for flexibility in the form of continuous intake can lead to some courses eventually not being offered in traditional classroom settings, which affects the students (Andersson et al. 2023).This could be described as a flexibility paradox, as increased flexibility on one end could lead to reduced flexibility on the other.What also emerges from the interviews seems to be that the variation among municipalities is based more on local governance than on students' needs.On one hand, distance education is shaped as a means of flexibility and an opportunity to reach student groups that might otherwise be difficult to reach (Ziegler et al. 2014, R€ uter andMartin 2022).On the other hand, there might also be economic motives behind the increased use of distance education, according to some of the school leaders, career counsellors, and teachers.The question of what the 'problem' really is, is thus discussed in various ways in different contexts (Bacchi and Goodwin 2016).
There is also a difference between flexibility based on students' needs, as outlined in the curriculum, and flexibility within a market-oriented adult education system (Mufic 2022).Here, the WPR approach has been used to shed light on and critically scrutinise where the responsibility for the 'problem' is put (Bacchi 2009).In the narratives of school leaders, teachers, and guidance counsellors, it is this latter form of flexibility that is questioned.Increased control and more knowledge about the educational format are also demanded here because it is, according to some of the school leaders, almost 'too easy for students to apply.'At first glance, the system might seem flexible, precisely because students have the right to choose any study formatdaytime, evening, distance, hybrid, or classroom-based.However, flexibility from a market-oriented perspective leads to the educational format being driven by the students' circumstances rather than pedagogical and didactic needs (Mufic & Fejes 2022).This is illustrated in a quote from a teacher in municipality 4: If a student says, 'I'll finish this in 10 weeks,' and then I quickly realize they won't, because they need more time!Then I talk to the student and see how we can still solve it.And one solution is to extend a course.But I'm influenced by everything around it.Administrative rules.I can't extend a course for a student within a certain time, or the course is ongoing and we extend, and then it's a dead end.So, we try to do it anyway, but we might get a slap on the wrist if we're too accommodating.If we're too flexible in planning with the student, we might get a slap on the wrist for it!Note that the teacher mentions the risk of getting a 'slap on the wrist' if they're too flexible in planning with the students.This is a different form of flexibility than the students' choice of educational format as customers, which she's talking about here.It's not the type of flexibility she's being reprimanded for, but rather the flexibility in her teaching that's based on students' needs -the kind of flexibility that aligns with the curriculum's formulations, rooted in pedagogical and didactic needs (Mufic 2022).
What seems to be left out in the discussion about distance education is the fact that the proportion of newly arrived students and students with neuropsychiatric diagnoses has increased in MAE (Fejes 2019).In the interviews, both school leaders and teachers point out that distance education might not be the most suitable teaching format for all students.Previous research on distance education also highlights the Matthew effect (Desjardins 2015, Boeren 2016, Ba gci 2019) and the challenges of distance education (UNESCO et al. 2021).But these challenges are not addressed when flexibility requirements in policy result in contracted distance education in practice as a 'quick fix'.This raises questions about who is 'fit' to study at a distance and who should be responsible for making this decision.
To sum up, this study has scrutinised how distance education is construed by educators and with what discursive effects.The article provides new contextualised perspectives on distance education and thus also the possibility to problematise how distance education is presented as a solution to flexibility demands in policy within the flexibility discourse.In the future, more research is needed on the implications of distance education for both students and teachers who are involved in MAE.

Notes
1.An authority that has been commissioned by the state to audit quality in both adult education and the rest of the school system (R€ onnberg 2019).2.Even though MAE courses are being outsourced, the municipality still has the overarching responsibility for the education.3. School-based means that students meet on campus, often engaging in group-based learning.4. All six questions can be found here: (Bacchi 2009). 5.For a more detailed explanation of the operationalisation of the WPR questions, see Mufic (2022).6. Bacchi (2009) acknowledges that it is not necessary to include all of the six questions in a WPR analysis.
7. The interviews that were recorded were conducted by school inspectors and not the author.8.For a more profound and thoroughgoing discussion on reflexivity and the choice of observed audit meetings as empirical material, see Mufic (2022).
's the 'problem' represented to be in, in a specific policy or policies?Part 1 Q2: What deep-seated presuppositions or assumptions underlie this representation of the 'problem'?Part 2 Q5: What effects are produced in this representation of the 'problem'?