Maria Rosén Universitetslektor/bitr. utbildningschef Rektorsprogrammet

Maria Rosén works as a senior lecturer in education and serves as Deputy Director of Education for Principal Training.

She holds a PhD from Uppsala University, where she defended her thesis Juridifiering som demokratiseringsprocess? Fallet likabehandling i svensk skola (Juridification as a process of democratisation? The Swedish case of equal treatment) in 2023.  The thesis combines theoretical and empirical perspectives to examine the Swedish political initiative to democratize education through juridification, focusing on the introduction of legal protections against discrimination and degrading treatment. It contributes knowledge on the complexity and the ambivalent nature of juridification as a process in the democratisation of education.

My research, inspired by post-structuralist perspectives and continental philosophy, explores the relationship between education and society/welfare state, with a focus on governance and education policy. I examine how they evolve and shape educational practice and professional conditions, including school leadership. Key themes in my work include democracy, change processes, and relationships, along with their inherent paradoxes and dilemmas. My research spans educational policy and educational theory, democratic education, and, increasingly, school leadership.

I belong to the research groups Leadership, Improvement and Organisation of Schools (SOUL) and Philosophical and Critical Studies in Education at Stockholm University. Together with Mark Murphy at the University of Glasgow, I lead the Glasgow-Stockholm Critical Studies in Education Research Group.

I´m a member of the Swedish National Research Network on Education Policy, Organisation and Leadership (NSOL), the Nordic Society of Philosophy of Education, and the International Network of Philosophers of Education (INPE).

Currently, I'm on the Editorial Board of the research journal Utbildning & Demokrati - tidskrift för didaktik och utbildningspolitik, and a board member of the Swedish Educational Research Association (SWERA), where I also serve as Communications Manager. 

Before my appointment at Stockholm University, I held positions as a lecturer at Södertörn´s College, the Stockholm Institute of Education, and Uppsala University. Furthermore, I´ve, for example, worked as an expert at the Swedish National Agency for Education and as an education coordinator at the Equality Ombudsman.