Age as a normalising technology: temporal governance in the construction of special education needs in Swedish compulsory education

This article examines how age functions as a normalising technology in Swedish compulsory schooling, structuring expectations of learning, behaviour, and development, and consequently ideas of deviations. While the organisation of schooling by chronological age is often perceived as neutral and self-evident, this paper argues it is a product of historically specific constructions that shape the notion of the ‘normal student’. Drawing on a Foucauldian perspective and a genealogical analysis, the study traces how age-based norms became embedded in Swedish educational policy and practice from the 1940s to the present, utilising government reports (SOU) and curricula. The analysis reveals a shift where age moved from a flexible developmental factor to a fixed administrative reference. This transformation redefined developmental variations as significant deviations, producing a structural demand for compensatory mechanisms. The article concludes that special education often operates as a compensatory technology that stabilises the age-based structure of schooling by managing deviation, rather than challenging the norms that produce it. By making visible how some special educational needs (SEN) are produced through temporal logics, the article contributes to international discussions on inclusion and diagnostic expansion.