Traditionally emphasizing justice, equality and inclusion, education
policies in the Nordic countries have incorporated neoliberal features
during the last three decades, but to varying extents. These changes
have important, multidimensional implications, but the variations have
been addressed in few comparative Nordic studies. Thus, this article
explores the potential to strengthen comparisons of education regimes in
the Nordic countries generally, and social justice and marketization
aspects more specifically, by using existing datasets and databases. It
initially elaborates the concepts of justice and marketization of
education. Using Iceland, Norway and Sweden as examples, it explores the
relevance, accessibility and comparability of some of the larger
international and national statistical databases, and hence their
potential to enable such comparisons. These data are complemented with
interviews conducted with officials at the national agencies of
education in the three countries. A main conclusion is that abundant
data are generally available (despite substantial gaps and silences in
the datasets) on various aspects of social justice in education. In
contrast, there is very little data on most aspects of marketization.
Comparability is often hindered by factors such as differences in
definitions, white spots and the organization of education. It is
concluded that there is clearly a need to extend and develop the
currently limited Nordic collaboration in the selection and
harmonization of educational statistics.