Education restructuring is often based on the claim that markets have been shown to efficiently distribute goods to individuals who need and desire them, and that services should therefore be altered so that "the market" can also become the ultimate arbiter of what is included in them as well. However, restructuring has also been said to have negative effects on education values such as humanism and creativity. The present article has been developed from an ethnographic case study in relation to these values. It is supported by recent ethnographic research in adult Swedish language courses for immigrants (SFI) within a particular municipal region in Sweden.