Accountability in Teacher Education in Norway: A Case of Mistrust and Trust

Abstract

Norwegian teacher education has been subject to numerous reforms in the last decade; the most recent one, requiring all teacher education programs to be at a master level, took effect from August 2017. The initiatives are policy initiated and heavily influenced by international trends characterized by an increasing demand for accountability. At the same time, the society, including politicians, are apprehensive to explicitly talk about external control and accountability. The tension between accountability and responsibility characterizes the Norwegian case. There is also a tension between traditional values and international accountability, between external and internal accountability/responsibility. Crooks’s (2007) concept ‘intelligent accountability’ could be a way to balance accountability and responsibility requirements in Norway. The backdrop of the chapter is information from steering documents, the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (NOKUT), discussions with deans and teacher educators, and media, and personal experience as a previous head of teacher education. This chapter sheds light on the tension between mistrust and trust, accountability and responsibility in Norwegian teacher education.