Danish High Schools Research Articles

‘The tipping point’––interrogating racialized nationalist affects in Danish high schools

ABSTRACT In this article, we explore the fear and anxiety reflected within and generated by educational dispersal policies related to racialized minoritized students in Danish high schools. The article examines the production of high schools as sites of integration within policy and discourse and how racialized minoritized students are represented as ‘perpetually arriving’ and challenging the social cohesiveness of the Danish high school. Our conception of racialized nationalist affect captures how ideas of education and integration are bound up with racialized notions reinforcing fear, anxiety, and concern in response to a perceived threat of diversity that needs to be managed through dispersal policies. Drawing on existing policy documents related to student dispersal plans and interviews with high-school leaders and teachers, we critically analyze how the high school, the nation, and racialized minoritized students are affectively and discursively produced, perceived, and disciplined.

Exploring the potential of extreme citizen science with Danish high school students using environmental DNA for marine monitoring

Citizen science involves non-professionals assisting with scientific research, contributing data, and conducting experiments under professional guidance. In this paper, we describe the citizen science project DNA & life, based at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, which actively engages high school students in both fieldwork and advanced laboratory analyses by collecting and analyzing eDNA samples from marine environments across Denmark. The analysis is performed via species-specific real-time PCR and in a case study we present data gathered in the project from 2017-2023 with focus on the potential of eDNA detecting in use for species monitoring. The results include seasonal occurrence of Mnemiopsis leidyi and national distributions of selected species of particular ecological interest Perca fluviatilis, Anguilla anguilla, Neogobius melanostomus and Alexandrium ostenfeldii. In addition to the eDNA case study, we present a new way of conducting citizen science and eDNA analysis, as a development of the established DNA & life project. Local DNA laboratories are created to shorten the path from sampling site to laboratory facility, creating the possibility for Danish high schools to participate in a new version of the project. In close collaboration with the academic staff of the DNA & life project both teachers and students help develop facilities, protocols and laboratory analyses in an extreme citizen science and co-creation approach, where the participants are involved in a higher level of laboratory work and data analysis. Allowing high school students to perform intricate molecular lab analyzes through an extreme citizen science approach has demonstrated encouraging outcomes and potential for data of high quality in terms of sampling and analyzing eDNA with the purpose of species monitoring and conservation.

Racialized spatial attachments

Danish high school’s rising ethnic/racial diversity and tendencies of segregation call for explorations of students’ educational experiences of racialized differentiation. This article unfolds methodological reflections on this endeavor, by focusing on researcher access. Not only is space a medium through which racial relations materialize – space is also interconnected with access. If researchers depend on relations for access to sites of inquiry, which depends on how researchers are read by actors in the field, it is critical to scrutinize the spatial dimensions to such readings and what knowledge is (allowed to be) produced. Unfolding two ethnographic vignettes, the researcher’s positionality of passing is analyzed to explicate the relationship between racialized bodies and racialized spaces. I propose the notion of spatial attachments as an analytical lens for explaining such body–space conflations to illuminate the interconnectivity between educational spaces and the broader external world, and to expand the language to address racialization in the colorblind context of Danish high schools.

Prevention of hazardous use of alcohol among high school students: a study protocol for the randomized controlled trial ‘Our choice’

BackgroundAdolescent hazardous alcohol use is prevalent and has serious short- and long-term consequences. The trial ‘Our Choice’ examines efficacy, feasibility and acceptability of prevention interventions targeting school, parent, and student levels at Danish high schools. We hypothesize that students in a structural intervention (school and parent levels) reduce hazardous alcohol use and related health behaviors compared to students in an assessment only control group 12 months post baseline; and that adding group-based Motivational Interviewing (group MI) yields further improvements. The study examines the efficacy of interventions targeting multiple levels with the aim of providing novel insights into prevention of adolescent hazardous alcohol use and related health outcomes.MethodThe study employs a parallel group cluster randomized controlled trial design with three conditions: (1) structural condition targeting school and parent levels, (2) structural condition combined with group MI which also targets the student level, and (3) assessment-only control condition. A participatory approach is used to adapt and develop interventions. Sixteen high schools in Denmark and about N = 3100 first-year students (15–18 years) enrolled in high school in August 2023 will be recruited. Data will be collected via online questionnaires pre-interventions (baseline), 2, 6, 9 and 12 month post baseline and analyzed with generalized linear mixed models. The primary outcome is past month high intensity drinking; secondary outcomes are alcohol use, alcohol-related consequences, well-being, tobacco, and illegal substance use. Feasibility and acceptability will be assessed via surveys (students) and interviews (high school staff) to inform future implementation.Discussion‘Our Choice’ is the first trial to compare the efficacy of a structural intervention targeting school- and parent levels to an intervention targeting these levels and the student level via group MI – on hazardous drinking and related health outcomes among students. Preventing and reducing hazardous alcohol use during adolescence is crucial due to the short- and long-term negative consequences. The tested interventions can be implemented at low cost. The study has significant implications for adolescent health and well-being and has potential to inform evidence-based decisions on alcohol prevention policy, education, and health professions.Trial Registration NumberThe trial was retrospectively registered at ClinicalTrials.gov on August 24th, 2023. Trial Registration Number: ID NCT06018389.

Adaptation, Student Participation and Gradual Withdrawal by Researchers as Sustainability Strategies in the High School-Based Young and Active Intervention: School Coordinators' Perspectives.

Ensuring the sustainability of school-based public health intervention activities remains a challenge. The Young and Active (Y&A) intervention used peer-led workshops to promote movement and strengthen students’ sense of community in 16 Danish high schools. Peer mentors inspired first-year students to implement movement activities. To support sustainability, we applied a three-year stepwise implementation strategy using university students as peer mentors in year 1 and senior high school students in the following two years. This study explores the sustainability potential of Y&A, focusing on school coordinators’ reflections on the intervention’s fit to their schools and the student-driven approach, and we assess the three-step implementation strategy. The study is based on telephone interviews with coordinators (n = 7) from schools that participated in all three years and participant observations of four workshops (a total of approximately 250 participating students). Results were generated through an abductive analysis. Seven schools continued the intervention throughout the three years and adapted it to fit their priorities. The student-driven approach was perceived to be valuable, but few student-driven activities were initiated. Teacher support seemed crucial to support students in starting up activities and acting as peer mentors in workshops. The three-step implementation strategy proved valuable due to the peer-approach and the possibility of gradual adaptation. In future similar initiatives, it is important to address how the adequate staff support of students can be facilitated.

Social Disconnectedness, Loneliness, and Mental Health Among Adolescents in Danish High Schools: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Previous research has suggested that social disconnectedness experienced at school is linked to mental health problems, however, more research is needed to investigate (1) whether the accumulation of various types of social disconnectedness is associated with risk for mental health problems, and (2) whether loneliness is a mechanism that explains these associations.Methods: Using data from the Danish National Youth Study 2019 (UNG19), nation-wide cross-sectional data from 29,086 high school students in Denmark were analyzed to assess associations between social disconnectedness experienced at school (lack of classmate support, lack of teacher support, lack of class social cohesion, and not being part of the school community) and various mental health outcomes, as well as the mediating role of loneliness for each type of disconnectedness. Multilevel regression analyses were conducted to assess the associations.Results: Descriptive analyses suggest that 27.5% of Danish high school students experience at least one type of social disconnectedness at school. Each type of social disconnectedness was positively associated with mental health problems (depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, stress, sleep problems, suicidal ideation, non-suicidal self-injury, eating disorder, body dissatisfaction, and low self-esteem) and negatively associated with mental well-being. In all cases, loneliness significantly mediated the associations. We found a clear dose-response pattern, where each addition in types of social disconnectedness was associated with (1) stronger negative coefficients with mental well-being and (2) stronger positive coefficients with mental health problems.Conclusion: Our results add to a large evidence-base suggesting that mental health problems among adolescents may be prevented by promoting social connectedness at school. More specifically, fostering social connectedness at school may prevent loneliness, which in turn may promote mental well-being and prevent mental health problems during the developmental stages of adolescence. It is important to note that focusing on single indicators of school social connectedness/disconnectedness would appear to be insufficient. Implications for practices within school settings to enhance social connectedness are discussed.

Det’ lig’som teksten sådan bølger

This article addresses the practice of shared readings at The Danish Academy of Creative Writing. It argues that these readings represent exploratory talk as a method of reading the aesthetic dimensions of literary texts. Moreover, it points out that both exploratory approaches and aesthetic readings are of increasing interest within the field of didactical research. The article aims to investigate the shared readings at the Danish Academy of Creative Writing as a supplement to the highly analytical classroom conversations about literature in Danish high schools.

'High schools High on life': Development of an Intervention to Reduce Excessive Drinking in Danish High Schools.

Background: Clear documentation of the understanding of the problem, process of development, and content of interventions is essential to enable other researchers to understand why interventions succeed or fail and to enable researcher to build on previous evidence and replicate and adapt findings in other contexts. In this paper we describe the rationale, intervention development, and final design of the ‘High schools High on life’ intervention; a high school-based, multi-component intervention to reduce excessive drinking among Danish high school students.Methods: The development of the intervention ‘High schools High on life’ was guided by the planning steps of the Intervention Mapping protocol (IM) in combination with the behavior change wheel and the behavior change techniques, theory, evidence, practice, and new empirical studies of contextual factors in the Danish high school setting.Results: The development process resulted in a multi-component intervention with the following intervention elements: a school environmental component targeting school alcohol policies and norms, a school educational component addressing students' social norms around alcohol, and a parental component encouraging parent-child communication around alcohol.Discussion: Not all steps of IM were followed rigidly. However, IM proved useful as a planning tool in combination with the behavior change wheel and the behavior change techniques, as it provided a systematic approach to the intervention development process. IM forced the research group to be explicit about decisions and choices throughout the planning process. The transparency of the developmental process and theoretical, empirical and practical/contextual foundation of the ‘High schools High on life’ intervention may enable future intervention studies to build on our findings and accumulate knowledge to reduce excessive drinking among young people.Trial registration: The trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov (Trial registration number NCT03906500) prior to randomization.

Study protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial testing the effectiveness of the ‘High schools High on life’ intervention on reducing excessive drinking in Danish high schools

IntroductionThis paper describes the evaluation design of the ‘High schools High on life’ intervention; a school-based intervention to reduce excessive drinking among high school students in Denmark. The intervention includes...

High Schools- High on Life: an Intervention to Reduce Excessive Drinking in Danish High Schools

High Schools- High on Life: an Intervention to Reduce Excessive Drinking in Danish High Schools

School- and class-level variation in self-harm, suicide ideation and suicide attempts in Danish high schools.

Strong associations have been found between being exposed to self-harm in family and friends and own self-harm in adolescence. Therefore, self-harm and suicide behaviour might tend to cluster within school and school classes. The aim of this study was to describe the prevalence, frequency and type of self-harm, suicide ideation and suicide attempts within Danish high schools and to test whether self-harm and suicide behaviour cluster in schools and school classes. Data came from the Danish National Youth Study 2014, a national survey. The respective study included 66,284 high-school students nested in 117 schools and 3146 school classes. The prevalence and clustering of self-harm behaviour, ever and within the last year, type of self-harm (e.g. cutting, burning, scratching and hitting) and suicide ideation and suicide attempts were investigated. Multi-level logistic regression was applied to quantify clustering among participants within the same class and school. In total, 12,960 (20%) reported self-harm ever and 5706 (8.6%) within the last year. Prevalence was higher among girls than boys. Among girls, cutting (15%) and scratching (13%) was the most common type of self-harm, whereas among boys, hitting (6.7%) was most prevalent. The degree of clustering of self-harm and suicide behaviour was low, with school-level intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) ranging from 0.8-1.8% and school class level ICC's from 4.3-6.8%. This study shows that self-harm was common, especially in girls. The degree of clustering of self-harm and suicide behaviour in school and school classes was low.

When school-based, in-service teacher training sharpens pedagogical awareness

Research in the field of professional development (PD) stresses the importance of the development of professional learning communities (PLCs) designed to promote the process of inquiry in teaching. PLCs are of great importance with regard to both school improvement and in-service teacher training. This article shows that it is possible to teach teachers to reflect on their beliefs and actions, making them visible to teachers and their colleagues during a cooperative process of inquiry in the classroom. The empirical data stem from a 2-year, school-based, in-service teacher-training program involving 16 teachers at two Danish high schools. The research question is ‘how can teachers’ reflections, pedagogical awareness, and perspectives on their beliefs be sharpened by in-service teacher training?’ With regard to school improvement, two conclusions are drawn: (1) teachers’ pedagogical awareness is sharpened and their classroom behavior and educational thinking change when their routine actions and thinking are questioned and scrutinized; (2) teachers who experiment systematically with their own teaching alongside their colleagues find the process and product rewarding.

Trends in smoking and smokeless tobacco use among Danish Adolescents, 1997-2014.

INTRODUCTIONHigh rates of smoking among adolescents remain a public health concern. This study investigates smoking behavior and use of smokeless tobacco among Danish high-school students and assesses how smoking and use of smokeless tobacco cluster in schools and school classes. We estimate the trend in cigarette smoking from 1997 to 2014.METHODSWe used data on 70 243 students, from 3 214 school classes in 119 high schools, who participated in the Danish National Youth Study from 2014. We had information on 87% of all Danish high schools and 85% of eligible students. We also used data from 1997 on 26 644 high-school students from a similar data set to assess the chronological trend in smoking. We calculated prevalences and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) to estimate between-school and between-school class clustering in smoking and use of smokeless tobacco.RESULTSIn all, 14% of boys and 11% of girls were daily smokers. A large fraction of the variation in smoking and the use of smokeless tobacco was attributable to the school and school-class level (ICC of 0.19, 0.12, 0.16 and 0.27, for daily smoking, waterpipe smoking, use of electronic cigarettes and snuff/chewing tobacco, respectively). Daily smoking decreased from 15% in 1997 to 12% in 2014, while more students were occasional smokers in 2014 than in 1997 (30% vs 18%).CONCLUSIONSThe prevalence of smoking was high among Danish high-school students and had changed little since 1997. The school and class environment accounted for a large part of the variation in smoking behavior.

Co-determination as a road to goal commitment: managing Danish high schools

Goal-setting initiatives have become an integrated part of managing public organizations in Denmark. The purpose is often to align employee effort with managerial goal prioritization and to motivate all employees to work in the same direction. This is particularly important in public organizations where employees are met with multiple and conflicting performance demands. The question is, though, how managers can ensure that employees are committing to the same goal as the managers prioritize? Employee co-determination has a potential to foster and direct employees’ goal commitment by increasing the dialogue between managers and employees and by legitimizing managers’ goal prioritization. The role of co-determination has so far been neglected in studies of goal-setting initiatives. In this article a qualitative study of ten managers and employees provides a nuanced picture of what co-determination means in the Danish educational sector, and analyses of two parallel surveys of 73 principals and 1353 teachers show that employee co-determination has a significant positive effect on the association between principals’ prioritization of high school completion rates and the teachers’ commitment to this goal.

Elective course student sectioning at Danish high schools

The Elective Course Student Sectioning (ECSS) problem is a yearly recurrent planning problem at the Danish high schools. The problem is of assigning students to elective classes given their requests such that as many requests are fulfilled and the violations of the soft constraints are minimized. This paper presents an Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search heuristic for the ESCC. The algorithm is applied to 80 real-life instances from Danish high schools and compared with solutions found by using the state-of-the-art MIP solver Gurobi. The algorithm has been implemented in the commercial product Lectio, and is thereby available for approximately 200 high schools in Denmark.

How social-media enhanced learning platforms support students in taking responsibility for their own learning

Purpose – The paper is based on the chapter “How Social Media Enhanced Learning Platforms Challenge and Motivate Students to Take Charge of Their Own Learning Processes – A Few Examples” from the publication Increasing Student Engagement and Retention using Social Technologies: Facebook, e-Portfolios and other Social Networking Services and on the authors’ research on ICT and social media enhanced learning in the foreign language/intercultural learning high school and university environment. Design/methodology/approach – The paper discusses learning in general and didactic practices in the two sectors and how social media enhanced learning platforms challenge and motivate students in their learning processes. Findings – The paper provides examples from didactic experiments carried out at the Copenhagen Business School and in Danish high schools. The authors focus on the changing role of teachers from the traditional role of (almost) full teacher responsibility for classroom action to a coaching and facilitating role where students assume increasing responsibility for their learning and for classroom activities. The paper also discusses the transfer and application of experiences made on the basis of changing didactic practices and views the positive and less positive experiences. Originality/value – The paper shares work-in-progress experience in regard to the growing body of knowledge about the use of ICT in the twenty-first century classroom.

The consultation timetabling problem at Danish high schools

In the different stages of the educational system, the demand for efficient planning is increasing. This article treats the $$\mathcal NP $$ NP -hard Consultation Timetabling Problem, a recurrent planning problem for the high schools in Denmark, which has not been described in the literature before. Two versions of the problem are considered, the Parental Consultation Timetabling Problem (PCTP) and the Supervisor Consultation Timetabling Problem (SCTP). It is shown that both problems can be modeled using the same Integer Programming model. Solutions are found using the state-of-the-art MIP solver Gurobi and Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search (ALNS), and computational results are established using 300 real-life datasets. These tests show that the developed ALNS algorithm is significantly outperforming both Gurobi and a currently applied heuristic for the PCTP. For both the PCTP and the SCTP, it is shown that the ALNS algorithm in average provides results within 5 % of optimum. The developed algorithm has been implemented in the commercial product Lectio, and is therefore available for approximately 95 % of the Danish high schools.

N.F.S. Grundtvig, Niels Bukh and Other 'Japanese' Heroes. The Educators Obara Kuniyoshi and Matsumae Shigeyoshi and Their Lessons from the Past of a Foreign Country

AbstractObara Kuniyoshi (1887–1977), the founder of Tamagawa Gakuen, and Matsumae Shigeyoshi (1901–1991), the founder of Tôkai Educational System (TES), were both inspired by Denmark and Danish education, although in different ways. Obara, a representative of the New Education Movement in Japan, became interested in Denmark when he heard about Danish gymnastics, which seemed to be ideally suited to his vision of rigorous but non-competitive physical education. In 1931, two years after founding his own school, he succeeded in inviting the Danish gymnast Niels Bukh and a group of his students to Japan. The interest in gymnastics sparked off a wider interest in Denmark. Matsumae Shigeyoshi's attention was drawn to Denmark and to the Danish folk high schools as a result of his encounter with Uchimura Kanzô. Although not an educator by training, he decided to devote his life to education. This article explores the role of cultural borrowing in the thought and educational praxis of Obara and Matsumae. Although they uncritically accepted a Danish cultural memory (Denmark's recovery from military defeat in the nineteenth century through spiritual strength and education) and cultivated a stereotypical image, the adaptation of this image to suit their own needs represents a highly creative process which resulted in two successful private schools.

Grundtvig i finländskt perspektiv

Grundtvig in a Finnish PerspectiveBy Gustav BjörkstrandFor several reasons it must cause surprise that Grundtvig did not show more attention to Finland. In Grundtvig’s well-known and noteworthy statements about the Nordic tradition, in which he also referred to the Scandinavian universities, one looks in vain for references to the Finnish institutes of higher education.This fact becomes so much more remarkable when it is considered that in 1835 Grundtvig was invited to become a corresponding member of the Finnish Literary Society. As far as it has been possible to establish, Grundtvig did not reply to the invitation, possibly because of an uncertain knowledge of the Finnish language, even though Grundtvig must have been familiar with the fact that the Swedish language occupied a prominent position in Finland. Likewise, it seems difficult to explain that Grundtvig did not take any great interest in the mythology of old Finland, as it is known for example from the Kalevala legend.It is common knowledge that in Grundtvig’s own lifetime, mid- 19th century Scandinavism included Finland, so that it seems indisputable that this should have reminded Grundtvig of Finland as belonging to the Nordic community.From 1868 the folk high school ideals became known in Finland. Several Finnish writers and educators voiced their enthusiasm about the Danish folk high schools and expressed the wish that the ideas should be realized in Finland, too. There was some discussion, however, whether the inclusion of old Nordic mythology was to rest on an all-Scandinavian basis, or the main stress should be laid on the specifically Finnish mythology. It is possible that uncertainty on this point may have been a contributory cause why no evidence of any interest in Finland can be found even in Grundtvig’s later years. This assumption may find support in yet another aspect of the early debate about the folk high school ideals in Finland; several of the earliest Finnish advocates of the folk high school expressed a strong wish that Bible and Church teaching should have a prominent place, a view that Grundtvig must certainly have disagreed with.From the late 1880s the folk high school in Finland saw a real breakthrough. From the available correspondence between Finnish and Danish folk high school pioneers it may be established that the Finns sought inspiration at the well-known Danish high schools, primarily Askov, but also Valle-kilde, in order to find support there for their endeavours to make the aims behind the folk high school take root in Finland. The most important representative of the early movement in Finland, Sofia Hagman, had been in Denmark as early as 1884. In a book from 1891 about the folk high school in Denmark she was criticized for giving too much attention to the Danish perspectives at the expense of the situation in the other Nordic countries. In any case, there is abundant evidence of the decisive importance that the folk high school ideas acquired in Finland towards the end of the 19th and in the beginning of the 20th centuries. Thus, in 1917, when Finland achieved political indepen-dence, there were 42 folk high schools, 28 of which were Finnish-speaking, while 14 were Swedish-speaking. Through the whole of the 20th century the folk high schools have continued to play an important role, even though aims and practice have been extensively adjusted. It is particularly striking that the schools are increasingly attended by young people wanting to obtain specific qualifications with a view to further education, whereas more universal ideals such as enlightenment for life and the living dialogue seem to have receded into the background.As far as Grundtvig’s hymns are concerned, they have found their way into Finland to some ex-tent, mainly, however, through Swedish-language versions. The best known Grundtvig hymn in both language traditions is Kirken den er et gammelt hus (Our Church it is an Ancient House).In conclusion, the article deals with the research carried out in Finland on Grundtvig and the hi-story of his influence (Wirkungsgeschichte). The historical background is that nowhere else has the folk high school had such effect and such impact. The writer of the present article (Gustav Björkstrand) has contributed himself with a monograph from 1981 about the folk high school in the Swedish-speaking part of Finland, viewed in relation to the mobilization of the common people. The main conclusion is that the importance of the folk high school has primarily depended on three factors: the endeavour to awaken the common people to the defence against Russification, the struggle to arouse an interest in Swedish language and culture, and finally the fight against secularization in defence of Christian values.

Christen Kold, founder of the Danish folk high school: myth and reality

N. F. S. Grundtvig and Christen Kold traditionally are considered, respectively, as the father of the folk high school idea and its implementer. For many years, the story was that Grundtvig and Kold were substantially of one mind about the form and content of the folk high school. It is only in recent years that Kold's life and work, and his relationship to Grundtvig, became the subject of searching scholarly analysis. This article attempts to provide a revised account of Kold's life, thought and work, and of his undeniable impact on the form and curriculum of the Danish folk high schools, informed by recent scholarly work based on archival sources not available before 1976.