Nordic Perspective Research Articles

Effectiveness and Equity in Primary Science and Mathematics Education in the Nordic Countries: A Review of the Book by Teig et al. (2024)

How effective is science and mathematics teaching in the Nordic countries? And how equitable is it? These are central questions of the book Effective and equitable teacher practice in mathematics and science education: A Nordic perspective across time and groups of students by Nani Teig, Trude Nilsen, and Kajsa Yang Hansen. In a collection of articles, the TIMSS data from 2011 to 2019 from the Nordic countries except Iceland are analysed using a quasi-longitudinal approach. The analyses show that equity in science and mathematics education is increasingly challenged, thereby endangering the Nordic model in education. It is a must read for policy makers and researchers who seek to make the education systems of the Nordic countries resilient in face of present and future challenges, to ensure equity and quality education.

Mining and extraction in the Arctic – a nordic perspective on sustainability and near-term challenges

Mining and extraction in the Arctic – a nordic perspective on sustainability and near-term challenges

Children’s Wellbeing and Children’s Rights—A Nordic Perspective

Children’s Wellbeing and Children’s Rights—A Nordic Perspective

Limiting access to assisted reproductive technologies for males of advanced age-Pros and cons from a Nordic perspective.

It is not controversial to state that parental age is increasing in several countries. But how to deal with this increase might be. Some Nordic countries have set an upper age limit for females seeking assisted reproduction in their national legislation, but none have done so for males. There are also recommendations in place that restrict access to publicly funded assisted reproduction for both females and males of advanced age in some Nordic countries. As recent data now show somatic and psychiatric health risks related to advanced paternal age, we ask if the time has come for countries to set an upper age limit for males seeking assisted reproduction like there already is for females, and summarize some of the risks and rewards involved in treating couples with advanced age in fertility clinics.

A Nordic Perspective on Patient Online Record Access and the European Health Data Space.

The Nordic countries are, together with the United States, forerunners in online record access (ORA), which has now become widespread. The importance of accessible and structured health data has also been highlighted by policy makers internationally. To ensure the full realization of ORA's potential in the short and long term, there is a pressing need to study ORA from a cross-disciplinary, clinical, humanistic, and social sciences perspective that looks beyond strictly technical aspects. In this viewpoint paper, we explore the policy changes in the European Health Data Space (EHDS) proposal to advance ORA across the European Union, informed by our research in a Nordic-led project that carries out the first of its kind, large-scale international investigation of patients' ORA-NORDeHEALTH (Nordic eHealth for Patients: Benchmarking and Developing for the Future). We argue that the EHDS proposal will pave the way for patients to access and control third-party access to their electronic health records. In our analysis of the proposal, we have identified five key principles for ORA: (1) the right to access, (2) proxy access, (3) patient input of their own data, (4) error and omission rectification, and (5) access control. ORA implementation today is fragmented throughout Europe, and the EHDS proposal aims to ensure all European citizens have equal online access to their health data. However, we argue that in order to implement the EHDS, we need more research evidence on the key ORA principles we have identified in our analysis. Results from the NORDeHEALTH project provide some of that evidence, but we have also identified important knowledge gaps that still need further exploration.

Legislative Powers in a Peace Time Crisis: A Nordic Perspective

Legislative Powers in a Peace Time Crisis: A Nordic Perspective

Crossing Borders: Women and Higher Learning in a Nordic Perspective, 1860–1960

Crossing Borders: Women and Higher Learning in a Nordic Perspective, 1860–1960

Radiographers use of social media - SoMe in a Nordic perspective

IntroductionSocial media (SoMe) is widely used as a communication platform in everyday life. Also, healthcare professionals have embraced SoMe as a communication tool for both peers and patients. It is becoming an interactive tool for discussing professionals' issues and a place where learning and education occur. This study explores the specific patterns of SoMe use for radiographers’ in the Nordic countries. The aim of this survey was to investigate radiographers use of social platforms in a professional setting. MethodsA 29-item survey was prepared, and pilot-tested. The survey was produced in Danish a language that all Nordic countries master. In general, most Nordic languages are very similar. The survey was distributed by online platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, and also distributed by newsletters by the Norwegian and Danish national radiographers societies. All data was collected anonymously. An Ethical Research approval was obtained from the University of Southern Denmark. ResultsA total of 242 respondents completed the survey (Denmark n = 183, Norway n = 48, Sweden n = 8, and n = 3 from other Scandinavian countries). The respondents included 186 females, 52 males and four were undisclosed. On average, the respondents spent approximately 2 h and 23 min daily on SoMe, with 27 min specifically dedicated to content relevant to radiographers. Facebook was the preferred platform with 93 % (n = 226). A total of 5.4 % (n = 13) respondents had experienced contact from patients and/or next of kin, while 92 % (n = 222) reported no such interactions and 2.9 % (n = 7) were undisclosed. A total of 52.8 % (n = 128) used SoMe in relation to courses, conferences, or online meetings. This shows that time spent on content relevant to radiographers imply that SoMe can be a relevant tool for reaching radiographers. ConclusionThe survey demonstrates radiographers’ use of SoMe for personal and professional interest, with Facebook as the preferred social media platform. SoMe were mostly used during courses, conferences, or online meetings with half of the respondent reported using SoMe platforms during working hours. These results underscore the untapped potential of SoMe in professional healthcare settings. Additionally, the study offers insight into current practices, facilitating comparisons to identify trends in SoMe usage within the radiographer community. Implications for practiceThe findings advocate for the strategic use of SoMe by radiographers', emphasizing professional networking and knowledge sharing. However, clear guidelines are necessary to ensure patient confidentiality and data security in these digital interactions.

The Professional Nurse Self-Assessment Scale II - Translation and cultural adaptation for Nordic countries.

It is important to map the clinical competence of newly graduated nurses in Nordic countries. The use of a common Nordic instrument could provide insights into nurses' levels of self-assessed clinical competence and perceptions of their need for professional development. To translate and culturally adapt the original Norwegian version of the Professional Nurse Self-Assessment Scale II (PROFFNurse SAS II) into (1) Danish, (2) Finnish and (3) Icelandic versions. The PROFFNurse SAS II was translated and cross-culturally adapted. This translation was inspired by the process used in the Guidelines for Cross-Cultural Adaptation. The translation and cultural adaptation processes employed the required steps and provided specific details. In addition, practical issues encountered during the translation process while translating and adapting instruments that may influence future translations were revealed. This study found that having a professional bilingual/bicultural agency translator was partly problematic in the process of translation and found that it is important to adjust the translations to each country's specific words used in nursing. Translating the PROFFNurse SAS II instrument into all Nordic languages enables us to use the instrument from a Nordic perspective and across various countries. This is important when comparing self-awareness and reflecting on nurses' clinical competencies. Professional development is central to valuing and developing clinical competence and allowing for the discovery of gaps in clinical competence.

UK childcare policy: Navigating choices, challenges and the need for reform

UK childcare policy: Navigating choices, challenges and the need for reform In this article, Prof. Dr. Ingela Naumann, University of Fribourg, explores UK childcare policy through the Nordic perspective on parental work, and the struggle to balance choices for families in the face of societal and economic constraints. In spring 2023, the government pledged to expand its UK childcare policy (currently 30 hours free childcare for three- and four-year-olds) to one- and two-year-old children. Finally! I thought, as a Swedish academic who has been researching childcare, gender equality and work/life balance issues in the UK for many years. Sure, the current funding system for UK childcare is insufficient, causing many problems in the sector; however, the fact that a Tory government acknowledged the importance of childcare services for young children was a milestone.

Nature-Based Education for Facilitating Resilience and Well-Being among Youth—A Nordic Perspective

This article provides a brief overview of current research regarding well-being among youth to find factors that may have influenced an increase in mental health problems among children and young people and to clarify the current state of knowledge. Research highlighting protective factors that seem to promote resilience is put forward, which includes factors regarding interactions between youth and their families, friends and education providers. An insight into the development of the Finnish education system is also provided in the search for factors that affect students learning and engagement in school. To provide a possible pathway forward, the article will highlight some existing studies on resilience building from nature-based activities, indicating a possibility to help youth and children with mental illness or problematic school absences develop socio-emotional skills, confidence in themselves and a belief in the future.

Introduction to the special issue: Studying Populism, Religion and Media – a Nordic Perspective

Introduction to the special issue: Studying Populism, Religion and Media – a Nordic Perspective

International evidence-based guideline on assessment and management of PCOS-A Nordic perspective.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) affects about 12% of women of reproductive age. In 2018, the first evidence-based guideline on assessment and management of PCOS was published, and an updated extended guideline was released in August 2023. These guidelines followed best practice and are endorsed by 39 organizations worldwide, making them the most robust source of evidence to guide clinical practice. In the 2023 guideline, diagnostic criteria have been further refined as polycystic ovary morphology can now be assessed with gynecological ultrasound or elevated anti-Müllerian hormone levels. A healthy lifestyle should be at the focus of care for all women with PCOS; however, with no specific diet or physical exercise recommended. The latest evidence on medical treatments and fertility management are reviewed, including special considerations regarding long-term follow-up of metabolic and psychiatric comorbidities and pregnancy in women with PCOS. Here we summarize the recommendations from a Nordic perspective.

Green Internationalism on Display: Motives, Structures, and Dynamics of Nordic Environmental Diplomacy during the 1970s

Abstract Using the negotiations of the 1979 Convention on Long-Rage Transboundary Air Pollution as a case, this article examines the characteristics of Nordic environmental diplomacy. Through a Nordic perspective, it investigates the practices, dynamics, and motives of Nordic cooperation on atmospheric pollution within an international context. It argues that Nordic environmental diplomacy was anchored in regional Nordic cooperation, facilitating a fluid and multi-layered collaboration at the international scene. By revealing this complexity of Nordic environmental diplomacy, the article nuances the diplomatic accounts focusing on single countries, emphasizing the multi-ownership of ideas and achievements. Furthermore, by exploring the motivational, organization, and practical traits of Nordic environmental diplomacy, it proposes to characterize Nordic environmental diplomacy as green internationalism, a self-interested international environmentalism resting upon a shared sense of Nordic solidarity and institutional cooperation.

Fact-checkers and the news media: A Nordic perspective on propaganda

ABSTRACT Combatting disinformation and propaganda has become an increasingly common task in Nordic newsrooms. The independent fact-checking organisations are currently joining forces with journalists in keeping the public informed. To better understand what these organisations do and how they do it, this study investigates the fact-checkers’ challenges and interrelations with traditional journalistic institutions, media literacy organisations, and associated national policymaker institutions in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The study is based on 18 in-depth interviews, and the findings show that fact-checking journalism is considered an important counterpart to traditional news media. However, there are many challenges in countering disinformation in the Nordics – both socioeconomical and policy related – that should be considered when discussing how to maintain and improve on the resilience against disinformation and propaganda in the Nordic media welfare states. The study aims to bring some of these challenges to the fore.

Harnessing the untapped potential of food education in schools: Nurturing the school subject Food and Health.

Essential life skills related to food and meals have a potential triple dividend for children and adolescents, that is, short-term, medium-term and possible generational effects with regard to public health, sustainability and well-being of future citizens in local communities. While parents and childhood environments are a basis for learning about food and meals, systematic food education in the setting of primary and lower secondary schools may have a significant role that should be utilized more strongly, reaching and benefitting all pupils from a life course perspective. Through this article, we explore the current state of the art of the mandatory school subject Food and Health (FH) from the Nordic perspective. Our leading questions are: (1) What potential is currently utilized and which future potential does FH education have in primary and secondary schools in terms of food education for essential life skills and competencies, and (2) How can this untapped potential be better harnessed with a goal of facilitating better learning in FH? Drawing on data from Norway as a case study, supported by Swedish and Finnish data, we discuss the status, challenges and potential reformation of food education, focusing on FH. This includes perspectives on the prioritization of the FH subject and the organization of more systematic food education in schools, which might improve FH's status and significance. Combining theory-practice, creating room for discussion and focusing less on cooking-related activities may better facilitate learning in FH. Without proper FH, food education might be nonsystematic, thereby generating unequal outcomes for children and adolescents.

Future drought propagation through the water-energy-food-ecosystem nexus – A Nordic perspective

Droughts can affect a multitude of public and private sectors, with impacts developing slowly over time. While droughts are traditionally quantified in relation to the hydrological components of the water cycle that they affect, this manuscript demonstrates a novel approach to assess future drought conditions through the lens of the water-energy-food-ecosystem (WEFE) nexus concept. To this end, a set of standardized drought indices specifically designed to represent different nexus sectors across 50 catchments in Sweden was computed based on an ensemble of past and future climate model simulations. Different patterns in the response of the four nexus sectors water, energy, food and ecosystem services to future climate change emerged, with different response times and drought durations across the sectors. These results offer new insights into the propagation of drought through the WEFE nexus in cold climates. They further suggest that future drought projections can be better geared towards decision makers by basing them on standardized drought indices that were specifically tailored to represent particular nexus sectors.

I kontaktzonen mellem kunsthistorie og kolonihistorie

ABSTRACT
 In a recent issue of Art History, editors Cathrine Grant and Dorothy Price ask what it would mean to think about art history and colonial history (and in particular decolonization) together. In this article, we continue this conversation in a Danish context, asking: What emerges if we approach Danish art history in light of colonial history and its material and conceptual logics? Our aim is to contribute to critical discussions of art history as discipline by attending to the “contact zones” (Pratt 1992) between art history and colonial history in a Danish and Nordic perspective. With a starting point in an analysis of “colonial ignorance” and methodological nationalism in Danish art history – and in the art museum in particular – the article analyzes two artworks in order to suggest how decolonial perspectives invite a renegotiation of what objects and questions are of relevance and value to art history today.

From the idea of inclusion into practice in the Nordic countries: a qualitative literature review

ABSTRACT The qualitative literature review includes 34 articles published in English-language, peer-reviewed journals to obtain a Nordic perspective on the status of the research on how the idea of inclusion implemented into practice is reflected in the literature from 2009 through 2019. Qualitative content analysis was conducted. In the analysis, we identified the characteristics of the studies, how inclusion and inclusive education were defined, and which themes concerning the idea of inclusion into practice that emerged from the review. Articles from five Nordic countries were found, Sweden with most of the publications. Almost twice as many of the sampled articles used qualitative methods as quantitative. Inclusion and inclusive education were seldom defined explicit, and the different way of understanding inclusion that emerges was human rights and democratic principles, placement of SEN-students, participation and belongingness, and high-quality learning for all students. Three themes was highlighted in the transformation of the idea into practice: Placement and the organisation of schooling, Teachers’ beliefs and attitudes, and Students’ and parents’ experiences. This literature review shows that few research studies have focused specific on how to transform the idea of inclusion into practice.

Being represented by others due to diminished decision capacity – a review of research literature

ABSTRACT In social work, when a person needs to be supported or represented by another – be it voluntarily or by compulsion, permanently or for a limited time – questions on autonomy, integrity, and rights are raised. In particular, representation has implications for the relationship between the person being represented, the representative, and the social worker or service provider. While legal reforms on support and representation have been performed in the Nordic countries the last decade, views from those being represented, i.e. their needs and wishes on different forms of representation, have not been prominent. Using this as a starting point, this literature review explored previous research on experiences of people represented by others, e.g. people with intellectual disability, people with mental illness, and children needing representation by a third party. The literature review encompassed relevant studies using qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods, and a range of policy and legal areas. Four databases were used in the search process (Academic Search Complete, ASSIA, SocIndex, and Sociological s). Based on inclusion criteria, eight articles were included in this review, encompassing experiences of people with intellectual disability, people with mental illness, and children needing representation by a third party. Two recurrent themes relevant for social work were identified: the balance between protecting and violating rights, and the importance of lasting and trusting relationships between the person being represented and the person representing. The review revealed a need for more social work research, not least from a Nordic perspective, reflecting the experiences of people being represented.