Nordic Research Project Research Articles

Instrument constituencies and the brokering of OECD-knowledge in Nordic school reforms - a three country comparison

ABSTRACT Major international surveys and reports have considerably altered the expectations and outlooks of national policymakers in education over the last three decades. Through a comparative content analysis of bibliographies in policy documents, this article explores the intermediary bodies that facilitate salient interconnections between international organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and national policymakers and experts who prepare comprehensive school reforms in three Nordic countries: Denmark, Norway and Sweden. This article builds on a large Nordic research project that studied the transfer and translation of international policies in a Nordic reform context. It extends the study by examining the role of publishers as intermediary policy brokers that legitimize the usage of OECD knowledge as significant members of instrument constituencies. This study enhances our understanding of the variations in citation patterns across policy documents from three Nordic countries. It also investigates the extent to which differences in instrumental constituencies arise from institutional arrangements and the ideational foundations underpinning reform trajectories. Additionally, it examines the topics addressed by these reforms and the governments’ affiliations with new policy brokers supported by both public and private publishers.

Engelskpåvirkningen af dansk skriftsprog

In this article I describe some of the results of the project ”Yes, det er coolt. Om påvirkning af dansk fra andre sprog” (“Yes, it’s coolt. On foreign influence on the Danish language”). The project is a continuation of a Nordic research project in which the use of words from foreign languages (mainly English) in Nordic newspapers from 1975 and 2000 was described. One of the most important results from the new research project was that even though we still mainly borrow words from the English language, the amount of English words in Danish has not increased in the period from 2000 till 2016. Another important result is that we borrow more verbs from English than before, e.g. verbs as facebooke, hacke and maile (with a Danish inflectional e) which are associated with the internet and to the social media.

Tourism appropriation of Sámi land and culture

ABSTRACT This article addresses cultural and other forms of appropriation related to tourism in the Sámi areas of Norway (Sápmi). Tourists are chasing and consuming otherness – places, culture and nature different from their home environments. Thus, exposures of arts, culture, nature and places are vital parts of tourism production. Within this context, indigenous cultures are praised. When the use of land and culture is conducted by those from outside the culture, appropriation take place, and it is shown how this occurs in different ways within Sámi tourism. The article is based on a Nordic research project, where the relations between tourism and Sámi culture were addressed. Tourism providers were interviewed. Through these conversations, cultural appropriation came up as one of the challenging issues. Some of the topics and examples given are referred to in the empirical part of the article. The interview data are supplemented by observations and media clips from recent years. In the discussion part, ambiguities, ambivalences, and complexities related to the tourism–culture nexus are discussed. The article is a contribution to this discourse, addressing issues to be aware of, both in the production and the analysis of indigenous tourism.

Perspectives on bi- and multilingual children’s participation in kindergartensin Iceland

Abstract Cultural and linguistic diversity of kindergarten children in Iceland has been growing rapidly in recent years (Reykjavíkurborg, Skóla- og frístundasvið, 2017; Statistics Iceland, 2017), creating challenges for kindergartens. The main aim of the paper is to explore how principals, kindergarten teachers and parents in three kindergartens in Iceland experience diversity, inclusion and participation in their kindergartens and what learning spaces and educational practices seem to be instrumental for their children’s participation. The paper builds on data from the Nordic research project Learning Spaces for Inclusion and Social Justice: Success Stories from Immigrant Students and School Communities in Four Nordic countries (2013–2015), the aim of which was to draw lessons from success stories of individual immigrant students and whole school communities at different levels that have succeeded in developing learning contexts that are equitable and socially just (Ragnarsdóttir, 2015; Ragnarsdóttir & Kulbrandstad, 2018). Case studies were conducted in three kindergartens, including semi-structured interviews with kindergarten teachers, principals and parents as well as observation (Flick, 2006; Kvale, 2007). The findings indicate that the kindergartens have developed various inclusive and empowering educational practices to respond to the growing diversity. However, some challenges appear in the findings, including lack of sustainability of good practices.

Preschool teachers communicating values to children

ABSTRACTThis empirical study aims to find if and how preschool teachers communicate values they consider important for children to learn in preschool. The study is a part of a Nordic research project on values education in Nordic preschools. Values are understood as desirable principles that guide human actions. Theoretically, the study draws on a sociocultural perspective and Habermas’ theory of communicative action. The data consists of approximately 17 h of video observations of communication between preschool teachers and children. Two episodes were chosen for further analysis and in-depth discussion. Care, respect, and discipline had been agreed on as important values to communicate to preschool children. The preschool teachers used different approaches to communicate these values, depending on their professional and personal backgrounds. The values were communicated implicitly rather than explicitly. The study contributes to research on values education in the ECE and gives reasons for reflection on the practices of preschool teachers.

Mat nýliða á gagnsemi leiðsagnar í starfi kennara

Í greininni er fjallað um íslenskan hluta norrænnar rannsóknar á nýliðum í grunn- og framhaldsskólum – Nordment1 . Rannsóknin var unnin í samstarfi fræðimanna frá háskólunum í Osló, Gautaborg, Árósum, Turku og Akureyri. Markmið rannsóknarinnar var að kanna hvernig stuðningur í skólum, skólastjórnun og skipulag innan skóla hefur áhrif á það hvernig nýir kennarar aðlagast kennarastarfinu og hvernig þeir meta eigin færni og þær aðstæður sem skólarnir bjóða þeim. Þýði rannsóknarinnar var kennarar á 1.–3. starfsári eða sem höfðu nýlokið þremur starfsárum. Rannsóknin var megindleg og var sami spurningalisti notaður, þýddur og staðfærður, í öllum þátttökulöndunum. Hér á landi var spurningalistinn sendur til 280 kennara, um þriðjungur starfaði í framhaldsskóla og tveir þriðju í grunnskóla. Niðurstöður eru byggðar á svörum 239 kennara, svarhlutfall var rúm 85%.Meginmarkmið þessarar greinar er að gefa innsýn í þann hluta niðurstaðnanna sem lýtur að leiðsögn nýliða í grunn- og framhaldsskólum á Íslandi. Skoðað er hvernig henni er háttað á fyrsta starfsári og hvort tengsl eru milli formlegrar leiðsagnar, tíðni funda með leiðsagnarkennara og mats nýliða á gagnsemi leiðsagnarinnar.Helstu niðurstöður eru þær að leiðsögn hefur áhrif á starfshætti og líðan nýliða ef hún er veitt af kennara sem hefur svipaðan faglegan grunn og nýliðinn og ef þeir funda reglulega saman á leiðsagnartíma. Um þriðjungur þátttakenda hafði hugleitt að hætta í starfi en aðeins tíundi hluti þeirra hafði þó leitað sér að öðru starfi. Ekki voru tengsl milli hugleiðinga þeirra um brotthvarf og þess stuðnings sem þeir fengu í starfi.

Perspectives on Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice in Education in Four Nordic Countries

The article addresses some fundamental values in education and their implications in the Nordic countries, such as equity, democracy, social justice and inclusion, while its main aim is to introduce and discuss main findings from case studies in pre-, compulsory and upper secondary schools that are part of the Nordic research project; Learning Spaces for Inclusion and Social Justice: Success Stories from Immigrant Students and School Communities in Four Nordic Countries. The aims of the research were to 1) to understand and learn from the experiences of immigrant students and children who have succeeded academically and socially; and 2) explore and understand how social justice is implemented in equitable and successful diverse Nordic school contexts and other learning spaces. The research is grounded within theories of critical multicultural education and culturally responsive pedagogy. Findings reveal a variety of successful educational practices on all three school levels while some challenges also exist.

Mediation, Collaborative Learning and Trust in Norwegian School Governing: Synthesis from a Nordic Research Project

This paper analyses productive patterns through which school superintendents and subordinated principals collaborate at the local levels of implementation in the Nordic countries. The underlying theoretical premise is that the school governance systems in the Nordic countries, as a function of strengthened state steering and a variety of local political conditions, entail a series of loose couplings—described by the broken chain metaphor. The analysis is based on a review of findings from a comparative Nordic research project. The review reveals that school superintendents and principals to a large extent activate professional learning forums as integration mechanism—to make collective sense of ambiguous national reforms. Important learning conditions that emerge from the country reports, on which the reviewed research is based, seem to cluster and cohere around learning climate, interpersonal trust, leadership support and a shared knowledge base between the school leaders and the municipal apparatus. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

External Control and Professional Trust in Norwegian School Governing: Synthesis from a Nordic Research Project

External Control and Professional Trust in Norwegian School Governing: Synthesis from a Nordic Research Project

Dølvik, Jon Erik, Tone Fløtten, Jon M. Hippe & Bård Jordfald (2014): “The Nordic Model Towards 2030. A New Chapter?” Fafo-rapport 2014:16.

Dolvik, Jon Erik, Tone Flotten, Jon M. Hippe & Bard Jordfald (2014): Nordic Model Towards 2030. A New Chapter? Fafo-rapport 2014:16.1The Nordic model seems to be a familiar and well-defined concept today, yet we can find diverse interpretations of this famous model. For many, it refers to some kind of normative and idealized picture of a good society, uniting economic efficiency and social equity in the best possible way. For some scholars and politicians, it is rather an analytical tool to summarize the common characteristics of the economic, social, and political developments in five countries in the North of Europe. And for some researchers, it is difficult to find only a single Nordic model, and therefore they prefer to use the plural, that is, five different Nordic models, which however share some basic commonalities. Needless to say, all standpoints can be defended, and it depends on the type of approach in question which alternative is chosen. In the present, more analytical context, the common characteristics of the model are emphasized, although also differences between the Nordic countries are taken into account in many connections.The publication, entitled Nordic model towards 2030. A new Chapter?, is based on the work of a Nordic research project that has highlighted how national and international developments have affected the Nordic countries, how the challenges have been met, and what is to be expected in the future. In particular, the project is closely connected with the labor movement, and in addition to the analysis, the report identifies main challenges to the Nordic labor movement. In this review, the emphasis will be on the more analytical part of the publication. The publication is the project's final report, summarizing the results and insights from the 17 subreports of the so-called NordMod project. These subreports, including many reports in English, are also interesting to read.Since NordMod2030 tries to identify the evolution, current difficulties, and future challenges of the Nordic model as a whole, issues relating to the working life are not alone at the center of the analysis. However, these issues form one of the three basic pillars of the model, as understood in the research project, and are connected to the other pillars in a systematic way. Thus, we find macro-economic governance, organized working life, and extensive welfare systems as the three basic pillars of the Nordic model. Strong institutions have laid the basis for coordination between different policy fields in which cooperation between the social partners and political authorities has played a central role. Moreover, crises and conflicts in working life and politics have often been tackled through broad compromise. This is what the authors call conflict partnership, giving as a key to understanding the historical evolution of the Nordic model. From this perspective we should estimate how these five countries have managed to adapt to external changes and crisis, and how they have been able to invest in long-term human resources development and social security. According to the authors, they have managed to reconcile efficiency and equity to a greater extent than other European countries. The three pillars or cornerstones of the model form, in turn, the analytical background from which to study the developments, challenges, and crises of the five countries, in particular in 1990 to 2014 and in the future.On the basis of this framework follow the questions, which are perhaps not quite clearly formulated in the publication but are anyway dealt with: has this triangle model survived through various crises, and will it survive in the future-and in which form?The main part of the report consists of what the authors name as a status analysis, summarizing developments in 1990 to 2014 under the topic Crises, consolidation and renewal. However, this is actually not a proper crises analysis, since even if many problems and crises are outlined, the responses to the new problems rather than explanations of the crisis form the focus of the study. …

Nordic adolescents’ school lunch patterns and their suggestions for making healthy choices at school easier

This article examines Nordic adolescents’ school lunch patterns and their perceptions of how making healthy choices at school could be easier. Analysis is based on a quantitative data-set collected between 2006 and 2007 as part of a Nordic research project. The sample of 1539 respondents consisted of 14–17year old adolescents from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. The number of adolescents regularly eating either a packed lunch or a hot school lunch differed between countries and statistically significant differences were found between girls’ and boys’ school lunch patterns in the Swedish and Finnish data. Results suggest that adolescents have an understanding of what is healthy, but that school resources do not always support their ability to make healthy choices. Adolescents’ own suggestions for improvement imply that more attention should be paid to building a healthy school food environment. An important future challenge is trying to involve school health care personnel and aligning classroom activities more coherently with adolescents’ eating patterns during the school day.

Fire safety assessment of wooden facades

AbstractThe fire behaviour of wooden facades in multi‐storey houses has been studied in a Nordic research project on the fire safety of timber framed buildings. Two different fire scenarios were considered: a relatively small ignition source outside the building and a post‐flashover compartment fire. The scenarios correspond to potential fire situations in sprinklered and unsprinklered houses, respectively.Fire tests of wooden facades with different cladding materials, surface treatments and structures were performed on intermediate and large scales. In the case of an external fire, the most efficient way to prevent the propagation of flames to the upper storeys of the facade is the structural modification of the facade profile, i.e. cantilevers and oriels. Particular care should be taken so that the protrusion is of sufficient depth and width and that its front and lower surfaces are non‐combustible. Using fire retardant treatment, the flame spread can be considerably delayed or even halted. Acceptance criteria for the facades of sprinklered and unsprinklered multi‐storey buildings are suggested based on the test series. Similar principles can be applied when defining criteria for various test arrangements and fire scenarios. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Saqqaq housing and settlement in southern Disko Bay, West Greenland

In 1995 and 1996 archaeological investigations were carried out by a joint Nordic research project in the southern Disko Bay area, West Greenland. The project focussed on Paleo‐Eskimo spatial organization, particularly the arrangements of dwelling structures. This paper presents some results from surveys and excavations of Saqqaq sites, and discusses issues related to Paleo‐Eskimo house forms and settlement organization. It is argued that considerable changes in housing and settlement patterns took place in West Greenland ca. 1700–1600 BC.

English in contact with "the most difficult language in the world": the linguistic Situation of Americans living in Finland

Several aspects of the language use of Americans living in Finland, of second-language learning, and offirst-language maintenance are discussed. Most of this discussion is based on the results obtained in a joint Nordic research project called Development of Immigrant Languages in the Nordic Region. First, a brief outline of the project, the group under study — Americans in Helsinki — and its language-use pattern is given. Second, the linguistic climate, for example the significance of Finnish and English, in Finland is described. The third section deals with Americans' second-language-learning opportunities, both in and outside the classroom. In the fourth section, the informants' reports of changes in their mother tongue are analyzed and commented on. Finally, the main results of two followup studies on Americans in Finland are described briefly.

Climate change scenarios for the Nordic countries

CR Climate Research Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials CR 05:181-195 (1995) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/cr005181 Climate change scenarios for the Nordic countries Jóhannesson T, Jónsson T, Källén E, Kaas E A climate change scenario for the Nordic countries has been defined for application in hydrological models in the Nordic research project 'Climate Change and Energy Production'. The scenario is based on a subjective evaluation of several recent results from global coupled atmosphere and ocean general circulation models (GCMs) and on a statistical downscaling of the model results. The scenario specifies a warming rate which ranges from 0.3*C per decade for Iceland and the Faeroe Islands to 0.45*C per decade for eastern Finland and the northernmost parts of Sweden. There are marked seasonal and regional differences in the warming rate. Summer warming is relatively uniform over the area, ranging from 0.25*C per decade in Iceland and the Faeroe Islands to 0.3*C per decade in Finland. Winter warming is more variable, ranging from 0.35*C per decade in the North Atlantic area to 0.6*C per decade in Finland. Precipitation is increased by 3 to 6% per degree of warming, yielding an increase ranging from 1% per decade during the summer season in Finland, Sweden and eastern Norway to 2.5% per decade during the winter season in western Norway. Climate in the Nordic countries is characterized by low-frequency natural variability on decadal time scales which is thought to be partly driven by changes in the thermohaline circulation of the North Atlantic. Future behaviour of the North Atlantic ocean circulation is highly uncertain, and model predictions of climate development in this part of the world are perhaps more difficult than for most other regions. Other sources of uncertainty in GCM model computations apply to the North Atlantic region as well as to other regions of the world, e.g. coarse model resolution, somewhat arbitrary coupling of the ocean and the atmosphere and uncertain parameterizations of clouds and precipitation. In view of these difficulties, the scenario must be considered an extremely uncertain, although plausible, description of what might happen in the future rather than a prediction of what most likely will happen. Climate scenarios · Nordic countries · Downscaling Full text in pdf format NextExport citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in CR Vol. 05, No. 3. Publication date: December 07, 1995 Print ISSN: 0936-577X; Online ISSN: 1616-1572 Copyright © 1995 Inter-Research.

Elderly Women in the Nordic Countries; Level of Living and Situation in Life

A joint Nordic research project aiming to obtain more knowledge about the situation of elderly women, has been funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers and the authorities in each participating country (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden). In essence and practice, the project is testing to what extent gender is a fruitful element in gerontological research, and whether high age as a topic can contribute to a better understanding of women's situation. In other words, the project integrates two academic traditions; feminist research and gerontological research, thus creating feminist gerontology as a field of study. Analysing the data of Nordic level of living surveys, the research group studies the variations in "Norden" in the situation regarding of elderly women the following topics: family pattern, resources of social contact and care, morbidity and infirmity, education, work, material and economic resources and fear of violence. The study also includes a description of the demographic development in "Norden".

Abuse and neglect of the elderly--a Nordic perspective report from a Nordic research project.

This article describes how abuse and neglect of the elderly was made an issue for research in a Nordic perspective. The Council of Nordic Ministers funded a cooperation between Nordic researchers on the issue of abuse of the elderly, based on a Norwegian initiative in 1988. The aim was to establish a base of knowledge in order to recommend social and political measures for each country. The researchers were chosen from the disciplines of social work, social anthropology, sociology, nursing sciences and medicine. Interested researchers were hard to find in Iceland and Denmark. Important results are on a theoretical level the discussion and perspectives on the definition of "family", "violence" and "elderly". On the practical level the results reveal that between 8% and 17% of a random population sample in Denmark, Sweden and Finland knew about elderly people being abused in their homes. Between 1 and 8% of elderly people living in their homes are being abused by their close kin, according to either the old people themselves or as reported by home nurses. In one of the Swedish projects 12% of close family members, being responsible for the care of a demented, mostly spouse or parent, admitted abuse towards the demented person. Swedish home nurses described the difficulties in intervening into the abusive families.

Integration of satellite remote sensing in a forestry oriented gis

Satellite remote sensing has long been understood as a potentially efficient tool for forest management planning. In order to accelerate the integration of these two techniques, a major Nordic research project was launched in 1986. Research teams from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden cooperated in the project, which was coordinated by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and financially supported by The Nordic Forest Research Cooperation Committee (SNS). The results of the research project are being published as four separate articles in the Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research. In this issue, the work done at the Remote Sensing Laboratory of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences is reported. A Geo Information System called IRR is defined and implemented as a solution to the problem of integrating satellite remote sensing in a GIS. IRR is the Swedish abbreviation for “interactive editing of raster data”;. A special characteristic of the IRR is that satellite images, maps and ver...

SPOT data in the digital mapping of Danish forests

Satellite remote sensing has long been understood as a potentially efficient tool for forest management planning. In order to accelerate the integration of these two techniques, a major Nordic research project was launched in 1986. Research teams from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden cooperated in the project which was coordinated by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and financially supported by Samarbetsnämn‐den for Nordisk Skogsforskning. The results of the research project are being published as four separate articles in the Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research. In this issue, the work done at the Bureau of Land Data and the Forest and Nature Agency in Denmark is reported. Two images from the SPOT‐1 satellite have been analyzed. The separability of forest tree species in closed stands is investigated. A new classification method is presented, and test classifications with special emphasis on forest stands are made, using varying level of thematic aggregation. Mapping accuracies between 90 and 99% were found. Regeneration areas presented classification problems, and could not be mapped reliably. The use of auxiliary data, such as existing forest boundaries, may alleviate this problem. Preliminary tests on the use of image texture as auxiliary information showed promising results. Transfer of boundary lines from classification results to a GIS system was tested, and clarified the need for integration of image‐ and digital map data, in order to utilize the image data most efficiently in forest management planning.

The Nordkalott‐Nordqua symposium 1987

The results from a Nordic research project on Quaternary geology, entitled the Nordkalott project, were presented at a symposium in northern Sweden in 1987. Organic deposits and tills in northern Fennoscandia are interpreted as belonging to the Eemian as well as to interstadials and stades of the Weichselian. Retreat of the ice front under cold climatic conditions has been assumed for parts of northern Norway. Ice‐dammed lakes formed during the deglaciation period are described from northern Finland. Boreas, Vol. 17, no. 4, consists of articles based on the symposium contributions.