Norwegian Educational Policy Research Articles

Adapted education: the Norwegian pathway to inclusive and efficient education

Since the UNESCO conference in 1994, inclusion has been a major denominator in the educational debates of most OECD countries, focusing on how to facilitate education and social interaction for the diversity of pupils. By international standards, the Norwegian education system is regarded as inclusive, but the ongoing debate and political pressure in Norway on how to increase pupils' benefit of education, challenge this understanding. This article gives a historical account of Norwegian education policy to illustrate the way inclusive education has been understood over the years. Furthermore, it presents empirical evidence showing an increasing use of special education in Norway as a basis for discussing dilemmas of the current education reform, ‘Knowledge Promotion’. The last part of the article highlights the partly contradictory aims schools and teachers are given: the aims of increasing pupils' learning and of developing inclusive schools. The outcomes of the processes involved are closely related to the standards of educational policies, how these standards are implemented and the understanding of how to develop schools that take care of and respect the variety of pupils.

Governance through concepts: The OECD and the construction of “competence” in Norwegian education policy

This article investigates how Norwegian policy documents construct the term competence in relation to policy initiatives exerted by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Recent Norwegian policy documents partially redefined student and teacher competence so that the concepts became more individual and performance-oriented. This departed from previous policy documents. Thus, the author argues, the OECD not only governs through numbers and comparison, but also through what can be described as “governance through concepts.” Whereas evidence indicates that greater policy attention to outcomes and accountability, through policies directed at student and teacher competence, leads to increased student performance, researchers know less about whether such policies enhance opportunities for all studentsWeCD in the Field of Educations of education.ities for all students and whether there are reverse implications in terms of socia or whether there are reverse implications for social equality or the broader aims of education.

Formulation and realisation of evaluation policy: inconcistencies and problematic issues

The introduction of the national evaluation system in the Norwegian education system can be described as a shift in the Norwegian educational policy from the use of input oriented policy instruments towards a more output oriented policy. The new tool-kit consists of different evaluation tools, such as standardised tests, diagonistic tests etc. which create new expectations to schools and principals. On the one hand, this article focuses on the policy purposes of the evaluation tools as they are formulated in policy documents. On the other hand, it investigates principals’ perceptions of the use of the evaluation tools to improve student achievements. A text analytic approach focusing on language and discourse is used to analyse policy documents. The analysis of the principals’ perceptions is based on a quantitative analysis of survey data and Structural Equation Modeling is applied as an analytic technique. Based on the analysis, questions can be raised whether all the policy purposes can be fulfilled or whether the tools might produce other effects than the objectives assigned to them. Problematic aspects related to the tools’ modes of regulations and thereby the choice of tools are discussed, as well as inconsistencies between the policy purposes and the use of tools in practice.

Students with Learning Disabilities: An Update on Norwegian Educational Policy, Practice, and Research

A politically initiated shift in the conceptualization of learning disabilities (LD) is outlined, followed by an account of the consequences of the new perspective for the recognition of and services to LD students. The organization of the support system is described, including a survey of the services delivered and working methods. As another approach to examining the status of LD in Norway, a sampling of current research describes problems studied, methods of assessment, and intervention measures used. Some comments on the future situation for students with LD conclude the article.

Special education under the modernity. From restricted liberty, through organized modernity, to extended liberty and a plurality of practices

The philosophers of the Enlightenment formulated a set of new ideas and visions about access to knowledge and education for all citizens. The main discourse of modernity is linked to liberty, democracy and equality, but modernity is also an ambiguous project, characterized by an ongoing conflict between individual freedom and discipline. Modernity has been transformed through different phases and the related crises that have marked the transition between them. In this conflicting history the ideological and socio‐political conditions for special education during modernity is also described. The article uses examples from Norwegian special education policy and practice in describing and discussing developments and discourses in the field through different phases of modernity, from the early rise of the field within the frames of the charity institutions to the discourses on integration and inclusion in the latest decades.

EDUCATION POLICY, THE NORWEGIAN UNITARY SCHOOL AND THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF DISABILITY

Traditionally, the Norwegian modernization process has been presented as a success story that focuses on how social movements and democratized political institutions in the 19th and 20th centuries laid the foundations for a society and culture with an emphasis on social equality. The paper offers an alternative analysis of this process, based not on the issue of material equality and inequality, but on the concepts of normality and deviance. A comparison of the development of the Norwegian national education policy since the middle of the 19th century with the Danish and Swedish experiences involves the exclusion of the dissimilar as a distinct feature of the Norwegian policy. ‘Disability’ was constructed as a category of deviance by public policies and administrative and professional practice. The professions – particularly teachers and doctors – were important actors who offered alternative conceptions of normality and disability. However, the constructions that they selected were those that were in closest dialogue with the particular challenges confronted by the Norwegian modernisation process: first the liberal, then the social democratic construction. Because the national conditions confronting the Scandinavian modernization processes differed from each other, so did the related constructions of disability.

The Legitimacy of Critical Thinking

This essay examines the political-philosophical legitimacy of critical thinking as an aim of compulsory education. Although critical thinking is given an important role in Norwegian educational policy, the right to demand a critical attitude from all citizens has been extensively debated in political and pedagogical philosophy the last two decades. This debate stems in large part from the late work of John Rawls. In this essay, I start by stating the case for critical thinking as an educational aim, focusing on democratic education. Next, I give an account of the challenge that Rawls’ later philosophy puts to education for critical thinking. Finally, I discuss some possible ways of responding to the Rawls. The upshot will be that some aspects of critical thinking can and must be defended as politically legitimate. However, any such defence must include a reply to the Rawlsian argument – if not, it will simply be naive. In that sense, much Norwegian educational policy has been naive.

Norwegian Education Policy Rhetoric 1945‐2000: education philosophy in the political party platforms

Is education policy rhetoric in Norway after World War II dominated by continuity/stability or by a paradigm shift? This paper is based on the Norwegian party platforms presented prior to all parliamentary elections held every 4 years from 1945 to 1997. Using the platforms as sources offers excellent opportunities for comparisons as to particular periods and parties and the platforms function as reliable barometers of the political climate of contemporary history. The main findings of the paper are that even if the basic ideas of social democratic progressivism emphasising equality, solidarity and individual emancipation are carried forward into the 80s and 90s, there is a shift to the right emphasising freedom, competition, different alternatives and more consideration of the interests of business and industry. Hence the typical characteristic of the party platforms during the last two decades appears to be the wish to enjoy the best of both worlds.

Autonomy and Local Policies in Norwegian Educational Authorities

Abstract: Lindbekk, T. 1987. Autonomy and Local Policies in Norwegian Educational Authorities. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 31, 181‐190. The increasing local autonomy in Norwegian educational policy is analysed on the basis of the budgets for several municipalities. Rearranging the budget figures for three of the larger cities (1982), the author estimates an area for local ‘optional choice’ in the magnitude of 10 per cent of current expenses. Different expense profiles in these cities are pointed out, and the different solutions chosen in several parallel cases, indicating different educational ideologies. Looking into the ‘careers' of the 1700 cases treated by the three authorities in 1982, the author argues that the autonomy of the local authorities in relation to other authorities is great, and that the politicians have a stronger role in the decision‐making than is usually assumed.