Norwegian Educational System Research Articles

Current Trends in Norwegian Education Reform

The reform of the Ukrainian education system is one of the key tasks of modern national policy, as a result of which the issue of considering and borrowing positive foreign educational experience is updated, which determines the relevance of scientific research. The purpose of the work is to analyse and identify the characteristic features of the process of development and modernisation of the Norwegian educational system. In the study, the author used a number of general scientific theoretical research methods, in particular, the analysis and synthesis of scientific and methodological literature, and the comparison and generalisation of the developed source base. The paper deals with the problem of analysing the current educational reform in Norway. It was established that the country belongs to the leading developed countries in the field of educational policy, and its level is an important factor in intellectual, economic, social, scientific and technical, innovation, technological, and cultural development. The main reasons and consequences of reforming the Norwegian educational space are substantiated. The author’s vision of Norway s educational reform is presented. It was determined that focusing on the modern labour market, Norwegian education priorities today include: the ability to operate with innovative technologies and knowledge; a combination of conventional and alternative education, public and private; increasing the role and importance of education in the life of society, turning it into a real production and social force, the central connecting link of the system “science – technology – man – production – culture”. The practical value of the paper lies in the structural analysis of the Norwegian experience of reforming the educational system, which allows reviewing the problematic aspects of Ukrainian education and find relevant methods for solving them

When the first language feels like a second language: Challenges for learners of Norwegian Nynorsk

Norway has two official written language varieties: Bokmål (DanoNorwegian) and Nynorsk (New Norwegian). Normally, all Norwegian pupils must learn both varieties of the written Norwegian language in school, and at the end of secondary school, they obtain two separate grades in written Norwegian. However, one of the varieties is considered to be and is taught as the main written language, whereas the other variety is the second or alternative written language.
 Approximately 85 percent of the pupils in school have the DanoNorwegian variety as their main written language and many of these pupils develop antipathies toward the other variety with the result that they do not master it very well at the end of secondary school. In fact, many pupils achieve better results in English than in the alternative variety of their own so-called mother tongue.
 In this paper, I will discuss some of the challenges that are related to learning Nynorsk in the Norwegian educational system and society. With reference to Norton (2013) and others, I will argue that these challenges may actually be best understood from the perspectives of identity, social power, motivation, investment and second language acquisition.

Manifestations of Problematic Student Behaviour in Norwegian Schools: Individual and Inclusive Education System Perspective

Present research study overviews the manifestations of problematic teenage behaviour in the schools of Norway. In terms of problematic behaviour, a few aspects should be taken into consideration. First of all, it is important to define the problematic behaviour phenomenon. That is not an easy task, because not uncommonly, when analysing manifestations of problematic behaviour, links with emotional disorders are identified as well. In this manner it is almost impossible to separate the two, as well as to foresee the cause and effect relationship. That is why very commonly problematic behaviour ant emotional issues such as social isolation coexists together. Professionals working in Norwegian education system define problematic behaviour as a behaviour related to learning difficulties – that is inappropriate behaviour during classes causing various discipline disorders; provocative/aggressive behaviour, which manifests in physical and verbal attacks towards other individuals; social isolation and severe behavioural problems such as disregard of social norms and rules, stealing, harm-causing physical attacks, constant harassing, missing classes and vicious habits.
 Data used in this study was collected during Norwegian national project SPEED (2012–2016), which took place in 95 secondary schools in 16 municipalities and one of the authors master’s thesis was produced on the basis of collected data. During the study, 5–10 grade students and teachers were interviewed and main challenges concerning problematic behaviour in today’s education were characterized, as well as their relationship with social skill development. Analysed data created an opportunity to assess current situation focusing on prevention and individual problem solving method application approaches in individual and inclusive education system perspective, emphasising the relationship between those two. Furthermore, obtained data was compared with the results of prior research studies conducted in Norway, where the relationship between various forms of problematic behaviour and different social skills was previously shown.

Policy impact of PISA on mathematics education: the case of Norway

This article addresses the policy implications of participation in international large-scale assessments (ILSAs), particularly the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and the ways in which such implications might influence mathematics education. Taking Norway as a special case, this discussion focuses on insights into teaching, learning and assessment practices that can be inferred from the PISA study, and how participation in ILSAs has contributed to educational policy and even changed policymakers’ perspectives on schools, teachers and students. Following publication of the PISA 2000 results, Norway experienced a ‘PISA shock’, leading to the implementation of a national quality assessment system and national tests. In addition, changes were made to the mathematics curriculum for compulsory school and to mathematics teacher education. More recently, public debate has focused less on rank and league tables, shifting instead to the high number of low-achieving students and the low number of high achievers. Moreover, there has been little uptake of policy advice provided by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which focuses on strengthening accountability measures. Furthermore, although the Norwegian educational system in the past decade has undergone a decentralisation process, the educational system still follows the Nordic model, which focuses on equity and ‘education for all’. Analyses of the Norwegian case indicate that policymaking takes place in highly cultural contexts, and that international studies might be used merely to validate existing policy directions.

Formulace a realizace evaluační politiky: rozpory a problematické oblasti

In 2005, a national evaluation which includes tools such as standardised achievement tests, was introduced in the Norwegian education system. This 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. On the one hand, this article investigates the policy purposes of the evaluation tools included in the national evaluation system as they are formulated in policy documents. On the other hand, it examines how Norwegian principals, who are de!ned in policy documents as one of the key actors responsible for improving educational quality, perceive the use of the evaluation tools. Bringing these two !elds of inquiry together, attention is drawn to some problematic aspects related to the tools’ modes of regulations, but also to inconsistencies between the policy purposes and how the tools in use are perceived by the principals. Empirically, the study is restricted to recent changes in educational policy and school governing in Norway. In order to analyse evaluation policy, combination of content and discourse analysis is used. A national survey directed to school principals in Norway in 2005 provides data for the empirical study and Structural Equation Modeling is used to analyse the data.

Nova gestão pública na Noruega: o papel do contexto nacional na mediação da reforma educacional

RESUMO: Desde o final dos anos 1980, o sistema educacional norueguês passou por grandes reformas amplamente influenciadas pelas novas ideias gerencialistas. As estratégias para renovar o setor público foram promovidas com a nova gestão pública (NGP). Este artigo investiga a forma pela qual as ideias ligadas às reformas da NGP foram introduzidas e interpretadas no setor educacional norueguês. Com base em nossos estudos de documentos de políticas públicas selecionados, de um período que compreende as últimas duas décadas, identificamos três áreas de luta discursiva. A primeira está vinculada a ideologias e à história nacional de escolarização; a segunda está relacionada a assuntos debatidos no que tange ao profissionalismo docente e, a terceira, está associada às estratégias de modernização e melhoria da educação. Um argumento central é que as reformas da NGP mudaram de direção e foram aceleradas quando a Noruega foi listada entre os países com "baixo desempenho" de acordo com o Pisa e outros testes internacionais. A liderança e a responsabilização (accountability) se tornaram os temas dominantes no campo da educação norueguesa.

Interprofessional collaboration as a means of including children at risk: an analysis of Norwegian educational policy documents

Issues concerning interprofessional collaboration (IPC) for children at risk have become a priority globally as well as in Norway. By international standards, the Norwegian educational system is regarded as inclusive and collaborative in terms of the external services that support schools and pupils. However, a debate continues on how to best collaborate to meet the needs of pupils with complex problems. Thus, the aim of this paper is to analyse how the relationship between IPC and inclusive education is reflected in important Norwegian educational policy documents. A problem-driven content analysis revealed three categories: (1) inclusion as an impetus for IPC, (2) IPC as a strategy for inclusion, and (3) commitment to IPC when necessary. Major findings included: (1) IPC in national educational documents should be described more clearly to promote inclusive education; (2) IPC connected to other support mechanisms, such as multidisciplinary teams and individual plans; and (3) schools can commit IPC when necessary. The results in this study show that when green papers, white papers, and legislation fail to offer clear recommendations, schools and teachers may not prioritise IPC.

Social participation of students with special educational needs in different educational systems

Yearly data are collected describing progress in inclusive education. Frequently used criteria are the percentages of students attending special schooling or percentages of students officially labelled as having special educational needs (SEN). However, both criteria have pitfalls. In this study, the social participation of students was used as a criterion. We compared the social participation of students with SEN to the social participation of typically developing students in three countries, i.e. Norway, the Netherlands and the Flemish region of Belgium. In Norway, 37 seventh-grade students with SEN and 461 classmates; in the Netherlands, 29 seventh-grade students with SEN and 187 classmates; and in Flanders, 43 seventh-grade students with SEN and 469 classmates participated in this study. Peer nominations were used to assess students' peer acceptance in class. Results indicated that, across education systems, students with SEN had more social difficulties compared to typically developing students. Contrary to our initial expectations, the social participation of students with SEN in the more inclusive Norwegian education system did not outperform the social participation of the Dutch and Belgian students with SEN. However, these outcomes are an artefact of the sampling methods used. This confirms the complexity of international comparisons.

Notion in Motion: Teachers’ Digital Competence

The aim of this article is to shed critical light on the prevailing understanding of digital competence in schools and teacher education. There seems to be an emphasis on how to practice teaching with ICT throughout the Norwegian educational system. This article discusses and elaborates on the current approach, and argues for understanding digital competence from a broader perspective, by suggesting a framework for the notion of digital competence for teachers. This approach stresses teaching of, about, and with ICT.

Pragmatisme et efficacité

Bien que le systeme educatif norvegien releve principalement du service public, l’enseignement prive existe a tous les niveaux, depuis le primaire jusqu’a l’enseignement superieur. Le financement des secteurs public et prive de l’enseignement s’est relativement stabilise au fil des annees, meme si l’enseignement prive a l’ecole primaire demeure un sujet hautement controverse sur le plan politique. Dans l’enseignement superieur, l’accreditation des etablissements publics et prives repose sur les memes modalites, et l’enseignement superieur prive ne semble pas poser de probleme politique. De maniere generale, le financement est lie a des objectifs d’efficacite pour ce qui est de l’enseignement primaire et, de plus en plus, a des objectifs d’efficience en ce qui concerne l’enseignement superieur, la question de la qualite jouant, elle, un role mineur dans le systeme global de financement.

The practices of dealing with children with special needs in school: a Norwegian perspective

The article has two parts. Part one deals with some historical developments in the field of special education in Norway. There has been a change in formulated policy from a clearly segregated system, then integration and mainstreaming and now intentions about inclusion as an ideal. The second part is about children with behavioural difficulties and especially children diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorders) and how they are treated within the education system. Knowledge about these children’s situation is not very well developed or widespread in the Norwegian education system. The numbers of children with an ADHD diagnosis vary a lot between schools. Both diagnosis and treatment connected to ADHD have been highly controversial in Norway, as in many other countries. The gap between ideals and realities is a striking element in special education in Norway and also for these children. The inclusion criteria have not been met. The reasons for this are discussed.

Religion Education in Norway: Tension or Harmony between Human Rights and Christian Cultural Heritage?

Both research and public and scholarly debate on religious education (RE) in Norway have mostly revolved around the subject in primary and secondary school called Christianity, Religion and Ethics (KRL) (later renamed Religion, Philosophies of Life and Ethics, RLE), not least due to the criticisms raised by the UN’s Human Rights Committee in 2004 and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 2007 of the Norwegian model for RE in primary and secondary schools. The RE subject in upper secondary school, however, is hardly ever mentioned. The same applies to teacher education. This article therefore aims at providing some insight into how RE has developed in the Norwegian educational system overall, ranging from primary and secondary to upper secondary and including the different forms of teacher education.

Christianity as culture and religions as religions. An analysis of the core curriculum as framework for Norwegian RE

Religious education (RE) in Norwegian public schools has attracted much attention as a result of criticism from the UN’s Human Rights Committee in 2004 and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 2007. Due to the statement from the UN and the conviction in the ECHR, revisions have been made in the Education Act and the curriculum for RE. However, the core curriculum for primary and secondary schools and adult education introduced in 1993 has not been revised. The scope of the article is to analyse the core curriculum and show how this document constructs Christianity as culture and national heritage, leaving other religions as something ‘other’ in Norwegian society. The main argument is thus that the core curriculum provides a qualitative bias towards Christianity in the Norwegian educational system in general, and especially in RE.

Modernising education: New Public Management reform in the Norwegian education system

Since the end of the 1980s, the Norwegian education system has gone through major reform, influenced largely by new managerialist ideas. Strategies to renew the public sector were promoted as the new public management (NPM). This paper investigates the way ideas connected to NPM reforms have been introduced and interpreted in the Norwegian education sector. Based on our studies of selected policy documents from the last two decades, we have identified three areas of discursive struggle. The first one is linked to ideologies and the national history of schooling, the second to contested issues of teacher professionalism and the third is associated with strategies for modernising and improving education. A main argument is that NPM reforms changed direction and sped up when Norway was listed among the ‘lower-performing’ countries according to Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and other international tests. Leadership and accountability became the dominant themes in Norwegian education.

Utdanningssystemet – et symbolsk felt som klassifiserer mennesker og benevner verden

Artikkelen er en teoretisk drøfting av det norske utdanningssystemet som symbolsk felt og klassifikasjonssystem. Tema som reises er det norske utdanningssystemets utfordringer knyttet til en økendeflerkulturell sammensetning av elevgruppen, og er fundamentert i Lov av 1998 om grunnskolen og denvidaregåande opplæringa (heretter opplæringslova), som benyttes som eksempel på et system som klassifiserer og kategoriserer elever i norsk skole. Gjennomgang av loven viser at ulike elevgrupper jf. lovgrunnlaget har ulike rettigheter til språkopplæring på sine morsmål. Artikkelen drøfter lovgrunnlagetopp mot stortingsmeldinger som legger til grunn at inkludering skal være et grunnleggende prinsipp foralle i den norske skolen. Det samiske lovgrunnlaget i opplæringsloven presenteres som eksempel på etformelt, faglig og kulturelt «løft» i det norske utdanningssystemet, og det er utarbeidet egne samiskelæreplaner: «Kunnskapsløftet – samisk.» Artikkelen drøfter hvorvidt den samiske modellen kan fremståsom en konstruktiv brobygger og en foregangsmodell for andre språklige minoritetsgrupper i den norskeskolen. Artikkelen er teoretisk forankret i Bourdieu: Kapitalformene, felt og statens maktformer

Social inequalities, meta-awareness and literacy in mathematics education

Social inequalities are increasing within the Norwegian educational system, as in many parts of the world: educated parents tend to have educated children (Bakken 2004; Bourdieu 1995; Zevenbergen 2...

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.

Effects of the 2003 Quality Reform on Gender Gaps in Student Learning Outcomes in Norwegian Higher Education

In 2003, the Norwegian higher educational system was reformed. The reform, known as the 2003 Quality Reform, introduced changes in the teaching model and student assessment. The authors wished to study how these changes affected male and female students. Therefore, they addressed student learning outcomes, measured through examination results, with respect to gender. Analysis of 5,772,811 examinations from 1990 to 2009 revealed a switch in average performance, from men performing equally well or better than women to women performing better than men. However, greater male than female variability in performance did not change. The effect of gender persisted when controlling for age, subject, home municipality, and type of institution. Overall, women and older students seem to benefit from the changes introduced by the reform more than men and younger students.

Perspectives on Sámi Mathematics Education

The Sami are an indigenous people of the Arctic, and through a resolution of the United Nations, Norway is bound to take care of the Sami culture and language. Since 1987 the Sami have had their own curriculum, but they have no mathematics syllabus. In this paper we summarize the legal acts that take care of the Sami culture within the Norwegian educational system, and then discuss three examples of Sami mathematics, which can be part of a possible Sami mathematics syllabus. First, a unit of measurement is presented, second, a unique way of treating the ratios 2:1 and 1:2 is described, and finally the use of some Sami versus Norwegian geometry terms are exposed. The three examples are situated in relation to the Yup’ik Eskimo Mathematics in a Cultural Context (MCC), as described by Lipka, Webster, and Yanez (2005) and their contribution in this special issue of Interchange.

The rationality of large scale reforms: ‘Scandinavian neo-institutionalism’ as an example

What kind of tools are large scale reforms? What are they good for, what can they not achieve, and what are the costs and benefits of using large scale reforms? The aim of this article is to reflect on issues as these. The use of large scale reforms in the Norwegian Educational system will be the vehicle to illustrate the article’s theme. The uses of this example is warranted by the fact that that the educational system has been explicitly used as a venue for the modernisation by various governments throughout the twentieth century. The article uses literature from the “Scandinavian neo- institutionalism” as its theoretical lens. The main findings of the article are that except for structural reforms combined with growth, the instrument of reform is no guarantee for efficiency in obtaining change in education. The role of reform has clearly changed, from being a tool for modernity, to a tool of preservation. Central change from above is a strategy against which schools seems to have develop very good defence strategies. This does however not imply that reform is obsolete. Reforms do seem to have a potential for changing schools in the age of accountability.