Norwegian Education Research Articles

Verdier i formålsparagraf og minnematerialet etter 22. juli 2011

Many of the texts and drawings from spontaneous memorial places in the Oslo area in the days after the bombing of government buildings and the shooting and killing of young people on Utøya island on July 22nd 2011, are made by children. The main focus of this article is what values these memorial utterances show that children considered important and worth fighting for in the aftermath of this event. Love and togetherness, life and human worth were often in focus in these utterances – utterances that are closely related to central values in the objects clause («formålsparagrafen») of the Norwegian Education Act, such as love for one’s neighbour, respect for human worth, diversity and solidarity. But children’s memorial utterances also indicate that the very fight for these values sometimes puts the same values under pressure: in some texts and drawings the terrorist is dehumanised and deprived of his human worth. The article gives examples of and discusses these phenomena. The theoretical perspective used in the article is Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen’s grammar of western visual design.Nøkkelord: verdier, 22. juli, barns verdier, verdier i norsk skole, visuell meningsskaping

American and Norwegian education: A value comparison

American and Norwegian education: A value comparison

Norwegian Educational Reform and the Enhetsskole Idea

THE POST-WAR era in the Scandinavian countries has been one of intense preoccupation with fundamental questions of educational policies and practices, a concern reflected in extensive reform legislation on the one hand and large-scale research work and practical experimentation on the other. As a major aspect of the general social policy of the welfare state, this concern with educational matters has deep roots in the political history of these countries, having challenged the conscience and practical imagination of statesmen and educators alike for at least one hundred years. However, the accelerating rate of social and economic change in the post-war period as well as the inspiration of other European countries struggling with related problems have contributed to a well-nigh unprecedented interest in educational problems in Scandinavia today. Although a good deal of parallelism is apparent among the Scandinavian countries in the underlying educational and social-political philosophy as well as in the resulting practical efforts to evolve an educational system more consonant with the demands of a rapidly changing society, significant differences between them remain. Partly for this reason, and also in the interest of greater specificity of presentation, this article focuses on developments in Norway. It aims at sketching, against the background of the significant historical-social setting, the outline of the Norwegian educational system as it is now clearly emerging from the post-war process of fundamental educational reform. The idea of a unified or unitary educational system, symbolized by the term and ideal of the enhetsskole, to replace the dualistic character typical of most European educational systems until recently is a key concept and the dominant theme in Norwegian educational history since the latter part of the nineteenth century. And while this ideal generally has inspired educational reform movements in Europe for generations, as evidenced by the Einheitsschule idea, the 6cole unique movement, the drive for comprehensive schools, and the like, the general societal setting of Norway posed a special set of circumstances leading to somewhat unique practical interpretations and achievements. If it is assumed that a high degree of cultural-social homogeneity within a nation tends to encourage the development of a unified rather than a stratified type of educational system, Norway would seem to have been in a rather favored position. The fact that nearly the entire population belongs to the EvangelicalLutheran state church, the basic tenets and traditions of which form the core of

Comprehensive Education in Norway: A Developing System

the publication of a Norwegian educational yearbook intended to serve as a central work of reference on Norwegian education.* It is never easy to keep abreast of change in a rapidly developing educational system, and this well-edited volume fills a keenly felt gap. The first edition provides a general survey of the Norwegian educational scene in twenty-five articles, each written by an authority in the field. Future volumes will both keep this survey up-to-date and provide more detailed studies of particular aspects of education which seem from time to time to merit attention. A select bibliography of the most important government publications, circulars and instructions is included. Although this is useful, the selection has perhaps been too sparing, and a case could be made for a fuller list, in which the most important documents might be indicated either by asterisk or by bold type. Every aspect of Norwegian education is given authoritative, if brief coverage. There are sections -most including several separate articles-devoted to school administration, elementary education and special schools, secondary education and folk high schools, vocational schools and training, universities and other higher institutions, teacher-training, school building, education committees, research and methods and teachers' qualifications and conditions. Perhaps most interesting to the British reader is the material on the development of comprehensive education in Norway. The framework of the 1959 Folkeskole Law embraces both the old seven-year folkeskole and the developing comprehensive school, originally pioneered on an experimental basis in schools administered under the Law concerning Experiment in the School (Lov om forsek i skolen, 8 July 1954). A series of research reports has plotted progress and a new normal plan (instructions on syllabus and methods) has been produced in two successive forms. The Norwegian comprehensive school provides 9 years of compulsory education from the age of 7 to 16. The master pattern divides this period of schooling into six years of barneskole (lit. child-school), followed by three years of ungdomsskole (lit. youth-school.)t, but the 9-year school is regarded in the Norwegian mind as essentially one school. Exigencies of accommodation or difficulties of transport may divide it between buildings, and in any case several barneskoler will commonly feed one ungdomsskole; but there is felt to be a real unity of spirit, and the whole structure is regarded as a unified common school or comprehensive school.

The Teaching of English as a Foreign Language under Norwegian Educational Reform

The Teaching of English as a Foreign Language under Norwegian Educational Reform

The Teaching of English as a Foreign Language Under Norwegian Educational Reform

The Teaching of English as a Foreign Language Under Norwegian Educational Reform

Ends and Means in Norwegian Educational Reform

velop and has actively recognized and accepted its international role in the community of nations, as its membership in the UN, and NATO, and desired membership in the Common Market will attest. Third, and most relevant, while Norway represents a nation strongly committed to ideals of individual dignity and human freedom, it has embarked on a program of controlled planning by government to achieve its goals of political and economic democracy-an exceedingly important fact in a democratic state in which people make political decisions affecting policy. Finally, the Norwegian educational system is being reconstructed, and the manner in which these reforms are being effected in itself offers a fascinating study in the dynamics of social change. When one considers educational reform, one must look not only at what a country is changing to but also from. The thinking which seems to have pervaded secondary education in the past has been an essentialist approach based on the old Platonic idea of education of the leaders to govern. It has m ant basically intellectual studies, screening examinations, a set standard, and limited opportunity to move ahead socially and educationally-a philosophy which seems peculiarly unsuited to modern Norway's professed aims and ideals. As in many countries, Norway is in the stream of educational reform and seems to have been

An Outline of Norwegian Education

An Outline of Norwegian Education

The Norwegian System of Public Secondary Education

The purpose of this article is to describe some aspects of the system of public education in Norway with special attention to the secondary school system. In 1935 the writer had the privilege of spending three months in the Scandinavian countries, and he believes that other persons in education will be interested in some results of his observation and study. This description will be limited to Norwegian education, although the salient features of the educational systems of the three kindred countries-Norway, Sweden, and Denmark-are much the same.