Schools In Norway Research Articles

Empowering professionalism in mission-oriented innovation

Abstract In the literature on mission-oriented innovation supply side and tech-oriented approaches have been complemented by broader and more inclusive societal approaches. Here, it is highlighted that both directionality and broad anchoring of diverse stakeholders across private, public, and civic domains are key to successful implementation. Still, it is unclear how these dimensions relate and unfold in practice. Using digital literacy in education as an example of mission-oriented innovation, this paper investigates what prerequisites and capabilities are needed to envision and govern such processes. Based upon a case study of innovative teaching practices in twenty-five classes at ten primary schools in Norway, the paper finds that the motivation, dedication, and engagement of the teachers is not primarily related to the digital technologies themselves, but to the professional and pedagogical anchoring of the digital teaching tools. The mobilization of the professionalism of the teachers is enabled by a process of balanced empowerment.

Being Able to Stay or Learning to Stay: a Study of Rural Boys\u2019 Educational Orientations and Transitions

This study explores the influence of geographical location on young pupils’ educational orientations and their transition from lower to upper secondary school; it pays particular attention to the voices of male youths from a rural area. More specifically, it investigates the interplay between gender and geographical contexts and the significance of these factors in understanding the processes associated with educational orientations. Margaret Archer’s framework is used to analyse how pupils’ agency is constrained and/or enabled by objective structures. The data material consists of qualitative interviews with 18 pupils transitioning from lower to upper secondary school in Norway. Each of the pupils was interviewed twice: first when they were in their last year of lower secondary education, and then during their first year of upper secondary education. The findings show that pupils consider geographical locations when making decisions about further education and work. In addition, they believe that education beyond compulsory schooling benefits their life in the rural areas. However, unlike their urban counterparts, pupils from rural areas appear to have a more constraining transition to upper secondary education. Through the analyses in this article, it becomes clear that both geographical location and gender are key factors for understanding processes connected to education.

Modelling suggests limited change in the reproduction number from reopening Norwegian kindergartens and schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To suppress the COVID-19 outbreak, the Norwegian government closed all schools on March 13, 2020. The kindergartens reopened on April 20, and the schools on April 27 and May 11 of 2020. The effect of these measures is largely unknown since the role of children in the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is still unclear. There are only a few studies of school closures as a separate intervention to other social distancing measures, and little research exists on the effect of school opening during a pandemic. This study aimed to model the effect of opening kindergartens and the schools in Norway in terms of a change in the reproduction number (R). A secondary objective was to assess if we can use the estimated R after school openings to infer the rates of transmission between children in schools. We used an individual-based model (IBM) to assess the reopening of kindergartens and schools in two Norwegian cities, Oslo, the Norwegian capital, with a population of approximately 680 000, and Tromsø, which is the largest city in Northern Norway, with a population of approximately 75 000. The model uses demographic information and detailed data about the schools in both cities. We carried out an ensemble study to obtain robust results in spite of the considerable uncertainty that remains about the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. We found that reopening of Norwegian kindergartens and schools are associated with a change in R of 0.10 (95%CI 0.04-0.16) and 0.14 (95%CI 0.01-0.25) in the two cities under investigation if the in-school transmission rates for the SARS-CoV-2 virus are equal to what has previously been estimated for influenza pandemics. We found only a limited effect of reopening schools on the reproduction number, and we expect the same to hold true in other countries where nonpharmaceutical interventions have suppressed the pandemic. Consequently, current R-estimates are insufficiently accurate for determining the transmission rates in schools. For countries that have closed schools, planned interventions, such as the opening of selected schools, can be useful to infer general knowledge about children-to-children transmission of SARS-CoV-2.

Knowledge development in the teaching profession: an interview study of collective knowledge processes in primary schools in Norway

ABSTRACT This study investigates teachers’ understanding of how conversations between colleagues can promote the development of knowledge. Its purpose is to supplement previous research in the field of knowledge processes in respect of conversation as an integral part of teachers’ everyday work. On the basis of interview data obtained from teachers in a Norwegian school context, the study concludes that conditions for knowledge development in conversations between colleagues exist because teachers set the agenda for their collaboration and they raise issues from their pedagogical practice and explore and challenge these in depth. Based on theoretical perspectives and international research in the field, it is argued that, despite the fact that teachers themselves are being challenged to take responsibility for knowledge development in the teaching profession through collective knowledge processes at a micro level in the school organisation, it will be important to have support structures at different levels of the educational system to prevent them from standing in a vacuum.

Taking action for social justice in HPE classrooms through explicit critical pedagogies

ABSTRACT Background : A focus on equity, democracy and social justice in HPE is pertinent in an era where there are growing concerns about the impact of neoliberal globalisation and precariousness of society (Kirk 2020). Although there is advocacy for teaching approaches in HPE that address issues of social justice, there is limited empirical research of teachers enacting critical pedagogies in HPE classrooms. Purpose : To identify school HPE teaching practices that promote social justice through practical enactment across three different participating countries. Participants and Setting : The investigation involved classroom observations of and post-lesson interviews with 13 purposively selected high school health and physical education teachers from three different countries. A total of 20 HPE lessons were observed. The participants included seven male and six female teachers ranging in age from 25 to 55 years with between 3- and 25-years teaching experience. The setting for data collection was compulsory co-educational practical HPE classes with 13-15-year-old students in four schools in New Zealand, four schools in Sweden and three schools in Norway. Data Collection and Analysis : This study employed Critical Incident Technique (CIT) methodology (Flanagan 1954), involving data collection through exploratory observations and stimulated-recall interviews (Lyle 2003). The classroom observations focused on identifying incidents that appeared to be addressing issues of social justice. The use of a multi-national observer team was a key principle of the study and was based on the proposition that local researchers familiar with context come with taken-for-granted assumptions about teachers’ practices. Data were analysed through a six-phase thematic analysis approach (Braun and Clarke 2013). This involved three stages: individually, collectively by the researchers in each country, and finally through the whole multi-national research team. Findings : The data analysis resulted in three primary themes; (1) relationships, (2) teaching for social cohesion, and (3) explicitly teaching about and acting on social inequities. This paper uses critical pedagogy as a lens to report on the third theme. In this paper, we present three subthemes; (1) Teaching as ‘equity not equality’, (2) promoting marginalised groups (3) and teacher critical reflection as examples of explicit critical pedagogies taking action for social justice in HPE. Conclusions/Implications : Although, the findings presented in this paper are examples of explicit teacher actions that aim to address social inequity, we suggest that teaching for social justice requires teachers to take action on social inequities and also to teach about social injustice to prepare students to become agents for change and act on social inequities themselves, beyond HPE.

Lower secondary school pupils’ written descriptions of their experiences with bullying and the tendency to seek help

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine lower secondary school students’ (n = 223) descriptions of bullying and their experiences with the phenomenon. Students at three schools in Norway completed a survey containing open-ended questions. We employed a mixed-methods analytical approach in which responses were coded thematically and then quantified. Findings indicate that students viewed bullying in a manner consistent with prevalent definitions in the literature. However, they were often unsure whether social conflicts they had experienced would be considered bullying. School was clearly featured as the primary arena for bullying, although bullying in free-time activities and on social media was also prevalent. Most students who had experienced bullying had told someone about it, usually their parents or teachers. Students who had not sought help did so for fear of exacerbating the problem or because they felt that they were not in a position to do so.

Comprehensive Contact Tracing, Testing and Sequencing Show Limited Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Between Children in Schools in Norway, August 2020 to May 2021

Background: The role of children in the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in schools has been a topic of controversy. We investigated transmission from children in comprehensive school contact-investigations and assessed whether these differed by age of the children and by viral variants.Methods: We prospectively followed school contacts of children with laboratory confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in Norway from August 2020 to May 2021. All participants were tested for SARS-CoV-2 twice during the 7–10 days follow-up period, using PCR on home-sampled saliva. Positive samples were whole genome sequenced to determine possible transmission.Findings: In 43 contact-investigations, 559 child contacts were tested, of which eight tested positive (1·4%, 95% CI 0·62–2·80). We found no significant difference between primary (1·0%, 95% CI 0·27–2·53) and secondary schools (2·6%, 95% CI 0·70–6·39), p=0·229, or between the period before (1·4%, 95% CI 0·50–2·94) and after (1·7%, 95% CI 0·21–5·99) the Alpha variant (B.1.1.7) was established in the study area (March 2021), p=0·665. Only one adult contact (1/100, 1·0%) tested positive. In 34 indexes, we detected 13 different SARS-CoV-2 Pango lineage variants with the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) being the most frequent. In the eight contact-investigations with SARS-CoV-2 positive contacts, four had the same SARS-CoV-2 sequence identity as the index, one had no relation, and three were inconclusive. Interpretation: We found limited spread of SARS-CoV-2 from children in schools even after rigorous contact tracing and testing of school contacts, including the more transmissible Alpha variant. Whole genome sequencing revealed high consistency in SARS-CoV-2 Pango lineages, but ruled out transmission in one contact-investigation. By excluding contact-investigations with adult cases known at the time of enrollment, our data provide a valid estimate on the role of children in transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in schools. Funding Information: Norwegian Institute of Public Health.Declaration of Interests: None of the authors declare competing interests.Ethics Approval Statement: The Regional Committees for Medical and Health Research Ethics in Norway approved the study (reference 151649). The study complies with the EU general data protection regulation (GDPR) requirements. Consent was obtained from all participants of 16 years or above, or from both parents for participants <16 years. In case of sole parental responsibility, a single consent was sufficient.

Structural, cultural and instructional predictors essential to sustained implementation fidelity in schools: The School-Wide Positive Behavior Support Model (SWPBS)

Optimal intervention effects require adequate implementation fidelity, and high sustained implementation fidelity is hypothesized a pre-requisite for long-term positive intervention effects. However, implementing interventions with high fidelity seems particularly difficult in schools. The purpose of the this prospective longitudinal study was to add to the current knowledge by testing the predictive effects of school structural, cultural, instructional and community-level factors to longer-term fidelity in a sample of 65 representative primary schools in Norway (Grades 1–7) implementing the evidence-based School-Wide Positive Behavior Support model (SWPBS). Results from the Automatic Linear Modeling analysis which included more than 300 predictor variables, showed that the 10 most important predictors were all related to the schools inner context, in particular to the cultural characteristics of the schools, teachers' disciplinary practices, and prior fidelity. The findings are discussed in relation to prior and future research, and practical implications are coined.

Learning environment and social inclusion for newly arrived migrant children placed in separate programmes in elementary schools in Norway

Global migration has led to increasing numbers of children encountering schools as newcomers in their new countries. Statistics reveal that large groups of migrant children tend to perform poorly a...

In pursuit of intercultural competence: Exploring self-awareness of EFL pupils in a lower-secondary school in Norway

This paper focuses on self-awareness as an integral component of intercultural competence (IC) in the English as a foreign language (EFL) context. For the purposes of this study, an EPortfolio of Intercultural Competence (EPIC) was developed by the researcher and employed during an intervention as a series of tasks and reflection prompts through various forms of media (written texts, drawings etc.). Triangulated qualitative data (in the form of EPIC entries and focus group interviews) were gathered from 56 participants, aged 14-15. The findings indicate that supporting pupils in raising their self-awareness may lead to deeper reflection on the Self as being multiple, which in turn may lead to the recognition of “multiple selves” of others (Rivers &amp; Houghton, 2013, p. 2). The study contributes to the pool of research studying IC and grants insights into how an eportfolio approach might be integrated into EFL secondary teaching by encouraging learners to enrich their understanding of the Self through their reflections on EPIC tasks and classroom activities.

Integrating Contemporary Art in the PYP IB Curriculum to Open Dialogues About Cultural Diversity in Norway

What does it mean to open dialogues about cultural diversity using art in an international school in Norway? In the context of a changing Europe, cultural prejudices, sense of otherness as well as cultural and language barriers represent a challenge for educators. That is why, placing a special focus on progressive education, literacy and the humanities are key to designing a student-centered International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum which is also inspired by the United Nations Sustainable Goals. What makes Norway’s private schools unique in comparison to other private schools that implement the IB curriculum is that a state-approved private school is 85% publicly financed. Within this context, Fagerhaug International School (in the region of Trondelag), has welcomed students coming from a wide variety of cultural and social backgrounds worldwide, and used art as a subject to integrate dissimilar cultures by opening dialogues about global issues, such as immigration. This means that many students in Norway can have access to quality public education within a multicultural environment whereby the community is enriched. The school can act as a cultural and political institution open to addressing local and global challenges to help shape a comprehensive model of the society. In this paper, three case studies are analyzed by using the theoretical approach of Diversity Pedagogy (Hernández Sheet, 2005) along with themes from theories related to democratic education (Freire, 2005). The article discusses the role of contemporary art in the teaching-learning process of art as a subject within Scandinavian socialism in the context of evolving Europe.

Leadership in low- and underperforming schools—two contrasting Scandinavian cases

ABSTRACT In this paper, we investigate how professional cultures and situated, material and external contexts relate to dynamic low- and underperforming schools in Scandinavia, particularly how the leadership is constructed through the leader, the followers and the situation. The first school studied was a low-performing school in Norway called ‘Toppen’, which has shown improved student outcomes. The other school, Seaside, is a Swedish school that is considered underperforming because student outcomes are lower than expected based on the contextual prerequisites. Our results show that Toppen can be described as a turnaround school and Seaside can be described as a cruising school. Analysis reveals that, at Toppen, the principal has been developing a culture that can be described in terms of community and motivation. At Seaside, on the other hand, the culture can be described in terms of individuality and conservatism. From this analysis, we can detect how different contexts impact two low- and underperforming schools and how they are affected by different prerequisites linked to the situated, material, external and professional contexts. However, the development of a collective professional culture with a shared sense of commitment seems to be an important tool to plan and communicate organizational improvement strategies.

The practice of assessing Norwegian and English language proficiency in multilingual elementary school classrooms in Norway

ABSTRACT The increasing representation of young language-minority students in school settings around the world and recent insights into multilingualism as apotential reggsource for language learning and development call for acritical study of theoretical and practical implications for the field of language teaching and assessment. Relatively little attention has been devoted to exploring the assessment of very young students’ language proficiency in the context of multilingualism. The current study explores the role of multilingualism in language assessment in the Norwegian school context Table 1. The study is based on teachers’ perceptions and practices as regards the way centrally and locally mandated language assessment is carried out in EFL and Norwegian (language arts) in amultilingual elementary school in Norway. The results of the study identify factors that impact on the enactment of language assessment at the beginner level and the assumptions underlying these practices. The paper contributes to our understanding of issues of validity and social consequences in connection with assessment in amultilingual education environment.

The role of school identification and self-efficacy in school satisfaction among Norwegian high-school students

School satisfaction is a key indicator of education quality in addition to academic achievement and student’s coping efficacy, as well as an important factor to prevent school dropout. The primary aim of this study was to investigate how high-school students’ school identification and self-efficacy were associated with school satisfaction. The study included controls for gender, education programme and parental education level. A self-report questionnaire was administered to high-school students at three upper secondary schools in Norway. The sample included 794 first year students. No respondents refrained from participating in the study. Most of the students in the study were satisfied with school. The current study underscores the importance of school identification. School identification was found to be more important for the students’ school satisfaction than self-efficacy. Moreover, according to the results, teachers’ social identity leadership appears to play an important role in students’ school satisfaction. The findings imply that the teachers’ social identity leadership is imperative in classroom management.

Perceptions of Contextual Stressors in Physical Education. A Qualitative Case Study

Background: Daily stressors have a significant impact on students' educational outcomes. However, research on students perceived and common contextual stressors in physical education (PE) lessons is limited.Purpose: To identify potential contextual stressors in PE contexts and what students perceive as stressors.Participants: Ninth-grade students (age 14-15) and their PE teachers recruited from three classes in one lower secondary school in Norway.Research Design: This qualitative case study used data generated from descriptive field notes from participant observations in PE lessons, formal interviews and informal conversations with PE teachers, focus group and individual interviews with students, and a supplementary survey using the TurningPoint student response system. Conversations were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006; Tolmie et al., 2011; Braun et al., 2019) and the NVivo 12 Pro analysis software. The survey was analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 21.Findings: This study supports and expands previous research exploring students' stressors in PE and highlights the volume and variety of potential stressors in PE contexts. The findings shed light on certain similarities and differences that may exist between students of different genders and grades and with different past physical activity experiences. In the present study, spectators, in addition to difficult tasks and low self-efficacy, seemed particularly stressful for girls. This article presents nuances revealed by various qualitative approaches and a supplementary survey.Conclusion: Students in this study experience a multitude of stressors during PE lessons. These include stressors in the teaching, physical, and social environments, as well as personal factors. The stressors experienced depend on the situation, the lesson content, the parties involved, students' past experiences, and their appraisal of these stressors. In our sample, girls seemed to be more vulnerable to contextual stressors in PE than boys.

The Factorial Validity of the Norwegian Version of the Multicomponent Training Distress Scale (MTDS-N).

Background: Athlete self-report measures (ASRM) are methods of athlete monitoring, which have gained considerable popularity in recent years. The Multicomponent Training Distress Scale (MTDS), consisting of 22 items, is a promising self-report measure to assess training distress among athletes. The present study aimed to investigate the factorial validity of the Norwegian version of MTDS (MTDS-N) among student-athletes (n = 632) attending the optional program subject “Top-Level Sports” in upper secondary schools in Norway. Methods: A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to assess the six-factor model proposed by Main and Grove (2009). McDonald’s omega (ω) along with confidence intervals (CIs) were used to estimate scale reliability. After examining the fit of the CFA model in the total sample, covariates were included to investigate group differences in latent variables of MTDS-N, resulting in the multiple indicators multiple causes (MIMIC) model. Further, direct paths between the covariates and the factor indicators were included in an extended MIMIC model to investigate whether responses to items differed between groups, resulting in differential item functioning (DIF). Results: When modification indices (MIs) were taken into consideration, the alternative CFA model revealed that MTDS-N is an acceptable psychometric tool with a good fit index. The factors in MTDS-N all constituted high scale reliability with McDonald’s ω ranging from 0.725–0.862. The results indicated statistically significant group differences in factor scores for gender, type of sport, hours of training per week, school program, and school level. Further, results showed that DIF occurred in 13 of the MTDS-N items. However, after assessing the MIMIC model and the extended MIMIC model, the factor structure remained unchanged, and the model fit remained within acceptable values. The student-athletes’ reports of training distress were moderate. Conclusion: The MTDS-N was found to be suitable for use in a Norwegian population to assess student-athletes’ training distress in a reliable manner. The indications of group effects suggest that caution should be used if one is interested in making group comparisons when the MTDS-N is used among student-athletes in Norway until further research is conducted.

Structural enablements and constraints in the creation and enactment of local content in Norwegian education

ABSTRACT In Norway, the national curriculum together with the Education Act serves as the foundation for teaching and learning in primary and secondary education and training. Local educational providers are given autonomy to develop local adaptations of the centrally given subject-specific curriculum competence aims. This article explores some structural enablements and constraints tied to teachers’ opportunities to make use of local content in curricula in lower secondary schools in Norway, including rural/urban differences. The analysis is based on data consisting of 18 qualitative interviews with teachers in two municipalities and participant observation in one of the municipalities in Northern Norway. The finding of this paper is that the design of the national curriculum allows for local content based on its competence aims. This serves as an enabler for teachers to create and enact local content in education. However, there are several constraints that limit local adaptation for teachers – time pressure, lack of access to content due to finances and distance and losing school control of local curriculum. Also, these constraints have a different impact depending on the geographical context. The article employs Margaret Archer’s theories on centralized and decentralized educational systems to analyse these structural enablements and constraints.

Teachers’ responses to children in emotional distress: A study of co-regulation in the first year of primary school in Norway

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to explore how first-grade teachers respond to pupils in emotional distress within the framework of co-regulation. Co-regulation in this context refers to an adult–child interactive process that supports children in learning to regulate their emotions. We conducted focus group interviews at four primary schools in southern Norway using video clips as prompts to initiate discussions about children’s emotions and teachers’ responses to them. Findings indicate that teachers’ use many of the skills indicative of co-regulation, such as providing affirmation of children’s emotions and modelling self-regulation. However, discussions within two of the focus groups were strongly dominated by attention to pragmatic solutions to resolve the conflicts as quickly as possible, which may reduce opportunities for co-regulation. This position poses a challenge with respect to the need for warm, trusting relationships based on an expectation that young pupils’ emotional needs will be met.

‘Even if you don’t care…you do care after all’: ‘Othering’ and physical education in Norway

In the past decade or more, improving young people’s mental health has been identified as a priority for policy-makers in many countries, including Norway. Physical education, as a setting for physical activity, is increasingly viewed as having a potentially significant role to play in addressing mental health among the young. This paper reports the findings from a study of 148 Norwegian youngsters (68 girls and 80 boys) from the 10th grade (15–16 years old) in eight secondary schools in Norway in 2017. It explores Norwegian youngsters’ experiences of physical education in relation to aspects of their mental health – specifically, being judged and, by extension, ‘othered’. The findings suggest that physical education may undoubtedly serve to generate positive feelings associated with physical activity and games and, in doing so, bolster some youngsters’ self-esteem and self-identities. On the other hand, however, for those less competent in sporting terms, and whose bodily self-image is not particularly positive, the public nature of physical education and the nature of the activities that constitute the subject can give rise to unplanned and unintended harm to some youngsters’ mental health – especially in countries, such as Norway, where sport is a significant aspect of the group habitus and collective ‘we-group’ identity.

Effects of school-based physical activity interventions on mental health in adolescents: The School in Motion cluster randomized controlled trial

PurposeTo investigate the effects of two school-based physical activity interventions on mental health in Norwegian adolescents. MethodsStudents from 29 lower secondary schools in Norway (n = 2084; 14–15 years; 49% female) were cluster-randomized into either a control group or one of two intervention groups (M1 and M2). Two interventions based on different theoretical frameworks aimed to increase physical activity in school by approximately 120 min per week, throughout a 29-week intervention period. M1 consisted of 30 min physically active learning, 30 min physical activity and one 60 min physical education lesson. M2 consisted of one physical education lesson and one physical activity lesson, both focusing on facilitating students’ interest, responsibility and social relationships. The self-report version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was used to assess mental health. Physical activity was measured by accelerometry. Linear mixed effects models were used to examine the effects of the interventions. ResultsNo effects were found for the overall study population. Interaction effects warranted subgroup analyses: M1 showed favorable results in the subgroup with the highest levels of psychological difficulties at baseline (b = −2.9; −5.73 to −0.07; p = .045) and in the immigrant subgroup (b = −1.6; −3.53 to 0.27; p = .093). M2 showed favorable results in the immigrant subgroup (b = −2.1; −4.36 to 0.21; p = .075). ConclusionsThe two interventions did not improve mental health in the full study population. However, results indicated beneficial effects among immigrants and those with poor mental health at baseline. More research is needed due to missing values and the results should therefore be interpreted with caution.