Showing papers in "Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy in 2017"

Mentorship – a pedagogical method for integration of theory and practice in higher education

Abstract: Mentorship is a method that is used in both professional education and training and inworking life to introduce new employees. Previous research has shown that there is limitedexperience of mentors ...

Investigative modes in research on data use in education

Abstract: This article reports on the findings from a literature review of research on data use in education published in English, German and Scandinavian languages The review is inspired by methods for systematic mapping The analysis illustrates how the characteristics of the total corpus of 129 articles on data use in education vary across different contexts, countries and regions In all contexts, the studies primarily investigate structures and systems around data use While the Anglophone studies are mainly empirical and often concerned with implementation and effectiveness in terms of data use, the studies published in German and Scandinavian languages focus more heavily on discussions and analytical reflections upon the developments of data use in education Six investigative modes of studies on data use that can contribute to creating a more nuanced understanding of research on data use in education are identified, presented and discussed

In the grey zone: large-scale assessment-based activities betwixt and between policy, research and practice

Abstract: This paper elaborates on a systematic research review containing 11,000 articles on international large-scale assessment (ILSA) research. Several activities operating under the ‘formal radar’ of science and governmental policy are observed, which we analytically name ‘grey zone’ activities. These activities are historicised, presented and discussed. An analytical division into three different reasons for performing the activities is made: an entrepreneurial policy reason, an entrepreneurial profitable reason and an appurtenance reason. This division highlights some of the actors in the educational grey zone. The paper is theoretical and elaborative, and contains examples of the activities that can be found in a grey zone.

Using school websites for home : school communication and parental involvement?

Abstract: This paper reports a small-scale study on the websites of 12 K-9 schools from four municipalities in Sweden. The purpose of the study is to explore, describe, and compare what and how information r ...

Influential factors behind parents’ general satisfaction with compulsory schools in Iceland

Abstract: Parents’ experiences and satisfaction with their child’s compulsory school are affected by several factors. Some, such as parents’ education and marital status, are social factors, while others are school factors that local leaders and school personnel can address. Findings build on data from an online questionnaire to parents in 20 compulsory schools in Iceland (n = 2129). Factor analysis generated two factors: communication and teaching. These, together with a question on parents’ overall satisfaction with the school, were used as outcome variables in a regression analysis exploring what influences parents’ satisfaction with the school. The majority of parents were satisfied, which may make it is easy to overlook those who are dissatisfied. Parents who felt that their children had special needs that were not acknowledged in school were more likely to be dissatisfied than other parents. Educational background was also influential. Single mothers were overrepresented in the group of unsatisfied pa...

National testing data in Norwegian Classrooms: a tool to improve pupil performance?

Abstract: This paper considers teachers’ use of data from national school tests. These national tests are part of the Norwegian top-down accountability school system. According to official regulations, teachers have to use the test results to improve learning outcomes even if the test system is not able to deliver necessary data. However, previous research has shown that teachers apply teaching-to-test strategies. The focus of this paper is twofold. First, we ask, ‘How do teachers perceive and interpret the data from national tests?’ Second, ‘How do teachers view their actions related to the data from national tests?’ We base our research on data from semi-structured 5th-grade-teacher interviews. The transcribed text is subject to qualitative content analysis. We find that teachers are in a state of data illiteracy towards complex Item Response Theory tests. Inspired by Bernstein’s concept of the pedagogic device, we see that the test data rules both teacher work in the classroom as well as knowledge provid...

John Hattie: I’m a statistician, I’m not a theoretician

Abstract: The text you are about to read is an interview with the key figure behind the concept of ‘visible learning’, Professor John Hattie. Hattie’s books, ‘Visible Learning’ (2009) and ‘Visible Learning f...

The Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care institution as a learning arena: autonomy and positioning of the pedagogic recontextualising field with the increase in state control of ECEC content

Abstract: When the responsibility for ECEC institutions was placed under Ministry of Education and Research in 2006, the ECEC institution as a learning area was brought in to the foreground in early educatio...

Increasing parental participation at school level: a ‘citizen to serve’ or a ‘customer to steer’?

Abstract: Collaboration between schools and parents has become increasingly prominent on the political agenda in Norway. Schools are obliged to promote parent–school cooperation in accordance with parents’ rights as stakeholders in education. This article explores the governing strategies of seven primary or lower-secondary schools that have taken initiatives to improve parent–school collaboration. The main intention is to explore how New Public Management (NPM) measures (such as market values, decentralization, competition, and output control) and New Public Service (NPS) tools (including coalition building and citizens’ involvement) are reproduced at the local level when parent–school collaboration is put on the agenda. The analysis shows that street-level discretion at school level implies considerable uncertainty around the achievement of policy objectives. Different opinions on parents as a target group seem prominent in explaining how frontline workers act and strategize. Two distinct collaboration st...

Introduction to preschool: strategies for managing the gap between home and preschool

Abstract: The overall aim of this article is to investigate Swedish preschool teachers’ perceptions of the interaction between home and institution in relation to children’s introduction to preschool. The fo ...

The power of teacher-assigned grades in outcome-based education

Abstract: In arguing for alternatives to test-based accountability, researchers have suggested that teacher-assigned student grades could be used for high-stakes purposes. In this study, Sweden serves as an example of a school system in which teacher-assigned grades have a major role in performance management and accountability. We study how politicians view and legitimise the strengths of grading in an outcome-based accountability system. Based on two-part analysis, we show how grades, through complex processes of legitimation, have acquired and retained a central position in governing the overall quality of the educational system in Sweden. We argue that in the Swedish system, grades used in an administrative rather than a pedagogical way function as a quick language that effectively reduces the complexity of communication between various actors with regard to what students learn and accomplish in education. As such, grades are legitimate in terms of their communicative rationality. However, their use in ...

A conceptual model for research in performance standard policies

Abstract: During recent years, many European education systems have attempted to modernise their governance by establishing some variety of an ‘evidence-based governance regime’. Since 2008, a policy of performance standards has been introduced in Austrian education. This policy includes the communication of competence-based output standards, the provision of support material (e.g. competence-based assignments, diagnostic tests) and in-service training opportunities, nationwide comparative competence tests (at the end of the primary and lower secondary cycle of schooling), and data feedback of assessments results to students, teachers, schools, and administrative authorities.The paper aims to develop a conceptual model for research into the processes and effects of such a ‘performance standard policy’. Official documents are analysed in order to formulate the ‘programme theory’ underpinning the policy. Main elements of this policy, its intended effects, and the processes and intermediary mechanisms are outl...

It is the air that we breathe. Academic socialization as a key component for understanding how parents influence children’s schooling

Abstract: It is well known from the research literature that parents are important when it comes to determining individual school experiences, achievements and careers. However, in what way parental background influences education outcomes is less clear. In this article, the focus is on academic socialization as a specific aspect of parents’ influence on children’s school achievements. The main aims are to discuss the relationship between academic socialization and school performance and to discuss some implications of this relationship for the educational system’s role as a producer and reproducer of social inequalities. Firstly, an understanding of the concept of academic socialization is presented. Secondly, implications of research findings pointing to the importance of academic socialization are critically assessed in terms of social inequalities in education. Thirdly, the educational system’s presupposition for academic socialization is discussed in terms of inequity in education and symbolic violence.

Data use in education: alluring attributes and productive processes

Abstract: In recent years, governing regimes in education that emphasize ‘data’ and ‘evidence’ as a basis for decision making, performance management and accountability have been introduced in several countr...

Grades in the eyes of our parents: a narrative approach to educational resilience in pupils’ stories of getting their first grades

Abstract: This paper investigates educational resilience from the pupil’s perspective through an analysis of how Swedish pupils in grade six position themselves in relation to their parents’ expectations and the school’s grading practice. The term ‘resilience’ refers to pupils’ own views of their potential to learn and succeed in school in a social context, where parents are important as normative actors. Data consists of group interviews with pupils at three schools. By using a narrative analysis, a perspective is adopted that considers the multiple meanings involved when pupils position themselves in their stories about grades and parents. The analysis illustrates how a situated understanding of pupils’ senses of resilience makes family expectations, and the importance of pleasing yourself and others and of adapting to grading systems, important aspects to pupils’ own views of their potential to learn and succeed at school. Home and school stand out as different arenas based on the norm of success, but wi...

Early childhood education and care as a historically located place – the significance for parental cooperation and the professional assignment

Abstract: In this study, we analyze the views of professionals and student teachers on their relation to the parents, their assignment, and the distribution of responsibility for the child from the perspective of early childhood education and care (ECEC) as a place/space. In our analysis of space and place, we relate to the French philosopher and sociologist Henri Lefebvre. We analyze ECEC as a place, historically located in time and space, by defining the positioning and legitimization strategies relating to ECEC in Swedish society from three different periods: a contemporary place for learning with demands on parental involvement; as a place for new citizens in a collaborative model with parents, as preceded in ECEC in the 1970s and at the beginning of the 20th century; and a place for care provision and transmission of knowledge to the home. The theoretical standpoint that ECEC is a historical place means that we analyze the influence of the conceived, perceived and lived place on the relations to parent...

Locating data use in the microprocesses of district-level deliberations

Abstract: While there is an abundance of data-use literature available, there is still a need to develop methodological approaches for studying naturally occurring data use in decision-making processes over time. The central contribution of this paper is a strategy to understand the use of data in long-term observations of educational leaders’ policy-making deliberations. Using longitudinal and observational data, we created ‘decision trajectories’ that traced microprocesses of deliberation around specific decisions over time. We employed frame theory to locate when and how data entered decision-making processes within these trajectories. Our approach addresses the use of data as they arise in the context of longitudinal observations – a method that provides insight into how data may be used to inform, frame, or justify educational decisions.

Projects as a policy tool: a policy ethnographic investigation in the field of education in Sweden

Abstract: Politics and educational policy have been increasingly projectified, and projects as an organisational form have become a symbol for solving complex educational problems and interventions. The present article is a policy ethnographic case study in the field of education in Sweden, concerning the use of projects as a policy tool in the Mountain School. The analytical focus is on using projects as a policy tool within a multi-project organisation, where the projects are aimed at promoting integration of pupils with immigrant backgrounds and improving their school achievements. Through the analysis I identified four distinct themes: Outward leadership and teacher teams, The projects have never belonged to the teachers, The lack of a common educational policy and Project as vision and reality. These four themes demonstrate the complexities and difficulties in relation to organisation, management, definition and implementation. These complexities and difficulties in the policy process are not unique to...

What data do practitioners use and why? Evidence from Germany comparing schools in different contexts

Abstract: Poor performance in international student assessment has led to calls to enhance evidence-based practice in the German educational system. Yet indications about the extent to which German practitioners use data is limited, and little is known about factors influencing data-driven school improvement. Using data from three studies and comparing schools in different circumstances, we examined the perceived usefulness and the application of 13 different sources of information that can inform teachers’ and school leaders’ practice by means of standardised questionnaires. The results showed that practitioners attributed little usefulness to a standards-based reform and consequently hardly used these data. Instead, they claimed to prefer process-oriented information sources, such as student feedback. A comparison of the different samples indicated that data use might be lower in schools in challenging circumstances. In face-to-face interviews, a considerable proportion of the interviewees mentioned littl...

From general transfer to deep learning as argument for practical aesthetic school subjects

Abstract: This article investigates the empirical ground for transfer thinking about the practical aesthetic school subjects (PAS). We investigate the conceptual framework and methodological possibilities and constraints concerning transfer from the PAS to other domains, and analyse the transfer arguments in arts and crafts and physical education (PE) within the context of the Nordic countries specifically. We find that there is not much research about how educational objectives, content, and teaching and working methods, assessment forms, learning processes and learning outcomes are linked together. Accordingly, the transfer from one school subject to other subjects or domains is challenging to justify. We outline an alternative perspective on transfer in PAS in general, and in arts and crafts and PE specifically that could be investigated more carefully to further the development of a more robust knowledge field.

National test results: representation and misrepresentation. Challenges for municipal and local school administration in Norway

Abstract: This paper addresses the publication of results from national tests in primary and lower secondary schools by Norwegian national authorities. Test results must be made available to the public, and are published in an aggregated format at school, municipal, county and national levels on a public website. These aggregated test results are meant to provide information on school quality for local government, as well as for school development. However, how the data are presented influences their usability, and this is further affected by the fact that many municipalities and the majority of schools are quite small. Hence, in many instances the information that can be retrieved from aggregated test results at school or municipal level are of little or no value to the users. When presenting the aggregated data to the public, the government should clearly state that the data might not be useful for small schools or small municipalities with regard to analysing their own performance and for quality enhance...

On the use of register data in educational science research

Abstract: Register data are described, in general and specific terms, by focusing on informational content from an educational science perspective. Arguments are provided on the ways in which educational scientists can benefit from register data. It is concluded that register data contain a great deal of information relevant to educational science. Furthermore, two specific features of register data are considered: their panel data nature, implying that register data analyses under certain conditions can account for aspects on which the registers are not informative, and the intergenerational links that these data contain that facilitate the separation of genetic and environmental influences on learning. It is observed that while register data do not contain direct links between students and teachers, this shortcoming can be overcome by merging register data with survey data on these links. As population data, register data enable analyses that are not feasible to conduct with survey data. An illustration i...

Managing the gap – policy and practice of parents in child care and education

Abstract: Families, preschools and schools are the three major societal institutions involved in the care, fostering and education of children in the Nordic countries. In fact, although the family is often seen as the most natural and important part of children’s lives, and parents (custodians) are obliged by law to see to their care and education, these functions are to a large extent performed outside of the homes of children by people other than their parents. Compared to other parts of the world, parents in the Nordic countries thus share the task of childcare, and thereby their children’s upbringing, with professionals in preschools/schools (Ellingsaeter & Leira, 2006). Thereby, children are also subject to processes of both familialization and institutionalization (Edwards & Alldred, 2000) as they are supervised, cared for and educated by both parents and professionals in a variety of settings. The shared responsibility for practices of cultural reproduction also force parents and professionals to cooperate, and to dependent on each other, for the benefit of children’s learning and development. This special issue underscores, in accordance with much other research on parental–professional cooperation, that this cooperation is complex, as families (as private institutions) and preschools and schools (as public institutions) are founded on different logics, and fill very different functions in the lives of human beings, institutions and societies. The saying that the children are our future presumably means quite different things for families, schools and societies, respectively. Knowing this, it is also quite understandable why the times, spaces and places of childhood have increasingly become affairs of the state, in terms of protecting children from both the dangers of unsupervised freedom and bad influences from families while they are being moulded into selfgoverning individuals who are expected to contribute to society upon reaching adulthood (Hultqvist & Dahlberg, 2001). The increased focus on cooperation between families and preschools/schools, which is also visible in national and local policy in the Nordic countries, makes relevant the management of a gap between family and public institutions engaged in child socialization. What constitutes this gap and how to bridge it are highly important questions for educational research in terms of there being a need to shed more light on a relationship that constitutes the very foundation of cultural reproduction within and between nation states. While much research on relations between parents and preschools/schools has theorized and conceptualized the characteristics of these relations as a shared responsibility for children (e.g. Böök & PeräläLittunen, 2015), the field is also dominated by studies that focus on the beneficial outcomes of such cooperation in terms of the development and academic achievement of children (e.g. Epstein, 1995; Wilder, 2014). However, more critical research has shown that the forms for cooperation promoted by public institutions, while being constructive for certain groups of parents, in fact exclude others (e.g. Linde Matthiesen, 2016; Vincent, Ball, & Kemp, 2004). Moreover, as marketization and privatization of child care and education has led parents to be more acutely positioned as consumers, and professionals as producers, of childcare and education, these relations and forms of cooperation are changing (Bunar, 2010; Karlsson, Löfdahl, & Pérez Prieto, 2013). However, regardless of the forms and contents of relationships between families and preschools/schools, they are still formed by needs of nation states and families to manage the gap between the private and public spheres of society. This special issue presents seven papers discussing research on relations between parents and preschools/ schools in Norway, Iceland and Sweden from a broad range of perspectives. The contributions, although approaching the current issue from within different theoretical and methodological frameworks, all emphasize the importance of furthering our understanding of the tensions built into the policies and practices of shared responsibility for the care and education of children. Three of the seven papers take a broad grip on parental involvement in preschools/ schools in Sweden, Norway and Iceland. Two papers report studies focusing on local implementations of strategies to facilitate the cooperation between parents and educational institutions. The last two papers focus on communications between parents and school, and how parental involvement can be facilitated or hindered by how information about what happens in school is made more or less available to parents. General tendencies regarding the relations between parents and preschool/school are focused on in the first three papers. Persson and Tallberg NORDIC JOURNAL OF STUDIES IN EDUCATIONAL POLICY, 2017 VOL. 3, NO. 2, 119–122 https://doi.org/10.1080/20020317.2017.1389137