Over the past decades, emerging focus has been on how teachers in Norway can foster citizenship in their classrooms to strengthen democracy. Yet, in conjunction with rising concerns of homegrown terrorism, a new curriculum in Norway draws on democratic education as a bulwark against terrorism. This paper explores the securitisation of the…

In this article, a study of combined discursive emphasis on the concepts "culture for learning" and "learning outcomes" in recent education policy messages is presented. These concepts have been individually examined but seldom as parallel or converging policy messages. Inspired by discursive institutionalism, we address the…

Encouraging teachers to participate in collaborative learning activities for professional development has become an important part of educational reform strategies in many countries. Recent research suggests these activities may play an important role in the professionalization of the teaching profession. In Iceland, teachers report the highest…

Discursively learning outcomes have been embedded within an education-policy context characterised by a shift from teaching to learning. In the dominant education policy discourse, learning outcomes have come to play an important role in education whose emphasis is more on product than process, which by its critics have been characterised as…

The article examines policies intended to promote the basic education of Roma and Traveller minorities in Finland, Sweden, and Norway by analysing key national Roma and Traveller policy (n = 5) and education policy documents (n = 3). Analysis shows how the Finnish, Swedish, and Norwegian Roma policies translate the general policy aims of improving…

Rural depopulation, decreasing numbers of children, and general centralization, combined with high expectations for education, are factors that challenge rural communities and school structures in both Latvia and Norway. The aim of this article is to compare the role of the municipality and other levels of governance in making decisions on school…

This article examines challenges experienced by teachers of asylum-seeking pupils in Sweden, where the right to education is part of a policy of promoting "normal life" during the asylum process. A theoretical framework contributed a deepened understanding of the teachers' experiences as street-level bureaucrats. Interviews indicated…

Borrowing the lens of Finnish education policymakers, this article aims at dissecting the Finnish conception of inclusion and its approach in constructing an inclusive "special" education system as set against the wider debates and practices that shed different lights on the meaning and viability of inclusion. The discussion explores the…

The Nordic Education Model was an important part of the social democratic welfare state for many years in the second half of the 20th century. Since the millennium, transnational agencies have drawn education from the realm of politics into a global market place by advocating strategies such as efficiency, competition, decentralisation, governing…

Education has continuously been regarded as a vital tool in Norwegian policymakers' immigrant integration agendas. This study analyzes semantic structures substantiating the policy language of historical Norwegian immigrant education policies from their inception in 1973 until today (2013). The analysis is framed by Kronenfeld's linguistic…

The aim of this study is to investigate what characterizes the discourse on the role of the outdoor environment in young children's learning in educational policy documents in Iceland. Policy documents, laws and regulations, national curriculum guides for pre- and compulsory school levels, and documents from municipalities were analyzed. A…

Current educational evaluation is institutionalized as an element in national educational policy in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. This article analyses how higher education and primary and lower secondary education have adopted and institutionalized educational evaluation. The analysis shows similarities and differences in organizing and practicing…

The aim of the Lofoten Project has been to build up an education relevant to the local community, and, as such, an education that is meant to give the pupils conceptual tools for analyzing their own material, social and cultural situation. Arguments for developing such an education are outlined focusing on local knowledge, researcher role, and the…

This article discusses the function and purpose of educational evaluation. The main standpoint is that different evaluation approaches are presented as scientific improvements but mirror mainly the objective functions of education in the society and the need within the state apparatus for a scientific legitimation of various political decisions.…

This paper contends that the structure of American schools may be pathological; it may work against creating, maintaining, and enhancing caring relations. Caring relations, such as parenting and teaching, require continuity of purpose; school residence; teachers and students; and curriculum. Educators must plan for continuity to create caring…