Reshaping the Nordic education model in an era of efficiency. Changes in the comprehensive school project in Denmark,Norway, and Sweden since the millennium

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 by detailed objectives, control, privatisation, and profile schools. This article gives brief accounts of major trends in current school development policies, discourses, and practices in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden since the millennium, and explores how the values of the Nordic model are affected by the new policies. It is argued that the Nordic model still exists as the predominant system for the large majority of Scandinavian children at a national level, but that a number of new technologies aiming to increase the efficiency of teaching and learning are gradually undermining the main values of the Nordic model.     

Reforming higher education in Nordic countries. Studies of change in Denmark,Finland, Iceland,Norway and Sweden

This paper provides a self-ethnographic investigation of a continuing education program in engineering in Central Finland. The program was initiated as a response to local economic structural change, in order to offer re-education possibilities for a higher educated workforce currently under unemployment threat. We encountered considerable difficulties both in relation to student motivation and our ability to engage the students. By comparing our observations and experiences with adult learning theory, and considering them in relation to economic structural change, we aim to raise issues that would benefit others. The main results of this study are that: (1) under the condition of structural change studying seemed to be externally motivated; (2) specialized work experience may have hindered self-direction in the acquisition of an academic orientation and skills; and (3) a transformation in student perspective, leading to perceiving the education provided as an opportunity, would have been required but was seldom observed.     

Some Aspects of Early School Leaving in Sweden,Denmark, Norway and Finland

This article describes early school leaving in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland, using examples to show a complex representation of early school leaving and its consequences for young people's subsequent access to the labour market. We show how measures taken by governments and school authorities in the respective countries have resulted in improvements for students in their transition from school to work. However, we also show that an educational system per se can create problems for both individuals and groups. Early school leaving increases the risk of unemployment, and if when permanent, about two years are spent out of school unemployed between the ages 16 and -20 this, increases the risk of the young person being marginalised and having health and social problems later in life.     

北欧四国(瑞典、挪威、芬兰、丹麦)英语基础教育比较研究

本文介绍了义务教育阶段北欧四国的英语教育目标,初中学生校内外英语学习环境,四国中学英语教师课堂教学及师资培训情况,指出了北欧英语基础教育值得我们学习、借鉴的地方.     

Cross-sector collaboration in upper secondary school vocational education: experiences from two industrial towns in Sweden and Norway

This study explores industry–education collaboration on vocational education and training (VET) in upper secondary schools in Sweden and Norway, with particular attention to the initiatives, organisation and operational management, and aspects of robustness and lock-in effects. The case studies include two upper secondary schools situated in manufacturing based towns, which are similar in size and industrial structure, and have the dual system of education. Pupils come from these towns and other places in the surrounding region. The research design is based on a mixed-method approach, including interviews and other sources of information from schools and industry. This covered organisational and operational levels, corporate motives and arrangements, industrial composition, labour market conditions, and other regional and national characteristics. The results demonstrated how shared goals of improving the reputation and quality of VET and meeting industries’ needs for skills formed in two distinct organisational models. These findings raise concerns about the robustness of these collaborations, since how changes occur in companies’ economic situations may affect their ability and motivation to participate in VET training. The authors conclude that the arrangements have had success but may create a lock-in-situation regarding the companies’ ability to restructure and develop new skills for new sectors.     

北欧国家外语教育政策与实践——以瑞典和挪威为例

欧洲外语教育政策是欧洲一体化的一个直观反映。近年来,欧盟一直致力于语言多元化的推进和完善。北欧国家既希望通过一体化融入欧洲,也尽力避免以英语为代表的欧洲优势语言对本国语言母语人群的侵蚀。瑞典和挪威通过一系列的外语教育政策和实践,努力推进欧洲语言多元主义和语言学习多样化。     

Changes in the polish system of teacher education since 1972

Starting from the “Teachers' Rights and Duties Act” of 27th April 1972, a milestone in the thirty years' history of teacher training in the People's Republic of Poland, the paper outlines the differences and problems resulting from the second World War and the subsequent rapid increase in the demand for teachers. This exposition is supplemented by a table showing the number of pupils and students per type of school and university in the periods 1950–51 and 1973–74, and the number of teachers per type of school and university in the same periods. To overcome the difficult situation in teacher training, efforts were made since 1967, especially by the “Educational and Psychological Sciences Committee”, to design and implement a uniform academic education system for teachers at all types of school. The recommendations made in this connection were adopted by the Sejm (the Polish Parliament) in the “Charter of Teachers' Rights and Duties”. At the same time higher rates of pay for all categories of teachers were introduced. The new curricula for the uniform four-year study courses leading to the Master's degree have been applied since the academic year 1973–74. The proportions and contents of the individual study sectors are listed.     

Education and development: A study of donor agency policies on education in Sweden,Holland and Denmark

In this paper a comparative analysis is presented on bilateral donor agency policy on education in Sweden, Holland and Denmark. The focus is on the agencies' general understanding of the role of education in development and the actual trends in their support to education since the 1960s. The perspectives for the 1990s are related to the newly formulated Education for All strategy. In the paper, the need to form a holistic view of the relative importance of the individual sub-sectors of education is emphasised together with policies which integrate education with other sectors of society. In addition, some of the possible risks of the Education for All strategy for developing countries are pointed out.     

Legal standards for an appropriate education in the post-Rowley era.

In 1982 the U.S. Supreme Court held than an appropriate education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was one that was formulated in accordance with the Act's procedures and that conferred some educational benefit on students with disabilities. Initially, the lower court applied this terminology strictly and approved any proposed individualized education program that conferred even minimal educational benefit. However, later courts began to take a more liberal approach and held that the educational program must confer some meaningful benefit. A careful reading of the Supreme Court's 1982 decision indicates that this recent approach is consistent with Congress's and the Court's intent. The Court never intended to establish one test of appropriateness since it recognized that some flexibility was needed to determine what would be appropriate for a diverse population of students with disabilities.     

Implementation of the Mason,DeMers & Middleton consultation and program evaluation model in an Israeli school integration project

A project designed to foster integration between middle and upper-middle socioeconomic status students on the one hand and lower SES students in need of special educational attention and enrichment on the other was initiated at the Gush Etzion Regional Elementary School in Israel. Two school counsellors were invited to serve as consultants to and evaluators of the project. The counsellors decided to adopt the consultation and program evaluation model suggested by Mason, DeMers & Middleton (1984) as a basis for their work. A qualitative analysis of the consultation and program evaluation indicates that the model employed facilitated an effective and efficient contribution by the counsellors to the success of the integration project, especially regarding the advancement of the lower SES population both educationally and socially.     

新世纪研究生教育的发展与矛盾

就新世纪初我国研究生教育发展中的某些趋势进行了分析,主要就规模增长、地区间差别增大、价值观念的变化及学校自主办学谈了一些看法,并指出要用科学发展观正确分析研究生教育发展中的矛盾,促进学位与研究生教育的协调发展。     

Gender and intercultural competence: analysis of intercultural competence among upper secondary school students in Denmark and Norway

Abstract

The pluralisation of European societies has produced national and cultural diversification, increasing the need for communication and understanding to support recognition, equality, justice, self-determination and identification with others. This paper responds to the social and political challenges accompanying immigration by focusing on gender differences in intercultural competence among a selection of Danish and Norwegian secondary school students. Data came from questionnaires given to 895 students from four schools—two Danish and two Norwegian. One major finding was gender differences in intercultural competence, which is discussed using inclusive citizenship theory, gender socialization theory and feminist standpoint theory. For the control variables, cultural capital theory and intergroup contact theory were used to analyse students’ experiences of school diversity and their intercultural competence. School diversity contributed moderately to greater intercultural competence while moderate differences arose between national samples. Finally, teaching implications are discussed.     

Promoting sustainable development through whole school approaches: an international,intercultural teacher education research and development project

This paper focuses on a British Council funded Higher Education Link project involving three institutions—Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) in the UK and two South African institutions, the University of South Africa (UNISA) and Rhodes University. The link is a research and development project that has three main research strands: contextual profiling that will establish the applicability of a European teacher education project to the South African context, evaluative materials development and piloting predicated on a respect for indigenous and contextual knowledge, and impact analysis that will examine the role of multidirectional intergenerational mentoring in disseminating messages about sustainable lifestyles. The project is strongly influenced by the South African Revised National Curriculum statements pertaining to environment and an analysis of the impact that these materials have had on promoting whole school approaches to environmental education in South Africa. The link's initial purpose is to develop advanced certificate in education (ACE) course materials that will promote whole school approaches to environmental education, based on developing concepts of collaboration, pupil participation, educational process and action in schools in South Africa. Materials from the MMU‐based, European Commission funded Sustainability Education in European Primary Schools (SEEPS) Project will be adapted for use in South Africa by UNISA and Rhodes.

This paper reports on the development of the project and explores some of its activities and results to date. It documents how the project team approached the integrating redevelopment of SEEPS ideas and materials to use these resources in the design of continuing professional development (CPD) activities for ACE courses in environmental education at UNISA and Rhodes. The second section is written in semi‐dialogue form to try to reflect the nature of the discussions that occurred between the partners in the link during meetings in the UK. This dialogue outlines the conceptual and philosophical background to the SEEPS Project before examining continuities and tensions that arose in clarifying and situating guiding perspectives for CPD and whole school approaches in and for South African school contexts through the medium of teacher education. The paper also reviews how the South African team are interacting with ideas and materials from SEEPS to clarify whole school approaches to environmental education in South Africa and discusses the contexts within which the outcomes of the link will unfold.     

School Reforms in Norway and Sweden,and the Redistribution of Educational Attainments

The paper studies the educational reforms and expansions (comprehensivization) of Sweden and Norway after 1900 and their effects upon the populations’ general attainment levels and the distributions of attainments according to gender, class, cultural origin and geographical background. The Norwegian developments were much more uneven than the Swedish. It is shown that the great changes in attainment levels and attainment distributions in Norway during the most recent period were caused partly by the lower secondary education reforms around 1970. However, the Norwegian reform of the upper secondary school was largely ineffectual.     

Changes in school through a long-term project of action research. Building bridges between school practice and Roma communities

ABSTRACT

This study was carried out within the framework of a long-term action-research project in schools in Barcelona, Spain, in which a large concentration of pupils come from diverse ethnic backgrounds and are at risk of social exclusion. Specifically, the introduction of the Fifth Dimension (5D) model into these schools is analysed here. 5D is an action-research programme partnership between universities and schools that has been developed by an international network of researchers and is based on a collaborative learning model, supported by information and communication technologies and by the university students themselves. This study focuses on the changes produced in school practices and in the role of teachers. Over a 4-year period, qualitative data were elicited from four primary school using linguistic methods, field notes, interviews and focus group with educators involved in the process. Cultural Historical Activity Theory was used as a framework for analysis of the coded data. The findings highlight the key elements for the change: consistency in the mediating devices (proposed tools and activities), reorientation of classroom interactions into forms of collaboration, the changing roles of the teachers to include design, observation and help, and the development of inter-institutional partnerships based on permanent negotiation.     

History,nation and school inspections: the introduction of citizenship education in elementary schools in late nineteenth-century Sweden

It was in the late nineteenth century that teaching in Sweden’s elementary schools began its transformation from a religious education to a broader, national citizenship education that included history and geography. International research has pointed to a connection between the introduction of school inspections and the reform of public education during this period. In Sweden, however, the practice of inspection has not been explored at any length. This article therefore considers the part played by school inspections in the implementation of a more extensive curriculum in Swedish elementary schools in the period 1860–1900, with a particular focus on the subject of history, using a study of inspection reports from the diocese of Uppsala. It is argued that school inspectors had a key role in initiating reform at the local level, but also that the move towards broader-based citizenship education was not a simple, straightforward process.     

让家长学校适应新时代青少年教育的需要

《全国家庭工作规划》中提出:“家长学校是普及家庭教育知识的有效渠道,是学校开展家长工作的较好形式,也是学校与家长沟通的最好途径。”办好家长学校,提高家长的整体素质和合作能力,让家庭教育与学校教育同步,实行学校、家庭、社会教育一体化,是培养新世纪合格人才的重要工作。多年来,我校坚持把办好家长学校视为德育工作的重要组成部份,并结合时代的要求,适时适度地传授教育的新观念、新思维、新信息,让家长树立正确的家庭教育观,掌握科学的教育子女的方式和方法,以更加适应新时代青少年教育的需要。具体的做法是:一、让家长学校更具科学…     

Play in the kindergarten: the case of Norway,Sweden, New Zealand and Japan

This paper discusses the kindergarten curricula of Norway, Sweden, Japan and New Zealand in terms of whether they recommend or suggest teachers unify play and pedagogy by employing a pedagogy of play. These countries were selected because, while they have to provide for children's right to play, they cover different geographical and cultural parts of the world – Europe, Asia and Oceania. Their curricula were examined because they can influence teachers in favour or against employing a pedagogy of play, since they express the official-state expectations regarding young children's play and learning. The documentary analysis indicates that Japan focuses on child-initiated and teacher-directed play only, which does not imply a pedagogy of play. In Norway and New Zealand, there is evidence of almost all aspects of a pedagogy of play, which is not recommended for all learning, while the Swedish curriculum recommends a pedagogy of play.     

Floods,bottlenecks and backwaters: an analysis of expansion in higher education in Norway

The quantitative expansion in higher education in most countries has not been linear. After a very strong expansion in the 1960s there was a stage of stagnation. In the early 1990s, however, there are signs of a new development towards universal higher education. This is a very distinct feature at present in Norway. Since 1988 the student population has increased by more than 50%.This article argues that the present pressure on higher education in Norway cannot be understood without taking into consideration both the long-term trends and acute accumulation of pressure at the moment. A demographic model of analyzing changes in the student population and the factors explaining both individual demands and political decisions are discussed. The needs of the labour market for a higher educational level of the workforce and the increasing level of education among the parents may explain the long-term trends in enrolment. A deteriorating labour market forces youth to go straight into higher education. The average age of the new entrants is therefore decreasing, resulting in even more pressure. The increased competition to be admitted results in repeated application to higher education, so that the number of applicants is more than one and a half times the relevant age group.The article also raises the question whether the Norwegian situation at present is unique or related to a more general trend.The article is a revised version of a paper presented at the SRHE conference in Brighton, December 1993.