This paper examines how superintendents and school principals enact national policy reform expectations and what characterises their local organisational arrangements. Furthermore, the paper investigates how superintendents and school principals deal with tensions as entrepreneurs. The study builds on qualitative interview data from two…

This article applies a current example of curriculum reform to investigate mechanisms driving the push for international comparative assessment of social and emotional skills in contemporary education. Using a combination of bibliometric and content analysis the article identifies key sources in the recent Norwegian curriculum reform. The article…

The recent Norwegian curriculum reform for schools, called "The subject renewal", is part of an international trend regarding knowledge-based curricula. The Norwegian curriculum, which places decisive emphasis on subjects and subject concepts, aims to bring in-depth learning and knowledge back to schools. This paper is based on Rata's…

This qualitative study examined how a selected sample of 15 to 16 year-old Norwegian pupils experience Bildung (all-around development) and education in their schooling, and how those experiences are in coherence with the intended curriculum policy goals as stated in the latest Norwegian curriculum reform. Wolfgang Klafki's operationalisation of…

'The knowledge question', addressing what students need to know and learn, becomes particularly relevant during the process of a new school reform. This paper examines the political messages and the role of knowledge in the current curriculum reform initiative for primary and secondary education in Norway (2020). The study is based on a document…

Some might fear that the local flavours of education will evaporate when encountering the hegemony of global, cognitive standards of the knowledge economy. This paper, however, shows that the evolution of curriculum can emerge in surprising directions, creating hybrid forms of education. We will investigate forms of meaning that emerge in…

This article investigates policymaking for Norwegian lower secondary education, with a focus on policy problems and solutions emphasising pre-vocational education. The data consist of official policy documents such as Green and White Papers, hearings, propositions to the parliament, protocols of parliamentary debates and votes in the parliament.…

This paper investigates how Norwegian school principals prepared to carry out the LK20 reform process. The importance of school principals and middle-level leaders as enactors of change efforts results from their close ties to teachers and teacher classroom practices. This suggests that without negotiation and support from micro-policy actors,…

Educational leaders are responsible for educational change, and many scholars have argued that academic developers (ADs) have expertise with the potential to influence educational change. We argue, however, that ADs' influence depends on how educational leaders perceive educational change and position ADs' roles and responsibilities in relation to…

This article investigates how learning outcomes, a concept inspired by an Anglo-Saxon curriculum approach, are expressed in policy documents, with an emphasis on expectations articulated to teachers. Developments in education policy for the last two decades reflect a widespread expansion of learning outcome orientation in curricula and assessment…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to gain insight into and understand the authentic lived experience of the processes of collaborative inquiry in teamwork from the perspective of teachers. Design/methodology/approach: Data comprises stimulated recall interviews and semi-structured interviews. Seventeen teachers from four different teams in…

Many studies on professionalization research deal with the question of how teachers actually learn or how teacher change occurs. In this context, Clarke and Hollingsworth (2002) describe a model for capturing teacher change in different domains (external, personal, domain of practice and domain of consequence) and how changes in one domain can…

This article explores lecturers' experience of adapting, shaping and transforming teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study focuses on understanding the challenges and opportunities that are afforded by pandemic-induced changes in terms of digital teaching and learning and their post-pandemic implications. Empirical data were…

This study focuses on two schools taking part in a school-based development project in Norway. The research was guided by the following research question: How does the start-up phase in school-based development influence learning and enduring change in school? Few studies focus on the start-up phase. The purpose of the current study is to show how…

This article conceptualizes and discusses change in music teacher education. Results from the FUTURED research project provide the starting point for the article. The project explored various dimensions of change within the music education programs in Norwegian generalist teacher education. In this project, change was regarded as having a…