This paper focuses on contemporary tensions and contradictions in current Norwegian educational policy discourse. Based on critical discourse analysis (CDA) of Norwegian governmental white papers our analysis reveals that contemporary Norwegian policy formulation is torn between an egalitarian and a selection discourse about how to tackle…

An increasing number of studies have focused on policies in physical education and physical education teacher education (PETE). Policies are important because they prescribe behaviours or a course of action, and they legitimise some knowledge and perspectives while discrediting others. In the field of physical education (PE), a white,…

This article sets out the findings of a systematic review on research into career guidance policy in the Nordic countries between 2008 and 2022. In total 60 papers were reviewed from across the Nordic region. They focused on national career guidance systems, career guidance systems for young people, the adult guidance system and career guidance…

This article analyzes how newly qualified teachers (NQTs) are conceptualized in Norwegian policy, specifically the green paper 'NOU 2022: 13: With Further Significance'. Utilizing Carol Bacchi's 'What's the Problem Represented to Be?' approach, we dissect policy proposals and solutions to uncover and examine a tension-filled conceptualization of…

This article explores the relationship between physical education as a school subject, and physical activity health initiatives in schools. Drawing on curriculum theory and discourse theory we study policy documents related to physical education and school-based physical activity initiatives. We explore the boundaries of knowledge between physical…

Forming part of the efforts to internationalise European higher education, international student mobility has become a key activity strongly supported and promoted by policymakers. In particular, the mobility of teacher students has become a more prominent issue over the past decades. However, to this date there is a lack of research focussing on…

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,…

The reported study investigates the emergence of teacher evaluation (TE) in Norwegian green papers between 1988 and 2019. We examine how knowledge dissemination and discourses in Norwegian official reports shape suggestions for TE and discuss implications for how teachers are "made by policy". Guided by Bacchi's (2009) approach to…

Purpose: Through reviewing an education policy blueprint in Norway, titled "An Offer of Homework Assistance" (issued by the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training in June 2010), the present article aims to shed light on how Norway uses education as an arena to realize social equality and equity. Design/Approach/Methods: This is…

The political promotion of international student mobility in the Nordic countries is underpinned by claims about its contribution to quality enhancement in higher education. Yet, this link is scarcely elaborated and is an understudied issue empirically. This article presents the findings of an interview study exploring the recontextualisation of…

This study explores how early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS) is directly framed in the Nordic curriculum. The study's theoretical background builds on theories and research viewing ECEfS as a comprehensive approach which integrates the three pillars of sustainability. To explore the status of ECEfS, Nordic curricula were analysed…

Career guidance counsellors' competence requirements in Norwegian schools have been the subject of decades-long discussion. Practitioners, experts, and stakeholders have called for precise requirements and professionalized status for counsellors, but with little results. In the Finnish context, however, career guidance is more professionalized,…

Policy tools have become widespread in education, which indicates efforts to standardise content and professional practices. However, such standardisation might be in contrast to Nordic early childhood education and care (ECEC) traditions of diversity and local variation. We therefore study the distributors and enactment of policy tools in ECEC in…

This edited volume scrutinises the Nordic dimension within education and how this notion affects, frames and sets direction for school and education in policy, practice and educational research. The book interrogates what unites and divides Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and analyses how the notion of the Nordic dimension has become…

In this article, I explore the central characteristics of the "psychosocial" as a field of knowledge in Norwegian education policy and the ways in which these characteristics are conditioned by their constituting social structures and historical contexts. This is achieved through a policy document analysis. Even though the psychosocial…