This study aimed to investigate common features and ways of understanding quality culture (QC) within higher education institutions (HEIs) in Nordic countries. While the concept of QC is commonly accepted and often used, its meaning is not always clear. This paper focuses on how Nordic universities frame QC in their internal documentation. The…

Developmental Education in Mathematics (DEM) according to Zankov's model, or "Russian mathematics", has been in use in Norway since 2009 in an increasing number of schools (about 100 elementary schools in 2024). There has been relatively little research into the implementation of this teaching method in a Norwegian context. In this…

Insecurity and intense competition for permanent academic positions appear to be common experiences for early career researchers across the globe. With academic precarity now firmly on the international research and policy agenda, this article looks comparatively at postdoc precarity in three European countries: Ireland, Norway and Switzerland. It…

Partnerships between researchers and educators have become a common mode of working to support processes of school improvement. However, research on the processes and outcomes of long-term partnerships remains marginal. This paper increases our knowledge about the processes and experiences involved when researcher-interventionists introduce…

This article presents the development and application of a model that can be utilized to compare the autonomy of principals in various historical and national contexts. Drawing on former conceptual work on autonomy in education, the model conceptualizes principal autonomy as two-dimensional. The first dimension is the decision making expected from…

Turning educational ideas into meaningful learning requires planning for uncertainty. This article presents Bakhtin's key concept of "eventness" as an essential aspect of defining dialogic space. To Bakhtin an event is something happening here and now, with a degree of open-ended uncertainty tied to what will happen next. Acknowledging…

This study investigates the associations between students' developmental changes in academic self-efficacy, academic initiative, and grade point average (GPA) during a three-year upper secondary education. The sample consisted of 1453 students aged 16-19 (60.6% girls; baseline mean age = 17.00, SD = 0.91; 56.1% high perceived family wealth; and…

This paper investigates the educational field by focusing on an integrated teacher education program [ITE] in Norway and OECD policy. The author centers attention on Norwegian teacher education and how globalization through such international agents as the OECD has had impact on national policy documents. Basil Bernstein's concept of pedagogical…

There are widespread concerns about a shortage of nurses in society, making it vital to educate and retain as many nursing students as possible. This paper interrogates the fit and relevance of established models for student retention, particularly Tinto's model of student departure and its central notion of 'integration'. Early social and…

This cluster-randomised study investigated the effects of a Norwegian early warning system, the IKO model. IKO is a Norwegian acronym for identification, assessment, and follow-up, and the model aims to improve schools' abilities to identify and support students who are at risk of dropping out during the school year. The study involved 7677…

In this essay, we argue that both critique and self-criticism are needed to advance, professionalize, and internationalize the field of music education. We identify three "gaps" in the field: the gap between scholarly work and practice, the gap between North American and Northern European interpretations of foundational concepts, and the…

Peer Instruction gives practice in the abstract language of physics, addresses common misconceptions among students, and is more effective than traditional lecturing. However, it is not clear what makes Peer Instruction effective nor how we might improve the method. An emerging perspective is that what makes Peer Instruction effective is how it…

This paper reports on the process of participatory action research from a three-year project to co-create ideas to reduce educational inequity with young people funded by Erasmus+. The project involved 10 academics and 50 university students from Norway, Denmark and England who co-researched 200 young people's experiences of educational inequity.…

This qualitative case study of emergent practices in a multi-paradigmatic field at one department in Norway explores how performance metrics in science intra-act with staff composition and resource allocation, potentially affecting paradigm trends. Inspired by agential realism, we discuss four key metrics as the material core of an assemblage…

Teacher assessment practice is affected by a complex set of cognitive and affective traits, as well as institutional contexts. There is a dearth of research on sociocultural influences on teachers' assessment identity. This study presents a model illustrating how vocational education and training (VET) teachers enact their assessment identity…