Control and Trust in Local School Governance

Mediation, Collaborative Learning and Trust in Norwegian School Governing: Synthesis from a Nordic Research Project

“…For example, only 32 % of the members in the Norwegian school boards saw their school principals as "fairly good in leading school development". When the board members were asked to express their perceptions of school principal loyalty (with conflicting interests about student learning), only 41 % of the board members trusted that "their school principals would side with the interests of the students" (Høyer et al, 2014;Paulsen & Strand, 2014). Whereas our review indicates a trusting relationship between school leaders and their superintendents, this inference is significantly modified towards distrust when it comes to the mutual relationship between school leaders and school politicians, as most evidently displayed in the Swedish material (Johansson, Nihlfors, Steen, & Karlsson, 2016).…”

External Control and Professional Trust in Norwegian School Governing: Synthesis from a Nordic Research Project

“…Moreover, hierarchical control may occur internally; that is, where managers carry out the control activities themselves initiated by mismatches in performance compared with targets. Alternatively, the control may be external, where control authorities outside the formal decision-making system check whether procedures are being followed correctly in order to ensure that the surroundings do not suffer (Høyer et al, 2014). Specifically, external control also involves supervisory activities that are continuously undertaken to follow up on occurring events in order to ensure that various management actors achieve the organization's goals.…”

“…School board members expect school principals to be responsible for good learning conditions for students and good work conditions for teachers. Similarly, they expect principals to ensure good psychological support structure for their teachers (Høyer et al, 2014).…”

Nordiske skolechefer: Agenter i en brudt kæde

“…Når beslutninger decentraliseres, kan man forvente, at der opstår forskelle mellem kommuner og skoler, og at disse forskelle endog kan vaere ønskvaerdige. Der kan endog forekomme forskelle i selve uddannelserne, som gør, at de ikke er lige meget vaerd, selvom målene nås (Quennerstedt, 2006:117 Vi har tidligere vist, at der findes forskel i graden af tillid og fortrolighed mellem politikere og professionelle på forskellige niveauer i de nordiske lande (Høyer et al 2014). Når det gaelder kontrol og fortrolighed i den lokal styring af skolen, viser en analyse: at uddannelsespolitik i stigende grad var på vej mod en styring, hvor råderummet blev udviklet af eksperter og agenter og blev afpolitiseret gennem standarder og data , Skedsmo 2009.…”