Structural enablements and constraints in the creation and enactment of local content in Norwegian education

Abstract

In Norway, the national curriculum together with the Education Act serves as the foundation for teaching and learning in primary and secondary education and training. Local educational providers are given autonomy to develop local adaptations of the centrally given subjectspecific curriculum competence aims. This article explores some structural enablements and constraints tied to teachers' opportunities to make use of local content in curricula in lower secondary schools in Norway, including rural/urban differences. The analysis is based on data consisting of 18 qualitative interviews with teachers in two municipalities and participant observation in one of the municipalities in Northern Norway. The finding of this paper is that the design of the national curriculum allows for local content based on its competence aims. This serves as an enabler for teachers to create and enact local content in education. However, there are several constraints that limit local adaptation for teachers -time pressure, lack of access to content due to finances and distance and losing school control of local curriculum. Also, these constraints have a different impact depending on the geographical context. The article employs Margaret Archer's theories on centralized and decentralized educational systems to analyse these structural enablements and constraints.

Making Rural Areas Attractive for Teachers and Principals:Putting Rural Educational Settings on the Agenda

“…Additionally, the municipalities, as education providers, were given the responsibility and autonomy to organise the local network of schools. However, as economic resources were sparse, this presented a challenge to the aspiration of equal education nationwide (Rød & Karlsen Baeck, 2020). In Nordic rural areas the decentralization of schooling resulted in the threat of closures (Autti & Hyry-Beihammer, 2014;Cedering & Wihlborg, 2020;Karlberg-Granlund, 2011;Kvalsund, 2009;Åberg-Bengtsson, 2009).…”

“…Since the late 1980s and 1990s, decentralization, deregulation and commercialization policies have influenced the school systems to various degrees and led to shifts in Nordic education systems (Frímannsson, 2006;Oftedal Telhaug et al, 2006). The intention of decentralization was to enable local adaptions of education, but in rural areas this was constrained due to material arrangements, such as distances, finances and time (Rød & Karlsen Baeck, 2020). Furthermore, Lundahl (2016) stresses the differences between the educational policies of the Nordic countries stemming from differences in traditions, rural characteristics and public management practices.…”

“…Nevertheless, the different Nordic countries have handled this aspiration for equality differently, partly due to the geography of each country (Frønes et al, 2020). The Nordic education systems are sometimes reflected as being homogenous, but can they possibly be so when the very national settings of the Nordic countries differ so much (Beach, From et al, 2018;Baeck, 2016;Rød & Karlsen Baeck, 2020)?…”