This book presents a detailed analysis of the educational model in Nordic European countries. It describes the traditional idea of education for all, which can be characterized by the right for every child to have an education of equal quality in a common school for all pupils regardless of social class, abilities, gender, or ethnicity. Against this background, The Nordic Education Model traces the rise of neo-liberal policies that have been enacted by those who believe the School for All ideology does not produce the knowledge and skills that students need to succeed in an increasingly competitive and global marketplace. It examines the conflict between these two ideas and shows how neo-liberal technologies affect the Nordic model in different ways. The authors also show how social technologies are being interpreted in different ways in actual school practices. This process of translating national regulations into internal sense builds on the values in the culture to which they are introduced. In the end, this book reveals that a Nordic model can constitute a delicate balance between traditional values, institutionalized practices, and contemporary, neo-liberal forms of governance and policies. It may be argued from a new institutional perspective that the main structures of the Nordic educational model will sustain as long as the deeply rooted Nordic culture survives in the globalised society.

Does the Nordic model of education still stand by its original principles and safeguard education for all? This Open Access volume is a carefully crafted collection of chapters that investigate the different aspects of equity, equality and diversity across the education systems in the Nordic countries. Based on data from various national and international large-scale assessments, the volume provides a better understanding of both the functions and foundations of the Nordic model, along with how the concepts mentioned above are enacted in practice. Across the chapters, data from different national and international large-scale assessment studies are used for cross- and single-country analyses on a variety of issues related to equity, equality and inequality in diverse educational settings. The investigations address different subject domains (i.e., mathematics, science, reading), age and grade groups, but also issues related to teachers and the schools themselves. In addition to these empirical chapters, the book addresses the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of the ideas and tools embedded in the phenomena of equity and equality and how they have met in the Nordic model of education.

Tracing historical and cultural factors which gave rise to the Nordic Education Model, this volume explores why Northern European education policy has become an international benchmark for schooling. The text explains the historical connection between a Nordic ideal of democracy and schooling, and indicates how values of equality, welfare, justice, and individualism might be successfully integrated in national school systems and curricula around the world. The volume also highlights recent debates around the longevity of the Nordic model and explores the risks and challenges posed by international policy and assessment agendas. Exploring how Nordic education polices successfully merge social equity with academic excellence, the book combines cultural, historical, sociological and philosophical analysis with a deep exploration of curriculum and teaching. This book will be of great interest to researchers, scholars, and postgraduates working across the fields of curriculum, comparative education, cultural studies and history and philosophy of education and education policy.

This book offers an original contribution to the area of international research on comparative education policies and the influence of transnational agencies on national school policy and reform. With a focus on grasping what the Nordic model or the Nordic dimension means in school and educational policy, the book explores in depth the school policy contexts of the five Nordic countries Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. It demonstrates how these particular national contexts engage with and contextualize transnational collaboration on issues like school reform, accountability, evidence and what works, and digitalization. The book situates these policy issues over a long period of time while integrating the latest developments and reforms. It demonstrates how context matters. It shows how the often elusive, but pervasive Nordic dimension can only be fully understood by painstaking scrutiny of the five national contexts, their particular trajectories and mutual interactions in formal and informal education.

This book examines the relationships between the Nordic social democratic welfare system (‘The Nordic Model’) and physical culture, across the domains of sport, education, and public space. Presenting important new empirical research, it helps us to understand how the paradoxical blend of social democracy and liberalism in the Nordic countries influences physical culture, which in turn contributes to a quality of life that ranks highest in the world. Drawing on perspectives from sociology, cultural studies, history, education, political science, outdoor studies, and urban studies, the book explores topics such as dance education for sport students, doping in cross-country skiing, outdoor education, the active body, and the ideology of public parks. It includes research material from across the region, including Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, and Denmark. This is fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in physical culture, sport studies, leisure studies, or outdoor studies, as well as sociologists or political scientists with an interest in Nordic politics, culture, and society.

This book explores how the notion of the responsible university manifests itself at various levels within Nordic higher education. As the impetus of the knowledge society has catapulted the higher education sector to the forefront of policy agendas, universities and other types of higher education institutions face increasing scrutiny, assessment and accountability. This book examines this phenomenon using the Nordic countries as cases in point, given the strong public commitment towards widening participation and public research investments. The editors and contributors analyse the history and current transformations of the idea of the responsible university, investigate new innovations in the educational landscape and look into how universities have begun to organise themselves to become more responsible. Drawing together scholars from the humanities and the social sciences, this interdisciplinary collection will be of interest and value to students and scholars of the role and nature of the modern university, in addition to practitioners and policy makers tasked with finding solutions to address the competing and often contradictory demands posed by a responsibility agenda. .

Lost in Practice offers a further development of the notion of Nordic educational action research (as described in a earlier volume Nurturing praxis 2008), aiming to deepen and enrich understandings of the Nordic educational tradition and its various practices. It explores Nordic traditions and theories, such as bildung, practical knowledge regime and translation theory, with the aim of furthering a seminal conversation between practice theory and action research. Furthermore it illuminates the use of these theories in the context of Nordic countries by presenting a number of case studies on professional development practices, in which specific forms and arenas for enhancing dialogue and meaning making are in focus. The practices of study and research circles, peer group mentoring and dialogue conferences, as developed in the Nordic countries throughout the 20th century, are presented and discussed, both in terms of established traditions and of practices of collaborative development. The book also reflect on the “regional” traditions and educational practices in the Nordic countries are reflected on in the third part of the book. The volume addresses teachers at all levels in the educational system, particularly those who are interested in understanding educational action research and furthering collaborative forms of professional development, based on insights from different traditions for understanding and furthering the development of educational practices without getting lost.

In all parts of Asia, households devote considerable expenditures to private supplementary tutoring. This tutoring may contribute to students' achievement, but it also maintains and exacerbates social inequalities, diverts resources from other uses, and can contribute to inefficiencies in education systems. Such tutoring is widely called shadow education, because it mimics school systems. As the curriculum in the school system changes, so does the shadow. This study documents the scale and nature of shadow education in different parts of the region. Shadow education has been a major phenomenon in East Asia and it has far-reaching economic and social implications.

"Career brings together individuals' paths through life, learning and work. It describes how people interface with social institutions including the education system, employers, civil society and the state. Because our careers are socially and culturally embedded it matters where they are enacted. Career and Career Guidance in the Nordic Countries explores what kind of context the Nordic region offers for the pursuit of career, how the development of careers are supported in welfare societies, and how career guidance is enacted in this context. The Nordic region encompasses an area in Northern Europe and the Northern Atlantic comprising Denmark, Sweden, Norway as well as Finland to the east and Iceland in the Atlantic. It includes also the self-governing areas of Åland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. This region has long been seen as a source of progressive policy innovation in education and employment and this book focuses and explores the place, the enactment and the theories of career guidance in these Nordic countries"--

This edited volume emanates from a Nordic research project which was conducted in Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden in 2013-2015. The main objective of the project was to draw lessons from success stories of individual immigrant students and whole school communities at different levels that have succeeded in developing learning contexts that are equitable and socially just, thus turning attention to good practices and what can be learnt from these. The book presents and discusses the main findings of the Learning Spaces project on the three school levels—pre-, compulsory and upper secondary—and contains chapters on research methodologies applied in the project, relevant educational policies, leadership and implementation of the project. While set in the Nordic context, this volume will serve to contribute to current global discussions around diversity and social justice in education. It will primarily appeal to educational practitioners and academics interested in issues of diversity in schools.