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 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.

The Routledge Handbook of Scandinavian Politics is a comprehensive overview of Scandinavian politics provided by leading experts in the field and covering the polity, the politics and the policy of Scandinavia. Coherently structured with a multi-level thematic approach, it explains and details Scandinavian politics today through a series of cutting-edge chapters. It will be a key reference point both for advanced-level students developing knowledge about the subject, as well as researchers producing new material in the area and beyond. It brings geographical scope and depth, with comparative chapters contributed by experts across the region. Methodologically and theoretically pluralistic, the handbook is in itself a reflection of the field of political science in Scandinavia and the diversity of the issues covered in the volume. The Routledge Handbook of Scandinavian Politics will be an essential reference for scholars, students, researchers and practitioners interested and working in the fields of Scandinavian politics, European politics, comparative politics and international relations.

This book examines Norwegian education throughout the course of the 19th century, and discusses its development in light of broader transnational impulses. The nineteenth century is regarded as a period of increasing national consciousness in Norway, pointing forward to the political independency that the country was granted in 1905. Education played an important role in this process of nationalisation: the author posits that transnational – for the most part Scandinavian – impulses were more decisive for the development of Norwegian education than has been acknowledged in previous research. Drawing on the work of educator and school bureaucrat Hartvig Nissen, who is recognised as the most important educational strategist in 19th century Norway, this book will be of interest to scholars of the history of education and Norwegian education more generally.

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 conceptualised and institutionalised in different educational settings. Comparative studies of national education policies and practice across these five small North European countries – and Scotland as a case beyond – explore how the Nordic dimension relates to national, regional and transnational collaborations. Further, the book queries the degree to which what are typically considered Nordic approaches to social welfare, gender equality, diversity and international outlook have, in actual fact, affected education. Ultimately, the book explores the realities and myths associated with the idea of the Nordic dimension, and in relation to the wider context of integration within the European region. The book will be of interest to researchers, scholars and postgraduate students working in international and comparative education; education policy and politics; teaching and learning; and in European cultural studies.

This open access book is the first account of the whole diversity of teacher education in the Nordic region: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, the Åland Islands and Sápmi (where the Sámi people live). Today, large parts of the world are looking to the Nordic model of social organization, and interest in the Nordic comprehensive school system and teacher education arrangements is no exception. A good education is a key to prosperity and well-being. And the quality of students’ education is undoubtedly linked to the quality of their teachers’ education. While teacher education in the Nordic region is globally admired, it also faces new challenges. The leading scholars writing in this volume discuss the challenges and opportunities that professional environments are facing. By providing solid portraits of each area as well as analyses across the region, this book will be a great resource to students, academics in teacher education and schooling as well as social scientists and policy-makers inside and outside the Nordic region. This is an open access book.

This open access book presents an in-depth analysis of data from ICCS. An international group of scholars critically address the state of civic and citizenship education in the four Nordic countries that participated in the IEA International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) in 2009 and 2016. The findings are of particular relevance to educators at all levels, from school education through to teacher education. Nordic countries have long traditions of democracy and their students have performed relatively well in the ICCS assessments. Nonetheless, citizenship education continues to evolve and has received increasing attention in recent educational reforms, indicating policymakers understanding that schools play an important role in establishing democratic values among future citizens. Data from ICCS can be used to analyze, discuss, and reflect on the status of civic and citizenship education and can contribute to the discourse on the potential role of education in contributing to sustainable democracies for a common future. However, teaching citizenship and learning democracy are two different things. While young people can be taught about democracy in school, it is vital that schools work together with the wider community in which youth operate to strengthen civic understanding and values for all young people regardless of their social and economic background.

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 edited volume explores the idea that educational success in Scandinavian countries can be attributed to the inherent connectedness of teacher ethics and teaching quality, providing inspiration to teachers and school systems outside Scandinavia. Acknowledging that Scandinavian school systems are known for mirroring the welfare systems and democratic societies with respect for both institutions and individuals, this book explores new educational demands, possibilities, and research developments taking place in Scandinavian countries such as Denmark, Norway, and Sweden that place the education system, and teachers’ professional development and identities, under pressure. Chapters address teacher ethics and quality in relation to topics such as the dialogical teacher, democratic teaching, parental collaboration, and the ethics of classroom management to inform non-Scandinavian, international school systems and teacher education initiatives. Discussing current developments in the Scandinavian school systems and the emerging educational ideas and practices within them, this book will appeal to scholars, researchers, and postgraduate students studying teachers and teacher education, moral and values education, and teacher identities more broadly. It will also be useful to policymakers and teacher educators involved with teachers’ professional development more broadly.