Recent Developments in Norwegian Teacher Education

• In Event: Policy, Governance, and Quality in Teacher Education Systems: Four Cases

Abstract

1. Problem/Objectives
Like in many other countries, Norway’s ranking in international tests caused, what has become known as “the PISA shock” (Elstad, 2009; Baird et al. 2011), which in Norway developed into what this author calls it, ”the Pisa hysteria” . Subsequently, Norwegian teacher education has been subject to multiple reforms, and in this paper a brief historical overview will only go back to 2010. The last 5 years of reforms provide more than enough material for one paper.
The many reforms in teacher education reflect political trends striving to make the Norwegian school competitive in an international perspective as regards international measures, alongside a future economical perspective based on the assumption that international competitiveness is necessary to maintain the high standard and quality of living we enjoy in Norway.
2. Perspective and Modes/Questions/Data sources
Some of the initiatives taken in the new reforms are to make elementary school teacher education more specialized (Ministry of Education and Research, 2010), and to strengthen teachers’ subject competence. Similar messages are reinforced by the new government’s policy paper (Ministry of Education and Research, 2014), including funding for in-service education of teachers focusing on subject matter knowledge, especially in Mathematics and Norwegian. Other intentions are to increase practicum during teacher education and to provide strengthened support during induction (2010; 2014). However, the most recent and radical initiative was officially launched by the government in 2014, and which states that from 2017 all teacher education will be a five year master program, meaning that elementary and secondary school teachers will have the same academic level of education, but with different majors. It seems that Finland is the light house also for Norwegian policy makers. In the same policy document (Teacher Empowerment, (my translation), 2014) formal education of school leaders will be continued and strengthened. We can recognize similar international trends mentioned in international documents coming from OECD (e.g. TALIS reports) and the European Commission (2013).
3. Analysis/Results and Contributions/Significance
The good news is that in Norway most (not always) initiatives are accompanied by funding, e.g. for further education of teachers, mentors and school leaders. Research has been prioritized through support of R&D projects, and the establishment and continued funding of the National Research School in Teacher Education (NAFOL) (Östern and Smith, 2013). If teacher education is to be at a master level, teacher education institutions need to have teacher educators at a doctoral level to be able to supervise the students’ master dissertations.
This paper will briefly present the current status of Norwegian teacher education prior to elaboration on three examples of government supported projects; education of mentors, a research project on developing a responsive pedagogy in the teaching of mathematics, and the National Research School in Teacher Education (NAFOL).
Teacher education in Norway is certainly on the move, and research on the Norwegian initiatives will hopefully contribute with new knowledge useful to our international colleagues.

Author

• Kari Smith, Norwegian University of Science and Technology