Micro Policy Making in Schools: The Role of School Leaders in Test-Based Accountability Dynamics in Norway

• In Event: 75.011 - The Intended and Side Effects of Accountability Reforms in Education: International Perspectives

Abstract

Objectives
This paper analyzes how and why lower secondary school professionals (school principals, senior leaders, and teachers) make use of national test results. The overarching research question in the project was: How and why do school professionals in a Norwegian social democratic context make use of national test results?

Perspective
The concept of “making use of” national test results is explained as school professionals’ construction of discourses regarding the central government’s demands for national testing policies; how they deal with the intentions of such policies, and how power and talk play into these policies. The paper is particularly concerned with policy makers’ increasing transnational emphasis on the relations between school quality and large-scale student assessment and how “large scale data modes” of accountability have entered the educational context of Norway, which has long been dominated by social democratic values and soft accountability practices.

Conceptually, the paper follows up on Ball et al.’s (2012) call to take local contexts seriously in an effort to understand why policies are enacted differently in seemingly similar schools. The rules and thoughts (and talk) of school professionals about how to make use of national test results is a part of a “new legitimation” movement in the Norwegian education system. This also means that shared beliefs and cognitions play a vital role in use of test results, and that bargaining, conflict, and power are ever-present realities in the school (cf. DiMaggio & Powell, 1991, p. 27). Therefore, power and conflict need to be addressed when studying how schools make use of national test results.

Methods and data sources
The paper is based on a multiple-case study that has applied a mixed-methods approach to the empirical data gathered in one Norwegian municipality. Data includes 12 individual interviews with school principals and senior leaders from four schools, 60 hours with on-site observation and informant-conducted video recordings of meetings of school principals and senior leaders and of teacher teams in two lower secondary schools. In addition, 176 lower secondary teachers were surveyed.

Results
Findings show that perspectives on conforming practices and symbolic responses to national testing policies are prominent, but great trust in school professionals and internal responsibility for the core purpose of education are also essential. The school leaders focused on low-performing students when talking about data use, and internal accountability trumped external accountability. Among central contributions is the finding that the principal’s discursive role and facilitating practices as a formal leader seem to deeply depend on his/her relationship with teachers.

Significance
In summary, this study contributes new knowledge about micro policy making in schools in a social democratic educational context and how the power at play may take unpredictable and diverse forms both within and between schools. The study contributes new knowledge about micro policy making in schools in a social democratic, soft accountability educational context and how the power at play may take unpredictable and diverse forms both within and between schools.

Author

• Ann Elisabeth Gunnulfsen, University of Oslo