Parents in School Governance: The Case of Norway

• In Event: The Nordic Model of Education and Home-School Relations

Abstract

In Norway, as in many other countries, the role of parents in schools has been emphasised more in recent years and parents have been put forward as a central partner for the education system to cooperate with around children’s education (Bæck, 2020). In this presentation, the focus is on whether parents also have a voice in matters connected to school governance. This will be addressed through focusing on how formal legislation facilitates for parents’ possibilities to be involved at this level, how challenges to be found in the school-parent or teacher-parent relationship may cause challenges, and on how the structure of the education system itself represents a foundation that promotes or hinders parents’ role in school governance. Do parents in Norway have the opportunity to participate in the governance of educational institutions? Which processes may hinder such participation?

The presentation takes as it starting point an analysis of how education policy related to parental involvement and parents’ rights when it comes to their children’s education are articulated in the Education Act and in the national curriculum. The analysis shows that parents’ formal rights were extended in the beginning of the new millennium and that home-school cooperation is an important part of schools’ mandate in Norway, both in primary and in secondary school. The second part of the presentation highlights challenges found in the teacher-parent relationship that may defy the intentions of the formal legislations. Research from Norway and other countries show that such challenges exist and have to do with among other things power relations and aspects related to teacher professionalism (f. ex. Addi-Raccah & Arviv-Elyashiv, 2008; Bæck, 2010; Crozier, 1997; Vincent, 1996). In the third part of the presentation, the focus is on how the structure of the education system itself may represent a foundation that promotes or hinders parents’ role in school governance, drawing on Margaret Archer’s (2013) concepts of decentralized versus centralized education systems.

The presentation shows that even though a formal foundation has been put down to ensure the rights of parents when it comes to their children’s schooling, it is still an open question to what extent the formal rights are materialised in actual influence in the governance of schools in Norway.

References:
Addi-Raccah, A., & Arviv-Elyashiv, R. (2008). Parent Empowerment and Teacher Professionalism: Teachers' Perspective. Urban Education, 43(3), 394-415.

Archer, M. S. (2013). Social Origins of Educational Systems. Routledge.

Bæck, U.-D. K. (2010). 'We are the professionals': a study of teachers' views on parental involvement in school. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 31(3), 323-335.

Bæck, U.-D. K. (2020). Parental Involvement in Norway – Ideals and Realities. In A. Paseka & D. Byrne (Eds.), Parental Involvement Across European Education Systems: Critical Perspectives (pp. 77-89): Routledge.

Crozier, G. (1997). Empowering the powerful: A discussion of the interrelation of government poli- cies and consumerism with social class factors and the impact of this upon parent interventions in their children’s schooling. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 18, 187-200.

Vincent, C. (1996). Parents and teachers. Power and participation. London: Falmer Press.

Author

• Unn-Doris Karlsen Baeck, UIT The Arctic University of Norway