Policy knowledge networks and lesson drawing in an era of international comparison

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

There is wide consensus that globalization and knowledge-based regulation in the public sector has raised expectations of policy learning across national boundaries. One of the concrete challenges that policy actors face is how to gather, and evaluate, evidence and expertise in order to strengthen the quality and relevance of education. The two proposed panels explore how policy makers and experts handle this challenge in four different Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The presentations examine how policy makers use evidence and expertise when setting reform agendas, developing new or modified policy options, or issuing reforms for basic education. In particular, we discuss what kind of lesson drawing has taken place in each country and identify the role of domestic, regional, and international knowledge on school reforms. The research questions therefore are: how do they draw on regional and/or international knowledge in agenda setting or policy formulation (R1); and what counts for them as evidence and expertise? (R2)

The panels explore how certain global education policies (e.g., school choice, competency-based curriculum reform, etc.) draw on similar/different references in the various countries of the Nordic region, take on a different meaning, and are contextually translated differently. Each presentation of the two panels therefore pays special attention to policy processes, in particular to the nexus of national, Nordic, and international policy actors, their knowledge and experiences, and how they allude to both systems and outcomes. Notions of policy learning, borrowing, or reception on one hand and translation, adaptation, and re-contextualization on the other represent key concepts for the interpretive framework of the study.

The studies included in the panels employ an in-depth bibliographical, text-based network analysis to explore the reception of international, Nordic, and national policy knowledge for the most recent school reforms, education acts, or White Papers in the four countries:

• Denmark: the Danish Public School Reform (2013)
• Finland: National Core Curriculum Reform (2014)
• Norway: Subject renewal of the Knowledge Promotion Reform 2015/2020 (2006)
• Sweden: A gathering for school - National strategy for knowledge and equivalence (2015/2018)

By applying network analysis, we analyze the citations and references made in published policy documents. This enables us to examine the social structure of policy coalitions and interpret the various knowledge networks they build based on proximity and distance, respectively. Each presentation examines a comparable set of policy documents and associated sources that introduced evidence-informed school reform in each of the Nordic countries. Policy documents are regarded as both artifacts and discourses produced by the policy actors, whereas the references in those documents reflect the evidence base for these artifacts. Further, the references in policy documents show the linkages between policy documents; if two policy documents draw on similar evidence, they share some kind of affinity. This approach maps knowledge communities, policy advocacy groups, and discursive shifts between and within groups of actors, organizations and countries, and across different reform periods.

Therefore, the two proposed panels contribute to the ongoing discussion on (i) changes in the use of policy tools—notably the use of systematic reviews, evaluations, sector analyses, and OECD- and IEA-type international large-scale assessments (PISA, TIMSS, PIRLS, etc.) in four Nordic countries; (ii) the nexus between local, national, and global policy actors and their knowledge and experiences; and (iii) the application of network analysis as a methodological and analytical tool for understanding network governance in an era of international comparison.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Chairs

• Berit Karseth, University of Oslo

• Gita Steiner-Khamsi, Teachers College, Columbia University

Individual Presentations

• Interpreting References as a Technology of Authorization - Gita Steiner-Khamsi, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Evidence-based Policy Making: Understanding Different Types of Knowledge in Policy Process - Chanwoong Baek, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Reform of 2015/2018, the renewal entitled: A gathering for school – National strategy for knowledge and equivalence - Andreas Nordin, Linnaeus University; Ninni Wahlström, Linnaeus University

• Policy Knowledge in the Finnish Curriculum Reform - Jaakko Kauko, University of Tampere, Finland; Saija Volmari, University of Helsinki; Juho Anturaniemi, University of Tampere; Elina Kuparinen, University of Tampere; Iris Santos, University of Tampere

• Bibliometric network analysis: Methodological challenges and approaches for the study of policy knowledge - Oren Pizmony-Levy, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Knowledge sources in crafting school reform policy: The case of Norway - Kirsten Sivesind, University of Oslo; Berit Karseth, University of Oslo

• Global Influences of the 2013 Danish Public School Reform - Trine Juul Reder, Aalborg University; Christian Ydesen, Aalborg University

Discussants

• Justin J.W. Powell, University of Luxembourg

• Robin Shields, University of Bath