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Navigating New Frontiers: A Comparative Study of Educational Values Pre- and Post-Police Education Reform in Iceland
Fri, September 13, 9:30 to 10:45am, Faculty of Law, University of Bucharest, Floor: Ground floor, Amphitheater 2 „Nicolae Titulescu”Abstract
Following other European countries, in 2016, Iceland conducted an educational reform in their police education, transforming from an Academy (vocational) program to a University (academic) program. Considering new knowledge paradigms emerging in policing and tensions between practice-based and research-based knowledge, it would be valuable to investigate how students and police officers value new types of content in contrast to traditional content in police education. Comparing student responses at the Icelandic National Police Academy with those of students at the new university program gives insights into how students make sense of new and traditional competences before and after the reform. The following research questions of this paper are:
(1) How do police students value new types of educational content in contrast to traditional content in police education before and after the police education reform in Iceland?
(2) Are the new content areas considered legitimate knowledge in police education by police students?
This study compares police students’ values of traditional and new competence areas in police education prior to police education reform in 2016 to university level and after the reform. In addition, comparison of different forms of competence will be examined at the beginning and end of students’ education programs. Participants were police students at the Icelandic National Police Academy 2011-2016 (5 cohorts) and police students at the University of Akureyri 2017-2023 (6 cohorts).
The findings will be discussed in the context of professionalization and academization of police education. This study adds knowledge to the professional education policy literature by using longitudinal data to focus on students' perceptions of new and enduring competencies during police education reform from an academy to university level.