From Individual Accountability to Shared Responsibility: Reconceptualizing Learning Outcomes

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: Eisner in a New Era: Accountability, Knowledge, Aesthetics, and Criticism

Abstract

During recent decades, learning outcomes has become a key concept in education policy emphasizing individual accountability and employability. The aim of this paper is to discuss how these trends have been acted out in curriculum reforms in two Scandinavian countries, Norway and Sweden. The results of the case study are analyzed using Elliot Eisner’s work on learning outcomes as a theoretical point of departure, and show that the public education reforms of Sweden and Norway have driven education towards predefined and measurable outcomes in what we discuss as an expression of ‘new Taylorism.’ Finally, Eisner’s work is discussed as a promising starting point for a widened and multidimensional approach to learning outcomes.

Authors

• Tine Sophie Proitz, University of Southeast Norway

• Andreas Nordin, Linnaeus University