Highlighted Session: Tracing the Formation and Utilization of Evidence in Nordic Education Policy

Group Submission Type: Highlighted Paper Session

Proposal

Over the past years, there has been a growing interest among research institutions to produce usable research that can demonstrate high impact on public policies. Governments on their side, tend to commission policy-relevant educational research with a strong preference for studies that draw on international large-scale student assessments, reviews of “best practices,” and impact evaluations (Verger, Parcerisa & Fontdevila, 2019; Waldow & Steiner-Khamsi, 2019). As a consequence, researchers have succinctly documented how evidence has become integral to both policy processes and evaluation of research practices (Segerholm, Rönnberg, Lindgren, & Hult, 2019). As a result, critics of evidence-based policy planning have rightfully pointed out that, in practice, this move entails a (pseudo) rationalization or scientification of political decisions (Smith, Bandola-Gill, Meer, Stewart, & Watermeyer, 2020). The façade of rationality has been thoroughly dismantled in policy studies and includes critics who shed doubts on whether governance by numbers is less political or more rational than other modes of regulation. Even though many have scrutinized evidence-based policy planning, the focus has been on educational researchers who carry out commissioned work for the government and are therefore suspected to manufacture evidence in line with their political mandate. In contrast, whether and how government officials produce and use scientific knowledge is somewhat under-explored.
Our international research group intends to fill this gap. Three features of our comparative policy study deserve special mention: (i) context-sensitive cross-national comparison, (ii) the empirical study of policy transfer in the Nordic region, and (iii) the introduction of social network analysis as a useful method of inquiry for policy studies. The symposium establishes the context, background and importance of studying evidence-based policy and the role of expert bodies in the field of education. Key questions of the project are as follows: In an era of international comparison, how do policy makers in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) draw on domestic, regional, and international knowledge? How do they use evidence and expertise when setting reform agendas, developing new or modified policy options, or issuing new or revised school reforms?
The presentations draw on comparative network analysis, which combine bibliometric and content analysis as a useful research strategy for empirically studying the use of “evidence” in the policy process. Each of the five national research teams has identified the key policy documents as well as policy-relevant studies or commission reports for the most recent school reform in their country. These texts, along with those references listed in the policy documents, studies, and reports, have been entered into a bibliometric database. The database is extensive and includes 231 references for Denmark, 677 for Finland, 193 for Iceland, 2,312 for Norway, and 1,421 for Sweden. For more information about the research design, see Steiner-Khamsi, Karseth and Baek (2020).
The database has enabled the teams to examine the use of evidence in policy knowledge over time, across levels (national, regional, international), across national contexts (within the five Nordic countries), and across function systems (science versus politics; expert panel reports versus government policy documents). A primary concern of the symposium is to explore the significance of evidence through the use of different policy tools—notably the use of systematic reviews, evaluations, sector analyses, and OECD- and IEA-type international large-scale assessments. In addition, it emphasizes the importance of comparing spatial reference patterns to systems; for example, how reform policy in one country refers to similar reforms in other countries. Finally, it looks specifically at how policy makers and experts take reference types such as evidence, best practices, or international standards into account.
References
Segerholm, C., Rönnberg, L., Lindgren, J., & Hult, A. (2019). Governing by Evaluation: Setting the scene. In C. Segerholm, A. Hult, J. Lindgren, & L. Rönnberg (Eds.), The Governing-Evaluation-Knowledge Nexus (pp. 1-23): Cham: Springer
Smith, K. E., Bandola-Gill, J., Meer, N., Stewart, E., & Watermeyer, R. (2020). The Impact Agenda: Controversies, Consequences and Challenges. Bristol: Policy Press.
Steiner-Khamsi, G., Karseth, B., & Baek, C. (2020). From Science to Politics: Commissioned reports and their political translation into White Papers. Journal of Education Policy, 35: 1
Verger, A., Parcerisa, L., & Fontdevila, C. (2019). The growth and spread of large-scale assessments and test-based accountabilities: A political sociology of global education reforms. Educational Review, 71(1)
Waldow, F., & Steiner-Khamsi, G. (2019). Understanding PISA's Attractiveness : Critical analyses in comparative policy studies. London: Bloomsbury Academic

Sub Unit

• Globalization & Education SIG

Chair

• Kirsten Sivesind, University of Oslo

Individual Presentations

• How Much Policy Advice is Changed and Lost in Political Translation? - Gita Steiner-Khamsi, Teachers College, Columbia University & NORRAG; Chanwoong Baek, University of Oslo; Berit Karseth, University of Oslo; Andreas Nordin, Linnaeus University

• The OECD and the Field of Knowledge Brokers in Danish, Finnish and Icelandic Education Policy - Christian Ydesen, Aalborg University; Jaakko Kauko, University of Tampere, Finland

• Regional Policy Knowledge and the Nordic "other." - Saija Volmari, University of Helsinki; Kirsten Sivesind, University of Oslo

• Tracing a Regional Education Reform Movement Using Author Co-Citation Network Analysis - Berit Karseth, University of Oslo; Oren Pizmony-Levy, Teachers College, Columbia University; Ninni Wahlström, Linnaeus University

Discussant

• Antoni Verger, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona