Cristin-prosjekt-ID: 418538
Sist endret: 2. september 2014, 14:57

Cristin-prosjekt-ID: 418538
Sist endret: 2. september 2014, 14:57
Prosjekt

School Boards in the Governance Process

prosjektleder

Jan Merok Paulsen
ved Senter for praksisrettet utdanningsforskning ved Høgskolen i Innlandet

prosjekteier / koordinerende forskningsansvarlig enhet

  • Høgskolen i Innlandet

Tidsramme

Avsluttet
Start: 12. august 2013 Slutt: 31. desember 2015

Beskrivelse Beskrivelse

Tittel

School Boards in the Governance Process

Vitenskapelig sammendrag

The purpose of this book is to analyse local school district governance in a cross-cultural perspective based on national studies of local school boards in the Nordic countries and the United States. The overarching research question that has guided our national studies is: How are trans-national influences and national policies transformed into local policy cultures when they meet the school boards? In all the Nordic countries, the municipalities are equivalent with the school district level, whereas in the US, school districts are situated quite differently. But the point is that both Nordic municipalities and US school districts play a similar role as the interface between state policies and the schools. There are several reasons for this specific research agenda. First, we know that there is substantial variation across different national systems in the degree of decentralism (i.e. the distribution of power sources between the state and local districts), which again affects educational outcomes in different ways. But we know too little about the processes through which these sources of local autonomy are put into practice by school boards. Moreover, it is evident that the nature of local policy making in the school boards is heavily affected by the local cultural and societal context in which the school boards are situated, and we have been strongly motivated to explore deeper this interplay between context and policy-making at the local level. Second, local democracy is a core component in the national systems subjected to the study, and we wanted to explore if local discourses expressed by school boards differ from national policies and trans-national influences. For example, the Nordic discourse describes a participatory democracy, and a comprehensive schooling with strong local community roots, and we assume that this policy culture is contested by trans-national demands for accountability, standardization and enhanced indirect steering from the stat level. In the US, on contrary, the school districts have been more autonomous than in the Nordic countries, at the same time as federal authorities currently intend to implement common core standards across states and districts, which again create tensions at the local school board level. Third, it is evident that trans-national influences and national policies go through a transformative model when they meet the implementation level of local school districts. However, the shapes and forms of the various transformation processes, and the impacts on school leaders, teachers and students are under-investigated. Fourth, the members of school boards are elected from within the mu-nicipal board, they represent political parties, while in US members are elected amongst the school district stakeholders. By analysing a sample of country-cases, build on parallel surveys in all in-volved countries, we find that on one hand they share important similarities, at the same time as they, along with other dimensions, are significant dissimilar descriptions. These aspects are explored in cross country, thematic cases with authors from all participating countries of each chapter, The themes have emerged from analysing data across countries and looking for important similarities and differences in the functions, relations and understandings of school board chairs and members. Comparing across countries and cultures – Nordic and US - give us more clarity and insights in the function of individual systems. This book will shed light over educational governance and its possible impact on school professionals.

Metode

Cross-country comparative case studier

prosjektdeltakere

prosjektleder

Jan Merok Paulsen

  • Tilknyttet:
    Prosjektleder
    ved Senter for praksisrettet utdanningsforskning ved Høgskolen i Innlandet

Leif Moos

  • Tilknyttet:
    Prosjektdeltaker
    ved Aarhus Universitet

Olof Johansson

  • Tilknyttet:
    Prosjektdeltaker
    ved Umeå universitet

Kasper Kofod

  • Tilknyttet:
    Prosjektdeltaker
    ved Aarhus Universitet
Aktiv cristin-person

Hans Christian Høyer

  • Tilknyttet:
    Prosjektdeltaker
    ved Institutt for organisasjon, ledelse, styring ved Høgskolen i Innlandet
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