Abstract
This volume analyses how social technologies – like evidence-based education, what works practices and digitalization of schooling – are being interpreted and enacted in the Nordic educational systems. The social technologies are often initiated by transnational agencies and networks outside the national systems, and in this context we are interested in detecting adaptations, responses and trends hereof in the different Nordic countries as well as exploring to what extent these responses share Nordic similarities. Therefore, we have also explored the question of whether – and to what extent – it makes sense to talk of such a thing as a Nordic dimension. Do we have five fundamentally different school and educations systems that exhibit sufficiently common traits, interdependency and mutual collaboration to justify talk about a Nordic model or a Nordic dimension in school and education policy? Is it a myth or a reality?
We do not want to produce yet another set of floating signifiers where concepts and findings are taken out of context and thus so vague that they do not really describe the phenomena. In line with this ambition, this chapter will sum up and discuss the contemporary and historical analyses of similarities and differences in national structures and discourses as they have appeared in the chapters of this book. We thus aim at contributing to developing a more robust foundation for analyzing the discourse of Nordicness in terms of social technologies, evidence, what works and digitalization.
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Notes
- 1.
We appreciate the assistance of Eyvind Elstad, professor at the Department of Teacher Education and School Research at Oslo Unicversity, in settling the delicate details of differences between teacher education programs in the different Nordic countries.
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Krejsler, J.B., Moos, L. (2021). Discussion: The Nordic Dimension in National School Policies and Transnational Social Technologies?. In: Krejsler, J.B., Moos, L. (eds) What Works in Nordic School Policies?. Educational Governance Research, vol 15. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66629-3_12
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