Nordic School Policy Approaches to Evidence, Social Technologies and Transnational Collaboration

Abstract

This volume gives an overview of how national school policies in the five different Nordic countries have produced, interpreted and practiced different – yet similar – approaches to evidence, social technologies and collaborations in transnational forums like the OECD, EU, and IEA. The national policy developments and situations are seen in the context of transnational and global influences and as producers of and simultaneously consumers of, Nordic influences. We investigate social technologies, like evidence and what works, as major carriers of influence. The analyses and discussions in the chapters of this volume are built on reports from the school systems of the five Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The country reports are constructed on the basis of a shared format for analyzing the particular contexts that each national school policy and practice emerges from in terms of society, politics, governance, professions and education. The comparisons of country reports and thematic chapters unveil similarities and differences that are central to understanding the ways that the different Nordic countries cope with transnational policy advice and policy formats.