Policy Knowledge and Lesson Drawing in Nordic School Reform in an Era of International Comparison

The study examines how knowledge and expertise are used in the development of education policy in the Nordic countries, with a particular focus on basic education. In a context of increasing international comparison and expectations that national authorities will learn from “best practices” abroad, the project analyzes how decision makers in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden draw on research, documentation, and advice from international organizations when setting reform agendas, developing new or revised policy options, and implementing reforms. The research questions are: how do they mobilize regional and/or international knowledge in agenda-setting and policy formulation; what counts as evidence and expertise for them; and how do they stabilize and change national school reforms by building policy coalitions and learning from best practices?

The project is designed as an integrated, collaborative effort involving researchers from one US and five Nordic universities. It is informed by four main bodies of research: (1) studies of networks in the shift from “government” to “governance”; (2) research on “traveling reforms” and the relationship between “diffusion” and “reception”; (3) the increased reliance on externalization in political coalition-building; and (4) the use of evidence to reform and improve education.

Methodologically, the study combines bibliographical and text-based network analysis of policy documents with expert interviews. It employs, among other sources, a digital archive of Norwegian public reports (NOU) and white papers from 1988 to 2019 to examine the reception and translation of international, regional, and national policy knowledge, and shifts in knowledge use in Norway (1988–2020), as well as in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Sweden. The project has developed new methods and instruments for studying the use of knowledge and evidence in national and Nordic education policy, including combinations of citation and semantic analyses of documents. Given the POLNET project’s focus on the most recent school reform (defined as compulsory education, excluding higher education reform or other levels of education) in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, the following reforms were identified for each country:
Denmark: the 2013 Public School Reform
Finland: the 2014 National Core Curriculum for Basic Education
Iceland: Reform of 2014/2018, the renewal of the Icelandic National Curriculum Guide for Compulsory Schools with Subject Areas
Norway: Reform of 2016/2020, the renewal of the Knowledge Promotion Reform
Sweden: Reform of 2015/2018, the renewal entitled “A Gathering for School—National Strategy for Knowledge and Equivalence”

The findings show a marked increase in the use of references over time. In Norway, the number of references in NOUs more than doubled from the 2006 curriculum reform (Kunnskapsløftet 2006) to the 2020 reform (Kunnskapsløftet 2020), paralleling a greater involvement of academics in advisory and commission work. OECD emerges as the most important international source of knowledge, while national reports and public documents remain the primary basis for policy development. Compared with neighboring countries, Norway relies most heavily on commissioned reports, Sweden has the highest number of references to public documents, and Finland has the fewest references overall. A surprising finding is the relatively limited use of Nordic publications, despite political ambitions for Nordic cooperation.

The project also demonstrates how OECD often exercises indirect influence through coalitions of universities, publishers, authorities, and international organizations. The analyses provide new insights into the interactions between fields of knowledge and knowledge providers, as well as how experts directly and indirectly influence the legitimization and coordination of reform policies. At the same time, the study identifies institutional differences between systems and practices in the Nordic countries, and various constellations of knowledge providers that both constrain and enable international influence. Despite increasing internationalization, the project concludes that Norwegian education policy remains anchored in a social-corporatist tradition in which the state cooperates closely with academic communities and interest organizations.

The study enables both policy researchers and policy professionals to better understand changes in the use of policy tools, particularly systematic reviews, evaluations, sector analyses, and OECD- and IEA-type international large-scale assessments (such as PISA, TIMSS, PIRLS). It also contributes to foundational policy research on the nexus between local, national, and global policy actors and on transnational policy shifts, including the interpretation and translation of concepts such as “accountability,” “choice,” “competency-based curriculum,” and “equity.” The project’s database is expected to be expanded and used in future research on the influence of educational expertise and the impact of media discourse on education reform policies. Communication of the findings and interpretations has already stimulated policy debates on the characteristics of evidence use in Norway and neighboring countries.

Data are freely available for download under “Related documents and other material.” License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).