Session Information
26 SES 11 B, Nordic Superintendents: Agents in a Broken Chain (Part 1)
Symposium to be continued in 26 SES 12 B
Contribution
It has been demonstrated that a country’s specific political culture has great impact on the way the country’s schooling system is organized. The differences between the countries’ schooling systems could be investigated through the lenses of how much different political cultures influ-ence the systems’ organization and draw the national schooling system in different directions. There has however internationally been a tendency to view the Nordic countries’ schooling sys-tems as very similar (for example in the ISSPP). A number of Scandinavian trends that are differ-ent from trends in other parts of the world have been identified: relatively strong state, relative-ly strong local authorities, comprehensive education, and a collaborative leadership. These strong trends are building on national values that in some ways are alike. Of course there are similarities but there are also differences. The comparing of similarities or the differences of the respective political cultures may contrib-ute to make clearer pictures of the political cultures in the Scandinavian countries in the way that Sartre showed that we can only see what a ‘thing’, for example a culture, is when we see what it is not. Therefore the cultures that may seem alike will when compared show differences if looked for, and that may be a tool to better understand the influence of the domestic culture on the school system and the superintendent’s opportunities and restrains in the system. What we are going to look for is how the governing of different countries’ school systems is exe-cuted. It is not possible to govern a nation, its institutions by strictly by economic and adminis-trative means through legislation alone. Cultural norms, traditions, and values in short culture permeates the way things are done, and these cultural traits that lie behind the ways things are done may be more important than formal government tools in steering the schools systems
References
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