Inspection of social outcome in Norway?....

Agenda for my presentation Landscape Placement of legislation Content and Methodology Social outcome

The Directorate for Education and Training County Governors (18) Ministry of Education and Research The Directorate for Education and Training County Governors (18) Local Municipalities(428) Primary and lower secondary school Upper secondary Education and Training Regional Counties (19) Adult Education Local authorities Owned and run by Kindergartens (Private and Public) Inspected and supported from… Sentral regional National level Supported from Private schools and Folk High - schools Inspected by…

National authorities vs Local authorities

The placement of legislation National legislation for primary and lower secondary education and training contains a number of rules that as a whole shall contribute to the individual pupil (...) receiving a safe, qualitative and quantitative education in line with the Storting’s (Parliament's) intentions. In order to ensure compliance with this body of rules, it is necessary for school owners to be subject to inspections and controls.

Inspection – in Norway Fundamental instrument to guarantee pupils legally established right to a balanced education of the highest quality Our inspections include two main activities: investigate the practice of the school owner and in the school, and, make orders to correct practice that conflict with relevant laws

Inspecting social outcomes in schools

The Norwegian Education act, Section 1-1: The objectives of education and training: Paragraph 5-6: “The pupils and apprentices shall develop knowledge, skills and attitudes so that they can master their lives and take part in working life and society. They shall have the opportunity to be creative, committed and inquisitive. The pupils and apprentices shall learn to think critically and act ethically and with environmental awareness. They shall have joint responsibility and the right to participate. Schools and training establishments shall meet the pupils and apprentices with trust, respect and demands, and give them challenges that promote formation and the desire to learn. All forms of discrimination shall be combated”

The Norwegian Education act, Section 1-1: The objectives of education and training: Paragraph 5-6: “The pupils and apprentices shall develop knowledge, skills and attitudes so that they can master their lives and take part in working life and society. They shall have the opportunity to be creative, committed and inquisitive. The pupils and apprentices shall learn to think critically and act ethically and with environmental awareness. They shall have joint responsibility and the right to participate. Schools and training establishments shall meet the pupils and apprentices with trust, respect and demands, and give them challenges that promote formation and the desire to learn. All forms of discrimination shall be combated”

Inspecting psychosocial environment How the schools handle abusive behavior How students and parents are involved and engaged in the preventive work in the school Schools work to prevent abusive behavior

Different collaboration councils schools must have! Student councils Parents councils Joint committee( by the two above) An school environment council Also inspected: Activity? Relevant subjects? Information from the school? Make their statements? This inspection has also controlled if…. We believe that all of subjects in this inspection, in an indirect way are controlling if the school are working good to secure a good social outcome! Well functioning councils provide a good arena to teach the students democratic values and how to express their opinions… // almost all inspected schools had created student and parent councils, but more than 30 % had not created the school environment council……. About 50 % of the inspected schools do not have routines on how they shall involve all students in the work to improve the psychosocial environment. The inspection has also disclosed that even if the necessary councils are created, they do not always have frequently meeting. This also affects students ability to become involved and engaged. It is important to motivate the schools to create the council by making them understand that a good psychosocial environment is based on all stakeholders being able to influence the schools work and express their opinions…

Inspection report Interviews Analysis Notification Methodology Preliminary Final Inspection report School leaders Teachers Students Parents Others Interviews School documents Analysis Schools/ school Authorities are notified of the inspection through a written “warning”. Notification

Consequences of inspection Public schools Private schools Corrections(Injunctions) - a description of what to do in order to obtain a practice in accordance with law Corrections(Injunctions) Withdrawal of the funding's Hold back funding's Withdrawal of the schools approval

Carrying out the inspection It is the school owner(municipality, county or a private school owner) who is the addressee for inspection, but: Investigation is normally carried out at school level (some themes are only subjected towards the school owners) Do not inspect the individual teacher If school visits – this normally takes 2-3 days and we have interviews with: Municipalities and schools chosen for inspection based on Risk analysis: Student survey Media attention National tests? Other national surveys etc

Other examples of student involvement(not part of our inspection) Youth council: To give young people an opportunity to present advice and ideas and to propose suggestions that are discussed at schools to the local administration and politicians

Thank you for listening - I’m done!! Now Discussions!

Discussion Is the social outcome of education considered when inspecting? What are the focus of other approaches to social outcome? What are the main results / effects of these approaches? Is it outcome or input that are inspected? Feedback and Reflections?