The State of Educational Research in Norway

Berit Karseth
Faculty of Education, Oslo University
February 2012

Education research in Norway is related to institutional diversity, and can be dated to the establishment of a Chair in Education at the Norwegian University of Oslo in 1938. The development of a decentralized higher education system in the 1970s, and the establishment of district colleges, has had a major impact on educational research. The state college reform in the mid 1990s implied that the university sector and the state college sector came under the same legal act (Borgen et al 2010).  The development over the last two decades has shown gradually more emphasis on academic norms and values in the college sector (now labelled university colleges) including teacher education.

The numbers in the following presentation is based on a report produced by NIFU (Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education) in 2011 (Gunnes and Vabø 2011). The data in the report dates back to 2009.

The R&D expenditures are shared between the universities, the university colleges and the institute sector. In 2009 the university sector accounted for almost the half of the educational research, followed by the university colleges by 40 present and the institute sector with 10 present.  Educational research accounted for 3.5 percent of total R&D expenditure in the higher education sector and the institute sector in 2009. Compared with 2007, the university colleges increased their income. There was also an increase at the universities, while a decline was recorded in the institute sector. Educational research in Norway is primarily funded by public money (91%). Primary and lower secondary education was the dominating area of research followed by higher education and kindergarten. Furthermore, teaching, learning and development were the major research themes in educational research in 2009.

Of the 2,100 academic staff who participated in educational research in 2009, 60 percent were women. The proportion of women was high for all types of positions compared to the total research population. The average age education researchers were also higher than in the research population as a whole, 50 compared to 45 years.

Until the end of the 1980s, educational research largely synonymous with Pedagogikk and primarily funded through the basic funding of the institutions. With the development of different research programmes throughout the 1990s and 2000s educational research has become more inter-sectoral, inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary, and is conducted in all areas of society and with a lifelong-learning perspective.

In order to strengthen the educational research The Research Council launched in 2009 a new long term programme, UTDANNING 2020 which will run for a ten-year period. The Programme for Educational Research (UTDANNING2020) succeeds the Programme for Knowledge, Education and Learning (KUL) (2003-2007) and runs parallel with the Programme for Practice-based R&D in Preschool through Secondary Schools and Teacher Education (PRAKSISFOU) (2006-2010). Like these two programmes, the UTDANNING2020 programme is financed by the Ministry of Education and Research.

Educational research is described as a multidisciplinary field encompassing a variety of research disciplines, traditions and groups and according to the Work programme the programme seeks to enhance the quality of educational research by providing support to dynamic, internationally oriented research groups. The programme also establishes a framework that encourages interdisciplinary approaches and the systematic accumulation of knowledge (Work programme 2009). And it states that

”Pedagogy, special needs education and subject didactics comprise key disciplinary areas within educational research, but educational research also involves research within the social sciences, such as economics, political science, law and sociology, as well as within the humanities, such as history, philosophy and the history of ideas. The sector’s need for knowledge increasingly requires cross-disciplinary approaches”.

To conclude, educational research in Norway started as a field closely connected to the discipline of Pedagogy within the universities as well as within the development of teacher education. The research territory today is more open and it is difficult to define and delineate educational research with any great precision (cf Borgen et al 2010).This is an important observation as it has consequences for the boundary work of associations like NERA and EERA.

References:
Borgen, J.S, Stensaker, B., and Geschwind. L (2010) Nordisk utdanningsforskning. Sentrale kjennetegn - nye muligheter. TemaNord 2010:540, Nordisk ministerråd, København. <link http: www.norden.org no publikasjoner _blank external link in new>URL
Gunnes, H and Vabø, A (2011) Ressursinnsatsen innenfor utdanningsforskning 2009, Rapport 13, NIFU. <link http: www.nifu.no norway sitepages _blank external link in new>URL
Work programme 2009-2018 Norwegian Educational Research towards 2020-Utdanning2020. The Research Council of Norway, Oslo. <link http: www.forskningsradet.no servlet _blank external link in new>URL