Session Information
05 SES 14 A, Symposium: Tackling Inequalities Through Educational Diversity
Symposium
Contribution
Along with the other Scandinavian countries, the Norwegian education system is widely recognized as one that promotes educational equality and equity. Secured by the social-democratic welfare system, efforts to achieve education for all have a longstanding tradition within educational policy and practice (e.g. Volckmar, 2016). The goal of maintaining and even strengthening educational equity is supported by numerous educational policy measures, such as a low-stratification structure of the education system, the gradual expansion of comprehensive schools to thirteen years, and the introduction of the principle "adapted education". The latter emphasizes that children have the right to an education adapted to their needs, abilities and requirements. This means that the educational institutions are obliged to establish appropriate practices that address the growing diversity of the student body by recognizing and including non-formal and informal educational settings (NOU 2009: 18). With these developments, Norway is in line with the perspective that it is not enough to legally secure access to educational institutions to ensure equality in education, but that specific resources and measures within the education system are needed. In this context research points to the insensitivity of educational institutions regarding the wider socio-cultural embedding of educational practices also including non-formal and informal education (e.g. Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977; Grundmann et al., 2003). This often leads to a gap between the intended egalitarian educational policy and the reality of educational practice. Based on stakeholders’ (such as government officials, teachers' union experts, education practitioners) perspectives from Norway which explicitly indicate that an egalitarian educational process for everyone requires a balanced relationship between the formal, non-formal and informal educational arenas (Jobst et al., 2022) the presentation examines two different approaches on how to interlink formal, non-formal or informal educational settings within the Norwegian egalitarian education system. The declared goal of the two practice cases is to reduce educational inequality and thus motivate at-risk young people to complete school. Both cases differ in their character – while one practice is part of a top-down program the other practice can be described as bottom-up. Against this background, we compare both cases in terms of their mediation between formal, non-formal and informal educational settings. Further, we show the extent to which non-formal educational practices can influence formal educational contexts and how this can lead in stakeholders’ perspectives to equal participation in education.
References
Bourdieu, P. & Passeron, J.-C. (1977). Reproduction in education, society and culture. Sage. Grundmann, M., Groh-Samberg, O., Bittlingmayer, U. & Bauer, U. (2003): Milieuspezifische Bildungsstrategien in Familie und Gleichaltrigengruppe. In: Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft 6, 1, S. 25-45. NOU 2009: 10. (2009). Fordelingsutvalget. Finansdepartementet. Jobst, S., Jensen, J, Skrobanek, J. & Strand, D. (2022). Working paper: Existing programme- and non-programme-related pioneering practices tackling/reducing educational inequalities from a comparative perspective. edited by PIONEERED. Bergen. Volckmar, N. (2016). Utdanningshistorie: grunnskolen som samfunnsintegrerende institusjon. Gyldendal akademisk.
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