Danish School Policy: Remaining Nordic whilst going transnational

TY - CHAP

T1 - Danish School Policy

T2 - Remaining Nordic whilst going transnational

AU - Krejsler, John Benedicto

N1 - John Benedicto Krejsler is a Professor at Aarhus University, Denmark. His research on new conditions for (pre-)school and teacher education in a transnational perspective brings together education policy, new conditions for producing ‘truths’, and social technologies. He was President of the Nordic Educational Research Association (2019-2022) and a council member of the European Educational Research Association (2009-2018, 2022 -), He was a Visiting Professor at Kristianstad University, Sweden (2009-2010), and at UCLA, USA (2015-2016).

PY - 2023/8

Y1 - 2023/8

N2 - This chapter presents Denmark as a case among the Nordic countries where school policies have turned increasingly transnational. In all five of the Nordic countries, the OECD, the EU, and the IEA have been significant actors driving school reform, while in the process transnational collaboration has also transformed Nordic collaboration itself by becoming the new medium by which inter-Nordic educational comparisons are made. Danish school had previously been admired internationally as an example of Scandinavian progressive and equity-oriented educational thinking. From the millennium shift, however, Danish school reversed direction and moved toward a strong accountability model drawing on ‘new public management’ and featuring standards-based education and a testing-controlled output focus. This reversal of policy from the previous approach based on German-inspired didactics and Bildung was strongly influenced by Anglo-American norms and standards, new public management and by ‘school effectiveness’ and ‘evidence’ models from England, New Zealand and Canada. Neoliberal discourse redefined school as operating in a competitive market for students, with increasing scope for commercialization. Welfare state ideals of equity, however, still offer a strong counterforce to this development. Recently, a national(ist) turn offers increasing contestation of transnational solutions of accountability, testing, and standards-based education, and some call for an increasing focus on so-called Danish values.

AB - This chapter presents Denmark as a case among the Nordic countries where school policies have turned increasingly transnational. In all five of the Nordic countries, the OECD, the EU, and the IEA have been significant actors driving school reform, while in the process transnational collaboration has also transformed Nordic collaboration itself by becoming the new medium by which inter-Nordic educational comparisons are made. Danish school had previously been admired internationally as an example of Scandinavian progressive and equity-oriented educational thinking. From the millennium shift, however, Danish school reversed direction and moved toward a strong accountability model drawing on ‘new public management’ and featuring standards-based education and a testing-controlled output focus. This reversal of policy from the previous approach based on German-inspired didactics and Bildung was strongly influenced by Anglo-American norms and standards, new public management and by ‘school effectiveness’ and ‘evidence’ models from England, New Zealand and Canada. Neoliberal discourse redefined school as operating in a competitive market for students, with increasing scope for commercialization. Welfare state ideals of equity, however, still offer a strong counterforce to this development. Recently, a national(ist) turn offers increasing contestation of transnational solutions of accountability, testing, and standards-based education, and some call for an increasing focus on so-called Danish values.

KW - Danish school policy

KW - Nordic dimension

KW - comparative education

KW - transnational education policy

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85167893900&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-031-35434-2_2

DO - 10.1007/978-3-031-35434-2_2

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 978-3-031-35433-5

T3 - Educational Governance Research

SP - 27

EP - 46

BT - School Policy Reform in Europe

A2 - Krejsler, John Benedicto

A2 - Moos, Lejf

PB - Springer

CY - Cham

ER -