Processes of reforming: The case of the Norwegian state school inspection policy frameworks

ABSTRACT

State school inspection in Norway has undergone multiple reform initiatives from the state level, a system predominantly aimed at controlling legal compliance of school districts and individual schools. Rather than focusing on policy reform, this article draws attention to how enactment of state inspection policy has taken place through institutional and dynamic processes of reforming, within and across hierarchical levels in organisations. Theoretically, the study applies an institutional understanding of the actor-centred concepts of reforming and policy enactment. The article historically analyses how inspection policy frameworks in Norway have evolved from control and support, via mere compliance control, to more recently include modes of evaluation and potential support. Finally, the article suggests that, by focusing on the dynamic relations and processes of policy enactment, it is possible to fully capture the complexity of reforming state inspection of schools.

KEYWORDS:

• Enactment
• institutionalism
• policy
• reforming
• state school inspection

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank fellow members of the research group “Curriculum Studies, Leadership, and Educational Governance” (CLEG) at the University of Oslo for their constructive suggestions on this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. This was changed in 2012, from the National Quality Assurance System (NQAS) to the Quality Assurance System (QAS).

2. The author wishes to thank professor Stephen J. Ball for the use of Figure 1.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jeffrey Brooks Hall

Jeffrey Brooks Hall is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Teacher Education and School Research, University of Oslo, Norway. His main research interests include education policy, school inspection, and educational leadership. Hall currently leads the project “Professional norms, school leadership and educational law: A comparative study of Norway and Sweden” (PRONLED).