Pre-vocational education in the curriculum: the case of Norwegian lower secondary education

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the composition of the Norwegian lower secondary school curriculum with a special emphasis on pre-vocational education from a contemporary perspective. The data consist of four official national curricula enacted from the 1970s until the present. Despite differences between the curricula, the main structure of school subjects has remained stable over time. Norwegian lower secondary school curricula mainly include academic subjects, even though pre-vocational education is, to varying degrees, present in all curricula, especially amongst elective subjects. This consolidated position of academic subjects results in a consistency in the composition of the curriculum. Curriculum change is most likely to happen amongst electives and is related to changes in policy making and societal changes. Pre-vocational education is mainly included in the first and current curriculum contrary to the second and third curriculum. These findings indicate that the international policy agenda and its emphasis on the relevance of education through stressing the linkage between education and the world of work only has a minor impact on Norwegian curricula. Further, the allocation of teaching hours shows that the status of pre-vocational subjects is low compared to that of academic subjects. International policies emphasizing basic skills strengthen the academic subjects even further.

KEYWORDS:

• Curriculum
• pre-vocational education
• school subjects
• comprehensive school
• Norway

Acknowledgments

We thank the research group CLEG (Curriculum Studies, Leadership and Educational Governance) at the University of Oslo, as well as Professor Emeritus Britt Ulstrup Engelsen, Professor Emeritus Sigmund Lieberg, Associate Professor Tina Trujillo and Dr Bernadette Hörmann, for their thorough comments and feedback on an earlier version of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. LK06 was introduced in 2006; however, due to a subsequent reform, the curriculum changed considerably from 2013 onwards. Contrary to previous curricula that were published in printed versions, LK06 is available on the website of the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training. Therefore, minor changes can be implemented directly, and LK06 can differ from school year to school year. In our analysis, we focus on the version of LK06 for the school year 2017/2018. There is on-going curriculum reform in Norway that will result in a new curriculum in 2020.

2. The list of subjects was published in 1987 (Goodson, 1995; Ross, 2000).

3. Until 1997, and while M74 and M87 were enacted, lower secondary education referred to Grades 7 through 9.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Notes on contributors

Maike Luimes

Maike Luimes is PhD candidate in the Department of Education, University of Oslo. Her PhD project focuses on curriculum policy and practice in pre-vocational education in Norwegian lower secondary schooling.

Berit Karseth

Berit Karseth is Professor in the Department of Education, University of Oslo. Her main research interests are curriculum policies and curriculum traditions within and beyond national boundaries and issues related to professionalism and knowledge.