State-based curriculum-making: approaches to local curriculum work in Norway and Finland

Abstract

This article investigates how state authorities in Norway and Finland design national curriculum to provide different policy conditions for local curriculum work in municipalities and schools. The topic is explored by comparing how national authorities in Norway and Finland create a scope for local curriculum. The data consist of interviews with educational administrators as well as curricula documents and guidance material from the national level. The findings indicate two ways that state-based curriculum-making can provide conditions for control. In Finland, local curriculum work is constructed as a pedagogical process for developing local curriculum. In Norway, local curriculum work is constructed as a process for applying and thereby delivering the national curriculum. This illuminates that forms of state-based curriculum imply various ways of local curriculum control.

Keywords:

• national curriculum
• licensing
• teacher autonomy
• Norway
• Finland

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the Curriculum Studies, Educational Leadership and Governance (CLEG) research group at the University of Oslo, as well as Professor Berit Karseth, Associate Professor Kirsten Sivesind, Associate Professor Sølvi Mausethagen, and Professor Helen Gunter for their thorough comments and feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christina Elde Mølstad

Christina Elde Mølstad is currently an assistant professor at Hedmark University College, Department of Social Sciences, Hedmark University College, Norway. She is a former PhD student at the University of Oslo, studying state-based curriculum-making. Her PhD study investigates state-based curriculum-making for compulsory school in Norway and Finland.