Search

This study explored the experiences of inclusion and exclusion of African academics in Norway in various sectors of the society and their participation in these sectors. Using a mixed method research approach, 166 African academics completed a 20-item questionnaire entitled Perceived Exclusion Scale (PES) and two open-ended questions about their mental effects and coping mechanisms of exclusion. Descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis procedures were used to analyze the data. The results showed that the participants experienced exclusion in almost all the sectors of the Norwegian society with concomitant effects of depression and insomnia for most of the participants. Participants mentioned acceptance, confrontational strategy, avoidance strategy, theological group discussion and positive attitudes as key coping mechanisms to exclusion and discrimination. This study could be used as a baseline for future research on the psychological and mental health effects of discrimination of Africans and African-Norwegians. The study is a pointer to the public discourses on the positive sides of immigration in general and the role of migrants' contribution to the Norwegian society.

ICAP is a framework that classifies learning processes based on students' explicit behaviors. The framework is developed for testing the hypothesis that interactive exercises are better than constructive exercises, and active exercises are better than the passive exercises for higher cognitive engagement and better learning outcomes. The ICAP Framework is intended to assist researchers, instruction designers and instructors in determining the activities appropriate for the aimed research and teaching. This study aims to evaluate articles based on or supported by the ICAP Framework from various aspects. In the study, employing the descriptive survey method, data collection was conducted through document analysis, while content analysis was utilized to analyze the data. The 71 articles reviewed within the study's scope were examined through the "data collection form" developed by the authors. In this context, the articles' general and methodological characteristics and themes and the findings related to ICAP contexts are presented. As a result of the research, no study regarding the ICAP Framework was conducted in Turkey. It was revealed that most of the studies, which have increased in number since 2017 in various countries, utilize the ICAP framework at the analytical level or create models-modules and develop toolsscales based on the ICAP Framework. Additionally, it was observed that mostly undergraduate and K12 students were studied in face-to-face education, with social sciences as the leading disciplinary field and teaching-learning approaches and design-development-evaluation as the most frequently studied topics, while in studies in which mixed and qualitative methods were the leading methods, exploratory and experimental approaches were more preferred. In line with these results, recommendations are presented to contribute to the field.

This qualitative explorative case study aims to investigate Norwegian early childhood education and care directors' and deputy directors' enactments of distributed pedagogical leadership to get a deeper understanding of the relational dynamics between them. In order to achieve the aim, an interpretative approach was used to collect data from individual interviews with six participants. In addition, we collected the participants job-descriptions. Distributed leadership frameworks that involve multiple persons enacting pedagogical leadership in interdependent ways, inform the study. The findings of this study illustrate those enactments of distributed pedagogical leadership between ECEC directors and deputy directors occur both by leading together where they enact the same leadership task and where they work separately with tasks, they have divided between them. Additionally, shared authority, dialogue on pedagogical development, support and division of tasks show various forms of distributed pedagogical leadership enactments. The study highlights some implications for further attention to take benefit from distributed pedagogical leadership. This is important as distributive leadership is seen to increase the capacity of pedagogical leadership through collaboration to deal with challenges and high workload resulting from new requirements and changes.

The use of makerspaces in Norwegian compulsory education is growing. However, using maker-centred learning to support creativity has yet to be examined extensively in the Norwegian context. Consequently, the aim of this research is to explore Norwegian makerspace teachers' conceptions of the use of maker-centred learning to augment creative capabilities and digital competences. The study focuses on teachers' understandings of creativity and makerspaces along with various aspects of maker-centred learning and how they support creativity. The data was collected via six semi-structured interviews with teachers working in school-based makerspaces. In the interviews, the teachers conceptualised creativity related to makerspaces and reflected on various pedagogical aspects of managing creative makerspace activities. The research indicates that teachers have similar understandings of makerspaces but different interpretations of creativity. As a result, the makerspaces are designed differently, and the teachers use a variety of teaching methods. The findings also indicate that the teacher must be able to change their role from being an instructor to a facilitator and observer while also managing the utilised technology. Digital technology, collaboration, and constraints were also found to be factors that supported students' creativity.

Increased time-on-task is one of the overall goals for teacher education in both Denmark and Norway. However, student teachers' time-on-task in those programs are uncertain and highly debated indicators of research input. Researchers adopt this indicator with the expectation that student teachers must invest time and effort in their courses that are approximately equivalent to that expended during a standard workweek. The purpose of this article is to analyse the differences between Danish and Norwegian teacher education for elementary schools based on a uniform survey conducted in each country; more specifically, the survey queried student teachers' time-on-task in faculty- and student faculty-led campus activities. In this empirical study, we use survey data to examine factors that influence the duration of student teachers' time-on-task in Norway (n = 274) and Denmark (n = 1224). To meet the study's objectives, we conducted an ordinary least squares regression analysis and found that student teachers' self-discipline and perceived study demands are the most important exogenous factors in the duration of their time-on-task. The analyses led us to explore their implications for the structure of teacher education programs, particularly in terms of curriculum design and the articulation of academic expectations.

A barrier to teacher retainment is the lack of professional preparedness. Limitations with live, hands-on teacher training can contribute to inadequate preparedness, particularly in home-school collaboration. This pilot feasibility study explored using virtual reality simulation (VRS) technology with ninety-seven pre-service teachers in Norway, embedded within a flipped learning design session. Results from the qualitative post session interviews describe how the VRS training supported pre-service teachers in feeling better prepared with conducting parent-teacher consultations. This is supported by quantitative self-efficacy assessments. Thus, using VRS for supporting niche areas such as parent-teacher consultations can support better preparedness for teachers if it cannot be experienced first-hand.

This study compared the outcome of Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention when supervision was given over videoconference for half of the meetings. This started after 3 months of intervention. The participating children were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and were randomly placed in either the videoconference group or in the onsite group. The dependent variables were autism severity, preferences for socially mediated stimuli and problematic behaviors. The independent variable was supervision onsite or by videoconference. The results showed no significant differences between the groups on any of the outcome measures. A limitation of this study was the small group sizes, which limits generalization of the results to other children and settings. Furthermore, the onsite group received some supervision sessions via videoconference due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, our tentative conclusion is that supervision via videoconference has the potential to replace onsite supervision at least partially, but that larger scale research in a variety of settings is needed.

Purpose: This study explores debate seeking and conflict avoidance as dimensions of disagreement orientation, and how factors such as citizenship education and individual background may impact how young people engage in situations with conflicting political perspectives. The aim is to study whether how we facilitate citizenship education may affect young people to be more comfortable with political disagreement. Design/methodology/approach: Multilevel modelling and factor analysis is performed using a survey among a selection of Norwegian fifteen-year-olds. Findings: Citizenship education characteristics impact conflict avoidance but not debate seeking. Debate seeking is rather related to individual background factors such as political interest and attention paid to the news. Finally, the dimensions form basis of a potential typology of young people's disagreement orientation. Research limitations/implications: Further research is needed to establish causality, however the results have implications for the role of disagreement in teacher education and classrooms.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore opportunities to develop higher-order thinking for students in social studies, with a focus on teachers' content coverage and support for engaging in social studies analysis. Design/methodology/approach: A video study using naturalistic classroom observations of 80 social studies lessons was conducted in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden using a predefined observation manual. Findings: The findings showed different patterns of emphasis on content coverage and intellectually demanding analyses across classrooms in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Practical implications: The findings contribute empirical knowledge about naturally occurring classroom practices that can be used for professional development. They also highlight how contextual factors may influence teaching in social studies.

This study analyze data from three national contexts in which teachers worked with the same teaching materials and inquiry classroom activities, investigating teachers' use of strategies to promote interaction and scaffolding when participating in a professional development program. The data material is collected from three case studies from the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden, respectively. Each case is from a teaching unit about green plants and seed sprouting. In one lesson in this unit, students were involved in planning an experiment with sprouting seeds, and this (similar) lesson was videotaped in three national settings. The main research question is, as follows: How do primary teachers use questions to scaffold conceptual understanding and language use in inquiry science activities? The data analysis shows that teachers ask different kind of questions such as open, closed, influencing and orienting questions. The open, orienting questions induce students to generate their own ideas, while closed orienting and influencing questions often scaffold language and content-specific meaning-making. However, both open, closed, orienting and influencing questions can scaffold student language and conceptual understanding. Often, teacher questions scaffold both language content-specific meaning-making at the same time. The study shows the subtle mechanisms through which teachers can use questions to scaffold student science literacy and thereby including them in classroom interaction.

Skills in interdisciplinary collaboration are required to address many complex problems facing society. As such, interdisciplinarity is a critical competency for students to develop. However, teachers' effectiveness in teaching interdisciplinarity is often hindered by silo structures within university faculties. To address this in the Experts in Teamwork (EiT) programme, a MSc in a Norwegian university that develops students' interdisciplinary teamwork skills through projects that address real-world challenges, a community of practice (CoP) evolved among teachers from different EiT classes. Over 20 months, CoP members participated in digital and in-person discussions, lecture exchanges, student and professional conferences, and coevaluation of student work, with an aim of better understanding interdisciplinarity and approaches for teaching it to students. The success of the CoP in achieving these aims was evaluated through a series of focus groups consisting of members of the CoP. The CoP achieved some success in fostering pedagogical conversations that were transformative for participants' understanding of interdisciplinarity in their practice. Participants reported that CoP participation influenced their interactions with students, ultimately helping students to develop a better understanding of interdisciplinarity. However, participants reported limitations in the CoP as a professional development resource, citing its newness and the required time commitment. Participants felt that these issues could be addressed via greater institutional support.

Studies into why young people choose to study journalism have often been informed by a belief in journalism's inherent worthiness within civil society. However, as surveys show decreasing trust in journalism and increasing avoidance of news in many countries, this article asks whether young people are being put off studying journalism in part because of rising public cynicism around its societal worth. The research compares data sets across multiple countries to explore whether there is a statistical relationship between attitudes among 18- to 20-year-olds toward trust in news and interest in learning to produce it.

The integrated status of Social Studies in the Norwegian "Curriculum for Knowledge Promotion in Primary and Secondary Education and Training 2020" reflects an international educational trend pertaining to a movement from knowledge and traditional disciplinary thinking to generic skills, competence and boundary crossing. This article addresses the changed organisation of geography as a subject within Social Studies in the national curriculum framework. Through a thematic analysis of how geographical knowledge is classified and represented in the curriculum, this article discusses opportunities and limitations in the curriculum when it comes to developing students' powerful geographical knowledge. The analysis shows that geographical knowledge is organised in an attempt to reduce content boundaries. Found across the curriculum, geographical knowledge includes geographical scale, geographic conditions and human-nature interconnections. However, geographical knowledge is represented through an understanding of space as absolute and fixed rather than relational and dynamic, as well as through a technical and mainly individual understanding of scale. We conclude that boundary crossing related to sustainability and citizenship as interdisciplinary topics opens opportunities for powerful geographical knowledge, although this potential is limited by the weak classification of geography in the curriculum for Social Studies.

Autism screening questionnaires are sometimes used as a measure of "autism-associated traits" in samples drawn from the general population, even though such tools are primarily developed and designed for use in samples of children diagnosed with or being assessed for autism. Here, we explore the psychometric properties of the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) current version reported at age 8 in a large population-based sample. Using data from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort study (MoBa), we perform exploratory (N = 21,775) and confirmatory (N = 21,674) factor analyses on items and compare our results with previously suggested factor structure models of the SCQ. Furthermore, we test for measurement invariance across sex and registry-ascertained autism diagnostic status (N[subscript diagnosed] = 636). A 5-factor model provided best fit to the data in both children with and without autism diagnoses, though with some qualitative differences in what the factors represent across these groups. This model performed largely consistently across boys and girls in the general population. Taken together, the SCQ's measurement properties must be carefully considered when it is used in population-based samples and measurement invariance testing of other autism screening tools used in similar contexts is warranted.

Despite the widespread promotion of inclusive environments within higher education, social barriers and a lack of understanding among university staff continue to hinder students with disabilities in their goals of graduating and finding employment. Using ableism as a theoretical framework, this study aimed to explore attitudes among higher education institution employees towards students with disabilities and their feasibility in different types of education and employment positions. "Employees" in this study included teaching staff, student support, and administration. We conducted a factorial survey experiment in which respondents were invited to evaluate vignettes describing fictional students with and without disabilities. Other factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, and motivation were also included in the vignettes. A total of 2157 higher education employees across Norway participated in the survey and answered four questions regarding the likelihood of the student described in the vignette graduating, finding employment, and being suitable for relevant work tasks. Additionally, respondents were asked to rate how likely it was that they could make arrangements for the student during their studies. Results from multilevel regression analyses suggest that higher education employees are generally positive towards making arrangements for students with disabilities. However, despite this, students with disabilities were considered less likely to graduate, find employment, and less suitable in performing relevant work tasks in comparison to students without disabilities. We argue that ableist expectations continue to dominate perceptions of students within academia, and until ableism is addressed at an institutional level, higher education will remain far from inclusive.

Universities are expected to strive for excellence but also for gender balance. Narrow interpretations of excellence in universities hinder women's advancement in academia. In this paper, we ask if there are ways that these policies may be reconciled. Excellence is an "empty signifier" that must be filled with meaning. We have investigated how Heads of Departments enact "excellence" and gender balance in hiring processes in four Norwegian universities. Many HoD argued for broadening excellence criteria and framed excellence as a "collective" rather than an individual concern. This allows for reconciling top-down institutional demands for excellence and diversity while catering to local needs. Thus, our paper suggests that in a context where increased diversity among faculty is called for, this may open up a space for critical reflection about the criteria for assessing academic quality.

Aim: This study sought to investigate the relationship between knowledge and the practical application (including grocery lists, meal plans and food-related pedagogical plans) of Norwegian national guidelines for food and meals in kindergartens, together with the quality of food served in adherence to these guidelines. The study also examined the frequency of daily meals provided and the quality of food served. Moreover, it explored whether pedagogical staff's knowledge of these guidelines was linked to their practical application. Method: Data were collected from 324 kindergarten staff members by means of a web-based questionnaire distributed to both public and private kindergartens in Norway between 2018 and 2020. Univariate and multivariate linear regression analyses were employed to explore associations between pedagogical staff knowledge of the content of national guidelines and food quality in line with national guidelines. Results: Of the 324 participating kindergartens, two-thirds were private providers and one-third were public. A total of 155 kindergartens were in eastern Norway, 41 in mid-Norway, 50 in the west, 48 in the south and 26 in northern Norway. The study found that pedagogical staff's knowledge and the use of national guidelines were positively associated with better food quality and adherence to guidelines for food and meals in kindergartens. In addition, the frequency of daily meals provided by kindergartens was associated with food quality. Conclusions: An association was found between pedagogical staff's knowledge and application of national guidelines for food and meals, and the quality of food served in adherence to these guidelines. In addition, a correlation was observed between the frequency of meals provided by a kindergarten and food quality. These findings suggest that stressing the development of a better understanding of the content of national guidelines for food and meals could potentially enhance food and meal practices in kindergartens, but further research to explore this possibility is warranted.

Following community interaction theory and drawing upon the concept of boundary crossing, this paper investigates students' experiences of career learning across contexts when involved in placement activities. Specifically, this work focuses on students' experiences of continuity and discontinuity in relation to tensions naturally embedded in career education. For students to experience coherent career learning in lower secondary schools, career education must help relate career activities to career choice and learning by encouraging systematic reflections during preparation and follow-up. From a continuity/discontinuity perspective, when activities in out-of-school contexts are accompanied by an educational infrastructure, it can limit students' freedom to reflect on their experiences. Analysis results point to the emancipatory potential of collective reflection after the placement activities. Furthermore, the results highlight the unfulfilled potential of discontinuity as a source of career learning when moving across contexts.

Background: While a theoretical association between religiosity and substance use is anticipated, there is limited empirical evidence testing this theoretical proposition among Nordic adolescents. It was anticipated that studying these substance-use correlates from a criminological perspective by employing a large sample of students could provide novel as well as specific knowledge and insights of substance use in a Nordic setting and others. Objective: This study aimed to explore the effects of organizational and subjective religiosity on substance use (cannabis and alcohol) among a large sample of Nordic middle and high school students. Method: The data were extracted from two waves of the Young in Norway (UNGDATA Vestland County) cross-sectional surveys conducted in 2017 and 2021 (N = 41,096). Three binomial logistic regression analyses were carried out separately for the samples for each year (2017 and 2021) to examine the effects of religiosity, social bonding, and rule-breaking behavior on substance use among those adolescents that completed the survey. Results: The prevalence of cannabis use (6.3% in 2017 vs. 6.6% in 2021) and binge drinking (29.7% in 2017 vs. 29.5% in 2021) did not change significantly over time. Religiosity weakly predicted cannabis use but was consistently associated with low levels of binge drinking. The introduction of social bonding variables weakly influenced the association between religiosity and substance use. Social bonding was associated with low levels of cannabis use, but it had varying effects on binge drinking. Sociodemographic variables and rule-breaking behavior were consistent over time in predicting substance use. Conclusions: Subjective and organizational religiosity exert distinct influences on adolescent substance use, with the religiosity model exhibiting a stronger predictive capacity for binge drinking compared to cannabis use over the years.

Vocational teachers in building and construction in upper secondary school deal with complex situations of an organisational, vocational, and social kind. Recent research has shown that the teacher is the single most important factor for students' learning in school. Teacher-student relationships and the teacher's repertoire of teaching practices can be more important for the student's learning than class size, the classroom environment, and the student's socio-economic background. Beyond passing the journeyman's test, we know little about the craft knowledge and working life experiences vocational teachers in the building and construction trades have acquired over many years in the construction industry, and thus, what knowledge and experiences they bring into the vocational teacher role. Learning in working life often takes place as an integrated part of work, and it is difficult to observe how learning happens. Craft knowledge is often tacit and personal. In this narrative, phenomenologically inspired study, learning is investigated as a bodily, internal process that simultaneously depends on the interaction with the material and social environment. Through narrative interviews with eleven vocational teachers in plumbing and carpentry, this study explores the teachers' backgrounds as vocational students and apprentices, and their extensive experience as craftsmen on different construction sites. The analysis shows that the building site drives craft-related actions and situations that generate a strong craft identity, professional working life experiences, and personal growth. Craftsmen at the construction site work under constant pressure in a social, physically, and mentally demanding work environment and consecutively solve problems. As professional craftsmen in the complex working environment, the teachers also acquired social and organisational expertise, which they intuitively transferred to their role as vocational teachers.

Mergers in higher education are large-scale, complex organisational change processes seeking to integrate former independent institutions into a new organisational entity. Mergers are often justified by reference to broad overarching goals such as quality, relevance, and efficiency. In practice, mergers entail attempts at organisational integration which can be inhibited by several obstacles, increasing and large internal distances can be such a hindrance to integration. In this paper, we explore how different forms of distance to leadership in the context of higher education can be conceptualised, and how experiences of different forms of distance interrelate. This paper shows that geographical distance can also mask other conceptualisations of distances and that geographical distance can also interact with other forms of distances. The empirical basis consists of data from a large-scale research project addressing the organisational transformations taking place in Norwegian higher education due to mergers between 2016 and 2017.

School absenteeism is a major societal problem, with a range of potential adverse long-term consequences. This scoping review aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of the research on school absenteeism in autistic children and adolescents, expose important gaps in the literature, and explore possibilities for future systematic reviews. Five relevant databases were searched systematically from inception to June 2023, yielding a total of 46 eligible reports from 42 separate studies. All studies were conducted in high-income countries, and most were published in the last decade. Three major themes emerged: occurrence, contextual factors, and interventions. The results of large-scale population-based studies clearly suggested that autistic children and adolescents were absent from school more often than their non-autistic peers, which partly was attributable to co-occurring conditions. Bullying also emerged as a potential risk factor. Only a few preliminary studies were available on targeted interventions, emphasizing the need for more robust studies. More research is also needed on the mechanisms leading to and maintaining school absenteeism in this group of learners. Overall, the diversity of research questions, methods, and definitions used in this body of research suggests that systematic reviews with narrow focus on a few key questions may still be premature.

In times of turbulence, uncertainty, novelty, and ambiguity--the so-called TUNA conditions--our experience of the past may prove a poor guide to the future times in which our decisions and their consequences will unfold. Under such conditions, the manufacture of scenarios that are plausible future contexts for a given issue and are designed to enrich strategic thinking by challenging expectations can help to inform decisions and debates. Education is often subject to such debates, as it is, among other things, a way of preparing for what the future holds. This article gives an account of learnings and unlearnings from a scenarios project applying the Oxford Scenario Planning Approach to the digitalization of education in Norwegian schools. It shows how challenging issues raised in the context of distant imagined futures proved to be immediately pertinent in the developing COVID-19 pandemic. This article sets this work in the wider context of education futures and ongoing debate about suitable methodological choices for institutions and communities wishing to explore how we will teach and learn together in times to come. As a wide range of actors explore the possibility of a new social contract for education, the article proposes that future scenarios can provide fresh perspectives on issues that are difficult or even impossible to resolve within current frames of reference, including questions of equity and justice that may be construed differently in times to come.

Color terms divide the color spectrum differently across languages. Previous studies have reported that speakers of languages that have different words for light and dark blue (e.g., Russian "siniy" and "goluboy") discriminate color chips sampled from these two linguistic categories faster than speakers of languages that use one basic color term for blue (e.g., English "blue"). This effect has been reported to be disrupted when participants engaged in a verbal interference task, suggesting that active language use can modulate the linguistic category effect. The current study provided a stringent test of this hypothesis by examining color discrimination under verbal interference in bilinguals speaking Lithuanian (two blue categories) and Norwegian (one blue category). The results revealed that the language activated during verbal interference had a significant impact on bilinguals' color discrimination. Specifically, Lithuanian-Norwegian bilinguals exhibited a color category effect only when performing the task under verbal interference in Lithuanian but not in Norwegian. This demonstrated, within the same individuals, the momentary effect of active language processing on color perception.

Pragmatics refers to the ability to effectively use and interpret language in different contexts. Pragmatic abilities develop and refine through childhood, and they are essential for socialization, academic achievement and wellbeing. The scarcity of assessment tools in this field makes it challenging to provide a comprehensive assessment of pragmatic abilities. The Pragma test, originally developed for Finnish and also adapted into Italian, consists of a battery of tasks assessing children's pragmatic abilities. In this study, a first evaluation of the psychometric qualities of a Norwegian adaptation of this test is presented. In addition, we investigated pragmatic development between ages 5 and 7, and explored possible gender-based differences. Altogether 119 Norwegian-speaking children participated in the study. The children were tested with the Pragma test and parents completed the Children's Communication Checklist-2. The children were allocated into three groups: 5-year-olds, 6-year-olds and 7-year-olds. The psychometric qualities of this Norwegian adaptation supported its use as a tool for assessing pragmatics in children aged 5-7. Strong and significant growth in pragmatic competence was observed from age 5-6, subsequently flattening out between age 6 and 7, and gender differences in favour of girls were identified. These findings indicate that pragmatic ability, as measured by the Pragma test, shows similar age effects in a Norwegian setting as in Finnish and Italian contexts, paving the way for further cross-cultural and cross-linguistic studies.

Several studies report on lower quality of life for autistic people when compared to non-autistic people. However, there are ongoing discussions about the conceptualization of quality of life for the autistic population. This qualitative study investigated self-perceived quality of life in the context of autistic young adults' everyday lives. Participants (age range 21-29 years) were recruited from a 10-year follow-up study, Lillehammer Neurodevelopmental Follow-up Study, all diagnosed in childhood and adolescence. Fourteen individual in-depth interviews were conducted. When asked about what was important for having a good quality of life, our autistic participants described relationships to people and pets as important, as well as having meaningful activities. Specific interests had guided many to their choice of both academic and work career. Many also described obstacles in their environment that had influenced their quality of life negatively, such as being misunderstood by teachers and other professionals, being bullied, and sensory and emotional overload. Our findings indicate that those in supportive roles should provide help with establishing connections to activities and people/animals, as this seems to be essential for creating a good quality of life. Taking advantage of passions and interests can create opportunities for autistic people. Findings suggest that future research should address the communication barriers between autistic people and professionals that can lead to misunderstandings.

Background: The ability of outdoor educators and their participants to be present with each other and the natural and cultural histories of places can impact the realisation of learning outcomes and safety. Purpose: In this paper, we combine the findings of two separate research studies regarding the potential for digital technology to both distract and enhance the presence that both facilitators and their learners may experience in outdoor education programs. Methodology/Approach: Research Study One used a naturalistic inquiry to collect data via surveys and online interviews with 185 outdoor educators from 14 different countries. Research Study Two used a collective case study involving undergraduate outdoor education programs in Norway. Data were collected from 12 educators and 12 learners using semi-structured interviews and focus group interviews. Findings/Conclusions: Decisions on inclusion or exclusion of digital technology in outdoor education should be intentional, systematic, and evidence-based. The use of mobile technologies can pose barriers to learners' and educators' presence, their social interactions, and their experience of place. Implications: Digital technology can enhance or detract the experience of presence in outdoor education programs depending on how that technology is used, and the way the technology is managed.

The current study examined the effectiveness of a "writing is caught" approach with young developing writers in Norway. This method is based on the premise that writing competence is acquired naturally through real use in meaningful contexts. Our longitudinal randomized control trial study tested this proposition by examining if increasing first grade students' opportunities to write in various genres for different purposes and for a range of audiences over a two-year time period improved the quality of their writing, handwriting fluency, and attitude towards writing. The study included data from 942 students (50.1% girls) in 26 schools randomly assigned to the experimental treatment, and 743 students (50.6% girls) in 25 schools randomly assigned to the business-as-usual (BAU) control condition. Across Grades 1 and 2, experimental teachers were asked to supplement their typical writing instruction by implementing 40 writing activities designed to increase students' purposeful writing. Increasing experimental students' writing over the two-year period did not result in statistically detectable differences in the writing quality, handwriting fluency, and attitude towards writing of students in the experimental and BAU control conditions. These findings did not provide support for the effectiveness of the "writing is caught" approach. Implications for theory, research, and practiced are discussed.

While technological change in organizations is fast and eminent to most people, the adoption of Massive Open Online Courses, micro-credentials, and flexible and scalable online courses, appear to be comparatively slow in Higher Education in the Nordic countries. To explore this phenomenon, we completed 10 qualitative interviews at ten different higher education institutions across Norway in fall 2020. The informants were strategically selected among employees who had been involved in open platform technology, MOOC production and support for faculties. Adopting thematic analyses, we found entrepreneurs who positioned themselves in pockets of innovation with the intention to transform teaching and learning. Rather than seeing technological innovations as "more of the same", the entrepreneurs embraced the possibilities emerging in new educational practices. Inspired by "New Institutionalism," we focused on the organizational conditions for MOOC production. The entrepreneurs often entered interpretive struggles at higher organizational levels in competition with other stakeholders. Despite national initiatives and funding, many stakeholders questioned the value of MOOCs. Our study points to discrepancies in understanding the disruptive and transformative change that new technology can bring to study programs and lifelong learning. The informants also experienced insufficient support from leaders and lamented the lack of a national platform for open online access. We link these findings to embedded theories, belief systems and discourses in educational cultures and management in Higher Education.

Based on the expectancy-value perspective on identity and identity formation, this paper explores the relationship between math identity (MI) and the dimensions of motivation (i.e. intrinsic value, attainment value, utility value and perceived competence) and math achievement in primary school. An additional aim of our research was to explore these relationships in different cultural contexts and investigate potential gender and grade differences concerning MI. The participants were 11,782 primary school students from Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Finland, Portugal and Serbia. All predictors from the motivation spectrum were significant for students' MI across the examined countries and had a stronger association with MI than math achievement. Among the motivational dimensions, intrinsic value had the strongest association with students' MI. Boys had significantly more positive math identities than girls in Estonia, Finland, Norway and Portugal. The results showed that the grade 4 students perceived themselves less as "math persons" than their grade 3 peers in all countries.

In studies of academic resilience, the concept is typically operationalized by pre-defined cutoff values of students' achievement level and their social background. A threat to the validity of such arbitrary operationalizations is that students around the cutoff values may be misclassified. The main objective of the current study is to apply a modeling approach to identify academically resilient students. Data come from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2016. The primary method used was latent profile analysis. The study demonstrates that it is possible to identify a group of academically resilient students using a set of variables indicating achievement level and protective factors. Even though results suggest that academically resilient students have higher reading achievement compared to other less-advantaged students, it is evident that they have higher interest and confidence in reading than the non-resilient groups. A sensitivity analysis for other countries indicated similar results. Implications stemming from the results are discussed.

Research has shown that some students who underperform in mathematics overestimate their performance, while others who excel in mathematics underestimate it. Looking at this mismatch of performance and confidence judgement--the Dunning-Kruger effect (DKE)--the current study investigates how well students' confidence judgement and item-specific mathematics competence relate with each other and whether such a relationship differs across six European countries (i.e., Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Serbia and Portugal). We also examine whether perceived competence, mathematics identity, gender, socioeconomic status and immigration background predict this mismatch and whether these demographic factors function differently between the examined countries. The results show that the DKE could be found across grades three and four in all six countries. However, there are country-specific patterns regarding the relationship between performance, mathematics identity and perceived competence; the DKE; and how different demographic variables predict its occurrences in particular subpopulations.

Mathematics teachers' beliefs are central to mathematics teaching and student learning. Because different aspects of motivation and affect--particularly enjoyment--primarily develop within the classroom context, examining how different teachers' beliefs may affect student outcomes in mathematics is imperative. The current study examines teachers' beliefs about the nature and learning of mathematics in connection to students' motivation (i.e. intrinsic value, utility value and perceived competence) and enjoyment of mathematics across different settings by considering students' mathematics achievement, gender and classroom composition (i.e. socioeconomic and behavioural). Data were collected from 3rd- and 4th-grade mathematics teachers (N = 686) and their students (N = 11,782) in six countries (i.e. Norway, Finland, Sweden, Portugal, Estonia and Serbia). A two-level structural equation modelling technique (TSEM) (i.e. student level and classroom level) with random slopes was employed to address our research questions. The results indicate that students' intrinsic value and perceived competence positively relate to their enjoyment of mathematics in all six countries. Teachers' beliefs about the nature and learning of mathematics moderate the within-classroom relationship between boys and girls and the motivation and enjoyment of learning mathematics in Portugal and Norway. Unlike boys, girls consistently perceive themselves as less competent in mastering mathematics, even in primary school. Classroom socioeconomic composition had a more pronounced influence on teachers' beliefs in Sweden, Norway and Serbia. In relation to teachers' beliefs, classroom behavioural composition was relevant in Estonia and Sweden. In Finland and Norway, classroom composition was essential to boys' and girls' differential motivation and enjoyment of mathematics learning.

The present study investigated whether parent--child interactions during shared reading in a diverse sample of 91 three- to five-year-old dual language learners (DLLs) in Norway supported the development of the children's first (L1) and second language (L2) vocabulary skills. The dyads spoke 11 different L1s (i.e., Arabic, Polish, Somali, and Urdu). The analysis of shared reading was based on predefined story elements in the book, and differentiated between whether central story elements were introduced as parent inferential questions and child responses, or as parent and child narrative statements. The children's L1 and L2 receptive vocabulary skills were assessed prior to the reading as well as 8 months later. Regression analyses revealed that parent inferential questions predicted children's L1 vocabulary development across the time-period. Child responses to adult inferential questions predicted their L1 and L2 vocabulary development. These findings support the growing research base that emphasizes the importance of eliciting child reasoning during shared reading.

The article focuses on social educators' reflections on their own professional practice in encounters with people with intellectual disability receiving services. Drawing on Interpersonal Process Recall, a video-assisted method, together with a focus group interview, the study explores the experiences from in-situ encounters of five social educators employed in a Norwegian municipality. The key findings are that they view relationship-building as integral to their work, they grant primacy to the ideal of autonomy and they strive towards realizing this in their daily work. The study however displays how these emphases might lead to dilemmas, especially between the wish to support the service users' self-determination and the urge to protect them from harm. Of special note was how the service users' increasing use of social media was perceived as a particular challenge for social educators, who were left with an experience of being unable to protect.

Background: Immigrant parents' perspectives on raising adolescents and young adults with intellectual disabilities during the transition to adulthood are the focus of this study. Disabled children demand more care and support as they mature and transition to adulthood. This increased care demand places significant stress on parents' wellbeing and participation in social and economic activities. Methods: Qualitative interviews were undertaken with purposively sampled immigrant parents of adolescents and young adults with intellectual disabilities transitioning into adulthood. The study used inductive thematic analysis to identify common themes across the data set. Findings: The birth of their disabled child marked a new beginning in a family's life, characterised first by shock and later by acceptance. Informants experienced challenges associated with language and information access, reduced service, social isolation, skewed gender roles and worrying about their children's future. Conclusions: The intersection between migration and disability can aggravate the care burden. Knowledge about parents' experiences is crucial for designing rehabilitation programmes, promoting wellbeing and bridging gaps between services recommended by service providers and the actual needs of the family and child.

Background: We explored the experiences of staff working in Norwegian community-based living facilities, caring for people with intellectual disabilities during the Covid-19 pandemic, and what self-regulatory strategies staff used to maintain health and care service delivery and contribute to organisational resilience. Methods: A qualitative design was utilized. Data were collected from September 2021 to April 2022 with individual and focus group interviews. In this study, 25 staff members participated. Thematic analysis was conducted. Findings: Five main themes were identified regarding the experiences of staff during the pandemic: Lockdown of facilities, social isolation of residents, lack of health follow-up, high sick leave rates and communication challenges. Only some of the strategies to mitigate pandemic-related challenges were based on current Norwegian infection control guidelines. Some strategies were successful while others were not and some were negligent and challenged the delivery of health and care services for the residents. Conclusions: Our study shows that people with intellectual disabilities living in the community-based living facilities were subjected to human rights violations and violations of the Norwegian infection control law. This was caused by a lack of several important organisational qualities in the facilities.

Sheltered work and leisure activities were locked down in at the Signo centre in March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Signo centre is a Norwegian national centre for adults with multiple, complex needs, including severe sensory loss/impairments. Tension and uncertainty rapidly spread among relatives and workers. To explore the impacts of the pandemic on residents, 24 adults living in Signo Vivo answered a semi-structured interview together with their primary worker. Additionally, reports on staff injuries and PRN medication between April and Aug of 2020 were compared to the period before the lockdown. The reports from the interviews included fewer stressful events for the participants, more rest and sleep, more time spent in their own apartments, and more time with smaller groups of workers. The reports on staff injuries and PRN medication showed decreased occurrence.

The current study investigated gender (control) and number (target) agreement processing in Northern and non-Northern Norwegians living in Northern Norway. Participants varied in exposure to Northern Norwegian (NN) dialect(s), where number marking differs from most other Norwegian dialects. In a comprehension task involving reading NN dialect writing, P600 effects for number agreement were significantly affected by NN exposure. The more exposure the NN nonnatives had, the larger the P600 was, driven by the "presence" of number agreement (ungrammatical in NN). In contrast, less exposure correlated to the inverse: P600 driven by the "absence" of number agreement (ungrammatical in most other dialects). The NN natives showed P600 driven by the "presence" of number agreement regardless of exposure. These findings suggests that bilectalism entails the representation of distinct mental grammars for each dialect. However, like all instances of bilingualism, bilectalism exists on a continuum whereby linguistic processing is modulated by linguistic experience.

Prospective teachers bring countless stories of success and failure from different mathematics classrooms to their post-field teacher education courses. These reflective stories often glorify school mathematics classrooms and dominant traditions within, instead of confronting the marginalization of diverse groups in school environments. Mathematics teacher educators have a significant role to play in teaching prospective teachers to reflect critically on their field experiences and, in doing so, create spaces for "disruption" and "disruptive pedagogies." Drawing on critical and equity-based theories applied within the fields of mathematics education and teacher education research, we propose a "disruptive pedagogy" analytical framework that enables us to study the roles and practices of mathematics teacher educators as they conduct their work in these post-field contexts of teacher education. In this paper, we introduce our disruptive pedagogy framework and present the results that followed from using it to analyze data from a research study in which mathematics teacher educators from across Canada and Norway were interviewed. We claim that our analytical framework can be used to identify those disruptive and transformative practices initiated by mathematics teacher educators--practices that are necessary to bring about shifts in inequitable and unjust classroom practices of school mathematics and in becoming a teacher. Unfortunately, however, results reported here point to the need for further shifts and growth toward more explicitly disruptive practices initiated by mathematics teacher educators in the post-field context.

While it is established that parental "wh"-questions, as a high-quality language input, are associated with child language outcome, less is known about the role of children's "wh"-questions in their language development. This study examines whether children's "wh"-questions during a dinnertime conversation are associated with their receptive and expressive language skills. The sample consists of a unique group of bilingual children: 32 Chinese preschoolers (aged 3-5 years) in Norway. At the onset of the study, parents self-recorded a dinnertime conversation with the target child and other family members present. Over the following year, we assessed children's receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, and narrative skills in Chinese three times. Individual growth modeling revealed that concurrently, the density of children's "wh"-questions was associated with children's expressive vocabulary and narrative skills, but the association faded when controlling for family demographics. Significantly, even when accounting for all control variables, children's "wh"-questions predicted their receptive vocabulary growth across one year. These findings underline children's active role in shaping their language learning and development. This study also contributes to our understanding of bilingual children's home language development. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

The aim of the study was to examine associations between life events and self-assessed loneliness in adolescence. We used data from a Norwegian population-based twin sample including seven birth cohorts (N = 2,879, 56% females). The participants completed self-report questionnaires three times throughout adolescence, with 2 years in between (i.e., 12-18 years old at Wave 1). By using a random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM), we were able to separate stable influences in the measured constructs from the within-person changes at each measurement occasion. In addition, using data from twins allowed us to examine to what degree the associations between life events and loneliness were genetic and/or environmental in nature. The results showed moderate stability of both loneliness and aggregation scores of life events throughout adolescence. The life events were assigned to clusters based on their independence (i.e., events considered dependent or independent on a person's behavior) and desirability (i.e., positive or negative). The time-stable between-person variance in all three measures, loneliness and person-dependent positive and negative life events, could almost exclusively be accounted for by genetic factors. However, as expected, also shared environmental factors influenced person-independent life events. The associations between time-stable between-person variance in loneliness and life events were small, and nearly exclusively due to shared genetic influences. Furthermore, life events do not seem to predict changes in loneliness or vice versa. In conclusion, the self-reported levels of loneliness throughout adolescence seems to be independent of life events.

While many language teachers leave the profession early, others thrive and teach until retirement. Understanding how these teachers maintain their passion can help identify the support needed for their personal and professional growth. However, research on the factors behind their sustained happiness in the teaching profession is limited. The main objective of this qualitative study was to explore the beliefs and career stories of three recently retired German language teachers in Norway, recognized for their long-term motivation and effective teaching over several decades. Data were generated from in-depth semistructured interviews and analyzed through the lens of self-determination theory. The analysis revealed that the teachers shared several key characteristics. First, they enjoyed a high degree of autonomy related to the choice of subject content and teaching approaches. Second, they perceived themselves as highly competent in the subject and expressed a passion for it. Third, they cherished being with students and managed to establish good relationships with them. The findings suggest that teachers should be aware of their basic psychological needs and reflect on how they can be fulfilled. Furthermore, school administrators should foster trust in teachers as autonomous professionals and actively support their competency development and relationships with students and colleagues.

This study introduces a framework for analyzing opportunities for mathematical reasoning (MR) in school mathematics, using MR-relevant claims and their derivation as the unit of analysis. We contend that this approach can effectively capture a broad range of opportunities for MR across various teaching situations. The framework, rooted in commognition, entails identifying necessary object-level narratives (NOLs) and the processes involved in their construction and substantiation. After theoretical development, the framework was refined through analyses of mathematics lessons in Norwegian primary school classrooms. Examples from the data illustrate how to utilize the framework in analysis and what such analyses can reveal in four typical teaching situations: the introduction of new mathematical objects, the introduction of procedures, work on exercise tasks, and work on problem-solving tasks. Drawing from the analysis of these examples, we discuss the value of the framework for analyzing MR in school mathematics and how such analysis can benefit teachers and researchers.

Autistic people appear to be at increased risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, and experiences involving violence or sexual abuse appear to be common in this population. However, knowledge concerning trauma in autistic people with co-occurring intellectual disabilities is limited. In this cross-sectional study, we explored the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as the prevalence and clinical correlates of reported experiences of violence and sexual abuse, in a clinical sample of 88 autistic adults with intellectual disabilities referred for mental health assessment. Only three participants (3.4%) were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, even if experiences involving violence (34.1%) or sexual abuse (17.0%) were common. Anxiety and affective disorders were common diagnoses among participants with these experiences. Controlling for autism characteristics, level of intellectual disability and communication skills, experiences of violence/sexual abuse were found to be associated with a measure of 'challenging' behaviours (Aberrant Behaviour Checklist). These results indicate that potentially traumatic experiences are common in autistic adults with intellectual disabilities referred for mental health assessment and that post-traumatic stress disorder may be under-recognised. The findings highlight the importance of trauma screening and post-traumatic stress disorder assessment, as well as the importance of trauma-informed care, in this population.

The learning environment of students is a fundamental part of school life, both socially and academically. The ambition to create a school serving the best interests of all children is explored by analysing key concepts encompassing students' right to a healthy school environment, and examining how this discourse has unfolded over five decades in Norway. A conceptual analysis concerning the school environment, inspired by Deleuze and Guattari, is proposed and introduced as 'regulative vector concepts'. The article examines key changes regarding students' school environment, shifting from work environment to learning environment. As one consequence of the conceptual shifts, the individual rights of students have been ensured, such as through recent amendments in regulation. These concepts are understood as potential answers to already existing problems that policy and regulation attempt to encompass by producing new concepts, new policy and regulation.

Insecurity and intense competition for permanent academic positions appear to be common experiences for early career researchers across the globe. With academic precarity now firmly on the international research and policy agenda, this article looks comparatively at postdoc precarity in three European countries: Ireland, Norway and Switzerland. It suggests that the career prospects and status of these early career stage researchers depend to a large extent on societal variations in academic career structures and research funding models. The article underlines the implications of an increasingly competitive academic labour market on postdoc precarity and identifies both common and specific (national and/or disciplinary) challenges facing postdocs in these different contexts.