23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education
Paper
Teachers Dilemma in Grading - a Tension Between Legal Requirements and Pedagogical Expectations
Stina Hallsen1, Victoria Enkvist2
1Uppsala University, Sweden; 2Uppsala University, Sweden
Presenting Author: Hallsen, Stina;
Enkvist, Victoria
Introduction
Swedish schools are facing major challenges. Swedens identity as a pioneering country in education (Tellhaug et al. 2006; Román et al.) has been questioned both nationally and internationally (SvD, 2022; OECD, 2022). The debate on the challenges facing schools covers a number of issues, ranging from poorer results in PISA, lack of access to qualified teachers and, last but not least, an increase in the number of students suffering from mental illness, with school-related factors cited as one of the causes.
This situation affects the role of teachers. Additionally, the Swedish school system is a subject to symbolic politics and sensitive to political shifts, leading to a higher frequency of reforms and changes in the legal framework compared to schools in many other countries (Jarl & Rönnberg 2019; Hallsén & Magnússon 2022). Expectations of what teachers should do to address the challenges and what they are empowered to do are not always aligned. External expectations are based both on legally binding rules and more ideological expressions that indirectly influence the role of teachers. These expectations may conflict with each other. A further area of conflict that can arise in relation to these external influences is teachers' internal expectations of themselves and their role.
These areas of conflicts and the dilemmas that might follow are accentuated in teachers' grading of students. This is also an area that serves as an example of substantial reforms. In the fall of 2024, a new grading system for upper secondary school, and consequently a new legal framework for teachers' assessments, are implemented. In the directives for the new grading system, the proposals are justified, among other things, by the aim to enhance fair assessment and counteract stress among students (dir 2018:32; dir 2019:66).
Aim and theoretical framework
We aim to illuminate the role of teachers in today's Swedish upper secondary school in the face of the pressures arising from the challenges in grading. How is the role of teachers influenced when demands and expectations are expressed regarding ensuring a fair assessment, and simultaneously supporting young people’s well-being and combating mental health issues? In particular, our study focuses on teachers as authority practitioners and employees in the public sector navigating the complex intersection between legal and pedagogical expectations and demands on this matter.
The study, based on this, have the following research questions:
- How do teachers experience the multidimensional demands involved in grading enhancing ensuring fair assessment, and supporting well-being?
- How can the exercise of authority by teachers as employees in the public sector, considering the cross-pressure they encounter in grading, be explained and understood in relation to legal frameworks?
Theoretically the point of departure for the study is the concept of "policy enactment," employed to shed light on the interplay between national regulations and local practices (Ball, 1993; Ball et al., 2012; Ozga, 2000; Hallsén, 2013; 2021). Within the process referred to as local enactment, governing formulations must undergo translation, interpretation and reconstruction to be practically valid in a local setting (Ball et al., 2012). The study's premise is rooted in the notion that the school constitutes the local context, and various legal regulations may lead to conflicts and dilemmas in their interpretation and application, particularly in the role of teachers as authority practitioners and as employees in the public sector. School action depends on the design and clarity of the legal framework (Enkvist, 2020). The complex nature of the school's function magnifies these conflicts and dilemmas, particularly considering the school's frequent exposure to symbolic politics and the fact that the school is constantly the subject of initiatives for change.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedMethodology and empirical sources
The selection of empirical material aimed to highlight the process between regulation and practice in the policy enactment perspective. This was achieved by selecting both the teachers' statements about their assessment practices and the legal rules that set the framework for these practices. We sought to understand how teachers perceived demands and expectations placed on them regarding legally secure assessment and the protection of students' mental health (both internal and external pressure). Furthermore, we aimed to understand the dilemmas and conflicts that might have arisen in terms of teachers' perceptions and their relation to legal requirements.
How did the purpose of the rules relate to other rules that governed teachers, and how did teachers understand and act in the grading situation? To answer the first question, we examined the preparatory work for the rules in question. To answer the second question, we used interviews. The empirical data in the study consisted therefor of two different kinds of data. On the one hand we analyze legal regulations on assessment and well-being and on the other hand we have conducted semi- structured focus group interviews with upper secondary school teachers. An important starting point for all public activities is that they must be supported by law. This means that both the purpose of the legislation, as stated in the preparatory works, and the actual design are important. Another aspect of the concretization of legal rules is that the rules concerning students are compatible with each other. The purpose of analyzing the legal rules was to identify areas of conflict and ambiguity. The interviews aimed at illuminating and deepening the understanding of how the teachers perceived the demands and expectations placed on them in grading regarding ensuring fair assessment and supporting well-being.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsExcepted outcomes
A first analysis revealed that rules on grading and pupils' health can be difficult to navigate and thus to comply with and that the dilemmas in the situations regarding grading, or in other words, the exercise of authority, is challenging for teachers.
The teachers express that they experience difficulties in dealing with the rules regarding legally secure grading, as well as protecting the students' mental health, which they are also obliged to do. The teacher's relationship with students is highlighted as challenging in two different ways. On the one hand, there are cases where teachers have a close and long-term relationship with pupils, which can influence the assessment. On the other hand, the opposite relationship can occur in the grading situation where the teacher considers themselves to have to little knowledge about the student. Both of these situations can contribute to uncertainty in the grading process.
The purpose of the change in grading rules, which will enter into force in 2024, is to strengthen legally secure and equal assessment and to counteract stress and mental illness among students. The study sheds new light on the areas of conflict that arise between different legal regulations surrounding teachers' assessment practices. It also gives us an increased understanding of how teachers handle and orient themselves in relation to these dilemmas and their perceptions of the changes in relation to this.
ReferencesBall, S. (1993). What is policy? Texts, trajectories and toolboxes. In Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 13(2), 10–17.
Ball, S. J., Maguire, M., & Braun, A. (2012). How schools do policy. Policy enactments in secondary schools. London: Routledge.
dir 2018:32. Betygssystemet ska främja kunskapsutveckling och betygen ska bättre spegla elevers kunskaper.
dir 2019:66. Tilläggsdirektiv till Betygsutredningen 2018
Enkvist, V. (2020). Ordningsregler i skolan- ett rättslig figur med många bottnar. I Eklund Lerwall, Lind (red). Vänbok till Sverker Scheutz – Om rätt och att undervisa rätt. Uppsala: Iustus förlag.
Hallsén, S. (2013). Lärarutbildning i skolans tjänst? En policyanalys av statliga argument för förändring [Teacher education in the service of the school? A policy analysis of governmental arguments for change]. Uppsala: Uppsala University Press.
Hallsén, S. (2021). The Rise of Supplementary Education in Sweden: Arguments, Thought Styles, and Policy Enactment. In ECNU Review of Education, 4(3), 476-493.
Hallsén, S., & Magnusson, G. (2021). Att initiera förändring eller iscensätta handlingskraft? Riktade statsbidrag som politisk krishantering i skolans värld. I J. Landahl, D. Sjögren & J. Westberg (red.), Skolans kriser. Historiska perspektiv på utbildningsreformer och skoldebatter (s. 181–202). Nordic Academic Press.
Jarl, M; Rönnberg, L (2019). Skolpolitik : från riksdagshus till klassrum. Stockholm: Liber
OECD (2022). Policy Dialogues in Focus for Sweden International insights for school funding reform.
Ozga, J. (2000). Policy research in educational settings. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Román, H., Hallsén, S., Nordin, A. & Ringarp, J.(2015): Who governs the Swedish school? Local schoolpolicy research from a historical and transnational curriculum theory perspective. In NordicJournal of Studies in Educational Policy. 1(1). s. 81- 94.
Svenska Dagbladet (2022). Experter: Det är största problemen i skolan. Publiced 2022-09-08.
Telhaug, A. O., Mediås, O. A., & Aasen, P. (2006). The Nordic model in education: Education as part of the political system in the last 50 years. In Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 50(3), 245–283.
23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education
Paper
Law as an Obligatory Passage Point and the Change of Teacher-Parent Relation
Yong Kim
Korea Nat'l Univ.of Edu, Korea, Republic of (South Korea)
Presenting Author: Kim, Yong
In Korea, there are more and more laws about education. When school violence became an important social issue, a law was enacted more than 20 years ago that set out specific procedures for dealing with school violence. The law requires that disciplinary actions against students who commit violence be recorded, and the student record can be used for admission to higher education. A decade ago, when child abuse became a serious social problem, a law was enacted to prohibit child abuse in schools. After this law was enforced, parents who were dissatisfied with a teacher's guidance of their students would report the teacher for child abuse. Last year, a teacher committed suicide after receiving malicious complaints from parents. After this incident, laws were enacted to protect the rights of teachers. Not only are the number of laws governing schooling increasing, but they are also becoming more specific. Increasingly, laws regulate what used to be done autonomously within schools.
This presentation will use actor network theory(ANT) to analyze how teacher-parent relationships change after laws are enforced. When a problem arises, many people want to utilize the law as a means to solve it. However, laws change relationships between people. In this sense, the law is a non-human actor. Within schools, various people and non-human actors form networks. When a law enters the school, it changes the network. We can call this a 'translation'.
The obligatory passage point is important as networks form and change. It is important for one actor to be able to disrupt the existing network and make other actors dependent on it in order to attract them to their network, which is called an obligatory passage point. Both teachers and parents want to use law to enforce their demands, and both want to change the other to be more in line with their demands. In this sense, law is a kind of obligatory passage point.
This presentation aims to analyze how relationships in schools, especially between teachers and parents, change after the creation of an obligatory passage point of legislation. In South Korea, the use of legislation as an instrument of education policy is increasing. And laws change schooling. This presentation analyzes the ways in which laws as policy instruments change schooling.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThis presentation will utilize actor network theory to analyze how teacher-parent relationships are changing after a law was implemented. Actor network theory(ANT) will be utilized as a framework for analysis. To some extent, I have already analyzed the literature on actor network theory. In particular, I will pay my special attention to the concepts of 'obligatory passage point' and 'translation'.
In 2023, a law was enacted to protect teachers' rights, but the law made it difficult for parents to provide feedback to teachers. I have already collected quite a bit of data on the background of the law, the main contents of the law, and the views of teachers and parents on the law.
This presentation will report the results of a case study in one elementary school. Conflicts in teacher-parent relationships were more severe in elementary schools than in secondary schools. This is why I chose an elementary school as a research case.
The study site will be an elementary school with a recent history of teacher-parent conflict. From March to June 2024, I will visit the school and interview teachers to investigate their perceptions of laws prohibiting child abuse and laws protecting teaching rights. I will also investigate teachers’ view on parents and teacher-parent relationships. I will ask teachers to introduce us to parents, and then will interview parents. The study will examine how parents feel about legislation to protect teachers' rights.
In addition to the interviews, I will visit schools to examine how teacher-parent relationships are changing, and analyze how much of that change is related to the law.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsJ. Habermas described the phenomenon of an increase in the number of laws, and the resulting change in a living world, as the "colonization of a living world”. When laws are enacted, many of the people involved act in a law-conscious manner. When a problem arises, teachers are more likely to rely on the law or a manual created under the law to make a decision rather than making their own judgment. This is a kind of "colonization of the living world”. Parents will seek to justify their behavior in terms of the law, and if their behavior is challenged as being in violation of the law, they will turn to the courts. It is clear that law has become a mandatory passage point in schooling. Since law is a means of mediating the relationship between opposing parties, it is possible that the law creates an adversarial relationship between teachers and parents rather than fostering a cooperative relationship. However, networks are always changing. If the teacher-parent relationship becomes problematic, other changes may be made.
ReferencesFenwick, T. and Edwards, R. 2011. Considerinf Materialirt in Educational Policy: Messt Objects and Multilple Reals. Education Theory, 61(1).
Koyama, J. 2015. When Things come undoen: the promise of dissembling education policy. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 36(4).
Koyama, J. and Varenne, H. 2012. Assembling and Dissembling: Policy as Productive Play. Educational Researcher, 41(5).
Latour, B. 2005. Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory. Oxford Univ. Press.
Law, J. 1999. "After ANT. Complexity, Naming, and Topology" J. Law and J. Hassard (eds.) Actor Network Theory and After.
23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education
Paper
Juridification of and in Education – The Case Of The Norwegian Curriculum
Ragnhild Meland
University of Oslo, Norway
Presenting Author: Meland, Ragnhild
This paper engages with the ongoing discussion on juridification of and in education. The context is the current curriculum reform and the new Education Act in Norway. The paper aims to contribute to the knowledgebase of juridification in and of education in Norway during the last decades (2000-2025) by looking at juridification as a governing mechanism (Rosén et al., 2023). Juridification is studied both as a theoretical concept and an empirical phenomenon. Both epistemological, social, political and educational implications of the (juridical) discourse is studied.
Recent research points to the juridification of basic education, which means that processes in areas that were previously treated as pedagogical now are solved with juridical measures and juridical ruling (Andenæs, 2016; Hall, 2019; Ottesen & Møller, 2016; Novak, 2019). As a governance instrument, the curriculum can take different forms and vary from being strictly regulated and detailed on one hand to being broadly governed on the other. Regulation of the curriculum includes both the process of how the curriculum is developed and the outcome, or product, of this process (Mølstad & Hansén, 2013). The national curriculum is a legal document and a mayor educational governance instrument. This paper will be looking at the national curriculum’s function as legal regulation in the interplay between the arena of formulation of policy and the arena of realisation of policy (Lundgren, 1986). Important questions being asked are: What characterises the legal regulation of primary and lower secondary education in Norway? And how does the national curriculum function as a governance instrument in this respect?
A critical perspective will be part of the theoretical framework for this paper as there is an intention to ask how the present order came to be and to call present governance mechanisms into question. The paper has a discursive approach. Discourse analysis can be applied in analysis of many different social domains, including organisations and institutions and in societal and cultural developments involving communication. The discursive approach is applied both in policy document analysis and in analysis of practices and talk (interviews). The study has a poststructural and Foucault-inspired approach to policy analysis (Bacchi & Goodwin, 2016). Policy is understood as discourse (Ball, 1993) and discourse is considered to constitute the social world, meaning also that changes in discourse are a means by which the social world is changed. Lundgren (2002) identify four instruments for political governing of educational systems: the legal system, the economic system, the ideological system (goals and content) and the evaluation system. According to Lundgren, these four governance mechanisms make up the frames for governing of public education/schools. They interact and the balance between them may vary. The concepts in Lundgren’s frame factor theory are used in this paper to analyse governing mechanisms and the relations between the state, society and the educational system. The paper also draw on Habermas’ social theory of how materialised regulation might colonialise the life-world (here: education and schools) (Habermas, 1987). To analyse and discuss findings, the paper activates Blichner & Molander’s (2008) five dimensions of juridifcation. This conseptualisation is used to understand different aspects of juridification of and in education in Norway.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe paper describes and analyse the national curriculum’s function as legal regulation in the interplay between the arena of formulation and the arena of realisation (Lundgren, 1986). The arena of formulation is studied applying a poststructural and Foucault inspired WPR approach to policy analysis (Bacchi & Goodwin, 2016). The empirical material is a selection of relevant White and Green Papers and central questions are what characterises the discourse on legal governing through the national curriculum and what deep-seated presuppositions underlie these representations in the documents. The arena of realisation, delineated to national governing bodies in the public education system and regional governing bodies, is studied using empirical data from interviews. A strategic selection of key representatives from the governing bodies will be interviewed.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsPreliminary findings show that there is a tendency in the discourse to focus on simplification and clarification of the curricula. There is also an emphasis on the need for better coherence between the Education Act and the curricula. A need for more equal practice, quality improvement and to ensure that curricula is met for all students is implied. Underlying goals are to improve the schools’ ability to self-evaluate and to increase students’ legal protection. There is a tendency towards increased individualisation.
ReferencesBacchi, C., & Goodwin, S. (2016). Poststructural Policy Analysis: A Guide to Practice. Palgrave Macmillan US.
Ball, S. J. (1993). What is policy? Texts, trajectories and toolboxes. The Australian Journal of Education Studies, 13(2), 10-17.
Blichner, L. C., & Molander, A. (2008). Mapping Juridification. European Law Journal, 14(1), 36-54.
Habermas, J. (1987). The theory of communicative action (Vol. II). Boston: Beacon Press.
Hopmann, S. T. (2008). No child, no school, no state left behind. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 40(4), 417–456.
Lundgren, U. P. (2002). Political governing of the education sector: Reflections on change. Studies in Educational Policy and Educational Philosophy, 2002(1), 26781
Novak, J. (2019). Juridification of Educational Spheres: The case of Sweden. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 51(12), 1262-1272.
Rosén, M. et al. (2021). A conceptual framework for understanding juridification of and in education. Journal of Education Policy, 36(6), 822-842.
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