Recursive and adaptive processes in strategic work: municipality leaders’ and school leaders’ accounts of their work for educational reform

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to contribute insights into strategic work in an educational reform context. Empirical data were collected from four cases in Norway, where the national educational authority recently initiated a renewal of the national curriculum for primary and secondary education. The theory of strategy as practice was the analytical framework applied in this study. The aims were to investigate municipal and school leaders’ accounts of strategic work and the relationships between strategic work at the municipal and school levels. The informants experienced they had leeway to decide on how to realize the national reform in their local contexts. In their processes of strategic work, they included both well-known strategies and practices that had worked previously and structures and procedures that were adapted to the situation at hand. We found a smooth alignment between recursive and adaptive processes across the organizational levels. The informants implemented their perceptions as the intention of the national reform in many ways. In demonstrating the complexity of educational reform work, the findings of this study showed that the SaP approach may be used to make valuable theoretical contributions to our understanding of reform work in education.

KEYWORDS:

• recursiveness/adaptation
• Curriculum reform
• practice theory
• strategic work
• school leadership

Acknowledgments

The authors thank colleagues in the research team of The Evaluation of the New National Curriculum: Intentions, Processes, and Practices (EVA2020) and colleagues in the research group of Curriculum Studies, Leadership, and Educational Governance (CLEG) for helpful comments on drafts of this article and the project group.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. At first, LK20 was referred to as a curriculum renewal. However, because the curriculum has been changed in structure, scope and form of presentation (it has an integrated digital format), it is now usually referred to as curriculum reform.

2. This is the head of the local educational authority in a Norwegian context.

3. Upper secondary schools are governed by districts leaders. For simplification, we refer to ‘municipality leaders’ as a common term.

4. https://lovdata.no/dokument/NLE/lov/1998-07-17-61.

5. The acronym LK20 refers to both the Norwegian curricula and the Sami curricula (LK20S).

6. The core curriculum was published in 2017 and consists of values and principles for education in Norway (see https://www.udir.no/lk20/overordnet-del/?lang=eng).

7. https://www.udir.no/laring-og-trivsel/lareplanverket/stotte/stotte-til-innforing-av-nye-lareplaner/.

8. https://www.uv.uio.no/forskning/prosjekter/fagfornyelsen-evaluering/.

9. https://www.regjeringen.no/no/tema/kommuner-og-regioner/kommunereform/reform-of-local-government/id2548429.

10. https://www.udir.no/laring-og-trivsel/lareplanverket/stotte/arbeid-med-nye-lareplaner-forventninger-og-ansvar/.

11. The sizes reflect typical divisions of schools. https://www.utdanningsforbundet.no/var-politikk/publikasjoner/2021/nokkeltall-for-grunnskolen-t.o.m.-skolearet-202021/.

12. This study includes on interview data collected before the shutdown.

13. We used the term HEI partnership to denote long-term collaboration between a school/a municipality and a higher education institution.