Alliance Naval Strategies and Norway in the Final Years of the Cold War

From the mid-1980s until the end of the Cold War, Norway found itself a major focus of U.S. and NATO maritime strategy, an exposed position that brought conundrums of internal politics, foreign relations, and multinational military and naval doctrine

Educational reform: Is LK20 a crossroads for English language teaching in Norway?

Mastergradsoppgave i lektorutdanning, Høgskolen i Innlandet, 2021.English: The topic of this master’s thesis is teachers’ perspectives and perceptions of LK20. The updated English subject curriculum in Norwegian upper-secondary school, and its implications for English teachers, as they see it, is the focus. Seen in the context of a global development of English, I argue that the structure and content of LK20 is a result of the increasing influence of the WEs research-field. LK20 signifies a shift in paradigm away from Anglo-American dominance in Norwegian ELT. This shift in paradigm is explored by comparing LK20 with previous updates of the Knowledge Promotion. Three upper-secondary teachers, all of whom have more than 10 years of teaching experience in English, were interviewed individually. The interviews consisted of questions about the experiences of the teachers, their views on the previous and updated curriculum, and how the teachers thought the changes would affect their teaching. The position of Anglo-American varieties of English in Norwegian ELT, and how this position could potentially change by a strengthened emphasis on WEs, was also discussed. The teachers agreed that a weakened Anglo-American emphasis was a positive development. They made a similar observation regarding LK20, stating that it would lead to more focus on topics in ELT, and a reduced focus on explicit language teaching. Consequently, there will be less glossary practice and grammar tasks, according to the teachers. A necessary change, according to the teachers, as they estimated English to practically be an L2 for most Norwegian upper-secondary students. The teachers answered unambiguously that American English was the dominant variety of English among teachers and students. Strong criticisms of the new exam format were also raised by the teachers. The new format combined with competence aims that are too vague made the teachers worried on their students’ behalf. When competence aims are too open to interpretation, teachers in Norway will focus on different topics. The teachers explained that exams will be identical for all students, but how and what students have been taught will not necessarily be identical throughout the country. Centrally given exams are therefore unfair and unpredictable for students that have been taught differently, according to the teachers.Norsk: Temaet for denne masteroppgaven er læreres meninger om LK20. Den reviderte læreplanen for engelsk i den norske videregående skole og dens implikasjoner for engelsklærere, slik de ser det, er fokuset. Sett i en kontekst av den globale utviklingen av engelsk, argumenterer jeg for at læreplanens form og innhold er et resultat av en økende innflytelse fra forskningsfeltet som omhandler global engelsk. LK20 markerer til dels et paradigmeskifte bort fra en historisk angloamerikansk dominans i engelskundervisningen i norsk skole. Dette paradigmeskiftet redegjøres for ved å sammenligne LK20 med tidligere oppdateringer av kunnskapsløftet. Tre lærere i VGS, samtlige med over 10 års undervisningserfaring i engelskfaget, ble intervjuet individuelt. Intervjuene bestod av spørsmål om lærernes erfaring i yrket, deres syn på den utgående og oppdaterte læreplanen og hvordan lærerne trodde endringene kom til å påvirke undervisningen deres. Rollen til angloamerikanske variasjoner av engelsk i engelskundervisning i Norge, og hvordan denne rollen potensielt endres av en styrking av globale variasjoner av engelsk ble også diskutert. Lærerne var samstemte om at et svekket angloamerikansk fokus var en positiv utvikling. De delte også observasjonen at LK20 ville føre til mer fokus på de faglige temaene i engelskundervisningen deres, og et svakere fokus på eksplisitt språklæring. Det vil derfor bli mindre glosepugging eller grammatikkoppgaver ifølge lærerne. Denne endringen var nødvendig da de anslo at i praksis er engelsk andrespråket til norske videregående elever. Lærerne svarte entydig at amerikansk engelsk er den dominerende varianten av engelsk blant lærere og elever. Lærerne var sterkt kritiske til det nye eksamensoppsettet. Dette oppsettet kombinert med for vage kompetansemål gjorde lærerne bekymret på vegne av elevene sine. Når kompetansemål blir for åpne for tolkning kommer lærere i Norge til å fokusere på forskjellige faglige temaer mente lærerne. Eksamen er sentralt gitt og vil dermed være identisk for alle elever, og dermed skape urettferdige og uforutsigbare eksamener for elever som har fått forskjellig undervisning

WP1 - Rhomb porphyry - data report

Samples of rhomb porphyry have been characterized with chemical analyses and different leaching experiments (column, container and standard leaching tests) to study their composition and leaching properties. Results presented in this report show that rhomb porphyry is a stable rock with low concentrations of sulphur and heavy metals (included uranium and thorium), exhibiting a low risk of leaching high concentrations of metals to the environment when exposed to weathering

Short-term performance of Norwegian serial acquirers: An empirical analysis of bidder announcement returns

This thesis studies the short-term performance of Norwegian serial acquirers by investigating bidder announcement returns. For a long time, there has been no clear evidence of whether the net performance of serial acquirers is positive or negative in the short term. On one hand, when a company engages in numerous acquisitions over time, it may develop strategic momentum and M&A experience that can last over a longer period and create substantial value for its shareholders. On the other hand, factors such as CEO hubris, overconfidence, diminishing returns schedules, and integration problems decrease the probability of deal success. While several studies analyse the performance of serial acquirers, to the best of our knowledge, there is no study on short-term performance on Norwegian serial acquirers. Applying the event study methodology, we analyse a sample of 377 acquisitions by Norwegian public companies from 1996 to 2020. Based on a firm’s M&A strategy in time, the sample is divided into serial-, occasional, and single acquirers. We find evidence that serial acquirers engage in wealth-creating acquisitions with a significant average cumulative abnormal return of 0.861% in the (-1, +1) event window. Comparing average cumulative abnormal returns to both occasional- and single acquirers, serial acquirers perform significantly lower in all event windows ranging from (-3, +3) to (0). Controlling for deal- and firm characteristics, we find that serial acquirers underperform relative to other acquirers by -1.72%. Lastly, captured by bidder-fixed effects, serial acquirers seem to possess some unobserved time-invariant characteristics beyond other types of acquirers.nhhma