New modes of policy legitimation in education: (Mis)using comparative data to effectuate assessment reform

Identifying three modes of policy legitimation in education, illustrated by shifts in Swedish educational assessment and grading policies over the past decades, the paper demonstrates significant trends with regard to national governments' policymaking and borrowing. We observe a shift away from collaboracy - defined as policy legitimation located in partnerships and networks of stakeholders, researchers and other experts - towards more use of supranational agencies (called agency), such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the European Union and associated networks, as well as the use of individual consultants and private enterprises (called consultancy) to legitimate policy change. Given their political and high-stakes character for stakeholders, assessment and grading policies are suitable areas for investigating strategies and trends for policy legitimation in education. The European Union-affiliated Eurydice network synthesises policy descriptions for the European countries in an online database that is widely used by policymakers. Analysing Eurydice data for assessment and grading policies, the paper discusses functional equivalence of grading policies and validity problems related to the comparison of such policy information. Illuminating the roles of the Swedish Government and a consultant in reviewing and recommending grading policies, the paper discusses new fast policy' modes of policy legitimation in which comparative data is used to effectuate assessment reform

A Nordic transition regime? Policies for school-to-work transitions in Sweden, Denmark and Finland

In recent decades, a range of policy measures to support young people’s school-to-worktransitions has been initiated across Europe. However, these transition policies have rarely beenstudied systematically, particularly from a comparative perspective. Thus, the aim of this article isto compare Swedish, Danish and Finnish policies for supporting young people’s educational andschool-to-work transitions. Synthesising and analysing recent research, the article critically drawson Walther’s (2006) classification of transition regimes that recognises a Nordic universalisticregime of youth transitions characterised by emphasis on collective social responsibility, individualmotivation and personal development. We conclude that significant policy changes have occurredduring the last two decades. Coercive measures have been adopted and social support reduced,making young people more individually responsible for the success of their transitions. Hence,current transition policies diverge in many respects from qualities traditionally ascribed to theNordic transition regime. We also find significant differences between the three countries’transition policies, which in some cases indicate policy trade-offs. In addition, we conclude thattransition policies are generally weakly coordinated across policy domains, which increases the risk of unintended consequences of these policies. </p

A many-analysts approach to the relation between religiosity and well-being

The relation between religiosity and well-being is one of the most researched topics in the psychology of religion, yet the directionality and robustness of the effect remains debated. Here, we adopted a many-analysts approach to assess the robustness of this relation based on a new cross-cultural dataset (N=10,535 participants from 24 countries). We recruited 120 analysis teams to investigate (1) whether religious people self-report higher well-being, and (2) whether the relation between religiosity and self-reported well-being depends on perceived cultural norms of religion (i.e., whether it is considered normal and desirable to be religious in a given country). In a two-stage procedure, the teams first created an analysis plan and then executed their planned analysis on the data. For the first research question, all but 3 teams reported positive effect sizes with credible/confidence intervals excluding zero (median reported β=0.120). For the second research question, this was the case for 65% of the teams (median reported β=0.039). While most teams applied (multilevel) linear regression models, there was considerable variability in the choice of items used to construct the independent variables, the dependent variable, and the included covariates

A Many-analysts Approach to the Relation Between Religiosity and Well-being

The relation between religiosity and well-being is one of the most researched topics in the psychology of religion, yet the directionality and robustness of the effect remains debated. Here, we adopted a many-analysts approach to assess the robustness of this relation based on a new cross-cultural dataset (N = 10, 535 participants from 24 countries). We recruited 120 analysis teams to investigate (1) whether religious people self-report higher well-being, and (2) whether the relation between religiosity and self-reported well-being depends on perceived cultural norms of religion (i.e., whether it is considered normal and desirable to be religious in a given country). In a two-stage procedure, the teams first created an analysis plan and then executed their planned analysis on the data. For the first research question, all but 3 teams reported positive effect sizes with credible/confidence intervals excluding zero (median reported β = 0.120). For the second research question, this was the case for 65% of the teams (median reported β = 0.039). While most teams applied (multilevel) linear regression models, there was considerable variability in the choice of items used to construct the independent variables, the dependent variable, and the included covariates

The Swedish School house at the Centennial exposition in Philadelphia 1876 : World's fairs and innovation in policy and practice

At the world exhibition in Philadelphia 1876 Sweden displayed a school house with examples of teaching material and student work. How come, Sweden shipped a school house to this exhibition? What impact did the school house have, on the visitors at the exhibition and back home? The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the relations between Swedish education and the international scene, foremost the American, when it comes to policy and practice formation. The field of study is the World’s fairs in the 19th C. By looking at what Sweden displayed, and understanding how it was perceived by visitors the paper raise questions about cultural transfer. Focus will be put on the transfer of innovations and ideals

The Swedish School house at the Centennial exposition in Philadelphia 1876 : World's fairs and innovation in policy and practice

At the world exhibition in Philadelphia 1876 Sweden displayed a school house with examples of teaching material and student work. How come, Sweden shipped a school house to this exhibition? What impact did the school house have, on the visitors at the exhibition and back home? The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the relations between Swedish education and the international scene, foremost the American, when it comes to policy and practice formation. The field of study is the World’s fairs in the 19th C. By looking at what Sweden displayed, and understanding how it was perceived by visitors the paper raise questions about cultural transfer. Focus will be put on the transfer of innovations and ideals