Regional gender inequality in the Norwegian culture of equality

Published version of an article in the journal: Gender Issues. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12147-014-9131-0 This research project has its origin in statistical findings indicating that there has been a long-standing regional variation in the attainment of gender equality in Norway whereby the southern region has been identified as the least gender-equal. This is likely to be caused by an interaction of economic, political and cultural structures. Nevertheless, the understanding of this phenomenon remains incomplete since the cultural dimension too often ends up as a residual category or a dependent variable. The project seeks to explore the cultural dime…

Boys’ construction of fatherhood when their fathers are absent

In this article, we address the question of how boys whose fathers are absent construct an image of fatherhood. Drawing on the stories told by three boys whose fathers are absent, we explore how the boys, in the relation with their mothers, siblings and others, construct and negotiate an image of fatherhood, including how they envisage themselves to be as fathers in the future. The data material consists of life-mode interviews with the boys and their mothers. Theoretically, we are inspired by social constructionism and cultural psychology. We find that the boys aspire to become fathers who engage in close and mutual relations within the family, who are emotionally and practically available…

Managing categories: The role of social technology in kindergarten teachers’ work to promote early intervention and integration

Early intervention and integration are highly valued ideals in kindergartens in Norway. Building on two research projects informed by institutional ethnography, the authors address how kindergarten teachers ‘do’ early intervention and integration in their everyday work. They argue that this work largely revolves around managing categories, whether making categories fit people or making people fit categories. In this work, the kindergarten teachers rely on social technology that is influenced by a ‘psy-discourse’. Despite good intentions, the social technology and the professionals’ use of it ends up constructing the categories they are intended to help or ‘heal’.

When texts become action. The institutional circuit of early childhood intervention

Building on ideals of social cohesion, equality of opportunities and socio-economic benefits, there has been an increasing awareness in Norway of kindergarten employees’ responsibility to initiate ...

Quantification and classification in education: What is at stake?

Histories of statistics and quantification have demonstrated that systems of statistical knowledge participate in the construction of the objects that are measured. However, the pace, purpose, and scope of quantification in state bureaucracy have expanded greatly over the past decades, fuelled by (neoliberal) societal trends that have given the social phenomenon of quantification a central place in political discussions and in the public sphere. This is particularly the case in the field of education. In this article, we ask what is at stake in state bureaucracy, professional practice, and individual pupils as quantification increasingly permeates the education field. We call for a theoret…

Professional Talk: Unpacking Professional Language

Modern welfare states have increasingly been infused by principles from New Public Management. The implicit managerialism and standardization of these principles reduces the autonomy of professionals and displaces their discretionary power, replacing it with a standardized professional language that reproduces and reinforces specific narratives of knowledge. This chapter explores why and how we can reconnect the intimacy between word and experience by unpacking professional language. I address the following questions: What are the challenges of interviewing professionals? What is there to discover in the unpacking of professional language? And how do we unpack professional words, discourse …

The expansion of early childhood development services and the need to reconceptualize evidence

The provision of early childhood development services is expanding in developing countries. The rationale behind this expansion is rooted in developmental psychology, socio-economic and human rights narratives. However, there are some limitations to this rationale, which are in particular related to the implicit universalism it assumes. This article outlines how early childhood development interventions imply a policing of families and childhood, which calls for a stronger consideration of context. As a consequence, the scope of what counts as evidence in early childhood development research needs to be questioned. The article is a theoretical contribution to the discourse of what early ch…

An Examination of the Role and Responsibilities of Kindergarten in Multidisciplinary Collaboration on Behalf of Children With Severe Disabilities

The purpose of this study was to examine the role and responsibilities of Norwegian kindergarten (i.e., preschool for ages 0–6 years) from the perspective of participants involved in multidisciplinary collaboration on behalf of children with severe disabilities and their families. The authors employed a multiple-case study approach comprising 26 interviews across six cases. Findings suggest that kindergarten is considered an important partner for families and a major contributor to the provision of services. Kindergartens were valued for their (1) close relationships and intimate knowledge of children as individuals, (2) the sense of security and relief of stress that they provided to paren…

«Making up pupils»

Author's version of an article in the journal: Norsk pedagogisk tidsskrift. Also available from the publisher at: http://www.idunn.no/file/pdf/66740174/making_up_pupils.pdf I denne artikkelen tar vi utgangspunkt i kritikken av målstyringsideologien som har vokst frem i det norske utdanningssystemet. Vi gjør rede for det internasjonale opphavet til den standardiserings- og homogeniseringstendensen som påvirker dagens norske skoler og barnehager, og som har resultert i en nasjonal politikk med større oppmerksomhet på grunnleggende ferdigheter, testing og kartlegging. For å forankre denne utdanningskulturen kreves det et stort statistisk arbeid med registrering og klassifisering. Hva skjer i s…

The early childhood care and development mission and the institutional circuit of evidence

Early childhood care and development has increasingly become a part of the global development agenda. Fueled by a threefold rationale, rooted in development psychology, social economy, and human rights, the arguments for investing in early childhood care and development are virtually unassailable. However, this rationale is somehow at odds with insights developed within the sociology of childhood, emphasizing childhood as a social construction amendable to context and children’s own agency. Inspired by the methodological approach known as institutional ethnography, we explore how development aid workers respond to and enact the early childhood care and development mission. Building on inter…

Institutional Ethnography in the Nordic Region