This presentation was given by Frode Nyhamn of the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training at the GCES Conference on Trust and Education in The Hague on 7 December during the Workshop A on When trust breaks down.

1. Presentation GCES/OECD, Haag - 7.Dec 2015
Frode Nyhamn,
The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training
Accountability and trust in the
Norwegian education system
– the introduction and adjustment of
national tests

2. “The selling point”
• How to increase accountability and transparency
in an education system traditionally marked by a
high level of trust and decentralisation

3. What is it about?

4. What is it about cont.
(Connection to Tracy Burns presentation)
1. The Pisa shock
2. Acceptance of the
quality assessment
system/ national tests?

5. 1. Cultural context - trust in the Norwegian (education) society

6. Interpersonal trust
Statement: "If you are not careful, other
people will take advantage of you”.
Percentage of individuals who disagree
(From “The Educational roots of
trust” of Borgonovi & Burns)

7. 2. Political context – principles for governance

8. Two different statements
The Norwegian teacher strike 2014
• Original discussion on working conditions but also a more
general discussion on trust and accountability
• Said to reveal an underlying dissatisfaction among teachers
“with all this control I feel that I’m not trusted anymore”
• Feedback from Andreas Schleicher (in
Hopfenbeck et al., 2013: p.39):
“I think the high degree of autonomy of teachers and
schools (in Norway) is not matched by transparency and an
accountability culture”. (Hopfenbeck et al., 2013: 39)
System low
on account-
ability
System low
on trust

9. Half-way to accountability
The Norwegian position on accountability has been described
as moving only “half-way to accountability” (Hatch, 2013).
..introduced national tests and a system to present
information about performance (..) but these tools are not
matched with high stake follow-up mechanisms and incentive
systems (ibid).

10. 3. The introduction and adjustments of national tests

11. Consistency and responsiveness
• Adjustment/responsiveness:
• Improve quality/develop the tool
• Emphasize the formative aspect
• Consistency over time
• Ministers from different political parties in office,
still quite consistent

12. Governance is a balance act

13. Balance versus reinforcement, some suggestions
• Leadership as a function of power and trust
• Imply each other. No trust > no power / No power > no trust
• Power is about amount
• Trust something magical. Imply itself..
• Reinforcement versus balance
• Balance – a way of positioning the system or
understand the adjustment of it
• Mutually reinforcing, understanding
the actual process of change
Trust Power

14. Cyclical trust-building loop (figure 2 in background paper)

15. 4. Reflection on the process
How to handle
change processes
and build trust

16. Strategies / key learning points
• Communication
• Illustration: the newspaper article in the end of the text
• Network
• Supplement with external recourses
• Engage in real cooperation
• show that feedback has a consequence for the tool
• “Phased implementation” - a learning mechanism
• divide schools into different groups
• learn and adjust

17. «Theory of probing»
Educational change: ..‘theory of probing and
understanding the meaning of multiple dilemmas’
(Fullan, 1991)