Unni Vere Midthassel

The Principal's Role in Promoting School Development Activity in Norwegian Compulsory Schools

The focus of this article is to explore the role of the principal in promoting school development activity (SDA) in Norwegian compulsory schools. The sample included 81 schools from 42 randomly selected municipalities. Results suggest that the principal can promote SDA among the teaching staff by playing an active role in creating an innovative culture at school. Moreover, results suggest that the principal may have a more important role in promoting SDA in secondary than in primary schools. Finally, results indicate that support from local authorities was related to SDA involvement among secondary school principals, whereas it was unrelated to such involvement among primary school principals.

Teacher Involvement in School Development Activity and its Relationships to Attitudes and Subjective Norms among Teachers: a Study of Norwegian Elementary and Junior High School Teachers

This article is based on a survey covering 1,435 Norwegian teachers in compulsory schools in 47 municipalities. It examines associations between teacher involvement in school development activity (SDA) and teachers’ attitudes toward SDA as well as their perceived working environment concerning innovation activity among staff and the principal’s involvement in SDA. Results showed that teachers’ perception of SDA as a relevant task was the strongest predictor of the variables examined. Furthermore, teacher perception of the innovation culture among staff and of a principal’s involvement moderately accounted for teacher involvement in SDA. Results suggest that the relevance of SDA has a stronger effect on teacher involvement in SDA if the innovation culture is perceived to be positive and the principal is seen to be involved in SDA. Finally, the results indicated no significant differences between elementary and junior high school teachers with regard to the predictors for teacher involvement in SDA.

Is the sustainability of reduction in bullying related to follow‐up procedures?

This paper investigates changes in bullying behaviour among pupils in 72 Norwegian compulsory schools two years after the schools completed an anti‐bullying program. A sample of 22 schools received eight lesson plans with material for staff to use to focus on the challenges of anti‐bullying during this period of two years. Another sample of 22 schools received the same lessons, and also received regular phone calls from a researcher between the lessons. A sample of 28 schools received no other attention than the surveys. We assumed that bullying would be lower in the schools which received follow‐up procedures than in the control schools. Results showed no overall change in mean victimisation scores (i.e., being the victim of bullying), although there was a slight but significant overall decrease in bullying scores (i.e., bullying others) (F = 12.58, p < .001). Our predictions of differences between the samples were not supported. One possible conclusion is that the follow‐up procedures offered were not sufficient to decrease bullying any further. Further research is needed to determine whether the lack of effect is due to the type of follow‐up measure or to implementation within schools.

Creating a Shared Understanding of Classroom Management

This article draws on a Norwegian project—in one primary and one lower secondary school—that had the aim of creating a shared understanding of classroom management and that resulted in a handbook on classroom management at each of these schools. Teacher reflection and teacher sharing were vital in this project initiated from the outside yet relying on bottom-up strategies. Three topics are studied: procedures of the projects, teacher experiences with procedures and teachers’ perceptions of learning opportunities in the project. Data was collected using interviews, questionnaire and log from the process. Results show that, although the main project work was carried out by the teachers the role of the principal was vital during the whole process. Furthermore, the findings of the project suggest organised work needs to continue after the project has ended

Antecedents and outcomes of intervention program participation and task priority change among school psychology counselors: A latent variable growth framework☆

A three-year national intervention program introduced into the School Psychology Service (SPS) in Norway with the aim of increasing systemic level work among SP counselors was investigated. Latent variable growth models based on longitudinal data from 195 SP counselors gave no significant mean level change in systemic level work. This concurred with GLM analyses based on data from a sample of 20 schools. However, retrospective self-reported significant positive mean level change for systemic level work was detected among the SP counselors. Intervention program participation was associated with individual change in systemic level work. Self-efficacy beliefs about systemic level work, and school-related etiology beliefs predicted individual change to a certain degree. Comparison of two rival models gave no support for a hypothesized interaction among intervention program participation and beliefs in their effects on systemic level work. Open-ended questions indicated that individual level workload and the perceived expectations from the schools may have concern for a successful effect of the intervention program in addition to the hypothesized ones. Individual change in systemic level work was positively associated with individual change in job satisfaction.

Community effects on teacher involvement in school development activity: A study of teachers in cities, smaller towns and rural areas in Norway

This paper reports the results of a study of community type effects on teacher involvement in school development activity (SDA). The sample included 244 teachers from 12 schools in four cities, 276 teachers from 29 schools in ten smaller towns and 851 teachers from 58 schools in 25 rural municipalities in Norway. The results showed that teachers in the smaller towns were more involved in SDA than those in the rural areas, whereas the difference between cities and smaller towns was not statistically significant. The impact of urbanization was mediated through the principals involvement in SDA and the innovation culture in the schools.

University-school partnerships as arrangements in policy implementation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to add to the knowledge base of school-university partnerships by exploring such partnerships in terms of policy implementation. Design/methodology/approach This paper takes a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews. Findings To achieve a joint understanding of roles, focus, and work in the partnerships based on the schools’ needs and scholars’ competence was crucial. This was not easily achieved in all partnerships. Conflicting expectations were part of the process. Although they were demanding, the partnership arrangements also represented opportunities for the university scholars to learn. Originality/value The findings suggest that partnership arrangements require parties that understand the implications of this collaboration and that respect, mutual trust, and joint understanding are needed. It is likely that bringing different parties together will create conflicts that must be resolved. If unfamiliar to the parties, the use of partnership arrangements is itself an implementation that has its own process that operates in parallel to the work in focus.