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Political Cultures

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Nordic Superintendents: Agents in a Broken Chain

Part of the book series: Educational Governance Research ((EGTU,volume 2))

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Abstract

This thematic chapter analyses both similarities and differences between the political cultures of the participating Nordic countries. It has been demonstrated that a country’s specific political culture has a great impact on the way its schooling system is organised. This view was centred on national cultures. In the Nordic countries, with their traditions of decentralised systems, many of the most important decision are taken by the municipal systems. Therefore this chapter seeks to apply the concepts of national political culture to the local municipal level. The chapter aims to explore the differences between the Nordic countries’ schooling systems through the lens of how different political cultures influence the organisation of the national school systems and draw them in different directions.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The name and area of responsibility change from municipality to municipality, but there is always a committee that has schools as its responsibility.

  2. 2.

    When we talk about how the municipalities are governed, it is important to stress that there is no single picture of how the municipalities are organised; there are variations among the municipalities because there is room for discretion in the law, so the description is that of an ideal type.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, Aarhus University, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Klaus Kasper Kofod

  2. Center for Principal Development, Umeå University, Umea, Sweden

    Olof Johansson

  3. Faculty of Teacher Education and International Studies, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Science, Oslo, Norway

    Jan Merok Paulsen

  4. Institute of Educational Leadership, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Mika Risku

Authors
  1. Klaus Kasper Kofod
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  2. Olof Johansson
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  3. Jan Merok Paulsen
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  4. Mika Risku
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Correspondence to Klaus Kasper Kofod .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Danish School of Education, Aarhus University , Copenhagen, Denmark

    Lejf Moos

  2. Department of Education, Uppsala University , Uppsala, Sweden

    Elisabet Nihlfors

  3. College of Applied Sciences, Oslo and Akershus University Fac. of Teacher Educ. and Inter. Studies, Oslo, Norway

    Jan Merok Paulsen

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Kofod, K.K., Johansson, O., Paulsen, J.M., Risku, M. (2016). Political Cultures. In: Moos, L., Nihlfors, E., Paulsen, J. (eds) Nordic Superintendents: Agents in a Broken Chain. Educational Governance Research, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25106-6_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25106-6_8

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