Investigating teachers’ and school principals’ enactments of national testing policies. A Norwegian study

Date09 May 2018
Published date09 May 2018
Pages332-349
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-04-2017-0035
AuthorAnn Elisabeth Gunnulfsen,Astrid Roe
Subject MatterEducation,Administration & policy in education,School administration/policy,Educational administration,Leadership in education
Investigating teachersand school
principalsenactments
of national testing policies
A Norwegian study
Ann Elisabeth Gunnulfsen and Astrid Roe
Department of Teacher Education and School Research,
University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine teachersreported experiences, practices, and attitudes on
the use of national test results in a low-stakes accountability context. Whether the stakes are high or low,
teachers and school leaders have different experiences, knowledge, and beliefs concerning how to use national
test results to benefit individual student learning. This paper addresses how teachers experience school
leadership and policy requirements for using national test results in local schools.
Design/methodology/approach This paper is part of a larger study conducted in a Norwegian
educational context investigating school leadersand teachersenactments of policy demands via the use of
national test results data. The sub-study reported in this paper is based on survey data from all lower
secondary teachers (n¼176) in one Norwegian municipality. Micro-policy perspectives and the concept of
crafting policy coherence served as analytical tools.
Findings Diversity between the schools was found in how teachers perceive the principalsrole. Practices
and attitudes appeared restrained, somewhat conformed by, but still indifferent to the policy intention.
However, there was a close relationship between the principalsfacilitation of national tests and the teachers
practices of utilizing the results.
Originality/value This study clarified how mic ro-policy works in local schools in a low-s takes context.
A prominent differenc e was found between the poli cy intentions and local schoolspractice of us ing
national test results .
Keywords Educational policy, Accountability, School principals, National test results, Teacher attitudes,
Teacher experiences
Paper type Research paper
Recently, accountability-driven policies have gradually been introduced in many countries
education systems (Elstad, 2009). Concepts like accountability, choice, and competition are
part of modern Norwegian educational discourse and policy (Aas et al., 2016; Lindblad
et al., 2002; Møller, 2009). One definition of accountability policies highlights the types of
coordination and control that the state and educational authorities have implemented to
adjust the behaviors of local actors. Thus, accountability policies can be called regulation
by results(Maroy and Voisin, 2015, p. 39). The consequences of a hardor high-stakes
accountability system may include no advancement in salary, transfer or firing, and
a loss of external reputation, such as with lower public rankings of schools. In softor
reflexiveaccountability systems (low-stakes systems), the consequences associated with
accountability vary noticeably (Carnoy and Loeb, 2002; Harris and Herrington, 2006).
For example, in a low-stakes context, an organization would be instructed to confront its
results; use various measures to stimulate reflection on its practices; and foster changes in
its practices, beliefs, or identity. From this perspective, Norwegian schools can be regarded
as operating in a low-stakes accountability context.
Internationally, researchers have contributed to the understanding of how policy
demands, characterized by high-stakes testing and accountability practices, exert pressure
on schools (e.g. Ball et al., 2012; Hall, 2013; Hardy, 2014; Mintrop and Sunderman, 2009).
Journal of Educational
Administration
Vol. 56 No. 3, 2018
pp. 332-349
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0957-8234
DOI 10.1108/JEA-04-2017-0035
Received 2 April 2017
Revised 22 December 2017
Accepted 29 December 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-8234.htm
332
JEA
56,3
In accountability-driven development, school leaders, such as principals and deputy
managers, are expected to intervene to improve teacherspractices, helping to ensure that
student performance meets the administrations accountability targets (Hallinger, 2005).
The accountability aspects of national testing policies and school leadersinvolvement are
addressed in previous studies, which have reported a discrepancy between teachersbeliefs
about and capacity for using test data. Some teachers perceive that they lack the ability
and/or motivation to use large-scale test results to inform instruction (e.g. Datnow and
Hubbard, 2016; Ingram et al., 2004; Young, 2006).
Recent findings in a Norwegian context revealed that 12 school leaders at four lower
secondary schools complied with accountability policy demands by adding test results to
the agendas of teacher and leader-team meetings (Gunnulfsen and Møller, 2017).
By interviewing these 12 principals and deputy managers in one municipality, the
researchers found that the school leaderswork with coherence between the central policy
demands of national testing and teacher practice involved symbolic responses and
interpretations that fit the preexisting understanding of how to enhance school quality.
This finding suggests that the school leaders were not directly governed by the new policy
context. Another study, building on video data from formal leadership and teacher-team
meetings in lower secondary schools, showed that principals often seemed to shape how
national test results should be interpreted and used (Gunnulfsen, 2017). Different policy
actor roles were illuminated (Ball et al., 2012), and the deputy managers mostly functioned
as the enforcers of the schoolstesting policy work, while the principals mainly held
roles as narrators and enthusiasts (Gunnulfsen, 2017). These studies focused on school
leaders when investigating leadership and teacher practices; the present research builds
on these two previous studies, contributing to the relatively unstudied area of school
leadership from a teacher perspective and how teachers experience the demands placed
on them by principals when dealing with the requirements for using national test data
in local schools.
Investigating how teachers use national test results and how school principals facilitate
this in a low-stakes context contributes to existing knowledge about how testing policy is
enacted at the local school level in different ways. This paper explores how Norwegian
teachers experience their use of national test results and how they perceive the schools
leadership relative to this policy expectation. It seeks to answer the following research
questions:
RQ1. How do teachers perceive principalsfacilitation of using national test results at the
local school level?
RQ2. How do teachers and teacher teams use the national test results, and what attitudes
do teachers have toward national tests?
RQ3. What is the relationship between the principalsfacilitation of using national test
results and the teacherspractices and attitudes?
In the next section, we outline the Norwegian context, before presenting the theoretical and
analytical framework. Following this, we describe the studys methodology, and then we
present the results. Finally, we summarize our findings and discuss their implications,
making recommendations for further research.
The Norwegian accountability context
National tests include basic skills in reading, numeracy, and English[1] reading. In Norway,
the government views test results as tools for improving school quality and enhancing
individual student learning. Reading and numeracy are involved in all subjects, at all levels.
Hence, teachers work to strengthen these skills in all text-based subjects.
333
National
testing policies

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