Abstract

This chapter asks the big question: What is innovation? I try to answer this question through both an historical review and a conceptual discussion. The historical review shows how big inventions have become innovations that have created waves of development built on the same breakthroughs. This historical review forms the basis for a critical discussion of the concept of innovation, and it strongly warns against a tendency to call everything «innovation».

Abstract

This chapter tries to analyze two concepts: Innovation and immaterial capital, showing that the first has a long history, the other is newer. Concepts that succeed, have a tendency to develop from one concise meaning to a manifold of associations. Both concepts tend to lose their original and specific meaning, which is that there is something new and unpredictable in human action. And when the unpredictability is lost of sight, action is often turned into technique.

Abstract

During the last decade, many Norwegian municipalities have introduced a purchaser-provider split in the delivery of health and social services to their citizens. They have done this by establishing a central purchaser authority, which evaluates user needs and decides what type and amount of services that shall be provided to specific users. The authority then issues an order to the relevant provider entity to deliver the specified service to the user. For the delivery of this service, the provider unit will receive a defined amount of resources. As such, the purchaser authority seems to represent an organizational innovation for better and more coordinated decision-making.

Although the purchaser-provider model is associated with market-oriented New Public Management (NPM), the data we present indicates that the establishment of municipal purchaser offices may just as well be interpreted as a post-NPM turn, especially with its emphasis on coordinating and orchestrating the provider units within the health and social service sector. We label this development a neo-Weberian trend (NWS) restoring hierarchy as an important steering mechanism. However, our data shows that hierarchy is not sufficient. Communication, cooperation and trust between the purchaser authority and the provider units are also necessary elements. This observation can be linked to a second post-NPM trend, the network-oriented governance approach (NPG). Formerly, i.e. in the period approx. 1990–2010, the service delivery units took care of both purchaser and provider tasks. It is a paradox that this model of multiple structurally separated and semi-autonomous units also found its inspiration in NPM. Now, the purchaser-provider split was meant to ameliorate the fragmentation and discoordination produced by the first NPM-model. Our conclusion is that the purchaser authority represents a hybrid innovation of municipal service delivery in the sense that it combines three different steering mechanisms, hierarchy, market and network.

Abstract

In this essay the authors take up the phenomenon of innovation. How and why it may appear that the community and especially the public sector currently is invaded by demands for innovation. Innovation is here being linked especially to the following three interconnected areas in the public sector: Mergers, organizational forms (lean) and privatization (the welfare profiteers). The essay concludes with the authors’ launching of nine theses on innovation in the public sector. The nine theses are launched to promote a further discussion about the phenomenon of innovation in the public sector.

Abstract

The Coordination Reform has a weak reform design, which means that there can be different adaptions to the reform based on local differences. This article is asking if different administrative and political organizing influences how different municipalities meet and solve the intensions related to the reform. The chapter is based on phone interviews at management level in 36 municipalities as well as 31 qualitative interviews from six case municipalities.

Abstract

This chapter examines Norwegian authorities’ policy and planning strategies for the written languages Norwegian Nynorsk and Norwegian Bokmål. The overarching aim is to diachronically explore the practices of and rationales behind Norwegian language regimes in the context of welfare theory, and more specific, in the context of the principle of universalism versus its opposite, the principle of targeting and group-differentiation. The purpose is to discuss whether the arguments in favor of and against the mentioned principles work the same way in language policy discourse as they do in general welfare policy discourse. Does the fact that language is a group phenomenon, justify language welfare rights designed as group-differentiation? Could group-differentiated language rights be a future strategy to secure linguistic welfare to minority language groups?

Abstract

The Norwegian Board of Health Supervision undertakes compliance audits in institutions delivering health care services in Norway. The Norwegian Board of Health Supervision is organized under The Ministry of Health and Care Services. Laws and regulations constitute the formal framework for the health institutions chosen for audit. At the regional level the state audits are organized at the county governor's office, and a cross disciplinary team at the regional level conducts most of the audits. Performing an audit involves collecting various sorts of information, and on the basis of this information the auditing team decides whether the institution delivering health care services does so in compliance with a given law or regulation or not. Innovation is a word not usually associated with state audits, on the contrary, state audits are usually associated with compliance with 'eternal' and unchanging standards. However, there is room for innovation, because both the laws and the role of the auditor must be interpreted. The point of departure of this chapter is theoretical, and its inspiration is Christopher Pollitt's typology of auditor roles. The purpose is to sketch out four interpretations of the auditor-role, namely: «the judge», «the advisor», «the horse trader» and «the master of ceremonies». The four interpretations of the auditor-role suggested in the chapter are associated with four forms of rationality and four approaches to innovation.

Abstract

In this chapter we discuss the role of values in coordination of social housing efforts in Norwegian municipalities. We show that it is necessary to examine the interplay between values, knowledge, formal structure and actions to understand this role. The conclusions apply for the field of social housing, but our aim is also to contribute to bring to light the relationship between values and coordination in public organisations in general.

Abstract

Today, entrepreneurship education embraces a diverse variety of approaches to teaching. One alternative approach is the concept of teaching entrepreneurship by using a practice-based approach grounded in actionable theory. This approach implies that theoretical content can be more or less invisible to students, but is to be discovered through experimental practices. This article aims to study how entrepreneurship students perceive the experience of learning actionable theory through a practice-driven course. We conducted six face-to-face interviews with six course participants and used a deductive thematic analysis to review data. The analysis revealed two key themes of importance: the theory-practice balance and real-life application. Our findings suggest that, by and large, the practice of actionable theory finds approval among the students interviewed. Although the invisibility of theory does perplex the informants, all except one student demonstrated awareness of theory being present in the course. Furthermore, they display abilities to reflect upon and make connections between what they have learned during the course and its real-life applicability.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore students’ motivations, expectations and experiences in embarking on short-term study abroad and to investigate factors that influence students’ attitude and intention to study abroad. Based on in-depth interviews with two groups of students, yet to go abroad and have been abroad, this paper discusses the motivations, expectations and experiences of students by comparing and contrasting these two groups. This analytical approach reveals very interesting insights into the study abroad decision-making process. The paper also presents a conceptual model, which was estimated by use of multiple regression analysis based on data source of 294 respondents. Understanding the factors which influence attitude and intention to study abroad can provide useful guidelines for higher education institutions to consider in the formulation of effective study abroad programs and on how best to promote and market study abroad experiences to Norwegian students.

Abstract

The study deals with teachers who have participated in school-based further education in class management. The purpose of the study is to find out characteristic features of a school-based further education which teachers think contribute to their own learning. Empirical data are based on group interviews with two teacher groups at a lower secondary school 18 months after the conclusion of the further education. The findings indicate that there are five key characteristics of further education that contribute to teachers experiencing learning: Collective participation, practice-related content, in-between work, that further education takes place over time, and commitment. Our main finding is that commitment seems to be the factor that links the four others together.

Abstract

Developmental and cognitive psychology studies how the human being learns and develops, leading to a range of competing learning theories. In the research on primary education, these theories are well known. They have had huge impact on the shifting trends in teaching methods. In higher education in contrast, we find much less research and the educators are generally less trained in pedagogical theory than their colleagues in the lower levels of education. Furthermore, learning theories are often founded on research on children.

This paper considers qualitative data from a study on active learning in a module on Microcontrollers which is part of the engineering course at Aalesund University College (now NTNU in Aalesund). We compare the students’ experience from this module with three important learning theories, namely behaviourism, logical constructivism and social constructivism.

It will be seen that the behaviourist ideas, and to some extent logical constructivist ideas, have had significant and positive impact on the teaching methods used, even if the module conveners have not consciously and knowingly built on these theories. The constructive feedback received from the students points us towards ideas and principles from social constructivism.

We conclude that it takes more than one method to establish an optimal learning environment. We believe that some insight and inspiration from each of the major learning theorists can improve the learning environment also in the higher education sector.

Abstract

The pedagogical landscape in Europe is changing through new ways of flexible learning. This chapter highlights last year’s change in types of programmes offered at universities and university colleges in Norway relating to lifelong learning. The context is Teacher Education, and we examine possible influences the programs may have for the student population. The research question is: In what way have new qualification tracks in Early Childhood Teacher Education changed the student group? A quantitative approach is implemented using registered data compiled from Statistics Norway on people working in kindergarten during the education or working as kindergarten teachers from 2006 to 2012. In addition, data from a survey in the spring of 2012 with respondents studying at seven of the nine institutions offering workplace-based teacher education is used. In the period 2006–2012 we found four trends in education that differ substantially in length of study, what the student is required to do, or may do during study qualification period. This article shows some of the common characteristics the student groups have, such as the variety in age and stability. We examine students that combine teacher training with education-based employment and their loyalty to the workplace. The results show differences in prerequisites, age and approach to the practice field. The average age increased during the period, and seems to be affected by flexible learning. We also found that more than 30 percent of the students in 2012 combined studies with employment in kindergartens. We discuss the results and the challenges in the theoretical perspectives of among others, Biesta and Heggen & Smeby.