Demokrati og rationalitet i skolen

Kritisk lys på folkeskolens dominante styringsparadigme

Abstract

The Danish primary and lower secondary school for 6- to 16-year-olds has undergone a recent reform involving enhanced performance management. This paper analyses the level of reflection in policy papers with the aim of diagnosing whether the purpose of the public school has changed as new performance measures have been setup. I argue that three different administrative paradigms exist with con- flicting views on which types of rationality to strengthen in the primary and lower secondary school. The now dominating paradigm sees the purpose of the school as teaching the children ‘what they must learn’. This means primarily good skills in mathematics and Danish. I call this the Complexity-reducing Administration Paradigm. In the Complexity-containing Administration Paradigm dysfunctions and paradoxes of performance management are taken into account. Dialogical rather than top-down management comes to the center as a mean to improve street-level motivation. The Contextual Experience Paradigm still sees school teachers as having a general function in society and give place for politicians and the public to have a say in setting up the general and abstract ends of teaching children. It challenges the other two administration paradigms, however, as it sees the contextual relation between the teacher and the children as an experience- and problem focused experimental process where nothing external must interfere with the agents’ mutually developed sense of purpose.