Moreover, until now participation in professional development activities has been
voluntary. This situation, however, is changing. Influenced, among others, by the
increasing attention for the professional development of teacher educators in
Europe, the Dutch government has decided that from 2017 on all teacher educators,
school-based as well as institution-based will be obligated to become registered. On
the one hand, this decision requires that HEIs and schools have to incorporate this
in their training provision; on the other hand, it means a power shift away from the
professional community, VELON.
44.3.2 Norway
As in many other countries, Norway’s ranking in international tests caused what has
become known as‘PISA shock’or‘Pisa hysteria’. Subsequently, Norwegian tea-
cher education has been subject to multiple reforms which reflect political trends
striving to make the Norwegian schooling system competitive against international
indicators. The assumption here is that international competitiveness is necessary to
maintain the high standard of living currently enjoyed in Norway.
Some initiatives within the new reforms are to make elementary (primary)
school teacher education more specialized (Ministry of Education and Research
2010 ), and to strengthen teachers’ subject competence. Similar messages are
reinforced by the new government’s policy paper (Ministry of Education and
Research 2014), including increased funding for the in-service education of
teachers focusing on subject matter knowledge, especially mathematics and
Norwegian. Other intentions are to increase the length of the practicum during
teacher education and to provide strengthened support during induction. The most
recent and radical initiative, however, was officially launched by the government in
- It states that from 2017 all ITE will consist offive year masters programmes,
requiring a research dissertation. This reform means that student teachers training to
teach in elementary and lower secondary schools will have the same academic level
of education as their counterparts in the upper secondary sector, although they will
take different majors. It seems that here Finland is the‘light house’for Norwegian
policy makers, as it is for many other European countries. In the same policy
document (Teacher Empowerment, (author translation)) in 2014 the formal edu-
cation of school leaders will be continued and strengthened. Here Norway follows
similar international trends mentioned in international documents coming from the
OECD and the European Commission ( 2012 , 2013 ).
The good news is that in Norway most (but not all) initiatives are accompanied by
government funding, for example, funding has been provided for the further education
of teachers, mentors and school leaders. Research has been prioritized throughsupport
for research and development (R&D) projects in education, and the establishment
and continued funding of the National Research School in Teacher Education
(NAFOL) (Östern and Smith 2013 ). These initiatives highlight the need for
Norwegian teacher educators—both mentors working in schools and HEI-based—to
658 J. Murray et al.