Governance and Professional Autonomy in Primary Education - Comparing Norway, Sweden and Great Britain

The main intention of this research project is to reveal the elements of governance in public education. Our forcus is at the priamry school level, which involves several arenas of decision making, both political and administrative, from the state level t o the regional and the municipal levels. In addition, the impact of the school level on local school policy tends to increase. By designing a comparative study of the primary education systems in Norweay, Sweden and Great Britain, we will explore the rela tions between the distinct political-adinistrative levels and seek to identify the different actors participating in school policy formulation at each level. By introducing the term governance, we suggest that primary school policy may be formed within di fferent policy networks on different political-administrative levels. The networks' impact depends on the participating actors' interests, knowledge and resources, and the networks do not necessarily come only from formal institutions