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Skjerpet pedagognorm i barnehagene kan ses som uttrykk for at pedagogisk kompetanse og kvalitet ses i sammenheng. Denne artikkelen undersøker hvordan ansvar og oppgaver fordeles mellom pedagoger i barnehagen og hvilken betydning ulike måter å organisere pedagogressursen kan få for barnehagelærerprofesjonens jurisdiksjon på barnehagefeltet. Artikkelen bygger på data fra en komparativ caseundersøkelse i åtte barnehager i 2017 og 2018 som hadde femti prosent andel barnehagelærere. Vi har intervjuet styrere, pedagoger, fagarbeidere/assistenter og eierrepresentanter. Analysen bygger på teori om profesjonssystemer (Abbott, 1988) og viser hvordan arbeidsdeling skjer ut fra subjektive problemdefinisjoner av barnehagelærernes og fagarbeidernes/assistentenes oppgaver. Barnehagelærerne i de ulike barnehagene tildeles forskjellige oppgaver og ansvarsområder. Noen får et mer spesialisert ansvar, mens andre utformer barnehagelæreroppgaver som en støttefunksjon til pedagogisk lederrollen. Forhandlinger om arbeidsoppgaver kan muliggjøre og utfordre barnehagelærernes profesjonalisering. Analysen indikerer at det fortsatt er en vei å gå i arbeidet med å fastsette profesjonens ambisjon med den skjerpede pedagognormen. Arbeidsdelingsprosessene er i stadig endring og bør følges videre opp med forskning som kan tilføre ny kunnskap om hvordan skjerpet pedagognorm kan styrke kompetanse, profesjonalisering og det pedagogiske arbeidet i barnehagen. ENGLISH ABSTRACT What Do the Teachers Do? The Division of Labour Between Early Childhood Teachers in Kindergartens With Increased Teacher-to-Child Ratio Norwegian national regulations that increase the percentage of early childhood teachers among staff in kindergartens indicate that pedagogical competence and quality are related. However, we need more insight into how quality, teacher professional competence and staffing are linked in the kindergartens. The article is based on data from a comparative case study in eight kindergartens in 2017 and 2018 which all had a proportion of fifty per cent teachers among their staff. The data consists of interviews with kindergarten heads, teachers, skilled workers, assistants, and owners. The analysis is based on a theoretical approach on the system of professions (Abbott, 1988), and shows how the division of labor based on subjective problem definitions vary between the kindergartens. Negotiations on work tasks at the local level both enable and challenge the professionalization of teachers. Thus, we find that the government’s ambitions to strengthen competence and thereby quality in the kindergarten sector can be implemented in various ways. An increase of kindergarten teachers among staff does not necessarily strengthen specialization of professional practice. Further, the work of determining the profession’s ambition with the teacher staffing regulation is yet still to be developed and defined.

Central among a range of reforms and policy measures aimed at enhancing the quality and social cohesion of Norwegian early childhood education and care (ECEC) services is the 2017 "Framework Plan for Kindergartens." In this article, we investigate the policy formation process and how framework plan reform has been carried out by public and private stakeholders at different levels. The reform is explored as institutional layering, referring to theoretical contributions that stress the role of incremental development and gradual institutional change. We ask: What are the policies added, and to what extent do added policies instigate institutional change? This article relies on qualitative document analyses, semistructured interviews, and quantitative survey data. We find high legitimacy for the framework plan in the ECEC sector, and informants broadly regard it as a continuation of earlier versions of the plan. Our analysis further shows that the implementation of the 2017 framework plan reform cannot be viewed in isolation, as it interacts with other reforms, trends, and instruments in the sector. We argue that blending reform design features with existing values and practices adds layers to Norwegian ECEC, instigating change. The analysis points to the need for further research on how national educational reforms are implemented in complex settings and to investigate the relationships between policy design and measures and between policy outcomes and ambitions. The relationships between different measures can be unclear to local implementers. Thus, we stress the importance of considering how reform outcomes depend on intertwined reforms and varying local conditions regarding capacity, norms, and values.

Collaboration between schools and parents has become increasingly prominent on the political agenda in Norway. Schools are obliged to promote parent–school cooperation in accordance with parents’ rights as stakeholders in education. This article explores the governing strategies of seven primary or lower-secondary schools that have taken initiatives to improve parent–school collaboration. The main intention is to explore how New Public Management (NPM) measures (such as market values, decentralization, competition, and output control) and New Public Service (NPS) tools (including coalition building and citizens’ involvement) are reproduced at the local level when parent–school collaboration is put on the agenda. The analysis shows that street-level discretion at school level implies considerable uncertainty around the achievement of policy objectives. Different opinions on parents as a target group seem prominent in explaining how frontline workers act and strategize. Two distinct collaboration strategies are identified: serving and steering. The serving strategy is based on a linear partnership by making use of local knowledge in order to reach parents and enable their participation. The steering strategy is characterized by non-linear relationships with parents and certain steering mechanisms by routinizing collaboration activities, modifying goals for parent–school collaboration and rationing school services to parents.

Økt tilstrømming av mennesker med flukt- og innvandringsbakgrunn har aktualisert behovet for kunnskap om virkningsfulle integreringstiltak. I de senere årene har bruk av ordinært arbeidsliv fått økt oppmerksomhet innen integreringsfeltet. Tiltak som bruker ordinær arbeidsplass som opplærings- og kvalifiseringsarena er imidlertid svært forskjellige, fra ulike varianter av «arbeid først»-innganger hvor målet er å få flyktninger og innvandrere fortest mulig inn i arbeidslignende aktiviteter, til lange løp som kombinerer arbeidspraksis og formell opplæring for oppbygning av formalkompetanse og humankapital. Med utgangspunkt i en studie av sju ulike tiltak undersøker denne artikkelen hvordan helse- og omsorgssektoren brukes som komponent i kvalifisering og opplæring av flyktninger og innvandrere. Studien omfatter intervjuer med representanter for samarbeidende institusjoner i tiltakene. Oppmerksomheten er rettet mot hvordan lokale tiltak kan styrke deltakernes humankapital og tilknytning til arbeidsmarkedet. Artikkelen avdekker spenninger i tiltakene, som gir ulike forutsetninger for å bygge deltakernes humankapital.