The Montessori pedagogy. Why has it become so popular in Norway when Essay

The Montessori pedagogy. Why has it become so popular in Norway when private schools are being established - Essay exemplificationities deplete had a strong influence on education policies concerning both the content of teaching and the management of schools (Darnell & Hoem, 1996 Lauglo, 1998). Operating parallel to this decentralized process, however, has been the states effort to use more management and control over the schools in order to protect a democratic popular education. Such control is considered necessary for maintaining equality in education.In 1997, Norway developed a new national curriculum plan for primary and lower secondary schools. The 343-page plan (Laereplanen, 1997) is ideologically based on nationalism, is oriented both to children and to the community, and focuses on projecting methods and integrative strategies for teaching. The plan withal stresses subject knowledge and explains, in detail, what should be learned.Today, not only public schools but also p rivate schools receive almost all of their funding from the state, and they must follow an overall state policy for education. The vast majority of students attend public schools. At the university and college level, only about 10 percent of students attend private institutions. At the upper secondary level, 4 percent are in private education. more than 98 percent of primary and lower secondary education students attend public state schools. Only a very few children are home office schooled. For all intents and purposes, the state has a say in almost all school matters in Norway, and its reach is extending toward such alternative education methods as home schooling.As a result of the special geography and history of Norway, there is no historically rooted national upper class. While some children have learned from private tutors, or at Christian schools or other private schools, Norway does not have a strong tradition of private, upper-class schools. some(a) alternative schools a t the primary and lower secondary levels were established by special interest groups for religious or other ideological