ABSTRACT
Democratic learning is the big idea running through each chapter of this book. As such it offers a challenge to traditional notions of school effectiveness and improvement, rooted as they are in the hierarchical conventions of schools as we know, and measure, them. The idea for the book emerged in the course of planning for the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI) 2002 conference in Copenhagen. Our starting point was to consider some of the more distinctive aspects of Nordic education and of Nordic society which might lend new insights to the ‘movement’, allowing participants from the many countries represented to reflect anew on schooling and school learning in their own contexts and in their shared approaches to what makes for good and ‘effective’ schools. Nordic countries have traditionally represented a very special kind of social democracy and community participation in decisions that affect our lives. In this respect schooling is no exception. Indeed it is central to our concept of democracy.
