This study contnbutes to a better understanding of the characteristics of competence development as a policy instrument within upper secondary school in Norway. This is Studied with emphasis on the period after the implementation of the document Competence for Development (Kompetanse for utvikling, 2005-200(4), which constitutes the competence strategy within the educational reform talled The Knowledge Promotion Reform. An institutional analysis that demonstrates how governance of the teachers' competence development has changed over- time has been carried out. This analysis is based on documents on educational politics and interviews. The analysis is performed on three levels in order to illustrate how this competence development is shaped: the level of society, the county level, and the school itself. The study has drawn on contributions from politital science, organizational behavior, and educational theory in order to understand changes in the competence development.
There is an important assumption in the dissertation that governance, leadership and content must be seen as a whole in order to study competence development. Competencc development in upper secondary school in Norway was governed by the Ministry in the reforms both in 1976 and in 1994, and evolved around what teachers needed to learn in order to teach in accordance with the new curricula. The reform of 2006 talled The Knowledge Promotion Reform the governance responsibility lics with the local education authorities, and the schools are expected to develop into « teaming organizations» through the means of a complex scientific decision-making model.
This new competence development is coined in this dissertation as a new professional model. This model appears to be an incremental decision-making ruodel sinte the professionals themselves, with their pertaining interpretation and knowledge, develop the changes over time. Content in the competence development, the way it appears in the local project Kompetanseløftet Buskerud, demonstrates that practice based approaches to professional knowledge has priority. The emphasis placed on exchange of experience and on developing schools as «learning organizations)>, underscores that the understanding of the content of the competence development is perceived as something nerr. The professionals become more dependent on the local educational authorities and the local school leaders. This is due to the experience based approach to knowledge in this professional model. The model also makes greater demands on educational leadership, which means leadership that questions theegitimacy and the purpose of coordination and integration of the various competence development measures and policy instruments in schools.