Judit Novak is Associate Professor of Education in the Department of Teacher Education and School Research, University of Oslo. Her main research interests are in education governance and policy, with a special interest in the intermediary role of governments agencies and the adaptation of forms of supervision and auditing policies to (new) legislation in local, national, and international contexts. Her research contributions raise fundamental questions concerning welfare state governance and the links between juridification (the drift toward legalism) and education through the intermediary agencies situated between the state and educational institutions. Since 2019, she is an elected member of the Steering Committee for the Institute for Educational Law, Uppsala University, Sweden, and the Steering Committee for Educational Law, University of Oslo, Norway.
Background
Novak earned her Ph.D. at Uppsala University in 2018 with a dissertation entitled Juridification of Educational Spheres: The Case of Swedish School Inspection. The dissertation brings together scholarly work on juridification and education — two strands of research that have evolved in largely separate academic disciplines and rarely communicate with one another. Against this backdrop, Novak details the growth of a “legalized accountability” in the area of compulsory and upper-secondary schooling. The findings challenge conventional understandings of how government agencies and professionals in schools respond to and absorb new legal norms. In particular, they illuminated the importance of examining whether and when legalized accountability is an “effective” framework for realizing the promises of the rights revolution, and when its institutional mechanisms can be coopted for the opposite purpose. The findings bolster the argument that the contemporary thrust of juridification can be regarded as a different form of state building, in which intermediary agencies such as schools inspectorates play a crucial role in education policy development.
The dissertation is published in softcover and e-book formats. Links: abstract and e-book.
Dissertation review in English by Guy Neave, Professor Emeritus, Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies, Portugal. Published in Pedagogisk Forskning i Sverige, 23(5): 288-295.
Dissertation review in Swedish by Håkan Gustafsson, Professor of Law, Karlstad University, Sweden. Published in Svensk Juristtidning, vol 10, 2018: 919-929.
Teaching
- UTLED4111 - Styring og ledelse av utdanning (MA.)
- UTLED4228 - Utdanningsrett og ledelse (MA.)
- UTLED4228B - Juss for ledere (MA.)
- UTLED 4090 - Masteroppgave (MA.)
- UV9920V1 - Reviewing the Literature: Situating your Study in the Field (Ph.D.)
Ph.D supervision
- Main supervisor of Ragnhild Meland's dissertation in progress at the Department of Teacher Education and School Research, University of Oslo. To be defended in 2025.
- Co-supervisor of Silje Kristin Gloppen's dissertation in progress at the Department of Teacher Education and School Research, University of Oslo. To be defended in 2023.
Awards
2019 Exzellenzstipendium. Research award to foreign excellent young researchers, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria.
2016 Selggrens stipendium. PhD student award, Uppsala University, Sweden.
Research projects
2021 Utbildningsmiljö och utbildningsrätt: från förskola till forskarexamen [Educational Environment and Educational Law: From Preschool to Higher Education]. Research initiation grant. Funding body: The Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences, No. F21-0019. Role: Principal investigator.
2021–2025 Evaluation of the new curriculum reform (EDUCATE). Researcher project. Funding body: The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training. Role: Researcher. (Principal investigators: Lisbeth M. Brevik & Greta Björk Gudmundsdottir.)
2019–2024 Professional Actors' Work on Retaining Students in Secondary Education (ProAct). Researcher project, The Research Council of Norway, FINNUT. No. 303422. Role: Project member. (Principal investigator: Guri Skedsmo)
2018 World-Class Universities: A Contested Concept. Research initiation grant, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond [The Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences] Project no. F18-1315:1. Role: Principal investigator.
2018 Juridification in Higher Education. Research initiation grant, Letterstedts Foundation. Role: Principal investigator.
International mobility
Oct–Dec 2017 Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research, Waikato University, New Zealand.
Year 2015/2016 Department of Educational Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.
Commissions of trust (selection)
2019–Present Member of the editorial board for the research journal Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability (EAEA).
2019–Present Member of the board of directors for the Institute for Educational Law [Institutet för Utbildningsrätt] at Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
2019–Present Member of the board for a cross-disciplinary project aimed at the establishment of Educational law, at the Faculty of Educational Sciences in collaboration with the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo, Norway.
2017–2018 Member of the national advisory board for the Swedish Educational Research Association’s (SWERA) research journals [SWERA Tidskriftsråd].
2017 Delegate and elected representative for the humanities and social sciences in Uppsala University’s representative assembly [hörandeförsamling] for the election of the vice-chancellor of Uppsala University, Sweden.
2015–2017 Member of the board of directors for the Swedish Educational Research Association’s (SWERA’s) Ph.D. Student Council Committee.
2014–2015 Vice President of the Ph.D. Student Council, Faculty of Educational Sciences, Uppsala University, Sweden.