Doctoral defense in education science: Björk Ólafsdóttir
Aðalbygging
Aula in the main building of the University of Iceland
Björk Ólafsdóttir defends her PhD thesis in Educational Sciences from the Faculty of Education and Pedagogy, University of Iceland.
The oral defence takes place Tuesday, October 3, at 1:00 pm in the Aula in the main building of the University of Iceland as well as in live stream.
Dissertation title: The origin, use and perceived impact of the external evaluation of compulsory schools in Iceland.
Opponents: Dr Melanie Ehren at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Elisabet Nihlfors Professor emerita at Uppsala University.
Main supervisor: Dr Jón Torfi Jónasson at the School of Education, University of Iceland
Co-supervisor: Dr Anna Kristín Sigurðardóttir Professor at the School of Education, University of Iceland.
Expert in the Doctoral Committee was dr. Rúnar Sigþórsson Professor emeritus at the University of Akureyri.
Dr Kristín Jónsdóttir Head of the Faculty of Education and Pedagogy will conduct the ceremony.
All welcome.
About the project:
The doctoral project was a longitudinal research conducted with a mixed methods involving document analysis, questionnaires, and interviews. The aim of the research was twofold: first, to shed light on the origin of the external evaluation of compulsory schools in Iceland and its development; and second, to identify and analyse school principals’ and teachers’ attitudes towards a recent external evaluation, how and to what extent they have used the feedback from the evaluation, and how such use has affected internal evaluation at their schools and driven change in their own practices.
The findings of the research indicate that the initial policy to conduct an external school evaluation in Iceland can be attributed to reforms in public administration and conducted in many countries from the 1980s. However, it was not until the beginning of the second decade of the twenty-first century that a process of external evaluation was launched in Icelandic compulsory schools. The research concludes that external evaluation can play a role in changing not only teachers’ and principals’ practices but also the internal evaluation of schools. The feedback from evaluation is shown to be used for various purposes, and the factor with the greatest overall impact on such use is shown to be the school staff’s acceptance of the feedback.
Drawing on the evidence presented in the research and the relevant literature, actions for consideration by the central and local governments and the schools themselves are proposed. Thus, the research offers both a theoretical and practical contribution to the ongoing debate about school quality for the benefit of children’s prosperity.
About the doctoral candidate
Björk is born in 1965 in Akranes, Iceland. She graduated from Fósturskóli Íslands in 1986, and completed B.A. degree in German from the University of Iceland in 1998, and M.A. degree in Education and Pedagogy from the same school in 2006. In addition, received diploma in Quality Management from the University of Iceland‘s Continuing Education in 2010. Björk has worked as an evaluation specialist at the Directorate of Education since 2015 and studied for a doctorate simultaneously. Previously, she worked as an evaluation specialist for Reykjavík‘s Department of Education and Youth, and Icelandic Association of Local Authorities. In addition she has been a part-time lecturer at the University of Iceland´s School of Social Scieces, she ran her own evaluation company, and worked as a teacher and department head at a pre-school. Björk is married to Kristján Zophoníasson and their sons are Ingi Þór, Arnar Breki and Hugi Snær. Their daughter-in-law is Ewelina and granddaughter Díana Líf.
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