Wieland Wermke
Biographic Data
| ID | 4411392 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Wieland Wermke |
| GIVEN NAMES | Wieland |
| FAMILY NAME | Wermke |
| SIGNATURE | WERMKE W |
| AFFILIATIONS | Stockholm University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3699-8610 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 11 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The principal and inclusive education
This article focuses on the role of the principal in facilitating inclusive education policies in Sweden and Finland since 1990. It does so by analysing education union journals in both countries. These journals are taken to represent principals’ collective professional voice concerning the dynamics of major educational reforms. The findings show surprisingly similar attitudes towards inclusive education in both Sweden and Finland. According to t…
School Leader Autonomy – a Systematic Review
Purpose: The aim of this systematic review is to map and synthesize the literature of school leader autonomy (SLA) worldwide. Approach: The analytical work followed the PRISMA- model for conducting and reporting systematic reviews, generating 113 articles ( n = 113) for final analysis. Realist synthesis protocols were also developed for each article to attain rigor in the analytical work. Findings: Aside from descriptive details of the current bo…
Governance dynamics and local autonomy in large-scale governmental funding
This article analyses the Swedish case of the government’s funding for equity, which annually provides over 600 million euros to improve equity. Being one of the largest funding schemes ever for work towards educational equity it also provides full autonomy for local education authorities (LEAs) to use the money at their discretion. By studying local decisions through interviews and analysing applications and plans in nine cases, we deepen our un…
The changing nature of special educational needs in schools
This article focuses on the dynamics of inclusive education in the German school system by examining official statistics on pupils with formal individual education plans (IEPs) in special and general schools since 2007. An IEP manifests that a pupil with a formally identified disability receives specialised schooling, instruction, extra support, or related services. German IEPs, although they are assumed to have educational consequences, draw hea…
The paradoxical logic in inclusive education practices
Deconstructing autonomy
Principal autonomy has been identified as an important ingredient in effective and healthy schools. However, little is known about the various dimensions of the phenomenon and how it takes form in different contexts. This article presents an analytical device contributing to further understand the complex nature of principal autonomy. The device follows the seminal work of Richard Ingersoll on autonomy in school organisations operationalised as d…
Working in the shadows
The aim of this special issue is to analyze the dynamics of differentiation in education. In particular, the conceptual term of differentiation will be explored by focussing on various arenas of curriculum making. ‘Differentiation’ entails much more than instructional or didactical considerations and strategies: At the heart of the curriculum making lie ideas and assumptions about socio-cultural and political processes and their consequences. Cur…
From responsibilities to accountabilities
In this paper, we examine the role of principals in making schools more inclusive, which means enabling joint learning of all students. The article draws on empirical investigations from 2700 pages of legal documents on how international policies have been handled in two particular national contexts, Germany and Norway. We regard, in particular, school principals’ responsibilities for inclusive schools. The comparative design reveals the followin…
Juridification and regulative failures. The complicated implementation of international law into national schools
This paper starts with the increasing discussions on juridification in education. Concerning theorizing on such processes, we examine the poor implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, CRPD (2008) in the school sector of Germany. The paper considers the reasons for this failed endeavor by analyzing the complex, multilevel relations between policy and law i…
Inside de- and re-centralisation
Framing curriculum making
This article aims to undertake a comparative investigation of school administration to understand further the frames of curriculum making. School administration is an under-illuminated aspect of curriculum research. The paper commences from the notion that, in mass education, a school system is operationalized by many schools, which are coupled to each other and to political decisions. Here is the curriculum vital. Building on the classic work of…
Comparing principal autonomy in time and space
This article presents the development and application of a model that can be utilized to compare the autonomy of principals in various historical and national contexts. Drawing on former conceptual work on autonomy in education, the model conceptualizes principal autonomy as twodimensional. The first dimension is the decision making expected from principals, manifested on a continuum of being restricted or extended. The second dimension is the co…
State, municipality and local community. Exploring principal’s autonomy and control in the rural north of Scandinavia
This article focuses on Nordic school leaders and how rural principals experience autonomy and control in current governance regimes using a sample of principals in the very north of Norway and Sweden as a case. An analysis instrument constituting four different schooling domains (educational; social; developmental; administrative) and the ways in which autonomy and control are perceived within each domain structured the analytical work. The anal…
In the eye of the storm? Mapping out a story of principals’ decision-making in an era of decentralisation and re-centralisation
The aim of this article is to explore how Swedish principals experienced the decentralisation and re-centralisation reforms and how they affected principals’ autonomy and decision-making capacity. Data were obtained from three surveys of Swedish principals, carried out in 2005, 2012 and 2019. The results show that principals experienced a high degree of autonomy in their decision-making in 2005 and 2012 and also a balanced control from state and …
Unpacking autonomy for empirical comparative investigation
Teacher autonomy has been a topic of growing interest over recent decades. However, what teacher autonomy means remains work in progress. Drawing from existing conceptualisations, which consider teacher autonomy as a multidimensional and context-dependent phenomenon this paper presents an analytical device applicable in international comparative studies. The conceptualisation is presented in the form of a matrix, which distinguishes different dom…
Discussing the curriculum-Didaktik dichotomy and comparative conceptualisations of the teaching profession
National and regional variations in school systems, have often been explained in comparative school governance research in the Nordic countries with variations in long-standing traditions in curriculum development, characterised by a dichotomy between an Anglo-American curriculum tradition and a German/European continental tradition of Didaktik. These categories have been employed to explain the characteristics of nation-specific teaching profess…
Silent and explicit borrowing of international policy discourses. The case of the Swedish teacher education reforms of 2001 and 2011
The article presents different models of comparative education by discussing the government committee reports (SOU) which prepared the Swedish teacher education reforms of 2001 and 2011. These serve as examples for different kinds of policy borrowing from an international Bologna process discourse in national government document. The article facilitates Waldow (2009) term of “silent borrowing”. The reform of 2001 shows distinct references to inte…
A question of trustworthiness? Teachers’ perceptions of knowledge sources in the continuing professional development marketplace in Germany and Sweden
Juridification and regulative failures. The complicated implementation of international law into national schools
This paper starts with the increasing discussions on juridification in education. Concerning theorizing on such processes, we examine the poor implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, CRPD (2008) in the school sector of Germany. The paper considers the reasons for this failed endeavor by analyzing the complex, multilevel relations between policy and law i…
In the eye of the storm? Mapping out a story of principals’ decision-making in an era of decentralisation and re-centralisation
The aim of this article is to explore how Swedish principals experienced the decentralisation and re-centralisation reforms and how they affected principals’ autonomy and decision-making capacity. Data were obtained from three surveys of Swedish principals, carried out in 2005, 2012 and 2019. The results show that principals experienced a high degree of autonomy in their decision-making in 2005 and 2012 and also a balanced control from state and …
Discussing the curriculum-Didaktik dichotomy and comparative conceptualisations of the teaching profession
National and regional variations in school systems, have often been explained in comparative school governance research in the Nordic countries with variations in long-standing traditions in curriculum development, characterised by a dichotomy between an Anglo-American curriculum tradition and a German/European continental tradition of Didaktik. These categories have been employed to explain the characteristics of nation-specific teaching profess…
A question of trustworthiness? Teachers’ perceptions of knowledge sources in the continuing professional development marketplace in Germany and Sweden
A question of trustworthiness? Teachers’ perceptions of knowledge sources in the continuing professional development marketplace in Germany and Sweden
Silent and explicit borrowing of international policy discourses. The case of the Swedish teacher education reforms of 2001 and 2011
The article presents different models of comparative education by discussing the government committee reports (SOU) which prepared the Swedish teacher education reforms of 2001 and 2011. These serve as examples for different kinds of policy borrowing from an international Bologna process discourse in national government document. The article facilitates Waldow (2009) term of “silent borrowing”. The reform of 2001 shows distinct references to inte…
Discussing the curriculum-Didaktik dichotomy and comparative conceptualisations of the teaching profession
National and regional variations in school systems, have often been explained in comparative school governance research in the Nordic countries with variations in long-standing traditions in curriculum development, characterised by a dichotomy between an Anglo-American curriculum tradition and a German/European continental tradition of Didaktik. These categories have been employed to explain the characteristics of nation-specific teaching profess…
Unpacking autonomy for empirical comparative investigation
Teacher autonomy has been a topic of growing interest over recent decades. However, what teacher autonomy means remains work in progress. Drawing from existing conceptualisations, which consider teacher autonomy as a multidimensional and context-dependent phenomenon this paper presents an analytical device applicable in international comparative studies. The conceptualisation is presented in the form of a matrix, which distinguishes different dom…
Comparing principal autonomy in time and space
This article presents the development and application of a model that can be utilized to compare the autonomy of principals in various historical and national contexts. Drawing on former conceptual work on autonomy in education, the model conceptualizes principal autonomy as twodimensional. The first dimension is the decision making expected from principals, manifested on a continuum of being restricted or extended. The second dimension is the co…
State, municipality and local community. Exploring principal’s autonomy and control in the rural north of Scandinavia
This article focuses on Nordic school leaders and how rural principals experience autonomy and control in current governance regimes using a sample of principals in the very north of Norway and Sweden as a case. An analysis instrument constituting four different schooling domains (educational; social; developmental; administrative) and the ways in which autonomy and control are perceived within each domain structured the analytical work. The anal…
In the eye of the storm? Mapping out a story of principals’ decision-making in an era of decentralisation and re-centralisation
The aim of this article is to explore how Swedish principals experienced the decentralisation and re-centralisation reforms and how they affected principals’ autonomy and decision-making capacity. Data were obtained from three surveys of Swedish principals, carried out in 2005, 2012 and 2019. The results show that principals experienced a high degree of autonomy in their decision-making in 2005 and 2012 and also a balanced control from state and …
Framing curriculum making
This article aims to undertake a comparative investigation of school administration to understand further the frames of curriculum making. School administration is an under-illuminated aspect of curriculum research. The paper commences from the notion that, in mass education, a school system is operationalized by many schools, which are coupled to each other and to political decisions. Here is the curriculum vital. Building on the classic work of…
Deconstructing autonomy
Principal autonomy has been identified as an important ingredient in effective and healthy schools. However, little is known about the various dimensions of the phenomenon and how it takes form in different contexts. This article presents an analytical device contributing to further understand the complex nature of principal autonomy. The device follows the seminal work of Richard Ingersoll on autonomy in school organisations operationalised as d…
Working in the shadows
The aim of this special issue is to analyze the dynamics of differentiation in education. In particular, the conceptual term of differentiation will be explored by focussing on various arenas of curriculum making. ‘Differentiation’ entails much more than instructional or didactical considerations and strategies: At the heart of the curriculum making lie ideas and assumptions about socio-cultural and political processes and their consequences. Cur…
From responsibilities to accountabilities
In this paper, we examine the role of principals in making schools more inclusive, which means enabling joint learning of all students. The article draws on empirical investigations from 2700 pages of legal documents on how international policies have been handled in two particular national contexts, Germany and Norway. We regard, in particular, school principals’ responsibilities for inclusive schools. The comparative design reveals the followin…
Juridification and regulative failures. The complicated implementation of international law into national schools
This paper starts with the increasing discussions on juridification in education. Concerning theorizing on such processes, we examine the poor implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, CRPD (2008) in the school sector of Germany. The paper considers the reasons for this failed endeavor by analyzing the complex, multilevel relations between policy and law i…
Inside de- and re-centralisation
The principal and inclusive education
This article focuses on the role of the principal in facilitating inclusive education policies in Sweden and Finland since 1990. It does so by analysing education union journals in both countries. These journals are taken to represent principals’ collective professional voice concerning the dynamics of major educational reforms. The findings show surprisingly similar attitudes towards inclusive education in both Sweden and Finland. According to t…
School Leader Autonomy – a Systematic Review
Purpose: The aim of this systematic review is to map and synthesize the literature of school leader autonomy (SLA) worldwide. Approach: The analytical work followed the PRISMA- model for conducting and reporting systematic reviews, generating 113 articles ( n = 113) for final analysis. Realist synthesis protocols were also developed for each article to attain rigor in the analytical work. Findings: Aside from descriptive details of the current bo…
Governance dynamics and local autonomy in large-scale governmental funding
This article analyses the Swedish case of the government’s funding for equity, which annually provides over 600 million euros to improve equity. Being one of the largest funding schemes ever for work towards educational equity it also provides full autonomy for local education authorities (LEAs) to use the money at their discretion. By studying local decisions through interviews and analysing applications and plans in nine cases, we deepen our un…
The changing nature of special educational needs in schools
This article focuses on the dynamics of inclusive education in the German school system by examining official statistics on pupils with formal individual education plans (IEPs) in special and general schools since 2007. An IEP manifests that a pupil with a formally identified disability receives specialised schooling, instruction, extra support, or related services. German IEPs, although they are assumed to have educational consequences, draw hea…
The paradoxical logic in inclusive education practices
Political science (12 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Global Educational Policies and Reforms (9 works) · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Public Administration (8 works) · Pedagogy (7 works) · Autonomy (6 works) · Corporate governance (6 works) · Educational Assessment and Improvement (6 works)