Evaluating Education in Greenland. How is Power Exercised through Evaluation Models?

• Main Author: Watt Boolsen, Merete
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of Gothenburg 2013
• Subjects: Greenland; greenlandic
• Online Access: https://ojs.ub.gu.se/index.php/sjpa/article/view/1707

Education plays an unquestionable role in society. Various sociological models of what education does, how it works and the problems involved explain why it constitutes a battleground for potential social and political conflict. How education is measured or evaluated is equally conflict material. In the present article, traditional evaluation models are applied in a somewhat atypical context: Greenland. Here, the government launched an ambitious education reform in 2005 aimed at increasing both the level and quality of education. The results of the evaluations have been ‘disappointing’ thus far – the reform has failed. The article begins by presenting different evaluation models applied in the Greenlandic context (program and summative evaluations). Second, a discussion of findings covering the initial period 2005‒10. Finally, a change in evaluation strategy is suggested with Michael Quinn Patton’s developmental evaluation model. Is it fair, relevant or constructive to examine education in Greenlandic society through the evaluation lens from a European society?