Diversity in Norwegian mathematics examinations, 1962-2020

Yesterday, the article «Diversity in Norwegian mathematics examinations, 1962-2020» was published in the journal Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. It is open access and written by my colleague Aina Fossum and me. 

As far as I can remember, this project started in the spring of 2020. We got the idea that we could study all the Norwegian national mathematics exams for «grunnskolen» to see how diversity had changed throughout the years. I remember that we sat in an early meeting and discussed - only half jokingly - that we wanted to have a way of analysing the exams that was simple enough to be done on the beach. After all, with the work hours that are typical among researchers, it is not healthy if they all have to be indoors, next to a computer screen.

The findings of the article can of course best be read in the article. The abstract includes this short summary: «Representation in Norwegian examination tasks has improved gradually over the past half century. While representation of girls approached 50% in the 1980s, people with non-stereotypical Scandinavian names or appearances (non-white) were in the single digits until the 2000s. However, it appears that inclusion has been selective, and that some groups are still invisible. There are no clear examples of homosexuality and only two of explicitly disabled people in our material.» The article is unique (as far as I know) in studying many identity markers through a period of almost 60 years, and gives results that are worth pondering for anyone interested in representation in exams and other materials, in my opinion.

Thinking back, it is amazing how many people have had input that has influenced the final article. We have discussed the ideas and later the provisional findings in many different conferences and research groups, and peer reviewers have given a lot of constructive feedback.

I challenge anyone to do similar research in their own country. If such a series of annual exam does not exist, perhaps different series of textbooks could do the trick. It would be very interesting to see how such change has occured in different countries, and which patterns are the same or different. Are there any countries in which disabled people take part in mathematics tasks? Or where there exist both same-sex couples and different-sex couples? And so on.

In the mean time: enjoy the article. It was fun to plan, research and write, but it was a particular pleasure to see it published online…