ABSTRACT

In the education sector, media outlets have been increasingly active in reporting on standardized testing. The purpose of this paper is to identify the most recurrent discursive frames used by the Norwegian regional and local press when informing their readers about national standardized testing, and to explore whether differences over time and across geographical localities exist in the pervasiveness of frames. Our analysis is guided by framing theory, and builds on a corpus of 3,046 articles that focus on national testing, published by 155 Norwegian regional and local newspapers between 2004 and 2018. The analysis identifies four different discursive frames within Norwegian press coverage, namely the frame of ‘performance’, ‘transparency and empowerment’, ‘misinterpretation and misuse’, and ‘criticism’. The four frames convey highly distinct causal and normative beliefs and realities about national standardized testing. While the dominance of the frames varies over time and across Norwegian counties, the frame of ‘performance’ is increasingly pervasive, something that potentially contributes to naturalize performative-oriented reporting and competition in education. The study highlights the importance of systematic media analyses to identify circulating principle beliefs on education, and of not limiting research to national newspapers in order to grasp geographical variation in media coverage.

摘要

在教育领域，媒体对标准化考试的报道越来越活跃。本文的目的是确定挪威地区和地方媒体在向读者介绍国家标准化测试时使用的最常见的话语框架，并探讨框架的普遍性是否存在随时间和地理区域的差异。我们的分析以框架理论为指导，并建立在 2004 年至 2018 年间由 155 家挪威地区和地方报纸发表的 3,046 篇专注于国家测试的文章的语料库之上。该分析确定了挪威新闻报道中的四种不同的话语框架，即框架“表现”、“透明度和授权”、“误解和滥用”以及“批评”。这四个框架传达了关于国家标准化测试的高度不同的因果和规范信念和现实。虽然框架的主导地位随着时间和挪威各县的变化而变化，但“绩效”框架越来越普遍，这可能有助于自然化以表演为导向的报道和教育竞争。该研究强调了系统的媒体分析以识别流行的教育原则信念的重要性，以及不将研究局限于全国性报纸以掌握媒体报道的地域差异的重要性。一些可能有助于自然化以表演为导向的报道和教育竞争的东西。该研究强调了系统的媒体分析以识别流行的教育原则信念的重要性，以及不将研究局限于全国性报纸以掌握媒体报道的地域差异的重要性。一些可能有助于自然化以表演为导向的报道和教育竞争的东西。该研究强调了系统的媒体分析以识别流行的教育原则信念的重要性，以及不将研究局限于全国性报纸以掌握媒体报道的地域差异的重要性。