How to Do Evidence-Based Policymaking When Evidence is Missing - A Study of the Digitalization of the Norwegian 1-13 School

Currently Norwegian 1-13 schools are digitalized through smart boards in the classroom, apps and other digital learning resources, digital communication channels between home and school and individual PC´s or tablets to students. This digitalization is a part of a general digitalization of education and public sector taking place in Western societies. A reform process presented as an apolitical, value-free and technical project in research as well as public debate. The Norwegian digitalization process should be an interesting case for an international audience because the country is one of the pioneers in the process of educational digitalization. According to the Norwegian educational authorities, the process of digitalization is carried out even though there are little evidence regarding the positive effects of digitalization in schools. This is interesting, given the fact that the national educational sector clearly is influenced by the ideals of evidence-based policymaking (EBPM). I will be interviewing civil servants working with the digitalization of the school sector as well as relevant politicians within the educational field over the next three months. In the following months I will analyze this data. Inspired by discursive institutionalism, I believe ideas are causal beliefs, playing a central role in policy change, however, the role of ideas, values and discourses must be understood in the context of relevant processes, institutions and actors. The aim of this paper is to investigate how policymakers within the educational field are navigating between ideas that seem to be in conflict: The ideals of EBPM, the defined ambition to digitalize the school and the apparent lack of evidence on the effect of digitalization. Which ideas about ‘good governance’ are evident in this process and is there a conflict between current norms and the digitalization process? How is the digitalization rationalized? Are there forms of knowledge or data considered valid and legitimate, and what kind of evidence is this and how is it used? Are there conflicts between the relatively autonomous civil servants in the agencies, responsible for providing professional documentation and politicians eager to change the school system? Or are the conflicts to be found between political-administrative tech enthusiasts and other groups? The answers to these questions are important because they will provide better insight in the challenges the ideal of evidence-based or evidence-informed policymaking face in practical situations and how policymakers handle ideals in conflict. This article is relevant for an international audience because it engages in global trends like EBPM and the digitalization of public sector.