Absenteeism and the new 10% ruling in Norway: A case study

Abstract

This study considers the issue of absenteeism in Norwegian high schools with a particular focus on the new controversial 10% ceiling, which began in August 2016. Data was obtained through documentary sources and participant observation in one high school with one of the highest absenteeism rates in the capital, Oslo. Employing Foucault’s ‘panoptic gaze’, the study also interrogates schools’ growing dependence on technology in self-reporting absence and enacting more effective forms of ‘disciplinary power’. The study argues that each school and each individual case warrant careful attention before macro-policies on a national level are enacted by politicians, who at best have a superficial familiarity with the challenges and uncertainties that constrain these students’ academic progress.