Where do e-Government strategies take the Nordic nations?

An effective strategy is critical for the successful development of e-Government. The leading nations in the e-Government rankings include Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. Their leading role makes them interesting to study when looking for reasons to successful e-Government. The purpose of this research paper is to describe the e-Government development strategies of Nordic countries, which rank highly on the international stage. In particular it aims to study the foci of these strategies. The approach is a document study of the e-Government development strategies of Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland was carried out using a qualitative content analysis inductive method. The results show that the major focus of Nordic e-Government strategies is on public sector reforms. Other focus areas include economic reforms and, to a lesser extent, e-Democracy efforts. Sweden, Finland and Norway have set ambitious policy goals in order to achieve global leadership in e-Government development. In response to the question posed by this paper’s title, we can say that Nordic e-Government strategies, except for Norway, focus more on reforming public sector services than on economic reforms.  E-Democracy reforms are hardly focused on at all. Practical implications: Public sector policy makers can relate their policy foci to some of the more successful e-Government countries in the world. Research implications/originality is that this paper can apart from the findings also provide a means on how to identify the actual foci of a country’s e-Government policy.

Teaching Mathematics in English to Swedish Speaking Students : A systematic review of strategies for teaching mathematics to second language learners

The Swedish government has authorised the teaching of mathematics in English to Swedish speaking students. Much of that teaching is performed by foreign trained native English speaking teachers lacking training in second language learners. This systematic review summarises international studies from the last ten years that deal with the teaching of mathematics to second language learners. The review shows that second language students working in a bilingual environment achieve higher rates of content and language knowledge than learners in a monolingual environment. This study also summarises some of the teacher practices that are effective for teaching mathematics in English to second language learners.