Saqqummersitaq

A solid primary school is an important part of the foundation for creating a strong and sustainable society. Almost every country has undertaken school system reforms during the past two decades, but very few have succeeded in improving their systems from poor to fair to good to great to excellent (Mourshed et al., 2010). History, culture, and context matter for understanding applicability, if any, of one educational innovation over another. This can be said to have been the case in Greenland. One of the fundamental objectives after the introduction of Home Rule in 1979 was to adapt the Danish structures and systems to the Greenlandic conditions and culture. This article aims to analyze the Greenlandic education governance system and how the central level design, organizes and steers education systems across complex multilevel governance arrangements. In governing educational systems, how the central and the decentralized levels interact and communicate and how this affects trust, cooperation and negotiation of conflicts, and ultimately the outcomes of reform, will be discussed.