Using participatory observations accompanied by video and audio recordings, this article investigates how negotiations about play scripts evolve during play in two Waldorf kindergartens. In particular, this study aims to examine how child-initiated play can contribute to the development of basic democratic skills in early childhood. The concept of…

How are religiously based eating regulations navigated in kindergarten, and how does the pedagogical context influence the children's understandings of religion and nationality? This article builds on a qualitative case study involving observations and group interviews with children in a Norwegian kindergarten. At mealtimes, some children ate…

This article explores conflicts among toddlers in kindergarten and the impact of toys in these conflicts. The author describes these interactions as part of how children develop and express their citizenship, and argues that staff members should hesitate before interfering with rules in order to prevent such conflicts. This is based on Mouffe's…

Background: Civic participation is a fundamental element of democracy; therefore, upholding and supporting civic participation, especially among the upcoming generation, is important. Political efficacy -- an individual's understanding of their capacity to participate in civic life -- has been found to exert an important influence on the expected…

The national imaginary of Norway as a global champion of democracy and social welfare has served well to market its image as exceptional both nationally and internationally. Norwegian national exceptionalism is also deeply embedded within the educational system, and manifests in the production of knowledge and social identities. Despite the…

Purpose: This study investigated the political aspects of 1st- to 4th-grade social studies education in Norwegian primary schools through qualitative interviews with 30 social studies teachers. The research examined how and to what extent politics is in focus in initial social studies education using the pre-political perspective as a theoretical…

This article sheds light on the elusive presence of race, racism, and Whiteness in Norwegian primary schools. Empirical examples from observations at six schools exemplify how race and racism appear as taboo concepts, but nonetheless play central roles in structuring conversations in the classroom. I argue that applying an affective theoretical…

This study investigated whether a country's policy context for immigrant integration was related to native adolescents' attitudes towards ethnic minorities in European countries, using data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study. We found that students in a country with more inclusive and multiculturalist policies for…

This article investigates Sámi elementary education in early twentieth-century Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The main focus lies on cultural contexts that frame and limit language use. The key analytical concepts are "useful citizen" and "useful citizenship". Through these concepts the article probes the ways in which…

When child-raising involves violence, a conflict of values arises between the parents' autonomy and the children's right to equal participation in a democratic society. In this article I discuss, from the perspective of discourse analysis, how a dichotomous understanding of the public versus private sphere can constitute a threat to children's…