Language revitalization is imbued with tensions, and while it often is emancipatory, reclaiming a language can be a painful, silencing experience. Processes of colonization have led to epistemological absences (Santos 2012), which may be conceptualized as manifestations of silence. Understanding how and why silences come about and linger today is…

In the Nordic countries, policy debates about English often highlight the threat of domain loss for national languages, but the high status of English may also have a differential impact on people in Nordic societies. This article investigates a policy gap in Norwegian upper secondary education, whereby an advanced English subject requirement may…

This study investigates teachers' intentions and practices related to teaching outside the classroom. We report on three months of fieldwork consisting of participatory observations and qualitative interviews of teachers in two Norwegian primary schools practising weekly "uteskole" [outdoor school]. We find that the teachers' intentions…

In environmental and sustainability education, critical thinking is important for the pluralistic teaching tradition, creating opportunities for student autonomy, deliberation and participation. However, focusing on student participation can also result in relativism or reproduction. Consequently, this article aims to investigate how different…

The aim of this study is to explore how aspects of dialogic teaching are concretized in classrooms to fill the gap between educational rhetoric and classroom practices. A central competency needed in our time is the ability to participate in democratic dialogue. Education for democratic citizenship can be connected to the notion of "becoming…

In this paper, we explore possibilities and challenges for deliberative academic development. Deliberative academic development refers to a practice that engages members of the university in dialogue about its purposes, ways of organizing and leading higher education, as well as teaching and learning. The paper critically analyses data from focus…

This article is concerned with presenting a qualitative study of teachers dealing with undemocratic attitudes in secondary school. The research question was: how do teachers teach when the aim is to remove undemocratic attitudes and prevent the formation of undemocratic attitudes? The research group which was part of the study established…

This study is conducted in Norway, this study investigated data from a case study with two science teachers. The Norwegian school system is built upon the principle of equality for all students. The idea is that comprehensive school is best suited to provide equal opportunities in school and society. The only criteria for group affiliation are…

This paper investigates how teachers handle dilemmas generated by the multiplicity of knowledge resources in contexts of local curriculum development. In a study using an ethnographic approach, one team of lower secondary school teachers in Norway, mandated to develop a school based curriculum, was followed closely over a year. Drawing on…

This article addresses challenges regarding relevance in vocational education and training (VET) curricula. Recent research on Norwegian VET shows that the educational content is not sufficiently related to the students' needs for qualification in the actual vocations. I will present a new curriculum research project aimed at investigating and…

This paper reports an investigation of biology students' discussion of knowing in work placements, as accounted in blogs. Twenty-two blogs, containing 78 individual entries, written in conjunction with a work placement course for students in a tertiary level biology program, have been analysed in the study (The blogs are publicly available here:…

This article explores challenges for knowing and learning in evolving knowledge fields. Legal education is chosen as a particularly interesting case as the knowledge field of law is expanding to international law with a multitude of actors, obligations, conventions and interpreters. In the current study, students' group work with case assignments…

Purpose: This article aims to describe and discuss what local weather landscapes mean to children and how weather implies exploring bodily sensations and capabilities. It does so by following the work of a community artist, working as a kindergarten teacher, over 1 year. Design/Approach/Methods: Through a narrative inquiry approach, which also…

This study aimed to discern sociocultural processes through which students learn in field excursions. To achieve this aim, short-term ethnographic techniques were employed to examine how undergraduate students work and enact knowledge (or knowing) during a specific field excursion in biology. The students participated in a working practice that…

This article presents an analysis of student initiatives in whole-class interactions. While prior research on question-answer sequences in classroom interactions has shown students to be rather passive recipients of knowledge, this article focuses on aspects of classroom interaction where students take a more active role. Following a conversation…