Dialogue in an Upper Secondary School and the Subject Religion and Ethics in Norway

Abstract

This article presents and discusses dialogical approaches in an upper secondary school in Norway with a focus on the religion and ethics subject. A collaboration between the University of Stavanger and Stavanger Cathedral School was established during Spring 2016 to explore the place and function of faith- and life-stance dialog in and out of upper secondary. Throughout the 2016-2017school year, different dialog initiatives were launched. Three teachers, 2 researchers and 7 classes containing around 180 students age 17–19 were involved. The main research question raised was, “How can dialog be used as a didactical tool in religion and ethics? Three subquestions followed—How can dialog activity in the subject be linked up with the wider context and dialogical activity outside school? How do students position themselves in dialogs and how do they perceive each other? Moreover, what might the teachers´ role be in classroom dialogs? In this article, these questions are answered through the analysis of an empirical research material consisting of 3 student surveys, audiotapes of dialogs in and out of school, pictures of dialogs activity, students submissions and reflections, and field notes taken by the researchers.