Engagement in ‘prevailing societal challenges’ as a contribution to wellbeing? An analysis of interdisciplinary topics in the Norwegian curriculum (LK20)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective This paper explores the expectations of teachers to contribute to fostering students’ wellbeing in the revised Norwegian curriculum. A new construct in the curriculum is three interdisciplinary topics – health and life skills; democracy and citizenship; and, sustainable development – included to give priority to prevailing societal challenges. Our specific concern is the content of these topics, and the extent to which they provide a framework for connecting with complex health and social issues. Method Thematic analysis is used to examine how wellbeing is framed in the curriculum texts. Results Our analysis reveals an emphasis on individualism, the responsibilizing of choice, and the importance attached to individual agency and skills in the three interdisciplinary topics. The topics emphasise the importance of informed, ethical, and wise choices in a way that disconnects people from the world around them. This limits opportunities for students to be introduced to a socioecological perspective on human existence as well as overlooking opportunities for developing a sociocritical approach to students’ wellbeing through engagement with the real world. Conclusion More emphasis on collective challenges and dilemmas might stimulate students’ engagement and could thereby connect wellbeing to empowerment and to a sense of meaning in belonging to a larger whole.