Narrow Social Norms in an Inclusive School: Values, Practices, and Consequences of the Danish School

Abstract

This paper explores the values of the Danish public school—Folkeskole—and their consequences for the social norms which children meet in school. The Danish school aims at being socially inclusive, based on ideals of equality and positive relationships between classmates as well as pupils and teachers. It is argued that the ideals of school—such as the ideal class, the ideal pupil, and the ideal teacher mirror central cultural ideals of community, childhood, and power in Danish society, while the school, on the other hand, contributes to the reproduction of these cultural ideals due to its central role in the upbringing of new Danish citizens. However, these ideals produce a very narrow norm for children, as the ideals of equality, inclusive communities, and well-socialized children, require children to behave in very specific ways. The consequence is that many children are problematized by teachers, and their experience is that they do not fit in. A particular case of such an experience is that of ethnic minority boys, who are often seen as bad pupils who lack social competencies. Living in tough neighborhoods and feeling stigmatized in school, these boys have developed an oppositional demeanor based on tough masculinity and troublemaking in school, which merely adds to their exclusion from the inclusive school’s ideal of the good pupil.