Undervisning som forebygger dannelse av udemokratiske holdninger

Abstract

Studies conducted by the Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies show that racism, extremism, antisemitism, exclusion etc., i.e., feelings and attitudes which are discriminatory, appear among parts of the Norwegian population. Attitudes being discriminatory are the opposite of inclusion which characterizes democracy. Can schools and education prevent such undemocratic attitudes? To address this question the paper takes its point of departure from the double purpose of education, i.e., an education which is good for the individual and an education which is good for society, democracy and the world as a whole. Furthermore, this double purpose was connected to general didactics and teaching, where the goal is to teach and educate individuals in such a manner that they will feel responsible and obligated to act for the good of society and democracy. To prevent this from being a purely theoretical research, we filmed and observed concrete teaching situations in the school, whilst we interviewed teachers in groups. Two teacher-groups in secondary school participated in our research. The research-question was: How do some teachers teach when the aim is to prevent the formation of undemocratic attitudes? We analyzed the results by way of three different models for teaching, including both direct and indirect approaches of teaching. The main conclusion is that the teachers who participated in our research combined direct and indirect approaches in their teaching; however, indirect approaches were particularly prominent in situations where the purpose was to make students responsible for society and democracy.