About the project

The schoolyear of 2020 made its mark by implementing a new national curriculum (LK20) for all primary and secondary education in Norway. In the core curriculum, which is a part of the national curriculum, it is stated that schools shall provide pupils with common reference frameworks that will enhance cultural belonging and identity development. This also has an educational purpose, with a primary goal of guiding pupils on their road to becoming democratic citizens that can participate in our diverse society. While the notion of belonging seems critical for the process of being formed as democratic citizens, surveys such as PISA 2018 demonstrate that the feeling of belonging has decreased in the last decade amongst pupils in Norway.

This project aims to study how common reference frameworks give room for cultural belonging and identity development amongst the Norwegian pupil diversity. The project also investigates how cultural belonging, or the lack of it, can influence the pupils’ processes of evolving as democratic and bounded citizens. To study the given issue, the project will have a qualitative approach and data will be collected through interviews and observation with students, teachers, and administration. The concepts of citizenship, identity, and cultural belonging stand as central in process of connecting the data to the findings. The study is a contribution to the field of intercultural education, and sheds light on diversity, inclusion, belonging, and citizenship in a Norwegian school context.

Background

European Master in Migration and Intercultural Relations, UiS, 2020

Research Group

MIGREL