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Learning to be Norwegian : a case study of identity management in religious education in Norway
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Eriksen, Lars Laird (2010) Learning to be Norwegian : a case study of identity management in religious education in Norway. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b2482611~S15
Abstract
My PhD project is called ”Learning to be Norwegian. Religion and national
identity in religious education in Norway.” It is a case study of how religion is
mobilised in the construction of national identity, both from above and below.
The "above" perspective is operationalised as a discourse analysis of Curricula
in Norway from 1974 to 2008. The “below” perspective is operationalised as
participant observation in classrooms, following 15 teachers in 3 secondary
schools in Eastern Norway.
In terms of theoretical questions asked of this material, I engage with the
literature on multiculturalism in Western Europe (Barry 2001, Baumann 1996,
1999, Eriksen 2007, Fuglerud and Eriksen 2007, Joppke 2004, 2009, Modood
2007, Parekh 2006, Phillips 2007). I identify a distinction between liberalists,
multiculturalists and hybridists in terms of the key question: What is the best
way to understand groups with identity claims? My main claim to originality in
is that people can be described as engaging in fluidising and solidifying
practices – making social structures more fluid or more solid through their social
activities. This implies that there are different levels of viscosity in how solid or
fluid groups with identity claims are. Theorists dealing with groups with identity
claims, including the sociology of religion, education and identity, would benefit
from a variable social ontology of groups. I propose that the terms “Viscosity” -
“boundaries” and “work”, taken together provide one such framework that
works well with my data.
Significant empirical findings include a shift over time in the meaning of the
term “values”. In 1974, the word “values” was connected primarily with ethics
in the formal curricula. By the 1990s this had changed. It was now also, and
dominantly, connected to notions of identity. Religion is consistently mobilised
for identity through metaphors of personal stability, or and through establishing
metaphorical connections that make the nation appear as sharing crucial features
with the individual self.
These ideas are revisited in classroom ethnographic data. The assumptions found
in the curriculum are challenged by the practices of teachers and pupils. It is
clear that the most important concepts of identity, such as “Muslim” or
“Norwegian” are being worked on by defining what and who is on the inside
and what and who is on the outside. Nevertheless, the classrooms become
effective learning communities, though more through shared actions, shared
discussions and well-managed disagreement than through sameness and shared
values. Teachers and pupils use the concept of “facts” both to further their own
normative arguments, but also to remain out of the reach of accusations of
cultural or religious insensitivity. Finally, my study undermines static
conceptions of how discourses affect the social world. As an alternative, I try to
develop an understanding of actors engaging in fluidising and solidifying
practices.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religion L Education > LB Theory and practice of education |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Religious education -- Curricula -- Norway, National characteristics, Norwegian, Identity (Psychology) -- Religious aspects, Religious education -- Norway -- Case studies | ||||
Official Date: | October 2010 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Department of Sociology | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Beckford, James A. ; Carter, Bob, 1948- ; Jackson, Robert, 1945- | ||||
Extent: | 358 leaves | ||||
Language: | eng |
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