Alexander Elmies-Vestergren

• Elmies-Vestergren, Alexander (2025). Frigjøring eller umyndiggjøring: Et kritisk perspektiv på læreplanens konsept om demokratisk deltakelse i skolen. Nordisk tidsskrift for pedagogikk og kritikk. 11(1). doi: 10.23865/ntpk.v11.6481. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Denne artikkelen er en kritisk undersøkelse av ideen om demokratisk deltakelse i skolen, slik den formuleres i overordnet del til læreplanverket Kunnskapsløftet 2020 (LK20). Gjennom en tolkning av Klafki og Arendt etablerer jeg en danningsteoretisk forståelse av demokratisk deltakelse som en selvstendig, ansvarlig, politisk og kritisk form for deltakelse. Fra dette teoretiske perspektivet viser jeg hvordan læreplanens konsept kan true det pedagogiske bidraget til en slik deltakelse gjennom problemene umyndiggjøring, individualisering og avpolitisering. I møtet med disse problemene antyder jeg hvordan danningsteoretisk allmenndidaktikk kan gi relevante perspektiver for en forberedende tilnærming som tar hensyn til det pedagogiske paradoks, og jeg drøfter hvordan tilnærmingen kan være relevant i aktuell utdannings- og samfunnskontekst.

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• Marthinussen, Greta & Elmies-Vestergren, Alexander (2026). Tap-tap for alle partar | Klassekampen. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Fokuset på Pisa-testane har ikke gjort skulen til ein betre stad. Resultata har heller ikkje blitt betre.

• Sirevåg, Lene Cherize Haugland & Elmies-Vestergren, Alexander (2026). Student participation as tokenism & a pedagogical alternative. A critical perspective. Full text in Research Archive
• Amdal, Irina Ivashenko & Elmies-Vestergren, Alexander (2026). PEDAGOGICAL CHALLENGES IN CASE-BASED LEARNING ACTIVITIES: NORWEGIAN PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Case-based learning is frequently used in vocational education to support coherence between theory and professional practices. While previous research has highlighted its potential, few studies have explored the pedagogical challenges students face during case-based learning activities. The voices of pre-service teachers are particularly valuable because they can evaluate learning activities and conduct didactic analyses. Simultaneously, they occupy an in-between position as both students and future teachers, placing them in a strong position to identify challenges in case-based teaching, including issues related to subject understanding, learning processes, and the transfer of learning to professional practice. This study examines fourth-year pre-service teachers’ experiences with case-based learning activities in a pedagogy course structured around a semester-long framework. The course was designed around a series of interconnected cases illustrating everyday situations that may occur during a school day. These situations were developed within fictitious schools and classes. Teacher educators developed a framework narrative describing the school’s structure, traditions, staff, and leadership, as well as a fictitious class and co-teacher. To enhance realism, visual and audio materials were created, including images of the school’s principal, staff, and students. All cases were aligned with the content of the pedagogy courses. This study draws on data from five focus group interviews with 25 pre-service teachers conducted at the end of the semester. The interviews examined students’ experiences with the learning activities, use of cases, and the role of theory in case discussions. A reflexive thematic analysis was used to identify pedagogical challenges in case-based learning activities by focusing on shared patterns across participants’ experiences. The data analysis results show that pre-service teachers’ experienced the case-based learning activities as relevant and closely connected to professional practice while also identifying several pedagogical challenges. A recurring challenge was unclear academic expectations, particularly related to how theoretical perspectives were expected to be integrated and used in case discussions. Pre-service teachers described a tension between open, student-led discussions and the need for clearer pedagogical guidance and synthesis by the teacher. The case-based activities were also experienced as time-consuming and cognitively demanding, especially when pre-service teachers’ preparation for the campus learning activities and engagement in working with cases varied across groups. Finally, students pointed to limited continuity and progression between cases and expressed the need for stronger didactic structuring, including clearer connections, sequencing, and consequences across learning activities. This study provides insights into pre-service teachers’ experiences and pedagogical evaluations of case-based learning activities in teacher education in Norway. The findings suggest that case-based learning can support professional learning when implemented as a coherent course design; however, its educational value depends on careful planning, structured facilitation, and sustained attention to the relationship between theory and practice. Keywords: Case-based teaching, fictive school, case in teacher education, pre-service teachers, challenges.

• Mikkelsen, Chanette Catharina Bach; Elmies-Vestergren, Alexander; Willbergh, Ilmi; Marthinussen, Greta & Aasebø, Turid Skarre (2026). How accountability systems restrain democratic schooling. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Abstract How accountability systems restrain democratic schooling Mikkelsen, C. C. B., Willbergh, I., Elmies-Vestergren, A. Accountability in schooling originated a hundred years ago in the United States (Whitehead, 1929/1967) and is based on the Anglo-American educational concepts of schooling, teaching and learning (Gundem & Hopmann, 1998). The European tradition of Bildung-centered general didactics, founded on the tradition of pedagogy, represents an alternative view of schooling, teaching and learning, compared to the accountability-perspective. Education for democracy is a central goal in Bildung-centered general didactics. This paper will apply a Bildung-centered general didactic perspective with the aim to discuss the implications of accountability systems on education for democracy. We ask: How does accountability governance systems challenge education for democracy from a Bildung-centered general didactic perspective? This question is answered by presenting an analysis of accountability-critical articles from the period 2000-2024, using the general didactic perspective on education for democracy as an analytical lens. The core data of the study is 170 peer-reviewed journal articles in international journals. The method of the study is searching for accountability-critical studies in Academic Search Complete, snowballing in relevant research journals and thematic analysis (Alvesson & Sköldberg, 2018). The thematic analysis is conducted inductively and then the challenges are analyzed from a perspective of democracy and Nordic general didactic. The concept of accountability is in this paper defined broadly as governance systems based on standards-based evaluation and student outcomes (Hopmann, 2003). Educational researchers have published overview-studies addressing the weaknesses of the accountability system of school governance (Granger, 2008; Jones et al., 2017; Sahlberg, 2010; Slater & Griggs, 2015; Zhao, 2020). As Slater and Griggs (2015) explain is the direction of 2 accountability changed, so that accountability flows from educational stakeholders to centralized institutions. This means that neoliberal schooling is at its core an ontological struggle over subjectivity. Hence, it is a shift from a democratic social institution, accountable to the collectives of subjects of compulsory schooling given power though education, to a neoliberal reform that holds students and teachers accountable to corporate state mandates (Slater & Griggs, 2015). The primary dividing line among democratic traditions lies between the liberal perspectives, emphasizing individual freedom and self-determination, and republican perspectives, emphasizing community, obligation and the common good (Solhaug, 2021). Our understanding of education for democracy is based on Klafkis (1991/2001) educational aims self-determination, co-determination and solidarity, which, through the imbedded ideas of individual freedom and responsibility for others, encompass parts of both liberal and republican ideals (Elmies-Vestergren, 2025). In this Bildung-centered general didactic perspective (Klafki, 1991/2001; Willbergh, 2021) individual autonomy is central, translated into teaching practice through teachers’ and students’ collective interpretation of subject matter content in teaching, differing from the outcome-focus of accountability. We find that the main problems of accountability in education is: the de-professionalization of teachers, an undermining of student’s subjectivity, a narrowing of curricula and reinforced systematic inequality, which all are connected to and is undermining democratic education. We will contend that, within a Nordic context, the concepts of autonomy and community are uniquely challenged, which may also hold international significance. Alvesson, M., & Sköldberg, K., M. (2018). Reflexive methodology : new vistas for qualitative research (Third edition. ed.). Los Angeles, California: SAGE. Elmies-Vestergren, A. (2025). Frigjøring eller umyndiggjøring: Et kritisk perspektiv på læreplanens konsept om demokratisk deltakelse i skolen. Nordisk tidsskrift for pedagogikk og kritikk, 11(1), 3–20. http://doi.org/10.23865/ntpk.v11.6481 Granger, D. A. (2008). No Child Left Behind and the Spectacle of Failing Schools: The Mythology of Contemporary School Reform. Educational Studies: Journal of the American Educational Studies Association, 43(3), 206-228. doi:10.1080/00131940802117654 3 Hopmann, S. T. (2003). On the Evaluation of Curriculum Reforms. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 35(4), 459. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00220270305520 Jones, K. L., Tymms, P., Kemethofer, D., O'Hara, J., McNamara, G., Huber, S., . . . Greger, D. (2017). The unintended consequences of school inspection: the prevalence of inspection side-effects in Austria, the Czech Republic, England, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland. Oxford Review of Education, 43(6), 805-822. doi:10.1080/03054985.2017.1352499 Klafki, W. (1991/2001). Dannelsesteori og didaktik - nye studier (B. Christensen, Trans. 2nd ed.). Århus: Forlaget Klim. Sahlberg, P. (2010). Rethinking accountability in a knowledge society. Journal of Educational Change, 11(1), 45-61. doi:10.1007/s10833-008-9098-2 Slater, G. B., & Griggs, C. B. (2015). Standardization and Subjection: An Autonomist Critique of Neoliberal School Reform. The Review of education/pedagogy/cultural studies, 37(5), 438-459. doi:10.1080/10714413.2015.1091259 Solhaug, T. (2021). Skolen i demokratiet – demokratiet i skolen (2. utg.). Universitetsforlaget. Willbergh, I. (2021). Bildung-Centered General Didactics. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1554 Zhao, Y. (2020). Two decades of havoc: A synthesis of criticism against PISA. Journal of Educational Change, 21, 245–266. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-019-09367-x

• Elmies-Vestergren, Alexander; Mikkelsen, Chanette Catharina Bach; Marthinussen, Greta; Sirevåg, Lene Cherize Haugland & Willbergh, Ilmi (2026). Hvordan innholdsorienterte læreplaner kan forbedre norsk skole. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Utforsk hvordan en vending mot innhold i skolen kan gi elever felles referanser og støtte læreres arbeid, samtidig som vi reduserer resultatstyringens negative effekter.

• Willbergh, Ilmi; Mikkelsen, Chanette Catharina Bach; Elmies-Vestergren, Alexander; Aasebø, Turid Skarre & Marthinussen, Greta (2026). Accountability governance systems and challenges from a Nordic general didactic perspective – a research overview. Full text in Research Archive
• Elmies-Vestergren, Alexander; Balsnes, Anne Haugland & Knigge, Jens (2026). Promoting singing in school through teacher education: a quasi-experimental study of pre-service teachers' intentions, self-efficacy, and argumentation. Full text in Research Archive
• Elmies-Vestergren, Alexander & Balsnes, Anne Haugland (2025). Sang som undervisningsform og danningsarena i lærerutdanning og skole. Full text in Research Archive
• Elmies-Vestergren, Alexander & Endresen-Maharaj, Kristin (2025). Større skoler i trange tider - men på et usikker grunnlag. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  https://www.fvn.no/mening/kronikk/i/nyr1dm/stoerre-skoler-i-trange-tider-men-paa-et-usikkert-grunnlag

• Blakstad, Kristin & Elmies-Vestergren, Alexander (2025). Hvordan planlegge for danning. Bedre Skole. ISSN 0802-183X. Full text in Research Archive
• Elmies-Vestergren, Alexander; Aarli, Eivind; Haldammen, Eva Nordby; Amdal, Irina Ivashenko; Endresen-Maharaj, Kristin & Haraldstad, Åse (2024). Vi trenger et rikere bilde av lærervirkeligheten. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  https://www.fvn.no/mening/kronikk/i/RzbbOd/vi-trenger-et-rikere-bilde-av-laerervirkeligheten

• Elmies-Vestergren, Alexander & Knudsen, Marianne Nødtvedt (2024). EXPLORATORY WORKSHOP: A sensory-aesthetic space: an exploratory workshop on interdisciplinary collaboration on aesthetic learning processes. Full text in Research Archive
• Elmies-Vestergren, Alexander (2024). Debattinnlegg, Arendalsuka. Full text in Research Archive
• Elmies-Vestergren, Alexander (2024). Emancipation or disempowerment: a critical perspective on the concept of democratic participation in school the Norwegian Core Curriculum. Full text in Research Archive
• Marthinussen, Greta & Elmies-Vestergren, Alexander (2024). Teknologi umyndiggjør. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  https://www.fvn.no/mening/kronikk/i/0QPyM6/teknologi-umyndiggjoer

• Willbergh, Ilmi; Marthinussen, Greta; Elmies-Vestergren, Alexander & Mikkelsen, Chanette Catharina Bach (2024). Accountability-critical educational research – a review. Full text in Research Archive
• Elmies-Vestergren, Alexander & Knudsen, Marianne Nødtvedt (2024). Diffractions from a sensory-aesthetic learning space: an exploration of performative//Bildung- centered collaboration. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  ABSTRACT (as submitted pre conference): Research topic/aim In this paper we explore the multidisciplinary collaborative process of developing new perspectives on aesthetic learning processes in Norwegian teacher education. The paper builds on a recent pilot with fifth year teacher students, where we transformed a classroom into a sensory-aesthetic space. Exploring this process, we seek to contribute to new perspectives addressing the Norwegian curriculum’s emphasis on aesthetic learning processes (Minestry of Education and Research, 2017). Theoretical framework Our common outset for this project is our shared wish to follow the call of Alexander Baumgarten (1750) to take the aesthetic seriously. For us, this means viewing the aesthetic as a language available to all, offering possibilities to experience, process and communicate the personal, emotional, sensory, complex and diverse (Austring & Sørensen, 2019). The sensory-aesthetic space was created out of the diffractions occurring between the authors, our disciplinary and theoretical outsets, the room, the different materials and the overarching theme of the student’s pedagogy subject, school in a pluralistic society. One theoretical impulse was the idea of performativity (Schechner, 2013) where learning is seen as «participation in art events which are constructed in situations of interaction» (Aure, 2013, our translation). It is a shared process of being-knowing (Lenz- Taguchi, 2012) in and with the world (Biesta, 2018, in Østern & Knudsen, 2019, p. 5) where all participants are «prepared to try out, stay open, participate, change direction» (Østern & Knudsen, 2019, p. 2). Another impulse was Bildung-centered general didactics (Willbergh, 2021), where education is viewed through Didaktike teche; the art of showing what cannot immediately show itself (Künzli, 2000). Thus, the educational situation is seen as a process of showing/representing the world, with the intention of opening both the world and the student to each other (Klafki, 2001). This is understood to require a reflective teacher (Westbury et al., 2000) who assumes responsibility for the world (Arendt, 1961/2006). Methodological design To explore our multidisciplinary collaborative process, we draw on the diffractive analysis of Karen Barad (2007; 2014) and a/r/tography (Irwin et al., 2008), seeing ourselves as artists, researchers and teachers intertwined with the work and material of the process. We stay open to both aesthetic and discursive languages (Austring & Sørensen, 2019) exploring different diffractions occurring as intra-actions (Barad, 2007; 2014) – as pictures, shapes, poetic texts and fragments. In this paper we draw attention to these diffractions, with a special interest in the ‘new patterns’ appearing in the space between the theoretical impulses brought into the project. Expected conclusions/findings We expect that our impulses, through diffraction, will create new patterns, challenging our conceptions and theoretical tensions and widening our perspectives on aesthetic learning processes. One preliminary result is the idea of teaching as invitation, both showing (representing) and being in the world together through the aesthetic. Relevance to Nordic educational research Seeking diffractions between our theoretical impulses in a sensory-aesthetic space, we aim to contribute to new perspectives in the field(s) of research addressing the Norwegian curriculum’s emphasis on both aesthetic learning processes and “all- round development” (Bildung) of all pupils (Minestry of Education and Research, 2017).

• Elmies-Vestergren, Alexander (2023). Problems with education through democratic participation. Full text in Research Archive
• Knudsen, Marianne Nødtvedt & Elmies-Vestergren, Alexander (2023). Tverrfaglig arbeid med estetiske læringsprosesser på GLU. Full text in Research Archive
• Elmies-Vestergren, Alexander (2022). Premiering av prestasjon er ikke veien til motivasjon i skolen. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  https://www.fvn.no/mening/kronikk/i/GMyd7l/premiering-av-prestasjon-er-ikke-veien-til-motivasjon-i-skolen https://www.uia.no/forskning/kronikker/premiering-av-prestasjon-er-ikke-veien-til-motivasjon-i-skolen

• Elmies-Vestergren, Alexander (2022). Danning til demokratisk deltakelse i en resultatstyrt skole - en utfordrende aktualisering av det pedagogiske paradoks? Full text in Research Archive

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