- Our aim is to bring together the broad range of researchers at the faculty that are concerned with democracy and start a dialogue across disciplinary boundaries, says Nils H. Korsvoll, head of Udforsk.
The seminar also presented the results from the Erasmus+ project ValiDE: Values in Democratic Education, which has been a research and teaching cooperation between the University of Agder and partners in Germany and Poland. Through exchange and shared excursion with teacher education students from the three partner universities, the project examined and discussed.
- Morals need to be more political, and politics more moral, said professor emeritus in education, Wiel Veugelers, from the University of Humanistic Studies in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Professor Veugelers is an international expert on moral and citizenship education, and was invited to open the seminar with a reflection on the current situation. He stressed that moral and values are not only logical, but linked to salience and emotion, and we need to account for that also in citizenship education.
The other keynote was by Elisabetta Cassina Wolff, who is associate professor of history at the University of Oslo. Dr. Wolff is an expert on the rise of right-wing extremism in Europe after World War 2. She described how democracy is on the decline globally, coinciding with the growth of the far right, but ended by saying there are still bright spots on the horizon – but we must work for it.
Several shared concerns
Along with the keynotes were several shorter papers from researchers at UiA, ranging from pedagogy to philosophy and media studies. Topics included classroom participation, forms of play, AI-tools, and policy, to name a few.
Closing the seminar, Korsvoll noted that despite the range of starting points and disciplines, there were some concerns that seemed to recur through the day:
- We seem to agree there needs to be a great recognition of values in education, as well as a greater concern for the collective – perhaps correcting for an individualisation of education that has gone too far. Finally, there is also a pervading concern about politics, both its development and its role in education, with regards to the expansion of illiberal and sometimes antidemocratic movements in Europe.
Photos: Mareike Brehmer
Photo 1: Lisbeth L. Skreland and Tale Steen-Johnsen (UiA) present from their work on democracy education in kindergarten.
Photo 2: Wiel Veugelers has promoted moral and citizenship education throughout his career.
Photo 3: Elisabetta Cassina Wolff presented the historical development of right-wing groups in Europe.