Watching, assessing, participating

Globalising political education in Norwegian upper secondary education

Abstract

Transnational governance is expanding rapidly. From a political education perspective, an important question is to what extent and how this is included in the political universe that adolescents are being prepared for at school. Of particular interest is social science, which is part of social studies in primary and lower secondary school, before it develops into a variety of social science courses in upper secondary school. Including the transnational level in political education may mean critical thinking about current transnational issues as well as understanding how to participate politically with a transnational aim. Are these elements included in Norwegian political education in social science at school? And if so, is such participation related to notions of influence, power and conflicting interests? Or are notions of participation based on classical idealism? The research method is an analysis of selected social science textbooks in Norwegian upper secondary education. Textbooks are not assumed to determine teaching, but they are assumed to frame the field within which teachers develop their practice. The analysis shows that in the textbooks political education is expanded to a transnational level, where both political judgement of issues as well as participation are elaborated upon.