Multicultural understanding in the social science education
This project examines the kind of multicultural understanding that is created in the social science education in two lower secondary schools in Bergen. It discusses how social science education can be seen as contributing to the pupil’s identity formation.
Project owner
Western Norway University of Applied Sciences,
Project period
August 2015 - August 2019
Project summary
Norwegian society is increasingly pluralistic due to immigration from throughout the world. This actualises the issue of ethnic and cultural belonging in young people´s identity work. The creation of frames in order to better understand and deal with difference in a complex and multicultural society is important for building young people’s multicultural understanding. In this work, education in general, and social science education in particular, can play an important role.
In this project, stories about ethnicity, and majority and minority cultures, are described and analysed. The focus is on how the stories appear and are handled by the pupils and teachers in the social sciences education in two lower secondary schools in Bergen. The project seeks to understand how the pupils’ experience ethnicity and cultural background; for example, do they consider it inclusive, exotic or marginalising.
Method
A narrative theoretical and methodical framework is applied in the study.