Opplysning, samfunn og utdanning

Knowledge has become an increasingly urgent theme in modern education in deciding what to be transferred from one generation to the next. Over time knowledge has proven to be a two-edged sword of both social scientific mastery as enlightenment and of social regulation and control of agents within educational institutions. The course outlines and explores this contradiction and points out consequences and educational possibilities keeping this contradiction in mind. It implies a basic focus on micro interactions in pedagogical settings and what they owe to their overall conditions: historical inheritance, bodily and social experiences, cultural diversity as well as series of macro level conditions. Pedagogical practices in formal, informal and non-formal education will be considered as well as the relationship between them. Basic theories on education will be attributed to empirical research on educational practices and on socialization.

The course renders skills and general competence on formulating and discussing theoretical topics within educational sociology. The course renders knowledge about and theoretical perspectives on:
- The relationship between knowledge as enlightenment and knowledge as social control.
- The relationship between pedagogical interactions and contextual conditions.
- The relationship between formal, informal and non-formal education.

Teaching methods: Self-study with supervision, individual or group based, combined with four seminars focusing on selected parts of the curriculum, and one project seminar.


Assessment: A written assignment limited to the maximum of 10 pages. Topic, research question and theory must be approved by the responsible course coordinator before November 1st. Deadline for the hand-in is December 10th.