Modernity and Education

Environment or inheritance as competing explanations on what constitutes human beings from Enlightenment till the present. Different explanations have created different conceptions on the possibilities and limitations for training and schooling pupils with consequences for both the individual and society. Science and humanities have thus over time contributed in various ways to the understanding what a society is and how it should be developed both through its schools and other institutions.

Students should
- be able to present central theories on what is a human being (what gestates a human being) from the enlightenment till the present
- understand how various conceptions of society have influenced school systems and the way differences between pupils have been dealt with organizationally
- be able to analyze how biological and social factors have developed over time to explain categorizations like race, ethnicity and gender
- be able to describe and discuss how biological and sociological frames of understanding form our discursive practices on education and literacy
- be able to analyze attitudes towards education and literacy present in any school system and discuss the implicit understanding on limits and possibilities that are open to our pupils within such a basic attitude.

Lectures, seminars and student presentations.