Background
In the new Norwegian curriculum, democracy and citizenship, along with sustainable development and public health and well-being, are included as interdisciplinary overarching themes. This means that schools should facilitate learning within these themes across all subjects, so that students gain understanding and can see connections regarding complex societal challenges.
At the same time, we see a desire from both administrative staff and politicians in many municipalities to engage children and young people in matters that concern them, especially climate action, but few municipalities go beyond traditional and legally mandated participation, such as information meetings and hearings, to achieve co-creation with children and young people. Therefore, it can be valuable to explore new forms of teaching and learning that not only address the interdisciplinary thematic goals of the school but also contribute to participation and co-creation between children, young people, and stakeholders in the municipality.
About the project
The goal of the project is to create new arenas for engaging children and young people in authentic problems related to the transition to a low-emission society, in order to build new knowledge together that contributes to progress both within the classroom community and from a larger societal perspective. This work will be carried out in close collaboration with stakeholders in the school, the University of Oslo, and collaborating municipalities. Through the project, we will collaborate to develop and test various digital platforms that can serve as arenas for learning through dialogue and co-creation. The project will specifically focus on:
- examining existing dialogic teaching practices in schools and building upon them in new interventions where (digital) dialogic teaching forms the basis for work on democracy, citizenship, and sustainable development.
- co-creating and exploring new (digital) collaborative forms between stakeholders in the school and the municipality.
Method
The project will be based on design-based interventions that can be implemented in collaboration with municipalities, teachers, students, or other actors such as voluntary organizations. This will also involve participatory design, case studies (with observation), and interviews.
Podcast
In this episode of the podcast "Universitetsplassen," you can read and hear more about the project and the involvement of youth in local climate action (Only available in Norwegian):
Collaboration
The project is a collaboration between the Department of Education at the University of Oslo, Asker Municipality, Lillestrøm Municipality, Pådriv, Spire, Insam, and Framtiden i våre hender (The Future in Our Hands).
Duration
2022 - 2026