The main goal of this Phd-project is to explore whether content oriented education in school subjects, can play a part in enhancing student social learning and sense of belonging in class. The project will build on insights from three main fields. From research in classroom management, particularly on strategies for enhancing student-teacher relations and peer relations in class. From research on bullying prevention, focusing on peer oriented strategies and moral disengagement. And, combining didactics- and curriculum research, giving particular attention to curriculum content and didactic strategies for enhancing student social learning and sense of belonging in class. As an overall research question, I will be asking, how does curriculum centered education influence students’ social learning and sense of belonging in class? This question will be addressed in three parts, as described below, before bringing the parts together for unified discussion in the final dissertation.

1. On what theoretical basis can we understand and explore curriculum centered education to influence students’ social learning and sense of belonging in class?
2. What are goals and strategies for enhancing social learning and students’ sense of belonging in the new national curriculum?
3. How do teachers and students’ intra-act social learning and sense of belonging in curriculum centered education?

Inspiration for the project has been provided by a call to “rethink didactics” as a part of an integrative approach to enhance student learning, and prevent bullying. The concept of community creating didactics has been proposed to describe training that enhances both social and academic learning in school, while at the same time strengthening students’ sense of belonging in class. This project aims to develop on these ideas, adding content (core and subject curriculum) to community (social learning and belonging), and developing an analytical framework for qualitative exploration as part of the development of new subject curriculum in Norwegian schools.

 

The national core curriculum of Norway is currently under revision. During the school year 2019-2020 schools will have time to study, and prepare changes in their practice. A field study during this time will be of particular interest as it brings to life teachers and students’ understandings of new goals and strategies, as it is developed and put into practice for the first time. I will be conducting field research at the lower secondary school level focusing on subject training of curricula in Norwegian (native language) and Science. An analytical framework based of dialectic critical realism (intra-action), hermeneutic phenomenology (narrative identity), and social psychology (moral disengagement) will be employed in analysis of data.

For a more in depth description of the project, please see: Full Project Description (PDF).