Purpose: The article explores how the tension between embracing and scrutinising democracy can be productively overcome through social science teaching about democracy that focuses on trust as a subject content. Design/methodology/approach: Empirical materials were collected through focus group interviews before and after an inquiry-based teaching…

This article presents part of a larger study on potential relations between democracy and numeracy and mathematics teaching for adults. This study is motivated by the many challenges to democratic institutions and democratic values at local, national and international levels that I have observed in recent years. In this article. I go back to the…

Following legislation in 2010, all Swedish teachers, at all levels, had a double mission: to teach democracy as well the content of their subject. This mission was seen as troublesome by evaluating authorities, among others. In the latest state curriculum, rhetoric has re-emerged as a central element of Swedish mother-tongue high school education…

Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore the link between upper secondary school students' experiences of school democracy and their future role as democratic citizens, focusing on a comparison between men and women. Design/methodology/approach: The data derives from a questionnaire conducted to all last year upper secondary school students…

This article explores how John Dewey's concept of democracy can contribute to our understanding of what is required from education amid growing nationalism and populism, even in what are usually perceived as established democracies. The purpose of the study is to explore how standards-based curricula for citizenship education can be problematised…

One of the key challenges for educators is how to ensure inclusion of all learners in diverse classrooms. One effective way of providing an inclusive environment is by using Cooperative learning. When teachers use Cooperative learning a democracy stance (Vinterek 2010) emerges (Ferguson-Patrick 2014). Such classrooms use inclusive pedagogies that…

This study sheds light on dance as democracy among people 65+. The article presents a study that is part of the project Age on Stage, in which elderly people were offered to express themselves through dance as an aesthetic form of expression. Hannah Arendt and Simone de Beauvoir are applied as philosophical lenses. Elderly people's participation…

This open access book presents an in-depth analysis of data from ICCS. An international group of scholars critically address the state of civic and citizenship education in the four Nordic countries that participated in the IEA International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) in 2009 and 2016. The findings are of particular relevance to…

As the privatisation of the public sector has grown rapidly in Sweden in the last decade, private companies have become an imperative part of education. Private companies sell and deliver consultancy, hardware, software, services, etc. to schools and municipalities. This study examines a growing rate of activities from companies and businesses…

The education system is still important for establishing and maintaining democracy in society. In relation to this, it is reasonable to suggest that teachers' different interpretations of their mission to teach for democracy will influence their teaching practices. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on student teachers' task perceptions as…

The aim of this article is to examine the ways in which curriculum goals on digitalisation are viewed in relation to the overarching democratic mission of Swedish preschools. Groups of preschool staff from three preschools located in different areas were interviewed with the focus on how they discuss democracy and the democratic aspects of…

This article is the first of four articles exploring democratic schools co-founded by teenage students in Norway and Sweden. Our larger project explores the relationship between democracy in education and educational dialogism. Both democracy in education and educational dialogism are partially rooted in the idea that education should be a…

This paper draws upon learning from three action research projects conducted as part of a Europe-wide project exploring young people's social and political participation. Challenging dominant discourses about what 'counts' as participation and what does not, the paper explores how, through the action research projects, young people engaged in…

The needs of a globalized economy are rapidly changing what is legitimated as school knowledge and values, and calling up new understandings of teachers' role in stimulating democratic spaces. We have termed this "Teachers' Democratic Assignment." We examine changing notions of teachers' democratic assignment in Ireland and Sweden using…

This book discusses principals' prerequisites and work within the five Nordic countries and focuses on schools as formal institutions that carry out functions delegated to them by the social collective. It includes a discussion about what kind of state policy demonstrates autonomy in Nordic schools, as well as the ways in which school leaders as…