The impact of neoliberal globalisation on (global) citizenship teacher education in Norway

ABSTRACT

Norway has been going through numerous changes in its education system. In the last 10 years, Norway has retrained its teachers to obtain master’s degrees, redrawn its curricula objectives, and instated national exams for certain subjects. These changes are occurring at a time of intensified globalisation and increased displacement of people. With these changes in mind, the article examines policy documents and social studies standards in the New Knowledge Promotion curriculum, and conversations with teacher educators to understand the factors that shape conceptions of (global) citizenship education. A central finding is that teacher education is depoliticised and promotes an imagined, neoliberal political harmony.

KEYWORDS:

• Neoliberal globalisation
• neoliberal common sense
• teacher education
• Norway

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 All the conversations took place with white ethnic Norwegians. The gendered pseudonyms are Arabic, and I chose these names particularly as they are the most frequent in my home country, Libya.