Public defence: Solveig Maria Magerøy

Solveig Maria Magerøy is defending her dissertation for the degree philosophiae doctor (PhD) at the University of South-Eastern Norway.

The doctoral work has been carried out at the Faculty of Humanities, Sports, and Educational Science.

You are invited to follow the trial lecture and the public defence.

• Link to full dissertation

Summary

In 2020, a new curriculum was implemented in Norwegian schools, emphasizing democracy and citizenship as one of the overarching interdisciplinary themes. Based on this, this thesis has examined democratic education in teacher training and schools. The study focused on democracy understood as opportunities for participation, or democratic interaction, rather than democratic education as learning about elections or democratic procedures. This understanding of democratic education means the opportunity to influence, have a role, voice one's opinion, or oppose something, which I see as the agency and participation of students and pupils.

Through three sub-studies, I have examined various levels of education through interviews with student teachers, an intervention with primary school pupils, and observations of student teachers in their practicum. All sub-studies have focused on the participation opportunities for pupils and students to identify barriers and opportunities for democratic interaction.

Combined, the studies show that experiences and perceptions of the role one has as a pupil or student affect the role one takes on later as a student and teacher. This means that experience with participation can influence how one envisions further participation in school and education. In this way, experiences shape perceptions of the role of 'one who learns,' which can create barriers or opportunities for participation.

In the first sub-study, I interviewed six student teachers several times about their participation opportunities in school and education. The students also explained how they envisioned facilitating pupil participation when they were qualified teachers. The students described limited experiences with participation, and to the extent that they participated, they referred to it as criticizing. When asked how they themselves, or pupils, could participate in teaching, opportunities without real influence were described.

In the second sub-study, one of the student teachers from the interviews and I developed an intervention in a 7th-grade class. We wanted to investigate what would happen if we gave the pupils real influence over their own education. We had a questionnaire before and after the intervention and led this intervention, which lasted for two full school days. We saw that the pupils had fun, connected with their self-chosen topic and group, were ambitious, saw themselves as experts in their area, and some became uncertain due to the autonomy they were given. Unstructured comments seven months after the intervention show that these pupils found the intervention educational and motivating. The pupils also asked the teachers to do this in regular teaching. The intervention shows that experiencing real influence can lead to expecting and wanting this in the future.

In the third sub-study, I observed two practice teachers with a group of student teachers. I observed these two practice teachers with a group of fourth-year students in 2022 and a group of first-year students in 2023. In the non-participatory observation, I studied how the guidance style of the practice teachers encouraged or created barriers to the agency and participation opportunities of the student teachers. The study shows that when the practice teacher trusts the student, the student teacher acts relationally and is connected to the pupils. The relational contact between the practice teacher and the student teacher thus seems to influence the relational contact between the student teacher and the pupil. The degree of student participation or agency seems to be linked to the practice teacher's guidance style in the student teachers' practicum.

These three studies combined show the importance of experiencing participation to expect it. The study uses critical pedagogy as a theoretical approach and framework and sees agency as something that can arise but is dependent on relationships and structures to be achieved.