The two nationalistic narratives in danish compulsory education
- Autores: Tore Bernt Sorensen
- Localización: Exedra: Revista Científica, ISSN-e 1646-9526, Nº. Extra 3, 1, 2011 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Diversity Comunication and coexistence), págs. 15-24
- Idioma: inglés
- Enlaces
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Resumen
As in many other European countries one of the most prominent challenges to the Danish education system in the last twenty years has concerned how to cope with ethnic and cultural diversity. On the basis of existing research findings, this study discusses factors which sustain the educational inequalities facing ethnic minority pupils in the Danish context. The main argument is that two nationalistic narratives, adopted by policy-makers and education professionals respectively, continuously has impeded the development of intercultural education. The paper maintains that both narratives have drawn on national-liberal ideas popularly ascribed to Danish priest and scholar N.F.S. Grundtvig. Against this background, the paper points out two distinctive sets of effects. First, the nationalistic narrative adopted by policy-makers serves to legitimate neo-conservative education policies. Second, teachers and teacher trainers have for decades endorsed a �pedagogical nationalism� which relies on implicit double standards.
Vague ideas in the disguise of child-centred education have thus allowed a nationalistic framework to be taken more or less for granted while the backgrounds, resources and needs of ethnic minority pupils have generally been ignored. The paper concludes by discussing the prospects for intercultural education in Denmark in the light of the two nationalistic narratives and the impact of transnational policy trends related to market ideas and performativity. In that respect, it is argued that while certain initiatives and policies might improve educational equality for ethnic minority pupils in the longer term, the opportunities for substantial progress in the short term appear rather bleak.
