Martin Per Samuelsson
PhD Candidate
Faculty of Psychology
Department of Education
Knowledge, Education and Democracy
Title: PhD Candidate
Phone: +47 55 58 39 80
E-mail: Martin.Samuelsson@psyip.uib.no
Visiting address: Christiesgt. 13
Current project:
PhD: Education for deliberative democracy
The main purpose of this project is to study and investigate a few selected “samples” of the Norwegian democratic education, using qualitative observations and qualitative interviews, trying to see if traces of deliberative thoughts, aspects and practices can be identified within these classrooms. The project is divided into two main stages; firstly a conceptual review of international literature will be conducted, laying out the theoretical (and empirical) framework, and secondly a qualitatively empirical study consisting of classroom observations and interviews with teachers and perhaps students as well, will be conducted. The design is qualitative since the main aim is to develop an in-depth understanding of how the democratic education is conducted, constructed and understood in relation to deliberative democracy, as well as an in-depth investigation and understanding of the discussion patterns taking form within the classroom.
When it comes to a Norwegian context and research on education for democracy, it has mainly focused on other democratic conceptions, thus leaving the deliberative conception uninvestigated. It is thus, in some ways, unknown if this democratic conception is represented in the democratic education in Norwegian schools. Since it nowadays is common to talk about a deliberative turn within democratic theory, a democratic conception striving to handle democracy in multicultural societies, it is legit to investigate if traces of this conception can be found within a Norwegian context.
Previous projects:
Master: Utbildning till demokrati – utveckling av deliberativa färdigheter i den norska skolan?
The aim of this project was to investigate the Norwegian democratic education, in order to see if traces of deliberative thoughts could be identified. This was investigated with the use of interviews with teachers, and through smaller investigations of Norwegian white papers.