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- Politicians must be on the school bench

- In last year's election campaign, politicians rediscovered the school, but they also revealed their superficial knowledge, says Rune Slagstad. In the book "The House of Knowledge" he takes the politicians to school.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

Professor and author Rune Slagstad writes in the book that the election campaign 1999 gave us a new ABC: A) The school was rediscovered. B) Most politicians lacked knowledge of the subject. C) The low turnout gave a clear signal of a lack of democratic involvement in abundance Norway.

The ABC may at first glance seem a bit divergent, but according to Slagstad, there is a 200-year-old tradition hidden under the ABC: The interplay and balance between politics, economics and culture. It followed us from the civil servant state via the left-wing state to the Labor Party state. Today, on the other hand, "social ecology" is threatened, Slagstad believes. In the book, it is especially the Mjøs committee's recent approach to reform of the higher education institutions that Slagstad attacks.

Education Revolution

- To call something a university, there must be three premises present. 1) Research. 2) Academic teaching. 3) Classical and democratic formation. The Mjøs committee's attitude focuses mostly on academic teaching, and far too little on research. Democratic formation says nothing about it. Utility thinking is at the center, and it seems as if the Mjøs committee will encourage the trend we see today: the university as an education factory. People should be educated to contribute to economic growth, not necessarily to become wiser and better citizens, says Slagstad.

If the last two hundred years in Norwegian history are to be captured in one word, it must be education revolution, Slagstad believes. The centuries have given us major and minor reforms from the start of the university in 1811 – three years before we got our constitution. The educational revolution has been marked by a break between the Anglo-American and the German-continental, between societal benefits and societal formation. This tradition is strongly challenged with the Mjøs committee's attitude, Slagstad believes.

Today's educational ideologies are almost exclusively aimed at the Anglo-American, where "school shopping" is a key concept: Make the most out and in of higher education possible.

- 1968 was the prelude to a new knowledge regime, and introduces what I have called the state of knowledge. Norway has a unique opportunity, both because of our democratic tradition and our wealth, to think progressively, to think new. This applies not only to the question of university and college, but to society as a whole. The Mjøs committee's attitude is too defensive, and it is the BI ideologues who get the last word.

Social Democracy

-And you mean this is fundamentally new?

- ÊEducational institutions are public institutions that are committed in two ways: Education for working life and education for civil society. The societal perspective has tended to disappear in the committee's reports. Thus, one misses something fundamental about the educational institutions in our system, namely how they are connected to social democracy.

-ÊHistorieløst?

- Historylessness is a remarkable common feature of the reform committees, from the Kleppe committee in the early 60s to the Mjøs committee this spring. The dominant way of thinking of the period has been the economic one, albeit with a gradual shift from the socio-economic to the business economic. This way of thinking is conceptless – and speechless – faced with the identity-forming society.

- So this does not only apply to the university?

- The market has expanded beyond its borders. The new market thinking presents itself as objective – a necessary consequence of global developments. In reality, it is about ideology: a notion of how society should be organized.

knowledge Factory

- What should the university look like.

- ÊThe university has today become a contourless knowledge factory that produces a lot of averageness and, at times, high-level unemployment. If this development persists, the university's role will be undermined. Universities must to a greater extent exercise academic leadership in the public debate and in society in general. And in a far more offensive way than before. In Norway, however, there should preferably not be academic tops – we prefer sports tops, entertainment tops and business tops. It is a society that is weathering its way into the new state of knowledge that operates in this way.

-You have nothing left for the idea of ​​making universities and colleges more equal?

- The development of the district colleges has undoubtedly had an important district policy effect. But the strong proliferation of scarce research resources has led to a depletion that the system can hardly benefit from. The university must be a hotbed of scientific excellence. The college will first and foremost provide professionally oriented education, also there at a high level, but I am concerned with preserving diversity and uniqueness.

- But is the situation satisfactory today?

- The Norwegian educational institutions must be reformed to become attractive knowledge institutions at a high level. First and foremost academically, but the appropriations are not completely insignificant either. Here, Norway, one of the world's richest countries, has gradually slowed down – to global astonishment. In the Nordic context, Norway is at the bottom when it comes to research grants, despite the fact that the other Nordic countries have had a far more strained economic situation. Norwegian professors are at the bottom of the European wage context. The Norwegian education system must be equipped from top to bottom with a financial foundation that corresponds with the program statements.

Modern infrastructure

- The politicians talk warmly about the knowledge society, but it seems as if there is a gap between words and action.

- There is too much talk, and too little is done. The knowledge society requires a modern infrastructure. It's just a matter of building fewer tunnels in Western Norway, straightening a few fewer turns, and we can afford it. Maybe politicians should also think of education as communication, and not just roads.

- What is the main challenge of the knowledge society?

- The challenge is constitutional. We must reformulate the social contract of the state of knowledge. It is about creating a new social order, a new regime, with the knowledge institutions as key players. The state of knowledge has the information society as a prerequisite, and here the educational institutions must contribute to transforming the fragmented information into insight, Rune Slagstad concludes.

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