How to End a Discussion: Consensus or Hegemony? A Response to Education for Deliberative Democracy and the Aim of Consensus

By taking the vantage point of agonistic pluralism, the aim is to enter into dialogue with Samuelsson’s theoretical development of consensus as an educational aim for classroom discussions. The response highlights three points of interest in the deliberative conception of consensus. The first point relates to the problem of exclusion, which Samuelsson clearly framed as something that concerns deliberative theory and agonistic theory. The second point is about the relation between conflict and consensus and the kind of conflict that is compatible with Samuelsson’s idea of consensus. The concluding part of this response is an exploration of how the agonistic concept of hegemony could function as an alternative aim for ending classroom discussions

Democratic Education and Agonism: Exploring the Critique from Deliberative Theory

Due to the current political challenges facing democratic societies, including an apparent presence of populist rhetoric, the question of how political discussions should take place in democratic education is as urgent as ever. In the last two decades, one of the most prominent approaches to this question has been the use of deliberative theory. However, the deliberative approach has been criticized from an agonistic perspective for neglecting the role of emotions in political discussions. Deliberative theorists have in turn responded to this critique and argued that the agonistic approach tends to put too much emphasis on students’ emotions and identities in political discussions. Recently, as a contribution to this debate, the idea of assimilating agonism with deliberation has been suggested as a way of overcoming the differences between agonism and deliberative theory. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the educational debate between agonism and deliberative theory by exploring the deliberative critique from the vantage point of agonism. I claim that the deliberative critique of agonism is unfounded and based on a misreading of Mouffe’s agonistic theory. Furthermore, I argue that the attempt to assimilate agonism with deliberation is not compatible with Mouffe’s agonistic theory

Global citizenship as taken-for-grantedness: reflecting on Swedish students’ trip to Tanzania

Swedish students regularly take part in school partnership trips to Tanzania. Yet, little research looks at the extent to which these trips support global learning. This paper is interested in the discourses that enable and constrain ethical relationality in these educative encounters. It considers existing research on global citizenship education and school partnerships in relation to decolonial engagements then analyses interview data with four students who participated in an entrepreneurship themed trip to identify discourses available to them. Students articulated an overarching discourse of taken-for-grantedness. Several sub-discourses could enable but tend to constrain an ethical relationality in these educative encounters

Structural and magnetic changes in CoAlZr thin films upon post annealing

We present a study of the effect of annealing amorphous ferromagnetic thin films of Co0.85(Al0.7Zr0.3)0.15, post deposition. The annealing was done in vacuum with no applied magnetic field. We find that already at a relatively low annealing temperature of 130 ◦C there is crystallite formation that introduces both structural and magnetic inhomogeneity. This does not affect the saturation magnetization strongly, but strongly affects the switching behavior and the overall effective anisotropy of the films. Further, there is a dramatic increase in magnetization damping. Thus, the annealing has a profound effect on both static and dynamic magnetic properties of the material. This is important to keep in mind for potential applications using these materials.Icelandic Research Fund Grants No. 228951, 218029 and 217843.Peer Reviewe

Agonistic teaching : Four principles

The aim of this article is to synthesize theoretical and empirical research on agonism in education into teaching principles. Agonistic theory underscores the role of conflict, emotions, and collective identities in democratic classroom discussions. Empirical studies on agonism in education provide empirical insights into how these aspects are played out in teaching practices. By synthesizing both theoretical development and empirical findings on agonism in education, this article suggests four principles for agonistic teaching. The suggested principles aim to function as a synthetization of research valuable to the research field of democratic education and as tools for teachers who want to explore the possibilities of agonism in their teaching

Kontroversiella frågor och didaktiska svar

Goldschmidt-Gjerløw, Beate; Gregers Eriksen, Kristin &amp; Jore, Mari Kristine, red. (2022): Kontroversielle, emosjonelle og sensitive tema i skolen. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 206 sidor.</p

How to End a Discussion : Consensus or Hegemony?

By taking the vantage point of agonistic pluralism, the aim is to enter into dialogue with Samuelsson’s theoretical development of consensus as an educational aim for classroom discussions. The response highlights three points of interest in the deliberative conception of consensus. The first point relates to the problem of exclusion, which Samuelsson clearly framed as something that concerns deliberative theory and agonistic theory. The second point is about the relation between conflict and consensus and the kind of conflict that is compatible with Samuelsson’s idea of consensus. The concluding part of this response is an exploration of how the agonistic concept of hegemony could function as an alternative aim for ending classroom discussions

The Political as Presence : On Agonism in Citizenship Education

In recent years, an agonistic approach to citizenship education has been put forward as a way of educating democratic citizens. Claudia W. Ruitenberg (2009) has developed such an approach and takes her starting point in Chantal Mouffe’s agonistic theory. Ruitenberg highlights how political emotions and political disputes can be seen as central for a vibrant democratic citizenship education. The aim of this paper is to critically explore and further develop the concepts of political emotions and political disputes as central components of an agonistic approach. In order to do this, I return to Mouffe’s point of departure in the concept of the political. By drawing on Michael Marder’s (2010) notion of enmity, I suggest how “the presence of the other” can be seen as a vital aspect of the political in citizenship education. By not abandoning the concept of enmity, and with the notion of presence in the foreground, I argue that Ruitenberg’s definition of political emotions needs to be formulated in a way that includes emotions revolving around one’s own existence as a political being. Moreover, I argue that in order to further develop the agonistic approach, the emphasis on the verbalization of opinions in political disputes needs to be relaxed, as it limits the political dimension in education and excludes crucial political practices, such as exodus.

Om det politiska i samhällskunskap : Agonism, populism och didaktik

Democratic education can be seen as being constituted by a political dimension in two senses. In one sense, democratic education is political because it has a politically formulated goal to educate citizens. In another sense, the practice of democratic education is in itself political, in that it constitutes a space in which students encounter different visions of and opinions about what society should be like. In the intersection of these two meanings of “the political” we find the teacher. How can teachers navigate and approach “the political” in their classrooms? Which conceptions of conflicts, emotions and identities are useful when approaching the political as an educational problem? This thesis formulates an agonistic perspective on the political in social science education. In four articles, the thesis explores agonism and populism in relation to social science education. In focus are questions about the role that emotions, conflicts and identities should play in democratic education. Three of the four articles are theoretical investigations into the problems and potentialities of agonism and populism. The fourth article is empirically based on interviews with social science teachers and classroom observations. By synthesizing the results from these four articles, an agonistic perspective on the political in social science education is formulated. The agonistic perspective consists of four concepts: political emotions, hegemony, political presence and simplification. With these concepts, the agonistic perspective provides a theoretically informed starting point for teachers to reflect on and approach “the political” in social science education