Decolonising teacher education

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Abstract

This study considered the question of how Norwegian student-teachers evaluate racialised knowledge uncovered from a little-known past and the way this informs decolonisation in education drawing on Frantz Fanon’s theorisations of the machinations of colonisation. The study employed participant observation during online lectures conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic in three Master’s teacher education programme classes (years 3 and 4) in the academic year 2020-21 with an average student attendance of 60. Deploying online synchronous and asynchronous tools, data was gathered and examined using content analysis. The findings, while novel and disturbing for the students, reveal some consistency to the effect that racist classical literature, statues erected in honour of colonial-era figures and the ‘human zoo’ project in Norway in Oslo in 1914, where Senegalese families were exhibited, should not be expunged but taught and understood in their historical context. The study finds a consensus among Norwegian student teachers on the importance of retaining and explaining classical literature with racist content, rather than removing it, to provide historical and societal context. However, it also uncovers a concerning overconfidence in the educational system’s ability to address racism effectively, alongside a lack of awareness about Norway’s historical involvement in racism and its impact on minority students today.

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Keywords

decolonisation, postgraduate education, Norway, Frantz Fanon, internet-mediated research

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