Dags att ta plats i katedern – en hermeneutisk studie av katederundervisningsbegreppet på en mediearena

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to explore the concept of ’katederundervisning’ (teacher-centered teaching) in an educational debate that took place in the Swedish daily paper Dagens Nyheter in 2011. 2011 was the year of a comprehensive educational reform, and the debate in question started with an article written by then minister of education and called out the need of more ’katederundervisning’ in Swedish schools. Though the debate studied here took place in 2011, the same kind of rhetorics are still used in the public debate today, which stresses the importance to keep exploring the subject. Using a hermeneutic, thematic method, this thesis in a first phase of analysis studies how the term ’katederundervisning’ is used in the debate, and what beliefs about knowledge can be identified in connection to the use of the concept in question. In a second phase of analysis, ’katederundervisning’ and the themes and patterns that emerge from the text are discussed from the perspective of education primarily viewed as human capital, and education viewed from the perspective of bildung. The thesis argues that the term ’katederundervisning’ is more than a description of a method for teaching. Instead, it is a normative concept that implies fundamental ideas about what knowledge is, and what kind of knowledge should be held as important in school. Furthermore, the perspectives of human capital and bildung help identify and clarify basic differences of opinion that are rarely mentioned or discussed in the contemporary polemical, and often simplified, public debate that evolves around education.