From rural to urban to rural to global: 300 years of compulsory schooling in rural Norway

摘要

This paper explores the relationship between the school and the local community in Norway from the beginning of compulsory schooling early in the 18th century to the present day globalised context. This historical overview focuses on three main points. First, how the political struggle for an equitable education provision during the first half of the 20th century gradually resulted in rural schooling approaching the urban version as to school size and content. Second, how popular mobilisation against extensive school centralisation, new research on the functioning of small schools, and new perspectives on learning, knowledge and sociology of education during the 1960s and 1970s paved the way for rural schools to actually be able to serve rural pupils and rural communities. Third, how since the 1980s, various aspects of globalisation have impacted on rural education provision in ways which makes it less responsive to the specific conditions of rural communities.