Power, participation and resistance

This autumn, specialized teacher leader roles ("expert teachers") will be introduced in Norway. An interesting finding from my research is that municipal policy emphazise teaching experience and personal qualities over specialization when describing who should become a teacher leader. Is specialization a top-down policy tool to promote change in a desired direction? Will specialized teacher leader roles empower all teachers, or create a divide between teachers as routine workers and an “elite”?

Are so-called democratic innovations necessarily democratic? This talk explores what happens when municipalities themselves attempt to reform democracy by organizing citizen participation. Can the resulting formal participatory arenas foster genuine political interaction and more responsive politics, or do they risk displacing existing channels for collective political action and entrenching the power of political and administrative elites?

In the INDHOME project, we explore how Saami and Inuit homemaking as everyday life practice serve as decolonization of everyday life and survivance after the effects of assimilation, colonization, and post-war welfare policies. Creating a home is a fundamental basis for our social life, yet often curiously overlooked in research. A home provides shelter, comfort and a sense of belonging. There, we can be "ourselves" and spend time with friends and family.