Are we constructing Lutherans, people with values or US citizens?

The moral regime of norm critical pedagogics – new ways of governing the Swedish pre-school child

“…The prolific talk about the value foundation has made possible a host of different strategies and programs for the development of desirable attitudes and behaviors of individuals and groups. Value talk is increasingly articulated in an active way, as value foundation work (värdegrundsarbete), and makes up the content of manuals, dialogue days, group exercises and action plans within many institutions, organizations and workplaces (Qvarsebo & Axelsson, 2015). The value work revolves around methods for working with emotional intelligence, social and emotional training, deliberative dialogue training, anti-bullying strategies and methods for working against discrimination.…”

“…Until quite recently, the value work in school and pre-school was associated with manuals and programs of what is called life knowledge (livskunskap). Several of these programs have been studied from critical perspectives in recent years (see, for example, Bartholdsson, Gustafsson-Lundberg, & Hultin, 2014;Dahlstedt, Fejes, & Schönning, 2011;Qvarsebo & Axelsson, 2015;von Brömssen, 2013). But from around 2010 and onwards life knowledge has been overlapped and even superseded by what is called norm criticism (normkritik), norm critical pedagogics (normkritisk pedagogik) or norm creative pedagogics (normkreativ pedagogik).…”