Bøker av Merethe Roos

This book thematizes the tension between education, politics, and religion in Norway after the Second World War, with an emphasis on the years between 1945 and 1970, and throws a new light on Norwegian school and education in the post-war period. The Norwegian educational landscape in the years after the Second World War must be seen against the development of the welfare state, and it appears as a part of the social democracy project typical for Norway at that time. The Labour Party, which held a prominent position in the educational landscape in the post-war decades, is normally regarded to have been an important driving force behind secularization of schools in Norway, not least because the total number of weekly lessons in religious education gradually was reduced. This book problematizes this thesis and enlightens how important politicians and policymakers within the Labour Party defended religious education. A central point is that this defense must be seen within the frames of a liberally oriented protestant theology. Thus, the study highlights the diversity of ideas in Norwegian politics in the post-war period and demonstrates how important impulses in Norwegian politics can be viewed against a wider international background.

Spørsmålet om hva vi skal med humaniora er et stadig tilbakevendende tema i offentligheten. Denne boken drøfter de humanistiske fagenes relevans ved å se nærmere på den norske skolens utvikling i siste halvdel av det 19. århundre.Boken retter søkelys på en rekke forhold som kan interessere et bredt spekter av lesere. Skolens historie kobles her sammen med diskusjoner av de humanistiske fagenes relevans. Samtidig viser boken hvordan tekster fremstår som speilbilder av historien, og hvordan tekster uttrykker mening som går utover det forfatteren selv har kontroll over. Tekstene blir det som driver skolens historie fremover, mot den skolen vi kjenner i vår egen tid.

This book examines Norwegian education throughout the course of the 19th century, and discusses its development in light of broader transnational impulses.