Educating to democracy and critical thinking. The Norwegian kindergarten model

Abstract

In order to educate children to become an active part of the society, it is necessary to help them to understand the importance of values and attitudes funding the democratic society. These include the sense of community, the importance of everyone, the need of thinking critically in every situation, the ability of choosing, the relevance of expressing ideas and opinions. This education must have its roots in early childhood, through a process that includes not only the presentation and explanation of these values, but also their experimentation through daily practice. In Norwegian kindergartens all the activities are inspired by these values that are proposed by the Norway’s regulations as funding the educational approach of the early age education institution. In this perspective, among the pedagogical methods, many Norwegian kindergartens draw inspiration from the Reggio Emilia method, but adapted to the Nordic context, in order to address the goal of educating children to participate actively to the democratic society since early age. The model emerging form this effort represents an innovative example of how children can be educated to being responsible members of the society since such an early age.