Competence Goals towards Responsible Creativity. A Norwegian Curriculum Review Based on Four Narratives

Abstract

With the establishment of the new Norwegian curriculum for primary and lower secondary education, the definition of competence has changed considerably. This definition is key to both the development and interpretation of competence goals. The expectations of general education has increased with the inclusion of ‘the ability to reflect and think critically’ to the definition of competence, along with the need to reinvent our modes of living to care for the environment and address future global challenges. How does the new competence goals in the subject Art and Crafts cope with this conceptual change? In this paper, ‘the ability to reflect and think critically’ is manifested in four narratives: (a) ‘awareness through making’, (b) ‘empower for change and citizen participation’, (c) ‘address complexity of real-world problems’ and (d) ‘participate in design processes’. These narratives provide a lens through which one can identify and discuss the potential of critical reflection in the new competence goals in the Art and Crafts subject. Narratives (a) and (d) are clearly integrated in the goals, and they promote the practice of reflective processes as part of pupils’ making in the Art and Crafts studio; by contrast, the two other narratives, which could expand the process of skilled making to a more radical recreation of the world and all the unsustainable systems embedded in the process of making, are scarcely represented.