Workshops for Art and Crafts in primary and lower secondary school

– analysis of guidelines 1889–1992

Abstract

Today in Norway, the individual municipality decides how special rooms are to be designed on the basis of the current curriculum for primary and lower secondary school and within the framework of the Education Act, the Planning and Building Act and building regulations. Before 1983, however, there were national guidelines for the design of special rooms for art and crafts in Norwegian primary and lower secondary schools. I have used critical discourse analysis and analysed such guidelines from 1889 to 1992. The guidelines in this period change from orders for workshops for learning specific crafts (1889–1960) to orders that ideologically support space for free expression of shaping activities and self-development (1960 –1992). The analysed texts before 1960 do not contain research-based justifications for how workshops should be, the orders rather seem to lean on tradition and experience. After 1960, the orders are based primarily on theory; new ideas and thoughts on the subject Forming. This shift also has economic motives.