ABSTRACT
Using the case of the new core curriculum in Norway, this chapter explores the way in which values and their articulation is increasingly accentuated in the attempt to demarcate the unity of the educational mission. In today’s school, this is often done in response to global initiatives such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, but it is also responsive to a sense of fragmentation in the meaning of modern schooling. The goal is to reclaim the theoretical and practical unity of educational practice through a re-articulation of the basic common values that bind us to each other. Chief among these is the value of democracy. But the chapter goes on to argue that Norway’s attempt to ground practice in common values is often confused because it draws on eclectic resources that are not properly integrated in policy documents. As a result, the policy initiative that emphasises the centrality of values risks reproducing the very social fragmentation it seeks to overcome.
