ABSTRACT
The chapter explores how horizontal and vertical conceptions of knowledge relate to a Nordic ideal of togetherness and shows how a discourse on the state of being together in school has emerged. We critically investigate the fragility of this idea today. The assumption is that a shared “Nordic ideal of knowledge” is derived from a “room of togetherness.” The ideal can be traced back to Nordic conceptions of general education, folk education, and folk enlightenment that stand in the center of a particular discourse on schooling. In Norway, the historical fact of the shared classroom (related to the Education Act of 1936) and the actual room of togetherness have historical realizations of a comprehensive school form. We argue that a complex interconnectedness of different, and often implicit, concepts of knowledge points to egalitarianism and a practical utility orientation in contrast to the development of a knowledge regime based on liberal rights and opportunities that has been part of the picture in the Nordic countries. The understanding of knowledge—and different views on what counts as knowledge—affect, limit, and set the framework for the pedagogical room, ways of being together, and different expressions of ideals of togetherness.
