ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 is based on classroom observations and teacher interviews at a secondary school. One purpose of the study was to address the question, “How do teachers teach to remove undemocratic attitudes and prevent the formation of undemocratic attitudes?” An answer to that question, as we can see from the findings, is that the teachers made use of both direct and indirect pedagogy. It turned out that the teachers mainly used direct pedagogy in situations when it was important to achieve knowledge of terms and concepts. Indirect pedagogy was mainly used when the teacher challenged and tested the students on a subjective-existential and moral level, and, inter alia, to remove, and prevent the formation of, undemocratic attitudes. Direct pedagogy, so the findings show, is first and foremost connected to epistemology and is relatively teacher-driven. The teacher appears as a third person, one that the students must trust at the cost of self-trust. Indirect pedagogy, on the other hand, was first and foremost connected to existence and morality. The students’ choices, responses and opinions, which may be completely unknown to the teacher in advance, are strongly emphasised. Thus, indirect pedagogy relates to a first-person perspective, where trust in oneself—self-trust—is a prominent feature.
