Negotiating Degrowth: Convivialist Learning and Student Meaning-Making in Norwegian Upper Secondary Education

Project summary

The project addresses central questions for education in a time marked by ecological crisis: How do young people experience and negotiate ways of living together within school systems that simultaneously promote cooperation, democratic participation, and competition‑oriented achievement? Anchored in the theme "Negotiating Degrowth: Convivialist Learning and Student Meaning‑Making in Norwegian Upper Secondary Education", the study investigates how upper secondary students understand the tensions between convivial, relational forms of learning and growth‑oriented expectations related to performance, employability, and individual success. The study advances conviviality as an analytical lens for understanding educational experiences in a time of ecological crisis. By placing students’ voices at the centre, it offers interpretive insight into how schooling might cultivate solidaristic and relational orientations necessary for living together in a sustainable future. We hope that the study can contribute to shifting attention from policy implementation to the lived meaning of learning, belonging, and shared existence within the planet’s ecological limits. The project draws on the Nordic school tradition, which has historically been shaped by Bildung‑oriented ideals of holistic formation and democratic community (Tröhler, 2021; Tahirsylaj & Werler, 2021). At the same time, it is increasingly influenced by neoliberal governance frameworks emphasising measurable outcomes, accountability, and economic competitiveness (Slagstad, 2018; Hansson & Sjøberg, 2020). In parallel, ecological crises and critiques of growth‑based societies challenge education to reconsider its underlying assumptions about progress and success (Kallis et al., 2018; Schmelzer et al., 2022). Empirically, the study builds on a qualitative methodology using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2021; Larkin, Watts & Clifton, 2006), based on semi‑structured interviews with upper secondary students. This approach emphasises lived experience and meaning‑making, enabling close analysis of how students describe collaborative learning, mutual support, achievement pressure, and future‑related anxiety. Rather than evaluating the implementation of Education for Sustainable Development—often criticised for limited transformative impact and for leaving growth logics unchallenged (Huckle & Wals, 2015; Curnier, 2017)—the study examines how students themselves embody and negotiate contradictory educational expectations in their everyday school lives.