KARNEVAL I KLASSRUM –KUNSKAP Pà HJUL

Young teenagers comprise my research group. They exist in a tumultuous phase
of life with one foot in childhood and the other in the adult world. Teenagers’
heads are occupied with many thoughts and emotions. They are intensively
engaged in fitting in yet simultaneously have a need to clearly articulate their
independence. An individual’s youth and identity are connected, addressed in
the dissertation’s introduction through reference to Anthony Giddens, Knud
Illeris, and Thomas Ziehe. I make a connection to, among others, Märta Sandvik
(2009) who, emanating from Heinz Kohut’s theories on the self, has developed a
model that describes the three-dimensional self: the grandiose self, the idealized
self, and the twin-seeking self.
The classroom is a place for meetings where teaching is focused on. The goal is
the procurement of knowledge. Aristotle’s manner of dividing knowledge into
epistêmê, technê, and phronêsis creates the starting point for the description of
the pupils’ learning during work with clown figures. Art can be accommodated
in practical knowledge (technê) but also in that which provides something more,
experience and in depth knowledge (phronêsis). Jørgensen (2008: 22) writes that
the task of school should consist of offering both scientific knowledge and
personal development and that these two units inspire one another by developing
pupils’ ability to think. Philosophical thinking is simply the schooling of human
beings’ “thinking about one’s own thinking”. Holistic thinking is needed in
order to create context.
Gardner (2009) points to five manners of thinking that he maintains are
important for the future. These are: the disciplined mind, the synthesizing mind,
the creative mind, the respectful mind, and the ethical mind. This is a holistic
view with both breadth and depth while also accommodating room for change.
The relationship between the two cultures, The clown and the carnival and The
clown in the classroom, as I have chosen to describe them, are illustrated in
Figure 1.
Drama pedagogy theory
The clown and the
carnival
The clown in the
classroom
Performance theory
Figure 14. Clown work in two cultures
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