Counter-culture embodied. The primary school teacher as chieftain in rural districts

The project is based on the view that a part of the explanation of the good pupil achievements in Sogn og Fjordane is to be found in the local communities enclosing locals schools and in long term historical factors. Sogn og Fjordane stand out as a different county in Norway on more fields than pupil achievements in primary school. Compared to national average Sogn og Fjordane over many years has had high life span, good health, low divorce rate, low unemployment rate, low crime rate, few people using drugs etc. In politics the center parties and the Labour Party have been the most popular while the wing parties and the Conservative Party have been less popular in elections. Regarding to settlement pattern Sogn og Fjordane is the most sparsely populated county in Norway, and rurality and the lack of strong towns is a hallmark on the county. This can also be seen on the strong position of agriculture compared to other counties, and on the low population growth. Social scientist and historians have paid attention to these differences for many years. As early as the 1950s and 60s Gabriel Øidne and Stein Rokkan pointed out how Norway can be divided into different cultural regions. In Western Norway the territorial-cultural cleavages in society still dominated while the economic-functional cleavages had been more important in other parts of the country (especially in Eastern Norway). Macro perspectives like this show some long term correlation and continuity and can be useful as a starting point to understand variation in pupil achievements today, but explain inherently nothing. My project will be designed as a comparative study between other Norwegian counties, and through a visit to the Manchester Centre for Regional History, Manchester Metropolitan University, the study will be brought into internatioal comparision.