Historically, right-wing nationalistic and anti-democratic movements have gained relatively little support in the Nordic region. Instead, a consensus-oriented “democratic nationalism” was nurtured by almost all social and political forces in the 1930: s (Kayser Nielsen, 2009). During postwar period this development was for long supplemented with internationalism, as seen in a strong support of the UN- system. The political concord was also strengthened by the emergence of a broad welfare system. After the end of cold war an increasing globalising process – including many immigrants – gave place for an idea of a multicultural, universalist society (Hylland Eriksen, 2014). Despite this very broadly sketched picture, there was a slow but distinct rise of neo-nationalistic political parties from the 1960: s and onwards. In the first two decades of the 21st century these parties eventually broke the cordon sanitaire and got real political influence (Bergmann, 2020). All this has an increasing impact on schools in the Nordic countries where the curricula still contain several goals that mirrors the long history of democratic nationalism, internationalism and universalism. That is specifically the case for the syllabuses in social studies and history. This development is likely to be an arena for political struggle in the years to come. It also includes challenges from students with right-wing, racist attitudes that teachers in an everyday setting must handle in their classrooms (Mattson et al, 2024). In my part of the symposium, I will discuss this problem with some examples from previous research (Olofsson, 2024). I will also briefly present NDFN (Nasjonalisme, Demokrati og Fellesskap i Norden [Nationalism, Democracy and Coherence in Nordic region]). This is a newly started subject didactic research network that aims to address these questions in comparative studies of teacher education, official documents, teaching materials and public debates in (hopefully) all Nordic countries.

References: Bergmann, E. (2020). Neo-Nationalism: The rise of nativist populism. Springer International Publishing. Eriksen, T.H. (2014). Globalization: the key concepts. (Second edition). New York: Bloomsbury Academic. Kayser Nielsen, N. (2009). Bonde, stat og hjem: nordisk demokrati og nationalisme - fra pietismen til 2. verdenskrig. [Peasant, state and home: Nordic democracy and nationalism - from Pietism to World War II] Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag. Mattsson, C., Andreasson, J. & Johansson, T. (2024). En resa till hjärtlandet: landsbygd, vardagsrasism och skolans demokratiska uppdrag. [A journey to the heartland: rural areas, everyday racism and the democratic mission of schools] Göteborg: Makadam. Olofsson, H. (2024). Nationalism som ”dålig klang” eller ”att gilla sitt land”? Om ett politiskt laddat grundbegrepp i högstadiets historieundervisning. [Nationalism as ‘a bad sounding’ or ‘liking your country’? On a politically charged basic concept in secondary school history teaching] In Kvande, L. & Olofsson, H. (eds.) Begreper om og i samfunnet: Teori, empiri og analyse av begrepsforståelse og - læring i samfunnsfag. [Concepts about and in society: Theory, empiricism and analysis of conceptual understanding and learning in social studies] Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. https://www.universitetsforlaget.no/begreper-om-og-i- samfunnet