In Norway the Education Act of 1998, §1-2 states that the Norwegian school system shall offer an adapted education for all students in accordance to the students abilities and qualifications. The same act § 8-2 declares that it is illegal to permanently organize students in different groups based upon academic levels, gender or ethnicity. The Department of Education ascertains that equal, inclusive and adapted education are the overriding principles for the Norwegian school (www.regjeringen.no). That means that education must be accessible to everyone, and that every student should be given optimal opportunities for learning, mastering and personal development. What are optimal opportunities for students learning, mastering and personal development in our schools? How can schools meet the needs of every individual learner? An alleged claim is that education has failed, because too many students are falling behind. Evaluation of the Norwegian school reform –97 (Haug 2003) and Pisa 2000 (Lie et al, 2001) conclude that students with a lower socio-economic background are falling behind in our school system. Politicians and educators are arguing on how to solve these questions. The debate on learning and teaching, or the movement form teaching to learning is also part of this discussion. Through a depth study and an analysis of the interaction student - teacher- curriculum this present study seeks to contribute to an extended understanding of how inclusive and exclusive practices are related to what concepts of knowledge and knowledge transformations that are at work in a a lower-secondary classroom in a Norwegian school. The study draws on sociocultural perspectives on development and learning. Humans act within the framework of cultural and practical practices (Wertsch 1998), or stated in another way, human thinking and acting is situated within social contexts (Säljö 2001). Prelimenary research questions were concerned with what processes of knowledge transformation we find in a lower-secondary classroom and how these processes of knowledge transformations are organized in time and space. What is the teacher’s role and what is the student’s role in these processes? How does the teacher understand and explain his or her role, and how do the students understand and explain their role? In which way do these understandings influence the educational settings in the classroom? The project has focused upon what kind of cultural conceptions about learning, teaching and knowledge that are communicated through structures and interactions in the classroom, how students are engaged in different processes of knowledge appropriation, what cultural tools are at hand and how these have been used. The triangular representation of mediation (Cole, 1996) has been developed and used as an analytical tool to describe processes of knowledge transformations in the classroom.

A case study of one class of 8th graders (13-14 yrs) in a lower-secondary Norwegian school Etnographic approach Observations of interactions in the classroom (natural observation and video recording) Interviews with teachers • based on observations of interactions in the classroom • Teachers’ justification for classroom practices Interviews with students • based on observations of interactions in the classroom • students experiences of classroom practices

What has the study revealed so far? Interactions in the classroom are "caught in the middle" of different organisational models, which can also be described as different educational settings. Observations and interviews reveal that there is a conflict between how teacher and students understand or perceive the different educational settings in the classroom. There is also a struggle between teacher and students about the “time and space” given to teacher dominant activities and student dominant activities. The different settings demand different qualities and abilities from students and teachers, qualities and abilities which are at times difficult to match for both students and teachers. An important question to discuss is what kind of support students are given in all of the different educational settings in the classroom. Also related to this question and of great importance is the teachers' s role and work in the classroom. This question will be discussed in relation to classroom observations, teacher and students interviews and theoretical perspectives, and will be further developed in the paper.