The ideals of Nordic Bildung can be described as emerging in and from the cultures and societal structures of the Nordic countries. In line with this, it can be argued that the ideals partly stem from specific places. Of particular significance for our becoming as human beings are the places where we grow up (Heller, 2019). In contemporary reformulations of Nordic Bildung ideals, both theories and place-based experiences of the past play a part. In this contribution I combine theories of Nordic Bildung with theories of place (Massey, 2005; McInerney, 2011). I explore the possibilities and dangers of using place and the nostalgia for places of belonging as a resource for pedagogical theorizing in a Nordic setting (Keskinen et al., 2019). In the Norwegian educational system, the school has been a common place of construing togetherness (Bostad & Solberg, 2022). Furthermore, the educational system is centralized, and state controlled. This means that, at the outset, the possibilities ought to be good for governing school practices in the direction of inclusion, which has become a core value in the curricula of all Nordic countries. Even if the classroom has been a place for formation of cultural and social solidarity, it has also been a place for formation of cultural and social outsiderness and marginalisation. I draw on examples from experiences of schooling in the geographical area of “Nordkalotten”, The Cap of the North, the regions in Norway, Sweden, and Finland located north of the arctic circle, when I discuss internal tensions and possible exclusionary potentials of Nordic Bildung theories and pedagogies of place (Zilliacus et al., 2017; Stenseth, 2023). Bildung theory in a Norwegian setting has historically rested on the processes of nation building, encouraging togetherness through monoculturalism and essentialisation, the state being classified as “colonial-blind”. What are the prospects for experiences of the culturally diverse classrooms of the arctic regions to play a constructive part in pedagogical theorising on Bildung? (How) can such theorising encourage cultural and social togetherness, and avoid fostering outsiderness and marginalisation?

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