Paper short abstract:

The paper explores the author's experiences teaching anthropology in Norway and developing a course for 11-15-year-old students. It addresses the challenges of incorporating theory into pre-university education and shares the author's insights and findings both as a teacher and a researcher.

Paper long abstract:

How (if at all) does theoretical maturity commence? While enrolled at the University of Oslo, known for its contribution to popularising anthropology (T.H. Eriksen), the author was a substantive teacher in Social Anthropology in a high school. One of the questions posed in the International Baccalaureate School syllabus, referencing F. Bourgeois' "In Search of Respect," was whether gang rape could be viewed as a rite of passage. Not initially intended for reflexive discussion and given as one among the list, this question attached a 'neutral' analytical concept to the problem every student could have encountered. What does this attachment do? What is our responsibility as researchers and educators to connect theories from textbooks and papers to 'real-life' problems? What are the relations between them beyond dichotomous? Reflecting on these inquiries and engaging in discussions with colleagues and students, the author designed a theory-free Anthropology course specifically tailored for 11-15-year-old teenagers from families affected by war and political repressions. In this paper, the author elucidates the methodological findings derived from imparting anthropological insights to an age group where the teaching of anthropology is not commonly acknowledged.