Learning about chocolate and modes of production. Unravelling the intertwining of private companies and public schooling in Denmark from the mid-twentieth century into the twenty-first century

This article presents a tentative exploration of the often-overlooked presence, dynamics and implications of private companies in twentieth- and twenty-first-century Danish public schooling. Actor-network theory (Callon 1986) is used to unravel the shifting actors and networks involved and transformed in the teaching materials and activities (an educational film, a wallchart, a textbook, factory visits and workshops) offered by a prominent confectionery company. The analysis highlights the importance of easily overlooked but nevertheless highly significant human and non-human actors (a famous film director, heaps of chocolate, an NGO, learning goals and lines of colonisation) in understanding the formations and implications of the company’s engagement in public schooling. Examining how the confectionery company becomes part of and expands existing but shifting time-specific school-related networks, the analysis moves beyond a binary private–public divide, and shows how, over time, the privately owned company becomes an established and legitimised actor in the field of public schooling. It is further addressed how not only the confectionery company, but also curricula, the school, and the pupils are potentially transformed in these processes.