The Norwegian school system aims to include all students, but what exactly are students being included in? What is knowledge, and do we all learn in the same way? What if the ideal of treating everyone equally creates inequality? The article is based on fieldwork among lower secondary school students making scooters at an upper secondary school. The scooter production was part of a local initiative - the "Åssiden model" - established in Drammen to assist young people in the transition from lower secondary school to vocational education programs. The article analyses teaching practices through the lens of the anthropology of knowledge, and the significant recognition that concepts precede language. This affects how anthropologists explore expressions of knowledge. While the study of diversity and complexity has become central, the focus paradoxically reinforces an underlying assumption that, despite differences, we all acquire knowledge in the same way. The article builds on the premise that all knowledge is social practice, but questions how this perspective can explain breaks and differences between types of knowledge. To account for this, the article presents a transactional analysis based on Barth's contributions to the anthropology of knowledge, where knowledge transfer is understood as transactions between experts and novices. The analysis shows that, unlike conventional classroom teaching, the Åssiden model highlights a critical point: when students do not acquire the same knowledge, the framework within which they learn also differ. The Norwegian school system inadvertently produces inequality because it fails to recognise and accommodate these fundamental differences. © 2025 Scandinavian University Press. All rights reserved.
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