Abstract
Highlights:–Modern society is reflected in exam questions at Swedish teacher training colleges from 1914 to 1937. Despite not being part of the curricula, civics appearin final exams at four Swedish teacher edu-cation institutions. Some topics evolved, from hygiene-related questions in the 1920s to racial biology in the 1930s. 182 out of 924 exam questions can be classified as civics-related in Sweden today.
Purpose: This article’s purpose is to examine the manifestations of the evolving modern society and what we now identify as civicsor other contemporary social issues in the final examination questions from 1914 to 1937 at four teacher education institutions in Uppsala, Falun, Lund, and Landskrona.
Design/methodology/approach: The method canbe described as a qualitative text analysis, pri-marily of examination questions. This analysis aims to gain insights into the examination questions' meaning andunderstand which concepts of knowledge, subject ideals, and contemporary inspira-tion emerge in the material.
Findings: The results are that 182 exam questions from a pool of 924 questions could be interpreted as civics in Swedentoday. Most are questions about economics. Another finding is that citizenship educationquestions increaseand evolve over time. Until 1921, there were nurture-related ques-tions regarding physical education, technology, and organisation. In the 1920s, the focus of exam questions corresponding tocivicsshifted to themes of thriftiness, sobriety, and hygiene. In the 1930s, while thriftiness and hygiene continued, several questions related to racial biology also emerged during that decade.
Practical implications: Our results indicate that topics that we consider to belongto civicstoday existed long before the subject of civicswas outlined in the curriculum plans.
2025. Vol. 24, no 1, p. 1-23