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Controversial issues are often regarded as abundant in history education. Most topicscan be regarded as controversial in one way or another. The purpose of this article is toanalyse the way history teachers in Swedish lower secondary schools relate controversialissues to a particular view of the nature of the subject of history. By analysing statementsfrom six teacher interviews which centred on the risks and opportunities associated withteaching about controversial issues, the authors were able to see a clear relation betweenviews on controversial issues and views on the nature of history as such. The teachers’reactions to the introduction of controversial issues, whether introduced by the teacheror by the students, was in many cases directly related to a specific view of the subject itselfand its epistemological nature. 

Svenska Historikermötet i Umeå 14–16 juni 2023

Titel: Högskolan Dalarna och folkskoleseminariets historia – Perspektiv på lärarutbildningen i Falun, ca 1875–1970

Den som har inflytande över utformandet av en lärarutbildning och blivande lärares kunskapssyn, kan också komma att påverka framtida generationers sätt att se på samhället och världen (Hartman 2012, Bejerot & Hasselbladh 2020). Vid folkskoleseminariet i Falun bedrevs lärarutbildning från etablerandet 1875 fram till det att verksamheten succesivt övergick i lärarhögskolans regi 1968–70.  I en mening sammanfaller dessa nära på hundra år av lärarutbildning därmed också med framväxten av det moderna Sverige.

I antologiprojektet ’Högskolan Dalarna och folkskoleseminariets historia’ riktas fokus mot en rad tidigare outforskade aspekter av hur seminarietraditionen, i ett specifikt lokalsamhälle, etableras och förändras under olika tidsperioder. Enligt tidigare forskning hade den 1842 inrättade folkskolan uppgiften att legitimera ett traditionellt, religiöst och auktoritärt samhällssystem (Petterson 1993, Lundahl 2005). Längre fram i tiden, inte minst från sekelskiftet 1900 och framåt, kom folkskolan dock att alltmer betraktas som ett centralt redskap i det moderna samhällets utvecklande av medborgares agens, kvinnlig frigörelse och samhällsutveckling (Linne 1996). Under femton år med start 1864 etablerades i Sverige fem folkskoleseminarier för kvinnor. Först ut var Stockholm och Skara som 1864 ombildades från att utbilda män till att utbilda kvinnor. Därefter etablerades folkskollärarinneseminarier i både Falun och Kalmar år 1875 och fyra år senare följde ett femte i Umeå (Sörensen 1942). Seminarieetableringarna i Falun och övriga orter innebar en ökning i andelen kvinnliga lärare under slutet av 1800-talet och i förlängningen kom den patriarkala skolordningen att utmanas (Florin 1987).

Beslutet den 30 april 1875 att anlägga ett folkskoleseminarium i Falun, säger något om behovet av lärare på den svenska landsbygden, men också något om Faluns historiska bakgrund som lärdomsstad (Claesson 2015, Liljas 2019:2021, Ödman 1995). Möjligen finns också lokala och aktörsburna förklaringar till den utpräglat progressiva profil som med tiden kom att växa fram vid folkskoleseminariet i Falun (Linné 1996:2006). I projektets delstudier görs exempel på pregnanta avsteg från folkskolans normer av framträdande lärarutbildare som Valborg Olander och Anna Sörensen. Med utgångspunkt i ett mycket rikt arkivmaterial blir det också möjligt att följa hur de och andra lärarutbildare i valet av uppgifter och utformningen av textnära kommentarer söker påverka de blivande lärarinnorna i deras sätt att se på kunskap, undervisning och lärarskap. Utifrån än mer kritiskt orienterade perspektiv på verksamheten granskas också urvalsprinciperna för rekryteringen av nya lärarinnor och interkulturella aspekter av den faktiska verksamheten.

Genom dessa nedslag berörs därmed också hur professionaliseringen av läraryrket tar form i relation till ett bildningsanspråk - vilket ofta tycks gravitera mot medborgerliga och könsutjämnande principer. Under den föreslagna sessionen till historikermötet i Umeå presenteras fem av dessa bidrag:

Juvas Marianne Liljas presentation fokuserar på Valborg Olanders (1861-1943) reformerande insatser vid folkskoleseminariet i Falun och har titeln ’’’Det varma hjärtat”: Valborg Olanders pedagogiska arv i Faluseminariets historia’.

I presentationen ’Folkskolelärarinneseminarier i Sverige: en jämförelse mellan Falun och Umeå, 1875–1915’ intar Emil Marklund en komparativ ansats. Folkskollärarinneseminariet i Umeå grundades 1879, blott fyra år efter seminariet i Falun. 

Utifrån rubriken ’Kunskaps- och undervisningsideal i förändring: Pedagogiska examensuppsatser vid Falu folkskoleseminarium 1915–1937’ analyserar Anders Persson de skriftliga kommentarer som dåtidens lärarutbildare lämnar på de blivande lärarinnornas texter.

I ´En lärare blir till. Om ideal och normer för blivande lärare på folkskollärarseminariet i Falun år 1876–1909´presenterar Ulrika Norburg exempel på hur rekryteringsprocessen av blivande lärarinnor vid seminariet gick till.

Anders Blomqvist presentation ’Perspektiv på seminariet i krigs- och brytningstider 1940–1960:  genus, klass och etnicitet’ fokuserar på erfarenheter från Faluseminariet under tiden för Andra världskriget och efterföljande år.

Ordförande: Simon Lundberg, Umeå universitet.

Discussant: Anna Götlind, Stockholms universitet.

Tidigare studier av bedömning i historia och samhällskunskap i den svenska skolan har företrädelsevis handlat om vad lärare bedömer, eller vad elever presterar (Berg & Persson, 2020). I den här artikeln är syftet istället att undersöka hur olika förståelser av dessa båda skolämnens elev-emancipatoriska potential aktualiserar olika typer av ut­maningar och möjligheter i lärares bedömningsuppdrag. Datainsamlingen bygger på åtta timmeslånga intervjuer med lärare som undervisar på gymnasiet i ett mellansvenskt län.

Diskussionen om vad som skapar förutsättningar för en ny generation att förstå och kanske förändra sin egen och andras situation framstår ofta som polemisk. Medan vissa betonat betydelsen av vilken (redan etablerad) kunskap som förmedlas (jfr Young, 2013), har andra framhållit värdet av att låta undervisningen utgå från den enskilde elevens eller samhällsgruppens unikt situerade intressen, frågor och behov (jfr t.ex. De Lissovoy, 2010; Tur Porres et al., 2014).

I de åtta lärarsamtalen framträder denna avvägning mellan det på förhand givna och det situerade, emellertid i mindre grad som ett antingen/eller. I den lärarprofessionella bedömningspraktiken tycks avpassningen snarare ta dialektisk form i mötet mellan ämnesinnehåll och elev. Samme lärare kan både ge uttryck för anspråk som aktiverar utmaningar förknippade med förutsägbarhet, och rymma skildringar av en strävan att låta bedömningsprocessen bli så öppen som möjlig (jfr Biesta, 2009). Det sätt som eleven visar sig och träder fram i ämnet tycks sätta avtryck i, men är inte ensamt av­görande för, frågan om vad undervisningen ges för innehåll.

At a time when society is characterised by a polarised social climate, it is teachers who need to contribute to a nuanced orientation of the world. This article looks at the ways historical narratives can be used as a collective didactic resource in the historical-cultural context of contemporary society. Its purpose is to analyse the didactic function that underlies historical narratives in relation to students’ understanding of society. Our study builds on three focus group interviews with six upper-secondary-school teachers of history and social studies. The method used is the stimulated-recall interview whereby teachers talk about various teaching situations. Four uses of historical narratives were identified, each with its own didactic function. The first is the use of the “challenging” narrative, the function of which is to disrupt and realign students’ understanding of society. The second is the use of the “engaging” narrative: its function is to involve and activate students in their present understanding of society. The third is the use of the “unifying” narrative, the function of which is to bridge contradictions within society. The fourth and final narrative is the “complementing” narrative, whose function it is to broaden and open students’ understanding of society. To address students in terms of their present understanding of society, teachers employ these four narratives as didactic resources. In such a way, these uses of historical narratives tie in with the teachers’ overall aim to contribute an alternative perspective to students’ current understanding of society.As such, the results reveal the general theoretical knowledge teachers have relating to their profession.

The aim of this article is to increase our understanding of how history and social studies teachers in vocational preparation programmes (VET) in Sweden relate to the obligation of preparing students for their future lives as citizens. Previous research on VET programmes has primarily emphasised predetermined roles of education. Different critical perspectives have established how different VET practices contribute to reproducing specific values and a type of knowledge that leaves less room for students to act as independent subjects (Ledman, 2015; Nylund et al., 2020). In part, the findings of this article contribute to problematising such a description. In a series of interviews, teachers expressed what can best be described as a clear will to prepare students for a future as broadminded and tolerant citizens. The multi-perspective approach emphasised by these teachers not only illustrates the socialisation and qualification functions of education, it also gives prominence to the importance of student subjectification (cf Biesta, 2009; 2020). Furthermore, this article stresses that the teachers do not view the question of the purpose of their subjects in terms of either/or. Rather, it suggests they see their obligations as a matter of professional judgment and customised responses to unique didactic situations

Research on controversial issues in education is extensive. Generally, the teacher has been examined, or advised, based on preconceived ideas of how the teaching should preferably be designed. Although those recommendations have varied, they have usually been characterized by instruction and method. However, this article does not address such predetermined models of action. As an alternative, the starting point is based on the perspective of the teaching professional and on data generated from teacher interviews. The aim of the article is to examine how the overall function of education emerges when teachers speak of their own experiences of teaching about controversial issues in geography in secondary school. The findings illustrate how the teachers, based on a number of circumstances, make use of four different approaches: deflecting, enlightening, challenging, and correcting. Hence, from the perspective of the teaching profession, work on controversial issues seems less understandable in terms of a single approach. Instead, each situation seems to require its own situated and subject-related considerations and professional reflections.

En undersøgelse af fem svenske lærebøgers skildring af Sovjetunionens oprindelse, det russiske folk samt de sovjetiske lederes udenrigspolitiske motive

Finlands och Sveriges sammanflätade historia var temat för De Svenska Historiedagarna som hölls i Helsingfors 2019. Under minst 800 år har en ekonomisk och demografisk integration pågått mellan länderna på Bottenhavets östra och västra sidor. Under lång tid utgjorde Finland och Sverige också delar av samma rike. De senaste åren har vi fått bättre kunskap om en rad aspekter av den finländska och svenskfinska historien och några exempel ges i denna bok. Här behandlas ämnen som riksbildningstiden, den stora ofreden, byggandet av Sveaborg, besiktningskvinnor i Åbo och fånglägren i finska inbördeskrigets efterspel.Författarna är Sofia Gustafsson, Martin Hårdstedt, Ulrika Knutson, Christer Kuvaja, Sture Lindholm, David Ludvigsson, Anders Persson och Kirsi Vainio-Korhonen.

Många samhällskunskapslärare har nog funderat på hur man som lärare ska ta sig an och agera gentemot elever som ger uttryck för ett ensidigt politiskt perspektiv. Hur ska man få eleven att vidga sina perspektiv utan att för den skull styra och bestämma för eleven vad som ”rätt sak att tänka och säga”? Läraren måste samtidigt förhålla sig till skolans värdegrund och demokratiska uppdrag. Forskarna Mikael Berg och Anders Persson har undersökt hur samhällskunskapslärare skulle agera i ett fingerat scenario kring en sådan ”vinklad” elev och de upptänkte då att lärarna var ganska överens om att det handlar om att ge eleven fler perspektiv, men hur elever skulle få dessa perspektiv varierade.

During the last decade there has been an increasing interest in the Swedish research field concerning assessment in schools, especially with focus on the school subject’s history and social science. The aim of this article is therefore to explore what perspectives that have being used by researchers in the Swedish field of history and social science subject didactic, when investigating teacher’s assessment practice. The method used in the article is a text analysis of 13 Swedish thesis and articles that deal with teacher’s assessment practice within the Swedish field of history and social science subject didactics between 2009 and 2019. The result shows that there an overwhelming part of the studies deals with examine teacher’s assessment practice. Another dominant trend is to explain the variations in teacher’s assessment practice. Overall the result shows that there is a lack of studies which begin with teachers subject specific experiences and also a lack of studies with a policy critical approach. To try to capture the complexity in assessment we therefore argue in the light of the result that there is a need of both a theoretical and cumulative broadening of the Swedish research field concerning teacher’s assessment with focus on the school subject’s history and social science.

The notion of historical thinking has in recent years become popular in research on history education, particularly so in North America, the UK and Australia. The aim of this paper is to discuss the cognitive competencies related to historical thinking, as expressed by some influential Canadian researchers, as an history educational notion from two aspects: what is historical thinking and what does it mean in an educational context, and what are the consequences of historical thinking for history education? Our discussion will focus on possible implications of this approach to history education regarding what should be taught in history classrooms and why. By focusing on the notion of historicity, we want to argue that while a focus on a more disciplinary approach to history education is welcome, we think that more attention should be given to what could qualify as a disciplinary approach. We further argue historical thinking and the history educational challenge should be understood as wider and more complex than what history education informed by historical thinking entails.

Coloniser or Tourist?: Questions and Exercises in Swedish History Textbooks, 1927–2015. The history of History as a Swedish school subject has usually been based on two sources: curriculum plans and textbook narratives. Drawing upon more than 900 exercises that occur in 72 history text-books published 1927–2015, this article primarily examines which different approaches to history that have been prearranged to the pupils during the second half of the last century. It is shown that a great majority of the exercises, throughout the whole period of time, prescribes a simple reproduction of unchallenged truths. It is also argued that both disciplinarian assignments and aesthetic tasks, seem to appear at least as often before, as after, the 1970s. Subsequently, especially in the 1990s, the exercises occasionally ask for the individual student’s own opinions - without demanding them to consider any historical circumstances. Accordingly it is argued that while the former category of exercises most often enjoin the distanced view of the uninvolved tourist, the latter rather instructs the pupil to embrace the coloniser’s self-centred perspective of the past.

This article presents a study of how history education can be understood as a practice directed towards existentialisation. Through classroom observation, teacher interviews and focus group interviews with students in grade 9 in Swedish lower secondary school, a complex teaching practice is uncovered where history teachers have to deal with matters pertaining to disseminating a meaningful narrative of the past, a critical approach to these narratives and an awareness of historicity and its implications for how we approach and understand the past. These results are then discussed from the perspectives of how history education can promote existentialisation among students, and what challenges and opportunities this may present to history teachers.

Swedish compulsory school has recently been subjected to a number of political reforms. Between 2011 and 2014, for example, earlier grades, more national tests and a new curriculum plan (Lgr 11) were to be implemented. This thesis aims to examine those changes as they were experienced by teachers who teach history in Swedish upper primary schools. The theoretical framework is in-spired by existential philosophy, primarily as formulated in the works of Martin Heidegger and Hanna Arendt. In this way, the study highlights the teachers’ lived experience by making use of the concepts yearning, appearance, acting and mood.

The study comprises of 36 interviews with 26 informants. The interviews were carried out and transcribed during 2014. The questions focus on both the existential being of the teachers’ lives as well as the ideological function of the history subject. This highly renders in the issue of how lived experiences of a specific school reform corresponded to the teachers’ own perception of a mean-ingful history education. Both the yearnings that were expressed by the participants and their de-scriptions of what they have experienced, have been related to the overall educational ideological functions stated by Gert Biesta (socialisation, subjectification and qualification) and Jonas Aspelin (existentialisation).

Although the teachers’ narratives were greatly varied in some aspects, their interpretations of the new assignment seemed to be quite homogenous. Most of the teachers portrayed a situation characterised by performativity. Measurable knowledge and more frequent documentation seemed to be prioritised. Some of them stressed that they experienced less autonomy. In terms of history, the new curriculum was associated with more content knowledge, cognitive skills and procedural abilities. From the teachers’ perspective, pure qualification, rather than subjectification and social-isation, characterised the new curriculum.

Still, the teachers’ feelings towards the curricular changes showed a great deal of divergence. Some of them embraced most of the new aspects. They claimed that clearly formulated require-ments in the history curricula provided them with security. They declared that their history teaching to some extent became more professional. In line with such beliefs, some teachers asserted that the strengthened focus on analytical skills improved their teaching. Particularly those who ex-pressed that they preferred such analytic procedural approaches described their experience in terms of confirmation and approval. Others appeared to struggle with the changes. While a few teachers even tried to resist the curricular changes, some found themselves forced to endure what appeared to be a totally new situation. They expressed disbelief, frustration and pain. Notably it was those most devoted to the existentialisational function of history teaching that usually seemed to express such alienation. As argued, they appeared to long for a lost possibility to engage their pupils, to bring history alive and to make meaning of the past.