<p>The concept of democracy is of importance to the Swedish educational system. The best proof of that is the central position democracy has had in the education program we attended at the Örebro university. This study analyses the concept of democracy and its leading foundation, namely the so-called “deliberative dialog”. The last is belived to be an ideal of democracy which schools in Sweden should follow. This is at least how prominent academics and advocates of “deliberative dialog” Tomas Englund and Jurgen Habermas, see this phenomenon and its role in our schools.</p><p>Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist and social theorist has though shown that there is danger in believing that dialog is the only foundation of democracy. Accordig to him in every dialog exists a certan power struggle. What Bourdieu really means is that in a dialog actors are not equal, but there is great risk that some actors get dominated by other actors. These different views of dialog and its role in the school world has inspired us. In our study we wanted to see whether there are students or groups of students, that based on gender or ethnicity are dominated by other students in the everyday classroom dialog.</p><p>The empirical part of the study shows that those who were not activly engaged in the observed classroom dialog were boys of Swedish origin. The study also shows that those who seemed to have no problem with an active participation in the classroom dialog were girls, and very often girls of Swedish origin.The results of this study are though not completely unambiguous. As the group of students we observed were of differnt gender and came from different ethnic backgrounds we choose to see them as individuals. That means that they as individuals have differnt abilities when it comes to adapt to the climate of the classroom.</p>

The concept of democracy is of importance to the Swedish educational system. The best proof of that is the central position democracy has had in the education program we attended at the Örebro university. This study analyses the concept of democracy and its leading foundation, namely the so-called “deliberative dialog”. The last is belived to be an ideal of democracy which schools in Sweden should follow. This is at least how prominent academics and advocates of “deliberative dialog” Tomas Englund and Jurgen Habermas, see this phenomenon and its role in our schools. Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist and social theorist has though shown that there is danger in believing that dialog is the only foundation of democracy. Accordig to him in every dialog exists a certan power struggle. What Bourdieu really means is that in a dialog actors are not equal, but there is great risk that some actors get dominated by other actors. These different views of dialog and its role in the school world has inspired us. In our study we wanted to see whether there are students or groups of students, that based on gender or ethnicity are dominated by other students in the everyday classroom dialog. The empirical part of the study shows that those who were not activly engaged in the observed classroom dialog were boys of Swedish origin. The study also shows that those who seemed to have no problem with an active participation in the classroom dialog were girls, and very often girls of Swedish origin.The results of this study are though not completely unambiguous. As the group of students we observed were of differnt gender and came from different ethnic backgrounds we choose to see them as individuals. That means that they as individuals have differnt abilities when it comes to adapt to the climate of the classroom.

Syftet är att ta reda på hur samhällskunskapslärare kan hantera kontroversiella frågor i undervisningen. Detta genom att undersöka vilka perspektiv som förekommer inom forskningen. Uppsatsen ämnar vara en kunskapsöversikt över relevant pedagogisk forskning. I resultatet framgår det att deliberativa perspektivet och agonism är de mest framträdandeperspektiven när det kommer till hur lärare bör förhålla sig kring kontroversiella frågor. Uppsatsen landar i slutsatsen att båda perspektiven ger svar på arbetets frågeställning men att perspektiven lämpar sig olika väl beroende på om läraren vill att eleverna ska skapa en kollektivviljebildning eller om de ska öva på att tycka olika.

Syftet med denna kunskapsöversikt är att undersöka om och i så fall hur tanken om medborgerlig bildning influerar historieundervisningen i skolan och eventuella utvecklingsmöjligheter. Det görs utifrån en frågeställning “Vad säger forskningen om hur medborgerlig bildning kan påverka undervisningen i historieämnet?”. Metoden har främst utgjorts av sökprocesser i olika databaser där relevanta sökord har använts. Dessa sökord har behandlat medborgerlig bildning och historieämnet i skolan. Forskningen visar att skolan är en av de främsta institutionerna när det kommer till medborgerlig bildning och förväntas utveckla både kunskaper och värderingar hos eleverna. Dessa två egenskaper är de som oftast lyfts fram som centrala för medborgarfostran i forskningen. Dessutom utgör de även två motpoler som lärare måste förhålla sig till och i detta uppstår viss problematik. Det visar sig att många lärare har svårt att finna ett samspel mellan värdegrunden och kunskapskraven och medvetet eller omedvetet lägger tyngd vid den ena eller andra. En möjlig lösning är det deliberativa samtalet som syftar till att möjliggöra en öppen, normkritisk dialog där alla får komma till tals.