Utifrån tidigare studier kring EU-undervisningen har det framkommit att den i liten gradär utformat för att främja ett politiskt deltagande. Det här examensarbetet har undersöktvilka didaktiska överväganden lärare använder i EU-kunskapsområdet pågymnasieskolan i kursen samhällskunskap 1b samt hur de upplever sina möjligheter tillatt utveckla elevers demokratiska kompetenser genom EU-undervisning. En kvalitativ metod användes för att besvara frågeställningen. Semi-struktureradeintervjuer utfördes med sex verksamma samhällskunskapslärare påhögskoleförberedande gymnasieskolor. Materialet analyserades utifrån Maria Jarlsdefinition av demokratiska kompetenser, undervisningsmetoder som främjardemokratiska kompetenser och tre politikdimensionerna; Polity, Policy och Politics.Resultatet visade att lärares undervisning samt undervisningstid för området skiljer sig åt.Undervisningsinnehållets fokus är främst på den politiska dimensionen Polity ochkunskapen om det politiska systemets funktion och organisation. Det återspeglas också isyftet av undervisningen och undervisningsmetoderna. Utifrån demokratiskakompetenser så tenderar undervisningen fokusera främst utvecklingen av politiskakunskaper och det politiska intresset. Lärarna upplever att de har goda chanser till attutveckla elevers demokratiska kompetens genom EU-undervisning. Deltagarna påpekaratt de har möjlighet till att lyfta fram relevanta samhällsfrågor, öka elevers kunskaper ochintresse inom ämnet. Å andra sidan identifierar lärarna utmaningar kring ämnet och lyfterfram; tidsbristen i kursen samhällskunskap 1b, elevers förkunskaper och intresse förämnet.

<h1>Abstract</h1><p>The purpose of this study is to analyze four upper secondary school teachers regarding their educational focus on the European Union (EU). Furthermore, it is assessed what effect the growth of EU has had on content taught in Social Science A. The result of this study is contrasted with prior studies having a similar focus. To achieve the purpose of this study, five research questions were created. Conducting interviews of a qualitative character were chosen as the method for collecting information to answer the research questions. The interviewees were teachers of different sex, different professional experience regarding years and area of teaching. The interview questions were of a narrative kind yielding approximately half an hour long interviews.</p><p> </p><p>The study shows that the most common areas taught are: the history of EU, the institutions (foremost; the Minister Council, the European Parliament, and the Commission), and how EU and Sweden relate to and affect each other. Although the content taught by the different teachers is equivalent, the teachers differ in what parts they choose to emphasize. Changes in the content taught resulting from changes in the syllabus are stressed by two of the interviewees. No differences depending in years of experience were detected.  However, there exists a difference in the emphasis of different parts between teachers in programs preparing students for further studies and teachers serving in occupational preparing programs. To conclude, the educational content taught by the four interviewees is considered to be equivalent. From a democratic perspective I believe that this is a conclusion of great importance.</p><p> </p>

Abstract The purpose of this study is to analyze four upper secondary school teachers regarding their educational focus on the European Union (EU). Furthermore, it is assessed what effect the growth of EU has had on content taught in Social Science A. The result of this study is contrasted with prior studies having a similar focus. To achieve the purpose of this study, five research questions were created. Conducting interviews of a qualitative character were chosen as the method for collecting information to answer the research questions. The interviewees were teachers of different sex, different professional experience regarding years and area of teaching. The interview questions were of a narrative kind yielding approximately half an hour long interviews.   The study shows that the most common areas taught are: the history of EU, the institutions (foremost; the Minister Council, the European Parliament, and the Commission), and how EU and Sweden relate to and affect each other. Although the content taught by the different teachers is equivalent, the teachers differ in what parts they choose to emphasize. Changes in the content taught resulting from changes in the syllabus are stressed by two of the interviewees. No differences depending in years of experience were detected.  However, there exists a difference in the emphasis of different parts between teachers in programs preparing students for further studies and teachers serving in occupational preparing programs. To conclude, the educational content taught by the four interviewees is considered to be equivalent. From a democratic perspective I believe that this is a conclusion of great importance.

The purpose of the study is to investigate whether schoolbooks in social science contribute to the development of students' participate competence regarding to politics. To succeed in this, the books need to cover political knowledge on the basis of three dimensions (polity, policy and politics). Furthermore, the books will need to present the EU from an internal political perspective, which includes three different criteria. This will increase the student’s credence to the European Union’s political system. A qualitative text analysis has been applied to the study and the material includes four social science books that are related to two courses in social sciences in upper secondary school. The reason is that participant competence is a goal that is included in the content of the courses. The study shows that all dimensions are present in the books, but that the authors choose to prioritize the polity and policy dimension. The result also shows that the authors do not choose to write about different parties and ideologies within the EU, which affects the other dimensions. This indicates that the books meet two of three criteria regarding the portrayal of the EU from a domestic policy perspective. The result shows that the writers fail to highlight the pluralism of views in the EU political system. The conclusion drawn is that schoolbooks can increase students' competence if used more frequently by teachers in EU-education.

EU is an integral part of Sweden's social studies syllabus for both secondary and upper secondary school. Early on, these students will learn how EU's various institutions cooperate with each other to make certain decision and how these decisions affect us in our daily lives. Yet, prior research has proven, despite being so important, that EU education in Sweden is quite faulty due to focusing too much on one dimension of political knowledge, as proven by Peter Wall's dissertation (2011) and a report from Swedish National Agency for Education (2007). While it would be interesting to see if this rings true today, this paper had a different aim. This paper examined what type of EU educational content was used by previous researchers in their own studies. The aim was to create an overview of what kind of EU educational content has been used in previous research and show if a dimension of political knowledge tends to be prioritised over others. In order to conduct this study, a systematic literature review was used as a method. Research articles were collected through databases and manual searches. The content of these articles were then analysed and categorised based on three political dimensions: Polity, policy, and politics. Seven articles were analyzed in total, and the results showed that polity tended to be on the forefront whereas the other dimensions were not equally present. Furthermore, the political knowledge within these dimensions tended to be related to the processes within EU and what the individual institutions do. Meanwhile, EU's collaboration with non-EU members alongside with individuals' and organisations' possibility to influence EU political decisions were not present. In short, facts about the framework of EU och how it works within is put on the forefront while how we might influence EU in various way is put in the background. These findings may have implications for schools, teacher, students, and educational science within this field.

Trots att kunskapsområdet EU har en större plats i både grundskolans och gymnasieskolans styrdokument idag har brister i EU- undervisningen uppdagats. Eleverna ges inte tillräckliga kunskaper och går ur gymnasiet med bristande förståelse för EU och sin egen roll som EU- medborgare. Detta väcker frågor kring hur undervisningen om EU ser ut på högstadiet och gymnasiet samt om en kunskapsprogression möjliggörs.Syftet med denna studie är att belysa högstadielärares och gymnasielärares tankar och beskrivning av sin undervisning om EU, för att analysera om deras undervisning möjliggör en progression för elevernas EU-kunskaper. För att möjliggöra en sådan studie har undersökningen genomförts genom kvalitativa intervjuer av fyra högstadielärare och fyra gymnasielärare som alla undervisar i ämnet Samhällskunskap.Studien har utgått från antagandet att undervisningen om EU och kunskapsprogressionen inte är tillräcklig, vilket till viss del bekräftas av studiens resultat. Resultatet visade aspekter som tyder på en likartad undervisning på bägge skolstadier och som därför inte anses leda till en progression. Samtidigt uppmärksammas delar i undervisningen på gymnasiet som tyder på en fördjupning av tidigare tillägnade kunskaper och som därför gynnar en kunskapsprogression, och även faktorer som kan vara anledningar till att kunskapsprogressionen försvåras; så som tidsbrist, stoffträngsel och ointresse hos elever och lärare. Studien visar att antagandet om brister i EU- undervisningen och ett visst missgynnande av kunskapsprogression stämmer men att det också finns möjliga förklaringar till detta. / Despite the fact that knowledge regarding EU plays a larger role today in both steering documents for secondary school and high school has imperfections been identified. The students are not given enough knowledge and finish high school with a lack of understanding of EU and their own role as citizens in EU. This raises questions regarding how the education of the subject is managed in secondary and high school and also if a knowledge progression is made possible.The purpose of this study is to put a light on the thoughts of teachers in secondary- and high schools about their EU education to be able to analyze if their teaching makes a progression of the students’ knowledge possible regarding their knowledge of EU. To make such a study possible the survey was conducted through qualitative interviews of four social science teachers in secondary school and four social science teachers in high school have been made.The study was been based on the assumption that education about EU is lacking and that knowledge progression is not adequate which to a part is proved by the result of the study. The result showed a similar education in both stages which therefore doesn’t point to a knowledge progression. At the same time parts of the education in high school indicates a deepened study of different knowledge areas studied in secondary school which therefore favors knowledge progression, but at the same time progression can be reduced by identified factors like lack of time, “overcrowded” subject areas and lack of interest from both students and teachers. The study shows that the assumption that imperfections exists in EU education and that a degree of limited knowledge progression is true, but it also shows that there are possible explanations to why this may be.