This thesis offers critical perspectives on a history syllabus for vocational education and training (VET) tracks in Swedish upper secondary schools and adds to our knowledge and understanding of the educative function of history education for the individual and for society. The overall aim of this thesis is to critically investigate discourses that are voiced in different fields about the construction and reproduction of the history curriculum in VET tracks. A general question addressed is how vertical (critical and theoretical) and horizontal knowledge is articulated by the discourses in terms of the meaning of history in a VET context. The following four research questions were the focus of the four different studies in this thesis: How were non-vocational subjects discussed on a policy level during the post-war period, and what meanings were ascribed to history education? What aspects of history as a field of knowledge are recontextualised into a pedagogic discourse for the VET curriculum? How do teachers perceive the history syllabus? What do the students express concerning the history syllabus and history education? The results of these studies are reported in separate papers, and the aggregated results are analysed in this thesis. The data consisted of government bills and committee reports, material from the National Agency of Education archives, and interview data gathered through interviews with 5 teachers and 46 students. The major theoretical inspiration comes from Basil Bernstein whose theories of classification and framing, pedagogic discourse, pedagogic code, and vertical and horizontal discourses are used in the analysis. With the aid of these concepts, the content and meaning of history education for VET are connected to macro levels of education, and the way in which education reproduces social order when certain forms of knowledge are distributed to different groups in society is discussed. Three major conclusions are drawn. First, history as a pedagogic discourse comes forward as versatile and contradictory when the results from the studies are aggregated. There is, however, a shared understanding that the meaning of history in VET is to educate the students to become democratic and active citizens. Secondly, the investigated discourses ascribe history education with the potential to distribute critical and powerful knowledge. The students see a value for history education in their future as citizens and for giving them access the public conversation of society. A final conclusion is that the pedagogic code, embedded in the history curriculum, can be interpreted in two different ways. The emphasis on competencies and the focus on the last two hundred years can be interpreted as (A) an expression of a wish for immediate utility and thus an instrumental view of education or (B) the recontextualisation of scientific theories, concepts, and practices into a pedagogic discourse as a means to give students access to disciplinary (powerful) knowledge.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur praktikhandledare inom bygg- och anläggningsprogrammet uppfattar byggelevers yrkeskunnande och om de upplever någon skillnad i yrkeskunnandet mot före gymnasiereformen 2011. Studie- och yrkesvägledare fungerar som en länk mellan eleverna och branscherna där det är viktigt för vägledaren att ha kännedom om branschernas synsätt. Studien är genomförd med kvalitativ metod där tio APL-handledare på byggarbetsplatser i Värmlands län intervjuats. Intervjuerna är analyserade enligt innehållsanalys och ställs mot Illeris teorier om lärande och kompetens. Analyserna är inramade av Bourdieus habitusteori. Resultaten visar att APL-handledare har svårt att definiera vad yrkeskunnande är och därmed har uppfattningarna skiljts åt gällande vad som förväntas av APL-elever. Det framkommer även att egenskaper som förväntas av APL-eleverna närmast kan definieras som Bourdieus kapital än konkreta yrkesfärdigheter. Våra resultat visar dessutom att APL-handledarna inte har någon uppfattning om vad som står i examensmålen för bygg- och anläggningsprogrammet. Vi hoppas att denna studie ska bidra till en ökad förståelse för studie- och yrkesvägledarens uppdrag som ibland blir en medlande länk mellan de olika aktörerna; skolan, arbetslivet och eleven. / The purpose of this study is to investigate what building and construction workers who mentor students from the vocational-education program of building and construction think about the students’ vocational skills. The study also hope to ascertain whether the construction workers have noticed any difference in the students’ vocational skills after the school reform of 2011. As aspiring guidance counsellors we aim to play the role of a bridge between the students and their chosen field of employment. For guidance counsellors it is important to have a solid grasp of the values and views found in different fields of employment and to manage the expectations of the students. For this study, we used a qualitative method in which we interviewed ten mentors on construction sites across the county of Wermland. The content of the interviews was later analysed and compared to Illeris’ theory of knowledge and competence. As a theoretical framework, we also used Bourdieu’s theory of Habitus. The results show that the mentors had difficulty defining vocational skills in a meaningful and concise manner, which leads to students finding it difficult to know what is expected of them. The characteristics of the students are better defined in Bourdieu’s theory of habitus. The results also revealed that the mentors did not have a clear picture of what was expected of a student and did not understand fully what the student would need to learn in order to pass the relevant examinations at the end of the course. We hope that this study will contribute to a clearer understanding of the role of the guidance counsellor, which in this case is to act as a bridge between those already working in the construction industry and the students hoping to work within the construction industry after they have graduated.

Avhandlingen handlar om hur bedömningssystemet i bred bemärkelse presenterades i betygsdebatten i samband de politiska besluten om betygssystemet för gymnasiet mellan 1960 och 1995. Avhandlingen tar sin utgångspunkt i de berättelser som konstruerades under perioden. Syftet är att spåra och tolka förändringar i berättelserna om bedömning i anslutning till det politiska projektet att demokratisera och individualisera skolsystemet. Fokus är särskilt riktat mot de bedömningstekniker och innebörder för relationen mellan stat, lärare och elever som aktualiserades i samband med de två gymnasiereformerna. Härigenom synliggörs en viktig definitionskamp om statens förhållande till individen - lärare och elever - och hur makten i den nya enhetliga och demokratiska gymnasieskolan skulle förstås och organiseras. Avhandlingen pekar också på hur berättelser konkurrerar och hur en berättelse kan ges olika innebörder i förhållande till det politiska projektet att skapa en skola som tar till vara elevernas demokratiska möjligheter och lika villkor. / This thesis explores how the system of examination, in broad terms, was presented in the debate about grading around the political decisions regarding the upper secondary school between 1960 and 1995. The point of departure is the narratives that were constructed during the time period. The main objective is to trace and interpret changes in the narratives of evaluation as a part of the political project of democratization and individualization of the school system. Special attention is given to the different grading techniques and implications for the relation between State, teacher and pupil that surfaced in and around the school reforms in 1964 and 1994. This also sheds significant light on the meaning constructions and struggle around the State’s relation to the individual - teachers and pupils - and how power was to be viewed and organized in the new homogenous and democratic school. The thesis also shows the rivalry of narratives and how a narrative can be given various meanings in relation to the political project of creating a school that advocates the democratic opportunities and equal rights of pupils.