The aim of the study presented in this report was to analyse how the lack of time in the subjectof history, in Swedish upper secondary school, tend to influence the process of history didacticsthat affects teachers’ implementation of the curriculum. Furthermore, the study aimed toanalyse the outcome of the history didactics process in the vocational and theoretical programs.The process was examined through qualitative interviews with six history teachers that teach in two basic history courses and the analysis was based on a theoretical framework consisting of Street-Level Bureaucracy, Curriculum Theory and Vertical and Horizontal discourses. The result shows that the lack of time influences the execution of the history teaching in many ways. The history teaching in the vocational programs is though affected to a greater extent than the theoretical programs. Furthermore, the teachers in the present study find themselves in a complicated dilemma when it comes to balancing the ideal of the curriculum and the ideal of history teaching. The teachers shall both live up to the curriculum, while also adjusting the teaching to available time and students’ individual needs. The study also reaches the conclusion that the students in the vocational programs tend to have fewer opportunities to practise both vertical and horizontal knowledge, when compared to students in the theoretical programs. Based on Bernstein, this can be said to indicate that a reproduction of the prevailing social order and inequalities in society occur within the subject of history in Swedish upper secondary school. Finally, the teachers’ ability to deal with the prevailing problems could be facilitated through better conditions to execute the curriculum’s content, such as extended teaching time or a smaller amount of content to process and examine, especially within the vocational program where the implementation of the curriculum is most problematic.

The purpose of this study is to deepen the understanding of the identity, place and meaning of history in history teaching and the society in general. This is done through interviews with eight students at the Swedish Upper Secondary School. Students has an essential role in how history teaching becomes meaningful and how the history culture of our society today and in the future is shaped. The following research questions are answered in this study: I. What perceptions of history, related to the didactic questions about the content, method, and purpose of history, do students at the Upper Secondary School have? II. What historical knowledge, that is, as content-related knowledge in history, skill-related knowledge about history and meaning-making-related knowledge of history, do these perceptions of history express? To answer the research questions, qualitative semi-structured interviews are conducted. The interviews are then analyzed with the support of general didactic theories about the what, how and why of history, and history didactic theories of historical knowledge in, about and of history. Thus, the didactic questions (what/how/why) and the aspects of historical knowledge (in/about/of) have answered the research questions of this study by mapping students’ perceptions of history and distinguishing historical knowledge in their perceptions of history. The study shows that students perceive history in different ways, emphasizing different aspects of the content (what), method (how) and purpose (why) of history. The study also shows that students develop different forms of historical knowledge, which are considered necessary in the Swedish school and historical science, but they do it in a slightly different way than what may be intended. The result indicate that students’ thoughts of history are often rooted in a perception of history as the past, which has consequences for how they view aspects of history and what historical knowledge they express. To develop historical knowledge, one must know what has happened thus being aware of people and events of the past. Therefore, history is told, not necessarily interpreted. Accordingly, students see history as a life lesson. With history – knowing what has happened in the past – one can avoid making mistakes in the present and therefore develop the future one strives for. In addition, students regard source criticism as something motivated by their time – a time characterized by fake news and social media – rather than a basic historical method in the subject of history.

The point of this study is to understand how Umeå university’s curriculum for the subject of history evolved in the time period 1970 to 2015. Therefore, this study will analyze Umeå university’s curriculum for the course History AB 1, that is included in the history teacher training education. Furthermore, this study will take this analyzation of the curriculum and compare it to the Swedish high school curriculum. This is to better understand the evolution of the education program for teachers, but also to study the symbiotic relationship between schools and universities. Moreover, this assignment will be using Stina Hallsén’s description of policy analyzes to examine the valuation and norms from Umeå’s curriculum, and then take the analyzation further by comparing it to the Swedish high school curriculum. It will thereafter be analyzed with Gert Biesta’s three concepts, Qualification, Socialization and subjectification. Biesta’s concepts will help to measure how good the education at the teacher education program in Umeå is. The results of the study can shortly be described that there’s a long line of changes happening at the teacher education program at Umeå university and the subject of history in the time period 1970 to 2015. The changes range from small differences like the curriculum changing pace, to big changes like entire course moments getting removed and new ones getting added. In addition, the curriculum from Umeå university gets compared to the Swedish high school curriculum. This comparison alongside the study’s framing of question serves to give better insight into how the teachers education program has changed and evolved during the time period. Lastly the results of this study show that yes, there is a symbiotic relationship between Umeå university’s education for teachers and the Swedish high school curriculum. Furthermore, the students attending the teacher training education are taught that becoming a teacher is a lifelong mission to evolve and understand the changes happening in the schools.