”Min farfar pratade inte om det han var med om i Stalins Gulagläger om man inte pressade honom.” Detta skriver historikern Anton Weiss-Wendt om sin farfar, Helmut Weiss, som förlorade 20 år av sitt liv i Gulag.  Den här historien och fler därtill, kände världen inte till. Sovjetunionens sönderfall inträffade år 1991 och censuren upphävdes. Tidigare hemligstämplade dokument av politiska makthavare offentliggjordes och allmänheten i väst fick kunskap om Gulaglägren i första hand tack vare nobelpristagaren Aleksandr Solzjenitsyns böcker.  Genom en komparativ och kvalitativ textanalys av sex skolböcker från olika decennier och en granskning av styrdokument kommer jag i den här uppsatsen att undersöka hur historiedidaktik och officiella riktlinjer har påverkat läroböckernas innehåll. Detta med Gulag framställning i skolböcker i Sverige som det centrala forskningsområdet.

To meet history in the archives can give a feeling of contact and closeness to the past. It can awaken a joy and interest for the subject of history. The power of the primary sources in the archives is something that could be used in historical education to not only arouse a joy for a lifelong learning but also for the understanding of the past. In order to make students develop their idea of history they need to encounter and work with primary historical sources. This also aligns with the Swedish curriculum for the subject of history as it says that the history education should give students an insight to historical methods. It also states that students should meet sources and artifacts that reflects human living conditions throughout history. The aim of this study has been to showcase the cooperation between Swedish history teachers in high school and the archives. It also studies the educational value and benefits of that cooperation. Our preconceived idea, and our own experience, has been that a lot of teachers aren't aware of the power of the archives and that the archives aren't aware of the needs that teachers and adolescents have. The study shows that this is partly true, but also highlights the parts of the collaboration that works well. This study has a qualitative approach and its method has been semi-structured interviews with both teachers and the staff of several archives. To find these informants we have used Arkivpedagogiskt Forum, a platform that connects staff in the archives who conduct educational work. The teachers of this study have been selected from our personal connections.  The study’s contribution is twofold. Firstly it provides an insight to the cooperation that exists between archives and teachers today in Sweden. It shows what teachers want from the archives in order to make the cooperation more efficient, as well as the parts of the cooperation that works very well. Secondly, it shows that archives do have an enormous potential in history education to activate and develop  students' historical consciousness through historical empathy and historical thinking.

This study examines how history teachers in upper secondary schools approach the teaching of contemporary history, focusing on the period from 1991 to the present. The aim is to investigate the content of this teaching, the motivations behind it, and the perceived opportunities and challenges. Using Ronald W. Evans' typology of historical perspectives, the study also seeks to identify which views of history are most prevalent in contemporary history teaching. Data was collected through a combination of surveys and semi-structured interviews with history teachers. The results reveal that the teaching of contemporary history differs from regular history instruction, with a stronger emphasis on global events and conflicts. Teachers with a relativistic view of history, who promote a global perspective and prioritises students' interests, are particularly advantaged using contemporary history in this context. In contrast, those with a narrative perspective, who prefer a chronological and Eurocentric approach, face more challenges, particularly regarding time constraints and the use of materials. The study highlights that teachers' selection of topics and methods is heavily influenced by students' interests and current societal debates, contrasting with the more rigid structure of traditional history teaching. Overall, contemporary history teaching enhances students' historical consciousness by connecting past events with current issues, although it requires students to have a foundational understanding of the historical events discussed. The study concludes that a relativistic perspective is best suited for teaching contemporary history, given its adaptability to current global contexts and its alignment with students' interests.

This compilation thesis contains an introductory chapter and four original articles. The studies comprising this thesis all concern aspects of how historical culture is constituted in historical media and history teachers’ narratives and teaching. It is argued that the teaching of history is a complex matter due to an internal tension resulting from the fact that history is both a product and a process at the same time. While historical facts, and knowledge thereof, are an important aspect of history, history is also a product of careful interpretation and reconstruction. This study analyses and discusses how history is constituted in history textbooks and popular history magazines, i.e. two common historical media, and in teachers’ narratives and teaching of history. The study finds that the historical media studied generally tend to present history as void of perspective, interpretation and representation, suggesting this to be the culturally warranted form of historical exposition. Moreover, the teachers studied also tend to approach history as if it were not contingent on interpretation and reconstruction. These results indicate that the history disseminated in historical media and history classrooms presents history in a factual way and disregards the procedural aspects of history. Applying the history didactical concepts of historical consciousness, historical culture and uses of history, this thesis argues that an essential aspect of historical understanding is an appreciation of the contextual contingency that characterises history. All history is conceived within a particular context that is pertinent to why and how a certain version of history is constructed. Furthermore, all history is also received within a particular context by people with particular preconceptions of history that are contextually contingent, in the sense that they are situated in a certain historical culture. Readers of historical media are members of societies and are thus affected by how history is perceived and discussed in these contexts. This thesis argues that an awareness of these aspects of history is an important factor for furthering a complex understanding of history that encompasses the tension highlighted above.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate historical consciousness through how pupils perceive history as a school subject. Jörn Rüsen´s three dimensions, the political, the cognitive and the aesthetic, of history culture has been applied in order to highlight pupils communicated historical consciousness. Historical consciousness can be regarded as the impact our interpretations of our past has on our understanding of the present and expectations of the future. Characteristic of historical consciousness is historical time and story. Historical time is subjective and builds on experiences and expectations in which all time dimensions operates in a contemporary era, and the story is a linguistic form of historical consciousness where we communicate experiences of the past, the present and expectations for the future. Pupils in grade 2 and 3 have been interviewed to clarify their perception and interpretation of history. The three dimensions of historical culture show that it is a politically contradictory story that takes precedence over the history of teaching. The results of the analysis show that the pupils historical consciousness is limited to the past and the present, while the future has not been explicitly addressed in the teaching. At the same time, the dimensions of historical culture have highlighted that the pupils themselves have the capacity to activate and develop their historical consciousness. Aided by imagination and the creation of stories the pupils allow themselves to approach the future through their own experiences and interpretations of the past. This sets a framework for expectations and dreams of the future. The same framework enables the pupils to approach the past by entering imaginative worlds interpreted as a resemblance of life in the historical past.

The purpose of this essay has been to explore Alexander the Great from two different perspectives in Greece. The village Proti Serron represents the local area and the national area named Macedonia represents the second perspective. Oral history has been used as a method in addition to literature and trips to museums and archaeological places. As a guideline for the essay and its contents a stereotyped schedule has been created. This schedule is presented below, and it is also possible to read it backwards. The villagers who identify themselves with Alexander the Great from their local area Proti Serron which is a part of the national area named Macedonia. This study proves that the villagers who has been interviewed, identify themselves with the place they live in as well as its history and that they feel that it is their duty to pass this knowledge forward. Alexander the Great is described as intelligent, humble, a man of strength and courage as well as a strategist and sovereign. This picture of the former king is also valid in the national area of Macedonia.

<p>The purpose of this essay has been to explore Alexander the Great from two different perspectives in Greece. The village Proti Serron represents the local area and the national area named Macedonia represents the second perspective. Oral history has been used as a method in addition to literature and trips to museums and archaeological places.</p><p>As a guideline for the essay and its contents a stereotyped schedule has been created. This schedule is presented below, and it is also possible to read it backwards.</p><p>The villagers who identify themselves with Alexander the Great from their local area Proti Serron which is a part of the national area named Macedonia.</p><p>This study proves that the villagers who has been interviewed, identify themselves with the place they live in as well as its history and that they feel that it is their duty to pass this knowledge forward. Alexander the Great is described as intelligent, humble, a man of strength and courage as well as a strategist and sovereign. This picture of the former king is also valid in the national area of Macedonia.</p>

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur läroböcker för historieämnet riktade mot mellanstadiet framställer källor och det källkritiska arbetssättet. Vidare är syftet att undersöka om framställningarna följer formuleringarna om källkritik och kritiskt tänkande i historieämnets kursplan. Metoden som används är en kvalitativ innehållsanalys som utgår från en funktionell ansats. Resultatet visar att olika läroböckers framställning av källor och det källkritiska arbetssättet varierar. Framställningen sker främst genom att presentera källor som belägg, samt genom att presentera professionen i historieforskningen. Därtill visar resultatet att framställningen mer sällan sker genom att problematisera källor och det källkritiska arbetssättet, eller genom att belysa hur tolkning av källor kan göras genom olika perspektiv. Läroböckerna erbjuder sällan möjligheter för läsaren att förkovra sig i källmaterial för att på så vis bygga eller ifrågasätta teorier, eller möjligheter att utmana sina egna föreställningar om historia. Slutsatsen är att framställningen av källor och det källkritiska arbetet i läroböcker inte fullt ut följer kursplanens formuleringar. Studien visar stor utvecklingspotential i de böcker som undersökts.

Denna uppsats fokuserar på identitetsskapande med hjälp av historieämnet. Utifrån olika litteraturer och dess innehåll på hur man kan arbeta med detta identitetsskapande, kommer denna uppsats att ge konkreta förslag på hur lärare kan arbeta med det. Varje människa har ett behov av en tillhörighet, och en identitet. Identitetsskapande ska främja dessa behov men även utveckla en förståelse för vem man är i den samvaron som man lever i. Utifrån begrepp och historiedidaktik kommer identitet och identitetsskapande att förklaras och problematiseras.  Vidare ska detta arbete undersöka historieämnet och läroplanen och hur dessa förhåller sig till identitetsskapande. Arbetet kommer lyfta fram normativlitteratur/ styrdokument. Utifrån dessa dokument kommer det även att diskuteras samhällets påtryckningar av de läromedel som används vid historieundervisning. För att förstå sig på samhällsförändringar kommer det även diskuteras om faktorer som leder till dessa förändringar. I detta arbete kommer även en jämförelse av läroplaner, för att förtydliga den samhällsstruktur som förändrats med tiden.

Through an online survey conducted with Swedish high school dance teachers, the contents which make up the dance history course, a mandatory part of dance theory, is mapped out. The guidelines and regulations to which Swedish dance teachers must adhere when constructing the syllabus in the dance history course is broad, and by quantitative method, this study maps out areas where there is broad concurrence between respondents, and areas of greater disparity. By way of an intersectional perspective, the relative richness of historical background within, and among the different styles is brought into historical context. The theory Historical consciousness is used to analyse the consequences of the result in relation to the students’ opportunities to develop an identification with dance history. The result show broad similarities among the respondents, alluding to a general consensus of the contents of the dance history classes. The differences are found in how the individual styles of dance are taught, where hip hop to a greater extent lacks named historical persons, present in ballet and modern dance. Other findings are a predominance of men as named historical figures compared to women and a disproportional focus on the jazz’ early history compared to more contemporary movements.