This dissertation focuses on the presentation of the mutual relationship of history and memory. It asks questions relating to the increasing interest in the memory. Concerning the memory, we want to draw the attention to the fact that the memory tends to democratize the past and broadens the possibilities of themes of the past in a very prominent way even outside the traditional historiography.The work is attentive to memory controlling in the undemocratic environments not forgetting to mention abusing of the memory in the democratic regimes too. Special attention is paid to the twisted memories of the shoah. The focus of this dissertation is therefore the memories of the shoah survivors. The key elements of the testimonies, which are pursued in this work, are thus questions in relation with the shoah survivors and their own memories and remembering, their motivation for talking about the past or clarifying the reasons which led them to being silent for years and years about their war experiences. To investigate the communication memory of the shoah survivors, "memory shoah literature" was used, together with visual archives of the oral history USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education. The work reflects about the historical knowledge brought to the recipients of the film...

This research overview aims to clarify and specify the term intercultural competence, as well as to distinguish which terms and concepts researchers use in tandem with this. Further, this research overview aims to examine how intercultural competence can be understood in the context of history education. Both from a theoretical, didactical perspective - and from a practical perspective. In other words, this research overview is akin to a three-stage rocket. First, key concepts and theories are introduced; secondly, the application of intercultural competence in relation to history didactics are examined; and lastly, the practical possibilities for the aforementioned application are presented. The method used to conduct this research overview study has been information searching. The three databases that were used are ERIC, SwePub, and DiVA. ERIC was used to ensure a rich collection of international research; SwePub and DiVA were used to collect research that portray Swedish conditions. Additional research and literature has been used, in consultation with our mentor. The key conclusions gathered from the results of this study are as follows: this field of research originated on the American continent - following the civil rights movement. In an anglo-american context, the term “multicultural education” is most commonly used. The research field has striking similarities with the field known as “critical pedagogy” - with an emphasis on reforming the educational institutions as such. The application of intercultural competence within history education and Jörn Rüsen’s three narrative competencies are not only plausible - but can be seen as dimensions of one-another. Lastly, this research overview shows how intercultural historical competence can be applied in real classroom situations - more research is needed on this particular point.

The aim with this research is to investigate how knowledge about the Holocaust is expressed in history teaching. The method we have used in this essay is to examine how others have researched this subject. We have used different research articles and articles from different countries, this is because teaching about the holocaust is not limited to just Sweden.There is a lot of research concerning the holocaust, but there are not many articles that relates to the specific topic that we had, so we had to narrow our articles down. We choose articles that focused on teaching and teaching materials, either by books or visiting a historical place connected to the holocaust. As we can see in the conclusion, most nations teach about the holocaust in different ways. This is because they have different historical backgrounds, and they have different ways on how to approach the holocaust.

Swedish society has changed since the 20th century and a classroom today looks very different. The multi - cultural society has grown and in step with the growth, one can today shed light on various obstacles and problems in the teaching of the Swedish subject of history.  To get an overview of how the research is done, we have chosen to look at teaching strategies, history didactics and multiculturalism in the classroom. Among other things, we will delve into narrative orientation, social science orientation and more perspective orientation in history teaching.  The databases we have chosen to use are ERIC - EBSCO, ERC Education Research Complete and SwePub. We justify our search for research through databases such as ERIC and ERC because we wanted to include an international aspect in the knowledge overview in order to be able to follow history teaching in other countries besides Sweden.  Something that is common to all research is the lack of governing documents that are not adapted to the multicultural society. One consequence of this is that the countries’ historical canons and syllabi are not updated either. The material is limited to the local area and makes it difficult to bring new perspectives into the teaching, as well in Sweden as internationally.  Our overview of research leads us to the conclusion that the students are in need of teaching that contributes to a broader historical awareness, so that the student in question can analyze and reflect from several different perspectives.

Med utgångspunkt i det förnyade politiska intresse för historieundervisningens innehåll, som följde på regeringens informationssatsning ”Levande historia”, undersöks bilden av 1900-talets folkmord i ett antal läroböcker i historia för gymnasiet från 1990-talet och början av 2000-talet, med särskild tonvikt på vilket urval författarna gör samt vilka förklaringar som presenteras till att de kunde äga rum. Även principerna för urvalet av det kunskapsstoff som förmedlas samt möjliga konsekvenser av detta diskuteras. Den kvalitativa textanalysen utgår från teoretiska begrepp som historiemedvetande och historiebruk, med vissa referenser till orientalismperspektiv som diskuterats i tidigare forskning. Undersökningen visar att styrdokumentens inflytande över läromedlens framställning har ökat sedan 1994 och att förändringen också tagit sig uttryck i en renodling av det europeiska perspektivet i urvalet samt i ett ökat intresse för i första hand Förintelsen, både före och efter 1997 då ”Levande historia” initierades. / With the renewed political interest in the content of history teaching in Sweden as a point of departure, this study deals with how the genocides of the 20th century are represented in Swedish history textbooks, aimed at pupils aged 16-19 years, from the 1990ies and the beginning of the 21st century. The analysis revolves around such theoretical concepts as history-awareness and uses of history, with certain references made to the concept of orientalism, that has been discussed in previous research. The study concludes that the influence of policy makers over the contents of the history textbooks has increased since 1994, which has resulted in a larger emphasis on the European perspective and the Holocaust.

The topic of this study is multiperspectivity, a concept in history didactics denoting a way and predisposition to view history through many different perspectives, with regards to, among other things, historical people, events, and historiography. Using multiperspectivity in history education not only reveals the varied ways in which history is constructed, but also exposes the history of peoples previously marginalized in historical narratives, such as women, children, the poor, and various ethnic groups. Using a content analysis and coding scheme, the study examines the representtation of the era of the Swedish empire in five history textbooks for upper secondary school in Sweden. Textbooks are an important part of teaching, and as research material they can provide insight into how a given subject may be represented, which in turn makes it possible to analyse the implications of that representation. The study finds that the textbooks varied considerably regarding their multiperspectivity. Some included the perspectives of peasants, women, immigration, and the effects of religion on society, while others did not, and were instead noticeably more limited in their perspectivity. All textbooks did however focus heavily on military and political matters. The various wars Sweden was engaged in, as well as the kings – particularly Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII – receive most attention throughout the texts, while other perspectives are, more or less depending on the textbook, given far less attention. Furthermore, the texts themselves are most often framed as a narrative of the rise and fall of an empire. These findings are in many ways congruent with previous research on history textbooks, and together with previous research on multiperspectivity, the study shows the complexity of applying this concept to history education.

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 study was to analyze and discuss why historical consciousness may be expressed in different ways and possible causes for these differences. High school students' and history student teachers’ answers to a historical test were analyzed in relation to historical consciousness.  The German philosopher of history, Jörn Rüsen, has in numerous publications presented four forms or expressions of narratives and historical consciousness and these have been applied in the analyses. Rüsen’s four main categories of historical consciousness (i.e. traditional, exemplary, critical and genetic) stretch from a simple understanding of history to a more complex one. The main findings here show that expressions of historical consciousness differed significantly among the respondents. In view of these findings, education and age seem to affect respondents’ expressions of historical consciousness. Traditional expressions of historical consciousness were less prominent among history student teachers than among high school students, for instance. Gender differences were also prominent among the respondents: the female respondents manifested exemplary forms of historical consciousness to a higher degree than the male counterparts. There were also big differences among the gender groups as the high school student boys expressed traditional forms of historical consciousness and male history teacher students were more inclined towards a critical historical consciousness. Social background also seemed to influence the expression of historical consciousness to some extent, especially if the parents were university educated. However, some results in this study seem to indicate that social environment is more relevant to explain differences in historical consciousness than social background. For these reasons the school context has been highlighted in this study.

Die Arbeit gibt einen kurzen Abriss über die Grundlagen systemisch-konstruktivistischer Lerntheorie mit der anschließenden Fragestellung, was die aktuellen Forschungsergebnisse aus Neurobiologie, Philosophie, Psychologie und Erziehungswissenschaften zur didaktischen Auseinandersetzung mit dem Nationalsozialismus beitragen können. In der bisherigen Forschung zur didaktischen „Aufbereitung“ des Themas 'Nationalsozialismus' gibt es eine Fülle von Unterrichtskonzepten, Sequenzplanungen und Unterrichtsmaterialien. Mein Anspruch war es nicht, universal gültige Unterrichtspläne vorzulegen, sondern Unterricht bewusst offen, selbstorganisiert und systemisch zu gestalten. Dafür werden die Rahmenbedingungen von Unterricht zum Thema Nationalsozialismus näher beleuchtet, um anschließend didaktische Prinzipien und methodische Ansätze für die Beschäftigung mit dem Nationalsozialismus vorzustellen. Grundlage für diese Überlegungen waren vor allem Theodor W. Adornos Vortrag „Erziehung nach Auschwitz“, die konstruktivistischen Lernansätze von Rolf Arnold, Kersten Reich und Horst Siebert und aktuelle Projekte und Schriften aus der gedenkstättenpädagogischen Forschung von Matthias Heyl, Imke Scheurich, Verena Haug u.a. Eine explizit konstruktivistische Betrachtung von Geschichtsdidaktik und Gedenkstättenpädagogik steht noch aus, diese Arbeit versucht, einen Ansatz zur Schließung dieser Forschungslücke zu entwickeln. / This paper gives a short view into the basics of systemic-constructivist theory of learning with the question, what current research findings from neurobiology, philosophy, psychology and education can account for teaching confrontation with National Socialism. In the previous research on educational examination on this subject, there is a wealth of teaching concepts, sequence plannings and teaching materials. The claim is not to give universally valid lesson plans, but to develope deliberately open, self-organized and systemic arranged education. For this I analysed the basic conditions of teaching about National Socialism to present didactic principles and methodological approaches to the study of Nazism. Foundations of these considerations were Theodor W. Adorno's "Erziehung nach Auschwitz", constructivist theories of learning from Kersten Reich, Rolf Arnold and Horst Siebert and current projects and writings from memorial pedagogy by Matthias Heyl, Imke Scheurich, Verena Haug et al. An explicicitly constructivist view on history didactics and memorial pedagogy is still missing, so this work is an attempt to develop an approach to close that gap.

The overall aim of this study is to analyse history teachers’ understanding of the school subject history. The aim have also been to uncover what factors the history teachers say have affected their understanding of the school subject. Based on survey and interview methods, the question that this study deals with is: in the light of which general understanding of the school subject history, do the teachers make didactic choices on a daily basis? The first theme is biographical. The teachers’ life-history is taken into consideration and several factors in the teachers’ background and the school environment have been identified. It also seems as if the teachers’ understanding of the school subject goes from an elementary and searching approach to one that is more complex and convinced. The second theme is a more structural approach. The results shows three major orientations among the teachers’ general understanding namely, educational (bildung) orientation, critical orientation and identity orientation. Even though a main orientation can be seen among the teachers, an important result is also that the orientation is overall complex. At the most general level some patterns can be seen. First the connection between the teachers’ biography and their general understanding of the school subject. In the understanding of the school subject, it is also notable that teachers relate in different ways to history as science, history as identity and history from an ideological viewpoint. It is also possible to note some signs of change in the school subject history that follows a lager historiographical context.