The aim of this study is to investigate and compare two textbooks used in social studies teaching when it comes to the use of subject concepts. The questions to be answered are: • What subject concepts can be found in each learning material? How many different subject concepts are present and how often are they used? • What is done to explain these subject concepts for the reader? How many of the total amount of subject concepts are explained? The methods used to answer these questions where both quantitative content analysis and qualitative text analysis. The results showed that the two textbooks had some subject concepts in common and other subject concepts that separated the textbooks. Textbook 1 contained a few more subject concepts than textbook 2 but used less times than textbook 2. To explain the subject concepts the textbooks used different methods which in this study have been divided into five categories. The result also showed that both textbooks contained equal amounts of subject concepts that were not explained to the reader.

Teaching students about democracy and strengthening their abilities to act and perform within a democratic society is according to the curricula for the Swedish educational system an important task for any Swedish teacher. In social sciences, however, these aspects play an even greater role as the current curricula for civic education clearly states that civic education should offer students the opportunity to learn about democracy and its various forms and mechanisms. As there are probably about as many thoughts and views on democracy as there are people, it is to be expected that all teachers do not treat the subject the same. Previous studies have shown that there are discrepancies between how democracy is being implemented during classes, which has proved to be a problem that affects students’ further ability and wishes to engage and act within a democratic system outside and after school. For this reason, I have chosen to further study this phenomenon, to see whether there truly are differences regarding the implementation of democracy in different classrooms, and if these differences can be associated with which course or program the students are taking.  The study has been done through participant observation, where I have examined how teachers in four different courses of civic education in upper secondary school implement democracy in their classes. In the analysis I have sought for signs of discrepancies depending on which course the students have been studying (through vocational or university preparatory programs) and tried to see which form of democracy (electoral or deliberative democracy) that seems to permeate the classroom activity the most. Judging from these observations, it seems that the further up the course ladder we climb, the more deliberative the classroom democracy seems to get.

In this essay, textbooks in social sciences at secondary school have been studied based on the school's base and assignment. The purpose has been to study how men and women are represented and portrayed and how gender is produced in the textbooks. In addition, I have tried to see if there has any change in recent years and, if so, how it looks. The study has been based on a gender analysis and a model based on Yvonne Hirdman's gender system. To perform the study a qualitative content analysis has been made on the texts, images and captions from the textbooks. The result shows that men are more represented than women. Often, it's the pictures or the underlying meanings in the texts that weigh over to the man's advantage. According to the gender system it shows that the sexes are kept to a certain extent apart where women and men do different things. In particular, men do more things and are found in more arenas than women. The man is the norm. However, during the period for this study, they are making small changes over time which makes the books more equal.

This qualitative study is done with the purpose of creating understanding for the theoretical democratic content in educational materials for Civic Education courses 1a1 and 1b during GY-11, so teachers create an intentional approach when using educational materials in their democratic education. This was motivated as important considering the reduction in obligatory Civic Education for the vocational programs. The study was conducted using a hermeneutic qualitative reading method where the educational materials, more specifically two series with one book for each course, was read with purpose of creating understanding for the democratic content according to ideal democratic models: deliberative democracy, participatory democracy and electoral democracy. A text voice analysis was also conducted using Bakhtins theory of dialogic and monologue text that contributed to the general result concerning the democratic content. The results show that the electoral democracy ideal is dominant in all educational materials, there is hence no striking difference between the democratic content in 1a1 and 1b educational materials. Though the study shows intention in the 1a1 educational materials towards a more participatory democracy ideal, the electoral ideal are still clearly dominant. / Denna kvalitativa studie är genomförd med syftet att skapa förståelse för det demokratiteoretiska innehåll som finns i läromedel för Samhällskunskap 1a1 och 1b under GY11, så att lärare kan skapa ett medvetet förhållningsätt till läromedel i deras demokratiundervisning. Detta upplevdes som väldigt aktuellt med tanke på nedskärningen av den obligatoriska Samhällskunskapen på yrkesförberedande program. I studien användes kvalitativ hermeneutisk läs metod där läromedlen, närmare bestämt två serier av böcker med en bok för respektive kurs, lästes med syftet att skapa förståelse för det demokratiska innehållet enligt de demokratiteoretiska ideal modellerna: deliberativ demokrati, deltagardemokrati och valdemokrati. En text röst analys genomfördes också där Bakthins teori om dialogiska och monologiska texter användes och detta bidrog till det generella resultatet rörande demokratiteoretiskt innehåll. Resultatet visar att det valdemokratiska idealet är dominerande i samtliga läromedel, det finns alltså ingen slående skillnad mellan det demokratiteoretiska innehållet i läromedel för 1a1 och 1b. Dock visar studien intentioner i läromedlen för 1a1 om en ansats mot mer deltagardemokratiska ideal, trots detta är det valdemokratiska idealet klart dominant också där.

Background: Today, we no longer have an authority who reviews or approves teaching materials for schools. It is primarily the principals responsible for the teaching materials used in school to be in accordance with the curriculum. Before the school was communized 1991 in Sweden, Statens institut för läromedelsinformation (SIL) reviewed the teaching materials, which meant that the content of the study books was reviewed and they handed out information on how to use the materials. Aim: The purpose of this study is to examine how gender is portrayed in four textbooks that are used in teachings of social studies. The study also aims to investigate whether there are some differences and/or similarities over time. Two textbooks are from 1970s and the other two from after year 2010. To answer this, following questions where prepared: §  How is male and female represented in text in teaching materials over time? §  How is male and female representation in teaching materials over time? §  What differences and / or similarities are the representation of male and female over time?  Method: The method that’s being used in this study to analyze how gender is being portrayed and manufactured in both images and text is a qualitative discourse analysis. Results: The analysis shows that men and women generally were associated with the traditional conception of men and women characteristics. The results also show that men dominated in the textbooks and that women did not get as much space as the men.

In the Swedish school system there is an aim to foster students to become democratic citizen, while at the same time, in the discipline of social science is included to teach the students about democracy. This study has examined 10 teachers in social science and the choices they make within their democracy teaching. The aim of this essay was to examine whether the teachers differed in their views of what to include in their democracy teachings and what to exclude. This essay also aimed to explain how the teachers related the civic education to teaching democracy as a subject. The methods used was 10 open interviews which was spread around 5 different cities/towns in Sweden. The results showed that the teachers differed in what they included in their teaching, but all of them felt that the curriculum was controlling what they could incorporate. We also saw that the teachers didn’t separate civic education from teaching about democracy in general, but rather that the course in social science had a goal to make the students active democratic citizen. Furthermore, the type of program that the teachers were teaching at seemed to influence what they included in their democracy teaching as well as how they viewed the concept of being an active citizen.

The purpose of the study is to investigate what adaptations grade 4 teachers four make to language-develop in the social science classroom. This includes the challenges that may arise and support teachers they need in order to achieve anguage development goals. Using qualitative methods, in the form on interview and observation. Questions that will try to be answered are; 1. How the teachers take into account students language development in the teaching of fourth grade social sciences? 2. What are the difficulties with developing language in social science? 3.What support does the teachers consider necessary for conducting a language-developing social science education? Research has shown that language development education is contextual and is rich with opportunities for interaction. The teacher plays an important role in creatinga context that benefits students, knowledge, linguistic and personal development. However, research has also shown that many teachers lack the skills necessaryto work with language and knowledge developmentin their lessons. In this study, teachers take into account the parents' pre-knowledge and linguistic background while working with different methods based on interaction to develop the student's subject and language ability. The adaptation of different abilities was the biggest difficulty reported by most teachers. Interviewed teachers have also recognized the difficulty of developing students' school languages. According to teachers, collegial learning, language teaching and language development tools, the best basis for language education is education.

Denna uppsats jämför värdegrunden mellan de svenska och de ryska styrdokumenten för skolan, med fokus på samhällskunskapen för gymnasiet, för att göra en jämförelse över vilken roll de demokratiska värdena har i ländernas läroplaner. Avstamp tas i ländernas utbildningshistoria och den demokratiska kulturen undersöks med koppling till den demokratiska processen, de demokratiska drivkrafter och med hänsyn till relevanta politiska ideologier med fokus på liberalismen.   I resultatet presenteras hur svenska och ryska skolans styrdokument är utformade. Deras värdegrund undersöks ur en liberaldemokratisk synvinkel för att spåra den demokratiska värdegrunden. Detta görs för att jämföra de olika ländernas styrdokument för skolan. Konstitutionerna blir viktiga för analysen då samhällets värdegrund och skolans värdegrund visar sig knutna till ländernas konstitutioner.   Skolan undersöks för att utbildningsväsendet är den del av staten som formar de framtida medborgarna. Slutsatsen är bland annat att demokrati som begrepp har en betydligt starkare ställning i de svenska styrdokumenten för skolan än i de ryska. Däremot är de liberala värdebegreppen jämnstarka inom de båda ländernas konstitutioner och utbildningsdokument.

The purpose of this study is to examine how upper secondary school teachers within the social studies subject interpret and transform the mission of preparing students for political participation. Based on teachers' dictums of how the mission is interpreted and transformed ahead of teaching, as well as which factors are expressed to affect this transformation, the study aims to determine what differences exist regarding how the mission is transformed and what can be seen to cause these differences. Through semi-structured interviews with seven social studies teachers, the study aims to answer three research questions addressing how the teachers interpret the mission, their expressions of how the mission is transformed ahead of teaching as well as which factors are mentioned to affect this transformation. The general conclusion of the study is that the teachers express that the mission of preparing students for political participation contain several contrasting dimensions, which in various ways are transformed ahead of teaching. The most central differences can be seen within the knowledge conveying and participation promoting dimensions, where the variations appear as the teachers to a certain extent focus on different areas of teaching and attend to these on different levels. Furthermore, different possibilities of influence and forms of participation are accentuated to various extent. To conclude, the study indicates that the teachers, qua agents of political socialisation, are preparing the students dissimilarly for political participation. / Syftet med föreliggande studie är att undersöka hur gymnasielärare i samhällskunskap tolkar och transformerar skolans uppdrag att förbereda elever för politiskt deltagande. Utifrån lärares utsagor kring hur uppdraget tolkas och transformeras inför samhällskunskapsundervisning, samt vilka faktorer som uttrycks påverka denna transformering, syftar studien till att utröna vilka skillnader som föreligger beträffande hur uppdraget transformeras, samt vad dessa skillnader kan ses bero på. Genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med sju samhällskunskapslärare, syftar studien till att besvara tre forskningsfrågor, vilka behandlar hur lärarna tolkar uppdraget att förbereda elever för politiskt deltagande, hur de uttrycker att uppdraget transformeras inför undervisning samt vilka faktorer som uttrycks påverka denna transformering. Studiens övergripande slutsats är att lärarna ger uttryck för att uppdraget att förbereda eleverna för politiskt deltagande inbegriper flera olika dimensioner, vilka transformeras på olika sätt inför undervisning. De mest centrala skillnaderna kan ses finnas inom de kunskapsförmedlande och deltagarfrämjande dimensionerna, vilket yttrar sig genom att lärarna i viss mån fokuserar på olika undervisningsområden och behandlar dessa på olika nivåer. Vidare framhävs olika påverkansmöjligheter och deltagandeformer i varierande grad. Sammanfattningsvis indikerar studien att lärarna, i egenskap av politiska socialisationsagenter, förbereder eleverna olika för politiskt deltagande.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur boken Kalle och chokladfabriken (1964) kan användas i en värdegrundsundervisning där demokrati utgör ramen och där perspektiven klass och mångkultur specificerar undersökningen. Frågeställningarna är formulerade utifrån syftet och berör bokens kopplingar till styrdokumentens värdegrundsformuleringar samt hur boken kan användas i undervisningen utifrån mål i svenska liksom läroplanens övergripande mål. Narrativanalys är den metod som används vid analyserandet av boken och de teoretiska perspektiv som intas vid undersökning är det postkoloniala samt klassperspektivet. Resultatet av bokanalysen visar att det finns en problematik i framställandet av människor från andra kulturer liksom av människor från en viss klass. Boken som sådan skapar ingen förståelse för dessa människor utan det blir lärarens uppgift att bygga en undervisning utifrån denna problematik. Dessutom öppnar boken för en diskussion kring det komplexa begreppet ironi vilket i sin tur kan leda in på frågor kring etik och moral. Andra aspekter som kan beröras i en undervisning utifrån boken är mänskliga rättigheter, förmågan att leva sig in i andra människors liv samt stärkandet av elevernas identitet. / This study aims to investigate how the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) can be used in value based education. The primary focus is on the aspect of democracy and the aspects social class and multiculturalism specify the investigation. The research questions concern the book’s connections to fundamental values set by the curriculum, as well as how the book can be used in teaching based on goals defined in the Swedish syllabus. The methodology used is narrative analysis and the theoretical perspectives used are post-colonial and class. The analysis concludes that the representation of people from different cultures and certain classes found in the book raise certain problems. The book itself creates no deeper understanding for these people and therefore it is up to the teacher to create and build a teaching based on these problems. The book opens for discussions regarding the complex concept of irony which in turn can lead to discussions concerning ethical and moral issues. Other aspects involved in teaching based on the book are human rights, the ability to put yourself in another person’s shoes as well as strengthening of the students’ identities.