The purpose of this study is to explore the popular computer game Europa Universalis IV and how the use of history looks inside the game and its potential use during lessons.There is also a second purpose to this study and it is to shine some light on how students between the ages of thirteen and fifteen think about history-based videogames and their use in a classroom situation. In order to get the some answers from the students I created a survey that was sent out to two schools in Sweden. The survey contained, among other things, questions about the students’ own experiences with history-based games and if they had learned anything by playing them. Another thing the surveyasked about was their opinion on games being used during class and what advantages and disadvantages they bring forth. The result of both studies was really interesting in their own way. For the first part EU4 is a complicated game which uses history to a great extent, somtimes in a good and educational way, but also in a way to make money. Secondly, the survey that was sent out to the schools gave some inspired answers. They showed that our studnets today are aware of the different ways history can be used, as well as what the games can teach us. Finally, this survey also showed that our young students have wise thoughts about the pros and cons with computer games during class.

The purpose of our degree project is to create an understanding of how three history textbooks and the textbook publishers make use of the use of history. The questions that we have started from are: How is the use of history presented in the textbooks? Is the depiction of history use the same between the books? When we were investigating we used the method called text analysis, and we analyzed the textbooks SOL NOVA HISTORIA 9, Utkik historia 7-9 and Fundament historia 7-9. When we have analyzed we have used books on theory by professor of History Klas-Göran Karlsson and professor of social sciences didactics Kenneth Nordgren. The conclusion of our degree project is that the history textbooks seem to have traces of both our theorists but Klas-Göran Karlsson's theory is the one that has more room in comparison to Nordgren. The reason is because the history books' description of different ways of using history is often closer to Karlsson's typology than to Nordgren´s. We can also see this because one of the books has used one of Karlsson's typologies, the moral use of history. An example of a similarity that we have seen between the books is that the use of history is a conscious act that people or groups do in order to achieve their purpose. Another similarity is that the books use similar examples when it comes to using history. An example with a similar theme between the textbooks are on the usage of ancient history such as Alexander the Great and how the use of history has an impact on Macedonian and Greek identity today. An example of a difference between the books, is that the use of history is given different amounts of space. Another example of a difference that we have seen between the books is that one of them has mentioned in its description of the use of history that history can also be used unconsciously. This is interesting because our theorists have described the use of history as a conscious act.

This G-3 essay aimed to study how people on three American left leaning social medias appoint queer identities to historical people and the discourse around this appointment. This was studied through the theoretical lenses of queer theory and the use of history. The source material consisted of posts from Tumblr, Twitter and Reddit and it was studied both quantitatively and qualitatively through the method of conceptual history. The historical people examined were Queen Christina of Sweden and King James VI and I of Scotland and England. This essay discovered that a wide variety of queer identities were appointed to the royals. However, all queer identities appointed were identities that matched the discoveries scientists have made about the royals’ lives. Furthermore, between one third and half of all posts used sources to justify the appointment of queer identities. The use of history in all posts were found to be either existential in nature – showing a desire to find connections with other queer people through history – or moral – using history to argue against current injustice against queer people.

Läromedel i alla ämnen måste alltid vara anpassade efter den nuvarande kursplanen. I ämnet historia är läroböcker fortfarande materialet som huvudsakligen används i undervisning. Därför är det viktigt att dessa böcker blir granskade och analyserade efter det centrala innehållet av den aktuella kurs- eller ämnesplanen. Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att granska 6 aktuella läroböcker i kursen historia 1b och jämföra dem med den nuvarande kursplanens centrala innehåll. Resultatet visade att alla 6 läroböcker uppfyller de kraven för det centrala innehållet, mer eller mindre utförligt, speciellt med hänsyn till de historieteoretiska begrepp som framförs i historia1b ämnesplanen. Resultatet visar dessutom att författarna av de olika läroböckerna har olika åsikter om vad elever skall lära sig. / Learning materials in all subjects must always be adapted to the current curriculum. In the subject of history, textbooks are still the material mainly used in teaching. Therefore, it is important that these books are reviewed and analyzed according to the central content of the current course or subject plan. The purpose of this essay is to review 6 current textbooks in the history 1b course and compare them with the core content of the current curriculum. The result showed that all 6 textbooks meet the requirements of the central content, more or less extensively, especially with regard to the theoretical concepts of history presented in the history 1b subject plan. The result also shows that the authors of the different textbooks have different opinions about what students should learn.

Local heritage societies were established in Sweden for about a hundred years ago. The societies responded to the large changes of industrialisation, emigration and urbanisation during that time. Today there are about 2 000 societies with almost half a million members altogether. Why do people turn to local heritage societies today? The image of them, associated with folklore costumes and quaint old cottages, is not consistent with the extensive activity in the 21st century. That raises questions that have not been clarified in previous research. The aim of this thesis is to find out what today's local heritage societies do, as well as to investigate what their meanings are for people and the local society. Thereby the intention is to contribute to an understanding of their present extent and endurance over time. The activities of three local heritage societies in and around the city of Linköping are mapped out in this thesis. The survey shows extensive and very broad activities that are well adjusted to present time. The traditional image has become rigid, but in parts it is accurate since the activities are still dominated by local use of history., which also contributes to their extent and continuity. Place and history as common ground is something universal: The need for people to be oriented in time and space contributes to the persistence of the local heritage societies. At the same time there seems to be something strong in society today which contributes to their extent. The thesis shows that the societies can have knowledge-generating, ideological, existential and social meaning. Through the local heritage society people can learn about, evaluate and gain feelings for the place. The society also contributes to strengthening the power of togetherness in the local community as a part of the civilian society. The multifaceted meaning of the activities makes it possible for the societies to keep or even strengthen their attraction, especially among the large group of retired people. / Hembygdsföreningar etablerades i Sverige för omkring hundra år sedan. Föreningarna svarade mot den tidens stora förändringar med industrins framväxt, emigrationen och flykten från landsbygden. Idag finns det omkring 2 000 föreningar med sammanlagt nära en halv miljon medlemmar. Varför söker sig människor till hembygdsföreningar idag? Den gängse bilden av föreningarna som bakåtsträvande och förlegade stämmer inte in på en omfattande verksamhet på 2000-talet. Det väcker frågor om hembygdsföreningar, som inte har klargjorts i tidigare forskning. Avhandlingen syftar till att ta reda på vad samtida hembygdsföreningar gör och att undersöka deras betydelser för människor och lokalsamhälle. Härigenom vill avhandlingen också bidra till att förstå deras nutida omfattning och uthållighet över tid. I avhandlingen kartläggs verksamheten i tre hembygdsföreningar i och omkring staden Linköping i Östergötland. Kartläggningen visar på en omfattande och mycket bred verksamhet som är väl anpassad till sin samtid. Den traditionella bilden är stelnad, men till delar stämmer den genom att föreningarnas verksamhet domineras av lokalt historiebruk, som också bidrar till deras omfattning och kontinuitet. Det står å ena sidan för något allmänmänskligt: Människans orientering i tid och rum, som bidrar till att föreningarna alltid är aktuella. Å andra sidan framträder intresset för det lokala och för historia som två starka strömningar i samtiden. Avhandlingen visar att föreningarna har kunskapsgenererande, ideologiska, existentiella och sociala betydelser. Genom hembygdsföreningen kan människor lära sig om, värdera och få känslor för platsen. Föreningen bidrar också till att stärka kraften och gemenskapen i lokalsamhället som en del av det civila samhället. Den mångfasetterade betydelsen av verksamheten gör att föreningarna har lyckats behålla eller till och med stärka sin attraktionskraft, särskilt bland den stora gruppen pensionärer.

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This thesis examines the relationship between regionality and societal integration at the turn of the 20th century from an historical and pedagogical perspective. The national identity project of the time that made national unity its overarching goal and that imagined the nation as a homogenous entity, also institutionalised regional distinctiveness. How did the agents of the time handle the conflict between the regionally particular and the nationally general? What is analysed here is the publicly constructed and mediated “regionality”, which is to say the production of meanings about a region and the projection onto it of expectations and ideas. A discourse on Jämtland has been demarcated, which is analysed alongside other contemporary discourses, including class and gender. All of these discourses were rooted in the concept of “societal”. The conception showed that the development of the societal whole was primary in relation to other interests. Defined as “societal”, formerly excluded identities could be made participants in the building of the nation. Empirical examination is given to how “Jämtland” and “the Jämtlandic” were defined in the regional press, in the framework of general education, and by the Swedish Tourist Association, regional societies, institutions and so forth. The study shows that at the turn of the 20th century, regionality very much functioned as a means to territorially anchor more general ideas and notions that inheredin the modernisation and democratisation of society. With the objective of attaining a higher degree of national integration, a regional distinctiveness was constructed that was nationally complementary and that served as a metaphorfor subordinated participation in society. From grand, majestic panoramas, historical myths, traditional local handicrafts and provincial flowers a symbolic distinctiveness was created, but with the aim of establishing genuine national unity. Society was to be described and understood from particular and individual viewpoints, so that the individual could develop a sense of the general and so that society’s fundamental values were not undermined by his liberation. Jämtlandic regionality that has been identified in the study can thus be regarded as a supra-ideological institution. What came to be regionalised was something more fundamental than the artefacts of cultural heritage that people and institutions believed themselves to be rescuing from modernisation: it was the nation’s territoriality. The concept of hembygd represented a “spatialisation” of the societally coded concept of citizenship, and helped to tie this concept to the individual’s own lifeworld. More than anything else, regionality indicateda perspective on reality. If it was possible to obtain an overview of a regional context from a local vantage point or an individual locally crafted artefact, it was also possible to conceive of the larger national framework of which this region formed a part. The regional denoted the link between the private and the public, between the individual and his abstract national affiliation.

Narratives of Nordic pre-history are common in textbooks of the Swedish 'folk school'. This thesis discusses them from an ideological critical perspective and analyses them as textbook myths. This analytic concept of myth is constructed and used as a tool for studying ideological expressions in pedagogical texts. It is compatible with a historical materialist, social constructivist and Gramsci inspired perspective towards folk schooling and can handle questions of selection and re-organisation of ancient narrative material. The study shows how a paternalistic ethnic ideology which showed the pupils how their ancestors immigrated and set up society and order is replaced by nationalistic myths where the Swedes are projected on the totality of the past. Idealisation of farmers and expressions that neutralise poverty and legitimates subordination are used continuously throughout the study period. After 1868 a national folk concept is established. Textbook myths with a euhemeristic portrayal of civilisation are replaced by other scientific ways of handling pre-historic religions including elements from nature mythology and evolutionary theory. The myths handle religions both through Christian polemics and theological projections. The results of the analyses are interpreted in the light of the contemporary socio-economic changes where a feudal agrarian society's principles for classifications and hierarchies are challenged and broken by the principles of a class society with a nationalistic ideology. In the concluding chapters the myths are discussed and interpreted in relation to curriculum codes and in a Gramsci inspired perspective as expressions of a passive bourgeois revolution, where intellectuals of the middle class conquered the school and the textbook myths by making alliances with the farming class and trying to neutralise the poor and the working class. The thesis contributes to research in the use of history, representation in pedagogical texts and to research in nationalism.

Showing movies to pupils is hardly a new, innovative teaching method. However, knowledge about how film is used and why, as well as what kind of film is used is scarce. In the present licentiate thesis, eight active teachers have been interviewed on their experiences with and approached to using film as a pedagogic tool in high school history lessons. The purpose of the study is to analyze the respective teachers´ use and understanding of history, based on their opinion of film as a didactic alternative. Why do teachers to use film in class? How do they describe the way in which they work with it in concrete teaching situations? What films do they use and what makes them suitable for classroom viewing? The teachers emphasize five primary ways in which they use movies as teaching tools and the advantages in doing so: to present facts; as an example of multiperspectivism; to promote ethics and empathy; to discuss source criticism; and to arouse interest. The teachers see documentary film as an accurate, reliable form of presenting facts while considering drama more complicated and important to address in class. The study shows that the teachers feel they are left to their own devices to discover film´s potential as creators of meaning but that they rarely have the educational background or time to engage colleagues in didactic reasoning on the subject. The type of films they consider as having the most favorable effect in the classroom generally deal with war and other conflicts from a Western perspective. Most see film as an effective secondary source but a few also see it as a useful primary source. Analyzing their statements as a whole, the informants articulate that while film is widely used in high school history classes, it is done so for very different reasons.

The purpose of this study is to examine the historical consciousness and the use of history among pupils in 6th grade, in Swedish elementary school. To do this, the aim is to answer the following questions: Which types of history use are to be found among 6th graders, and how are these expressed? What historical consciousness/historical thinking do 6th graders display, and how is this expressed? What interest do 6th graders have in history? The method used in this study is a survey, which has been answered anonymously by 60 pupils in four different classes, from four different elementary schools, and in four different Swedish suburbs. The final analysis is based on theories on historical thinking/historical consciousness, uses of history, and history cultures, described by important historians, such as Rüsen, Ammert, and Karlsson. The study has led to the conclusion that, although a large majority of the pupils say that they are interested in history and think it is relevant, very few of them can mention uses of history outside the school context. The answers do not reveal a notably developed historical consciousness, even though there are signs expressing historical consciousness to a limited extent. One of the main characteristics of historical consciousness among the pupils is their use of concepts for historical change, such as development and consequence.