The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate how social science teachers perceive and express the concept of society in social studies. The study consists of focus group interviews with nine social science teachers at two upper secondary schools and its results are analyzed against the theoretical backdrop of Odenstad's orientation topics, analytical subjects and discussion topics and Sandahl’s first-order and second-order concepts. In short, the two different conceptual devices can be described as the skills and abilities that are most important for the students to master in order to develop advanced thinking skills in social science. Particular emphasis is put on critical thinking, that is, the ability to seek, structure and evaluate information from different sources and to draw conclusions from this process. The emerging results show a certain consensus on the concept of society among social science teachers as the potential subject of study and analysis that would simplify and clarify the analyses of the different levels in society which, in turn, would contribute to adding significance and bringing cohesion to the subject as a whole. As for the skills and abilities that stem from Odenstad's orientation topics and Sandahl’s first-order concepts, the interviewed teachers all emphasize conceptual ability as well as good external knowledge to have knowledge of how society is made up. With reference to Odenstad's analytical subject and discussion topics and Sandahl's second-order concepts, it would seem that it is not only important but a prerequisite that students develop an analytical ability and critical thinking as well as the ability to sift through and process large amounts of information and assume different perspectives on the topic or issue at hand.

The focus of this investigation is civics in the Swedish upper secondary school. In addition to subject matter, civics is also an agent for democratic socialisation. The study explores and analyses the reflections of six teachers on their teaching about globalisation. These reflections, or voices, are researched through interviews and classroom observations. The starting point is the teachers’ description of content and goals in their teaching. The overall aim is to identify and analyse first and second order concepts in their teaching and analyse the relationship between the concepts and democratic socialisation. Despite the strong position of civics as one of the main subjects in school curricula very little research has been done. By focusing on one substantial case, globalisation, this study tries to reach beyond the various topics covered in civics. In order to understand civics teaching the researcher use the history didactic terms of first and second order concepts to find a new way to explore and understand civics. Manifested in the teachers’ voices are ideas on how to organise, analyse, interpret and critically review discourses in society. The second order concepts of civics found in the teachers’ voices are social science perspectives, social science causality, social science inference, social science evidence and social science abstraction. In order to reach their goals in civics the teachers underline the importance of using second order concepts. When pupils work more scientifically they develop a way of thinking about society and they have to challenge their set opinions about different topics. Therefore, the second order concepts are important for achieving civic literacy.