Syftet med arbetet har varit att undersöka och tolka samhällskunskapslärares uppfatt-ningar om hur barn i årskurs 4–6 bör undervisas om kontroversiella samhällsfrågor. För att göra detta användes kvalitativa intervjuer som metod, och fem samhällskunskaps-lärare från tre olika skolor intervjuades. När intervjuerna skulle tolkas användes her-meneutiken som teoretisk utgångspunkt. Resultatet visade bland annat att lärarna de-lade uppfattningar om att kontroversiella samhällsfrågor är en viktig del av samhälls-kunskapsundervisningen. De valde ut samhällsfrågor i undervisningen utifrån vad som är aktuellt i media och utifrån vad som intresserar deras elever. De delade också uppfattningen om att även om man ska prata om kontroversiella samhällsfrågor, ska man som lärare inte göra eleverna överdrivet oroliga så att de bara blir skrämda. Något som de uppfattade som utmanande med kontroversiella samhällsfrågor var att se till att klassrumsdiskussioner inte blev för livade, eller att någon elev som berördes av en samhällsfråga blev ledsen. Samhällskunskapslärarna uppfattade det dock inte som att dessa utmaningar var så stora att de undvek kontroversiella samhällsfrågor, utan kon-staterade bara att det finns utmaningar, men också möjligheter med undervisning av kontroversiella samhällsfrågor. / <p>Godkännande datum: 2018-05-30</p>

AbstractIn this final thesis, I examine controversial issues, topics, and subjects found in the literaturestudents use in upper middle school and high school. Its main objective is to determine whatproblems the literature leaves teachers to solve and what tactics, methods, and tools theycan use in the classroom.Overall, the literature is neutral in terms of language. As a result, it is difficult to distinguishcontroversial subjects, issues, and topics. It is important for teachers to complement theliterature with materials that fill in the gap between the time when the material was publishedand the time when students use it. There are times when material writers choose not toprovide perspective and nuance. To some degree, this is to meet some of the curriculum'srequirements, but at the expense of a broader perspective. Consequently, some of thematerial could lead students to view the world and the future in a negative light.As a result, teachers might not be able to maintain that much is being done to make theworld a better place, and some of it is succeeding.The Tactics, tools and methods the literature present is to not always give nuancedperspectives to make it easier for the students to accept the content. As a result of thedemand for equality among sexes, ethnicities, and sexual orientations, that has become areality. The point is that a nuanced perspective might expose the students to views thatoppose equality and human rights. The literature provides students with concrete ideas onhow they can impact income equality in the future as parents. By forming a family, thestudents will gain everyday political power. In general, the literature focuses more on thefuture of the student than on what can be done today.

The society of today is getting more polarised, and people is keeping themselves to their bubbles of opinions. This is a development which threatens the trust between citizens, an important building block in a functioning democracy. The school is one of the best places for youngsters to meet different ideologies, opinions, and perspectives in different political issues. Especially in the social studies subject, which according to the Swedish curriculum is supposed to let pupils analyse political issues. In past studies many teachers are talking about a fear of teaching in controversial political issues. The purpose of this study is to figure out how social studies teachers act when controversial public issues appear in the education, what kind of challenges they experience in those situations and describe any possible connections between the teacher’s strategies and the challenges. The study was done through semi structured interviews with four social science teachers. The result of the study shows that all the teachers interviewed used a strategy when the brought in facts to their education. Three of the teachers did it more clearly through an objective presentation of the issue. All of the teachers also used strategies where they included different perspectives and balancing them, giving them the same importance, in different classroom discussions. When it was considered necessary, the teachers privileged one perspective. These strategies had a possible effect on the challenges the teachers met since the teachers did not experience fear of teaching controversial public issues and rarely saw any lack of the competence in themselves in relation to controversial public issues. Although the teachers that participated in the study saw obstacles in their daily work caused by the Swedish curriculum of the social studies subject and student related challenges.

The purpose of this thesis is to study how teachers teaches about controversial topics in the subject of social studies in relations to Albert Banduras theory of self-efficacy. Nine high school social studies teachers have been interviewed in order to fulfill this purpose. The teachers answers where then categorized into different categories of teaching strategies and influencing factors. The result shows that all of the teachers in the study applied teaching strategies that requires a high degree of self-efficacy. These strategies where pupil-centered to a high degree and correlates with ideals of deliberativ democracy as consensus weren’t necessarily the goal with the education. The source of the high degree of self-efficacy amongst the teachers seemed to be prior teaching experiences about controversial topics as all of the teachers claimed that their experiences where a major influencing factor for their classroom teachings. Other influencing factors such as the degree of heterogeneity in the classroom, type of high school program or the societal discourse surrounding the controversial topics where deemed as important but seemed to affect the choice of teaching strategies in a quite limited way. The fact that prior experiences where theprimary influencing factor supports the hypothesis that self-efficacy is an essential factor when teachers choose their teaching strategies as prior experiences of success (so-called mastery experiences) is the most important source for a strong sense of self-efficacy according to Bandura’s theory. / Denna uppsats har till syfte att granska samhällskunskapslärares undervisning om kontroversiella samhällsfrågor i ämnet samhällskunskap i relation till Banduras teori om upplevd självförmåga. För att uppfylla detta syfte har semistrukturerade intervjuer med 9 samhällskunskapslärare på gymnasienivå genomförts. Utifrån samhällskunskapslärarnas utsagor har en kategorisering kring lärarnas val av undervisningsstrategier samt de faktorer som påverkar detta val av undervisningsstrategier genomförts. Resultatet visade att samtliga lärare använde sig att undervisningsstrategier som i hög utsträckning förutsätter en stark upplevd självförmåga. Dessa strategier är elevcentrerade och bygger på samtalsdemokratiska ideal där konsensus inte nödvändigtvis är målet. Källan till denna starka upplevda självförmåga hos lärarna förefaller vara tidigare erfarenheter av undervisning om kontroversiella samhällsfrågor då samtliga lärare lyfte fram deras erfarenhetsgrad som en viktig påverkansfaktor för deras undervisning. Övriga påverkansfaktorer som graden av heterogenitet i klassrummet, typ av gymnasieprogram eller den samhällsdiskurs som omgärdar den kontroversiella samhällsfrågan uppgavs som viktiga men tycktes relativt sällan påverka valet av undervisningsstrategi i någon nämnvärd utsträckning. Att det är just erfarenheter som framförallt styr valet av undervisningsstrategi stödjer hypotesen att den upplevda självförmågan är central för valet av undervisningsstrategi då erfarenheter av framgång (s.k. mastery experiences) utgör den främsta källan till en stark känsla av upplevd självförmåga enligt Banduras teori.