The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the schools’ pupils have the capacity to understand societal change through social consciousness. In order to investigate that a theory has been developed specifying what social consciousness means and how it is used. The theory has been used as a tool in an ideology critical analysis of the steering documents on which the schools’ work is based. The results of the study show difficulties when it comes to providing the prerequisites which are necessary to create social consciousness among the pupils in school today. Subsequently, the pupils acquire an instrumental view of how democracy operates and therefore lose the comprehension of the intrinsic meaning of democracy itself.