The curiosity for source criticism was something that sparked in us during our internships. We discovered that students, even at an early age, frequently use digital sources and social media to find information and news. The purpose of this meta-study is to find out how the Swedish school system teaches the younger students about critical thinking and source criticism. The current Swedish curriculum mentions in the introductory chapters, along with the core content for Swedish and civics education, that the students should get the opportunity during their education in compulsory school to develop a source-critical approach. The research question posed was therefore “Are the younger students in compulsory school given the right tools and conditions to develop their critical thinking in civics education, to thus understand contemporary society?”. To find answers to this question, a qualitative textual analysis was conducted to determine a selection of related literature. The results showed that the schools lacked practical work regarding critical thinking and source criticism. As a result the teachers find it difficult to determine how it should be incorporated, along with which subject is responsible for it. Studies have shown confusion mainly among Swedish and civics teachers, since both teachers considered source criticism to be the other teacher's area of responsibility. The results also included which abilities are needed for a student to be able to develop a source-critical approach to thinking, also how a phenomenon can be interpreted differently depending on the experiences of the observer. The primary conclusion drawn was that there is a significant lack of research focusing on students in elementary school and how they relate to media and other information they meet every single day. It was also concluded that there is a lack of communication regarding this topic in the Swedish school system and how important it is for young students to develop critical thinking skills to be able to participate in our society as democratic citizens.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mau-57993 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Svensson, Annie, Malmqvist, Julia |
| Publisher | Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för lärande och samhälle (LS) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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