This study investigates how graduating students at Swedish upper secondary school perceive the content and form of education in social science regarding the subject areas of labor market and equality. The study also investigates how students perceive their own possibilities on the labor market and whether these perceptions can be derived from content in social science education. Furthermore, the study presents how the students’ perceptions of possibilities on the labor market and the content and form of social science education might affect students’ motivation to study. The selection consists of seven interviews with four women and three men from a school unit for special sports-profile programs at an upper secondary school in the north of Sweden. These students were selected because girls at this school unit generally have reached higher grades than boys for a long time and that the grade differences between the genders is remarkably bigger than the national average. The fact that the students are athletes was also an important part of the selection since the labor market for elite-athletes is often described as one of the most unequal, with prominent wage differences between men and women. Therefore, it was interesting to investigate how students who aim for that labor market perceive their possibilities and how school takes part in forming these perceptions. The result shows that the content and form of education in social science does matter for what perceptions of the labor market students develop. However, it is not the most contributing factor, especially not for the perceptions they have about the labor market for elite-athletes. Eventsfrom their childhood, found statistics as well as news and posts on social media are described as more meaningful factors. Although, all the respondents present views of the labor market as unequal and gender segregated, both for elite-athletes and in general. For many of them there is a strong connection between these perceptions and their motivation to study, even thoughtheir family-situation and taught-in gender roles are declared as examples of other important contributing factors. Three theoretical points are used to discuss the result. The three educational and philosophical dimensions qualification, socialization and subjectification, and the theoretical frameworks gender socialization and hegemonic masculinity. The results of the study show that some essential values seem to be lost in the education of social science. Many of the respondent’s experience that the education often contributes to reenforcing norms and structures of inequality rather than challenging them. An interpretation is also that taught-in gender roles and constructed ideals of masculinity affect male and female students to have different attitudes towards studies and work life, which ultimately affects their grades. The conclusion is that the content and form of education in social science regarding the labor market and equality probably needs to develop to become more nuanced, problematized and based on discussions. In that way, negative patterns may be broken, where girls occasionally will be able to lower the pressure they put on themselves and boys will become more motivated to study and improve their grades.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:ltu-91093 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Setzman, Elin |
| Publisher | Luleå tekniska universitet, Institutionen för ekonomi, teknik, konst och samhälle |
| 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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