The purpose of this study is to analyze how Swedish students in year 9 perceives of, relates to and makes meaning of the historical narrative of a Holocaust survivor. The material used consist of letters written to the survivor Ilona Enqvist after her presentations in Swedish schools during the mid-1990s. The main conclusion is that the life story ...
This study examines middle-school students’ perspectives on significant history in the context of Swedish history. Data was generated from 14 focus groups in five middle schools, with students (n=53) aged 11-12, who first completed a picture-selection task and then participated in semi-structured focus-group interviews. Analysis was conducted using...
Although the population of Finland has always been culturally and linguistically diverse, history education in Finland has nonetheless long excluded the history of its minorities and its colonial past. Instead, history education has portrayed Finland as a historically homogeneous nation-state. This article examines the representation of minorities ...
Danish and Norwegian high school students are assessed in oral examinations, delivering a presentation and a discussion with two teachers of the discipline, in order to graduate. Oral exams are high stakes since average grades determine entrance into higher education. In an ethnographically inspired case study, the article examines students’ percep...
This article is a discussion of memory from a didactic perspective. The starting point is to frame memory theory which studies memory processes as phenomena in perpetual negotiation between understandings of the past, present interests and needs, and future expectations. To empower students as independent participants in memory cultures they are pa...
In this study we analyze subject specific content in texts written in history education in school year 4 in a Swedish context. The study employs two different approaches to (text) content analysis: Analysis of representation of an historic vis-à-vis a practical perspective on the past, and analysis of the specific linguistic construals of the texts...
In this study we analyze subject specific content in texts written in history education in school year 4 in a Swedish context. The study employs two different approaches to (text) content analysis: Analysis of representation of an historic vis-à-vis a practical perspective on the past, and analysis of the specific linguistic construals of the texts...
Over the past 20 years, concepts of historical thinking and historical consciousness have received increasing attention in the field of history education and history didactics. This new orientation in the teaching of history has involved the need to take into account the complexity of the historical discourse and more generally the multiple ways i...
The study takes its point of departure in two interrelated discussions on education. One addresses the extent to which education should include aspects from academic disciplines, while the second addresses observed differences between two groups of students those with a Swedish background and those with a non-Swedish background. The research questi...
This study aims to describe the teaching of historical thinking and reasoning in upper secondary education in Iceland and to what extent teachers teach for these higher order thinking skills in their daily practice. We used the observation instrument, Teach-HTR, to rate 54 history lessons. It is now apparent that some form of HTR is present in near...
