Citizenship education, national identity and political trust: The case of Sweden

The challenging effects of globalization upon the nation-state have been a recurrent theme in the social science discourse since the 1990’s. Nationally organized education is also seen as challenged by new demands originating from globalization. In this article it is argued that ‘nation-state’ and ‘national identity’ are highly relevant concepts when discussing a citizenship education that seeks to develop a civic ethos with, potentially, a global reach. It is further argued that the understanding of such an ethos would benefit significantly from incorporating the role of political trust since trust has been identified as a main feature of the social capital that makes democracy work. Three themes are brought together: national identity and identification, the importance for democracy of political trust and the challenges citizenship education face when carried out in a national context but intended to manage issues that go far beyond the reach of the nation-state. The importance of citizenship education is discussed using recent research on the Swedish citizenship education classroom.

The Voice of History and the Message of the National Curriculum: Recontextualising History to a Pedagogic Discourse for Upper Secondary VET

In the reform by the liberal-conservative government of Swedish upper secondary education in 2011, history was recognized as an important part of citizenship education and was introduced into the curriculum for vocational education and training (VET) tracks. Through the concepts of classification and framing, this article explores the process of constructing the history syllabus for VET. The data consist of archived material from the working group responsible for the history curriculum under the Swedish National Agency for Education. The analysis shows that there are competing discourses concerning the relative emphasis on competencies and skills and concerning the emphasis on contemporary and modern history. Although historians, history teachers and other agents are invited to respond to the content of the curriculum, the respondents have no influence on the knowledge structure of the curriculum, which is controlled by agents of the dominant educational ideology. From a critical perspective, this article suggests that the curriculum reflects the instrumental and neoconservative message of the reform through strong classification and framing and through the emphasis on general abilities and a contemporary history that has a more direct explanatory value to contemporary society.

Samhällskunskap och historia i svensk gymnasieskola: ämnenas roll och relation i diskurs och ämnesplaner

The adoption of new syllabuses in history and social science in the new Swedish curriculum raises questions on the relationship between the two subjects. Social Science and History as school subjects have previously been described as both competing and complementary. The competing aspect has mainly been descibed in terms of citizenship education and the complementary aspect has been described in terms of content, abilities, and temporality. This article discusses how history and social science relate to these four topics in didactic discourse and in the new syllabuses. In the didactic discource both subjects underline the importance of making subject matter useful in life outside school. However, the new syllabuses are very differently formulated in this sense. History is closely connected to citizenship education and describes content, abilities and temporality in such a context. Social Science on the other hand downtunes the traditional role as a subject important for citizenship. Instead, focus is aimed at disciplinary thinking and using knowledge to understand social science methods and theories. This development is seen as very problematic and challenging for a meaningful teaching of Social Science in upper secondary school. In response to this challenge, the author proposes interdisciplinary didactic development, especially in developing "dynamic concepts" within Social Science didactics.