Abstract/Summary

The study of history has always been a part of educational programmes throughout time. And the reasons behind it have also been shifting according to the needs of the society in a specific time and place. But the legitimacy of the history subject has always been in its said ability to help us understand the present through the past. Today the emergence of a globalized and multicultural society is changing both our way of life as well as our view on the world, and with it the skills and tools we need to make sense of it. And with it the reasons behind and the learning goals of history as an educational subject is shifting. International organizations have implemented guidelines and directives to its members regarding how educational goals can be used to adapt to this ongoing change.

Research regarding curriculum policymaking has shown that the Swedish curriculum is influenced by the international guidelines, but the didactic specialists, Kenneth Nordgren and Maria Johansson, has found a lack of guidance for teachers to enact these general goals on a more practical day-to-day basis. This has led them formulate a concept especially designed for history education, intercultural historical learning.

This essay’s aim is to find the conditions to apply the concept of intercultural historical learning through the history subject in the compulsory and upper secondary school in Sweden. By taking its departure in curriculum theory and using intercultural historical learning as an analytical framework, a hermeneutical text analysis is made on the Swedish history curriculum with its supporting documents as well as on the national tests of the subject.

The results indicate that there are conditions that both encourages and discourages the implementation of intercultural historical learning in history education. The curriculum’s emphasis on the usage of historic source material and use of history examples are a major contributor to the applicably of the concept. In contrast the historical narrative created by the curriculum prevents a diversity of historical experiences and voices to be present in the teaching practice. Instead a Eurocentric and political historic narrative is dominant. However, further research is required to see what other factors than those this essay examine affect the implementation of intercultural historical learning in the Swedish history classroom. This essay’s main contribution is to serve as a starting point for such research.