The topic of this essay is about teachers, who teaches in the subject Swedish, opinions in a literary canon. This study will present how they argue about a formally decided literary canon and how the teachers argue in using canon in their education. I have used an argumentative analysis to analyse the teachers’ arguments. The earlier research in the field concluded that the canon debate is polarized and mostly discussing whether canon is good or bad, and not so much on trying to discuss it in a constructive way on how to use canonized literature in school. My research concludes that the teachers’ opinions on canon are essentially polarized, but many teachers also think that a canon is at the same time beneficial, important and problematic. A majority of the arguments used on both sides are the same arguments that are used by the scientific literary field which studies canon. The biggest difference is the alignment to an educational context.

The result show that the teachers’ use different pro-arguments and suggestions on how to establish a definite literary canon that could be used within the school system. Some argue for a formally decided literary canon established by the state and mean that the education will be equal and distinct, and students will develop the same cultural references. But not all teachers are positive to the proposition of a state established literary canon. The arguments on why and how teachers use canon in the education are similar to why there should be a definite literary canon in all schools.

The contra-arguments the teachers’ use for a formally decided literary canon are that it will intrude in the teachers’ possibilities to adapt the education to the students. They also use contra-arguments that says the canonized literature is not adaptable to the students’ interests and that it is narrow and exclusive. They also mean that it is time consuming and will remove teachers’ possibilities to plan their education and make it adaptable for the students. The teachers’ contra-arguments on using canon in the education are similar to the above contra-arguments that the canonized literature is problematic in the perspective of authors and adaptiveness to different groups of students.