In this essay, my focus has been to study the progress of the ”new” fathers ideals in youth literature used in schools today. The base for my comparative study on the ”new” fathers change over time, has been the article of Vivi Edtröms ”Det gäller pappa – fäder och döttrar i ungdomsboken” which she presents in Ungdomsboken from 1984. What Edtröm has done is pin-pointing some of the ”new” fathers attributes in youth literature of the 1970’s. In this study, I also incorporated some of the didactic aspects that teachers need to have in mind when choosing literature for students to read.
My analysis show new problem areas in the description of the father in youth literature written in the last 20 years. These new father ideals where not present in Edtröms study conducted in the 1970’s. These new ideals that I have seen in my study, has an origin in honor cultures and is a relatively new phenomenon in Swedish youth literature. This by itself demands that teachers today need to have a good insight in present gender and reception research to be able to use youth literature in classroom situations and in the same time follow the directives that the curriculum statues. The teacher’s awareness of gender specific issues is central in order to deal with the questions that can be highlighted when letting students read literature that has such distinctive attributes of fathers from an other religion and culture, particular fathers from an Middle Eastern origin.