Educare (Jun 2008)
Blivande historielärares förståelse av mångfaldsfrågor i ett historiedidaktiskt perspektiv
Abstract
Teaching history in a diverse and plural society: history teacher students´ understanding of class, gender and ethnicity from the perspective of history didactics the mid-1990’s Sweden is officially spoken of as a multicultural society where diversity should be accepted as a natural part of everyday life. Gender, class and ethnicity are important aspects of this diversity within different contexts of society, where the national framework and its goals are transformed into local practice. One of these local practices is the classroom in which the teacher interacts with the pupils from a specific school subject/content. Within teacher education it is stressed that teacher students should be prepared for work in a multicultural school, and be able to prepare their pupils for life in a diverse and plural society. But it is not obvious how these competences can be transformed into teaching. One of the things emphasized in the syllabus of history as a school subject, is that history should contribute to educate pupils into democratic, solidary and tolerant citizens, abilities that are assumed to be of importance in a society characterized by diversity. How this should be done is not expressed, but being a history teacher implies interpreting the syllabus and realizing its goals. One can assume that this is one of the things discussed in teacher education with the teacher students in history. In this study I investigate, if and how, aspects of diversity (gender, class and ethnicity) are understood by history teacher students. This includes both which aspects that are stressed and how they are understood from the perspective of teaching history. A qualitative method with a hermeneutic approach has been applied in analysing the data.
