The Meaning of Our History : A discourse analysis of the Sami school and Swedish elementary school’s work with identity in history class

Within the educational system you will experience students from different cultures, thus the question was asked: what are the expectations on you as a teacher when working with the students’ process of a positive identity view? The essay has examined how elementary school and the sami school work with identity in school and in history class. The investigation has been executed through Critical Doscourse Analysis (CDA) on the source material Syllabi and course plan for history subject for elementary school and sami school fråm 1994 and 2011, and syllabus for sami school from 1996. The results presented reveals a change in how the words identity and the sami people are assoicated with and how these concepts should be treated in the syllabi and the cours plans for history from 1994 and 2011. In the syllabi and course plan in history from 1994 identity is strongly associated with culture and cultural heritage and the sami perspective should be included as a part of the swedish and nordic perspective. The sami school has provided the teachers with a guidance in the history subject including how to teach in order to mediate a sami perspective. In the syllabus and course plan for history from 2011, the sami perspective is exkluded and instead the sami people are placed in a context of learning about “the others”. Identity is no longer strongly associated with culture in this syllabus, but instead the focus is directed towards language and historical narratives connected with identity development