Democracyeducation and schoolelection : A cooperative or tensionfilled meeting?

Swedish schools are responsible for a democracy-mission, to educate democratic citizens. School elections can thus be a tool where the students can practice an important democratic act, namely to vote. This may seem unproblematic, but the question is whether there is always a collaboration between them? The present study aims to investigate the teachers´assessment of school elections in relation to the school´s democracy mission, how the school election has been made concrete in the teaching and what opportunities and challenges it entails. The purpose is examined in relation to the theoretical framework of the study, consisting Linde´s curriculum theory and Reinhardt´s democracy competencies. The theories are used to explore the integration of democracy education and the work of school election in the teaching of civics. The study is based on interviews with seven teachers in civics from three different upper secondary schools. The result shows a twofold view among the teachers, which creates a difference between theory and practice regarding school election and democracy education. Furthermore, it appears that school elections include opportunities to promote student´s democratic competencies, while different challenges can inhibit such a development. However, the result also points out that the existence of different challenges can be a prerequisite for the students to have a chance to develop their skills in democracy at all