Teaching when in lack of time : A qualitative study about the influence of the lack of time in the Swedish upper secondary history teaching

The aim of the study presented in this report was to analyse how the lack of time in the subjectof history, in Swedish upper secondary school, tend to influence the process of history didacticsthat affects teachers’ implementation of the curriculum. Furthermore, the study aimed toanalyse the outcome of the history didactics process in the vocational and theoretical programs.The process was examined through qualitative interviews with six history teachers that teach in two basic history courses and the analysis was based on a theoretical framework consisting of Street-Level Bureaucracy, Curriculum Theory and Vertical and Horizontal discourses. The result shows that the lack of time influences the execution of the history teaching in many ways. The history teaching in the vocational programs is though affected to a greater extent than the theoretical programs. Furthermore, the teachers in the present study find themselves in a complicated dilemma when it comes to balancing the ideal of the curriculum and the ideal of history teaching. The teachers shall both live up to the curriculum, while also adjusting the teaching to available time and students’ individual needs. The study also reaches the conclusion that the students in the vocational programs tend to have fewer opportunities to practise both vertical and horizontal knowledge, when compared to students in the theoretical programs. Based on Bernstein, this can be said to indicate that a reproduction of the prevailing social order and inequalities in society occur within the subject of history in Swedish upper secondary school. Finally, the teachers’ ability to deal with the prevailing problems could be facilitated through better conditions to execute the curriculum’s content, such as extended teaching time or a smaller amount of content to process and examine, especially within the vocational program where the implementation of the curriculum is most problematic