History teachers attitudes and perceptions towards intercultural history education.

The role of history education has traditionally been viewed as a subject to foster a sense ofnational identity and patriotism, understanding one's own nation's history, culture, andperspectives. Recently however, with the development of global communication andmigration, there has been a shift in the goals of history education in Sweden to focus on theinclusion and development of intercultural perspectives. Although this is the goal, historyteachers find it difficult to adopt such teaching. This study aims to understand the problemsand challenges history teachers face in their work with intercultural pedagogy andintercultural history education. In this context, intercultural history education refers to aneducation that includes stories, perspectives, and narratives outside of traditionaleurocentrism, and focuses on development of skills and abilities that lets students beknowledgeable, understand and take active part in a multicultural society To reach this aim, we conducted four qualitative interviews with a semi structured approachwhich entails an informal conversational style interview based on a beforehand constructedinterview guide. Participants were chosen based on certain criteria relevant to the studyincluding formal education, experience, and subjects. The interviews were recorded,transcribed, and later analyzed using an open coding method where themes and key aspectswere identified. The results suggest that teachers face several challenges in their work to include and developintercultural history skills and knowledge. Time restraints, lack of clear guidelines withincurriculums and steering documents, as well as traditions within history education and historyteaching aids were some of the most relevant findings of the study. On this basis, teachereducation and education in general should focus on addressing these issues