"Those whose history we just skip" : A study of five upper secondary school teachers' planning work and approaches to a Western canon in the subject of history.

In the subject of history, a canon can be identified, which refers to the knowledge that is seen as desirable and immortal. This knowledge is what is perceived as general education and thus worth remembering. This means that the knowledge that falls outside of the canon is perceived as less important and therefore can be forgotten. The depiction of history that is often reproduced in textbooks and teaching can be called Western Eurocentric history telling or the Western canon. The Western canon in education has been identified and established previously by historians and can be identified in the central contents of both the fundamental courses in history offered in the Swedish upper secondary school. The aim of this study is to illustrate history teachers’ thoughts on planning work, with a special focus on how teachers relate to the Western canon in the subject of history. This is done through semi-structured interviews with five history teachers, all working in the same midsize city. Three of the five teachers work at the same public school, the other two teachers work at two different vocational schools in the city. The results of the interviews are then analyzed through an analysis tool developed by the historian Laila Nielsen, composed of four strategies for teaching in a multicultural society. The strategies are based on different theories in previous research in the same scientific area. The meaning of each strategy has been adapted to the purpose of this study. The results of the interviews are presented based on three subheadings. The results are then analyzed through on the four strategies presented in the theoretical approach, integrated in the analysis are comparisons with results from previous studies. The four strategies for teaching in a multicultural society are expressed in different ways in the interviewed teachers' planning work and approach to the Western history canon. In addition, none of the five teachers is based solely on one strategy. A conclusion drawn from the results of the study is that it is not always desirable to problematize the Western canon, but that it can be a tool for teachers to ensure that the most important material is included in a course. In the finishing part of the essay, I reflect over results and give examples of further research