Historia - för mig : En intervjustudie av gymnasieelevers uppfattningar av historia

The purpose of this study is to deepen the understanding of the identity, place and meaning of history in history teaching and the society in general. This is done through interviews with eight students at the Swedish Upper Secondary School. Students has an essential role in how history teaching becomes meaningful and how the history culture of our society today and in the future is shaped. The following research questions are answered in this study: I. What perceptions of history, related to the didactic questions about the content, method, and purpose of history, do students at the Upper Secondary School have? II. What historical knowledge, that is, as content-related knowledge in history, skill-related knowledge about history and meaning-making-related knowledge of history, do these perceptions of history express? To answer the research questions, qualitative semi-structured interviews are conducted. The interviews are then analyzed with the support of general didactic theories about the what, how and why of history, and history didactic theories of historical knowledge in, about and of history. Thus, the didactic questions (what/how/why) and the aspects of historical knowledge (in/about/of) have answered the research questions of this study by mapping students’ perceptions of history and distinguishing historical knowledge in their perceptions of history. The study shows that students perceive history in different ways, emphasizing different aspects of the content (what), method (how) and purpose (why) of history. The study also shows that students develop different forms of historical knowledge, which are considered necessary in the Swedish school and historical science, but they do it in a slightly different way than what may be intended. The result indicate that students’ thoughts of history are often rooted in a perception of history as the past, which has consequences for how they view aspects of history and what historical knowledge they express. To develop historical knowledge, one must know what has happened thus being aware of people and events of the past. Therefore, history is told, not necessarily interpreted. Accordingly, students see history as a life lesson. With history – knowing what has happened in the past – one can avoid making mistakes in the present and therefore develop the future one strives for. In addition, students regard source criticism as something motivated by their time – a time characterized by fake news and social media – rather than a basic historical method in the subject of history