Identitet och svenskhet : En diskursiv granskning av svenska läroböcker i historia

This thesis is concerned with how identity is connected to historical writings and what normsshapes the perspectives of history. The purpose of this study is to investigate the possibilitiesfor identification offered in history books used for history teaching. This study is concernedwith what role the nation plays and how it shapes the conception of history, with the hope ofcounteracting negative attitudes towards those not being identified as “Swedish” in the historytelling.The study was conducted through discourse analysis. The material for this analysis consistedof three history books directed towards 4-6th graders.The study shows how identity is created through putting “us” against “them”. The Swedishnation is the principal starting point of identity formation in the study material. It is in broadercontexts replaced by an western “us”. The rest of the world is only mentioned sparsely inrelation to this western “us”. The past is used to create a source of collective identity. Thenation constitutes an unquestioned base of unity. The nationalism and the history telling isconnected to ideas of social evolution. The western thinking and development is being presented as superior