Democracy in school: an important assignment : A qualitative study of how five first grade teachers interprets democracy education

According to the Swedish curriculum the education should establish respect for human rights and democratic values (Skolverket, 2011, s.7). The purpose of this study is to investigate how five first grade teachers understand the democracy education and how they practice it in reality. I have, based on the purpose of this study issued following questions: What is the teachers interpretation of the democracy education? How does the teachers work with democracy in practice? What difficulties does the teachers see with the democracy education? This study is made through a qualitative method based on interviews with five teachers. The results show that the teachers at both schools, despite the different definitions of the concept of democracy, yet interprets democracy education relatively equal. All of the teachers perceive the democracy education as an assignment where the focus is on student participation, responsibility and opinions as well as human rights. In practice the work with the democracy education is done through activities such as class councils and voting. The teachers also emphasizes discussions as an important part of the democracy education which can be linked to deliberative democracy. The difficulties that teachers see with the democracy education concerns being neutral to certain values. One conclusion from this study is that teachers work with democracy education mostly on the basis of learning for and learning through democracy