Bilder av det förflutna : En etnologisk studie av historieundervisningens framväxt i det åländska samhället

This study examines the development of a local history education, as taught in the compulsory levels of primary, middle and high school in Åland. The Åland islands have had a unique status of autonomy within the state of Finland since 1922, when the islands, after the Finnish independence from Russia, wished to reunite with Sweden but were made autonomous as a compromise. Åland therefore controls its own education system. This essay examines how the contents of school history have been adjusted to a regional interpretation and meaning of the past. The empirical sources are schoolbooks, school curricula, archive documents regarding education, and interviews with teachers, schoolbook authors and officials. The period examined is from 1922 until today. The aim is to show how an understanding of the past correlates with a changing present situation, how the past is made meaningful and embedded in the local region, and how these processes are connected to the formation of a collective identity and its continuation. This is done by integrating theories of collective memory mediation, national identity processes and didactic theories focusing on history as taught in school