Historieundervisning i det multimediala klassrummet : lärares förhållningssätt till olika mediers kvaliteter och användbarhet

In Sweden, the subject of history has become more comprehensive and diverse in recent decades. Parallel to this development, a new media landscape has been established, both in society at large and in school. Today there is a wide variety of teaching materials available, such as documentaries, news media, digitalized source material, music, computer games, encyclopedias, popular scientific articles, etc. This raises questions about which types of media history teachers use to teach their subject. The aim of this study is to analyze how teachers approach and relate to the qualities and usability of different media for teaching and learning history in upper secondary school. Semi-structured interviews are used to obtain detailed accounts of how teachers view their media use. Methodologically, the study examines teaching materials in a practice-oriented research tradition, focusing on the perceptions and uses of various media. Media ecology and sociocultural theory serve as the theoretical basis of the study. In brief, these theoretical perspectives claim that media should not be seen as neutral and value-free channels for conveying information, because intermediary media can both form and affect the learning that comes through the use of a certain medium. The concept of affordance is used in order to highlight and analyze how teachers view the effects that various types of media might have on how students understand history. This study shows that history teaching in upper secondary school is conducted in a media-rich environment. Based on the categorizations used, the eleven teachers who participated in this study report that they use a total of eighteen different types of media, and this complements and nuances the image of history teaching as a textbook-driven activity. This study also shows diversity in the teachers’ media repertoires. To explain this variation and to show the considerations underlying teachers’ media use, the term mediation strategies is used. The use of this concept shows that teachers’ perceptions of the usability of various media depend on how they perceive the qualities of these various media, as well as how the teachers relate both to the subject of history and to the pupils. Based on previous research and the results of the present study, it is concluded that it is advisable to advocate an extensive and varied media use when teaching history. Furthermore, it is highlighted that there is a need for a thorough discussion regarding which types of media should be part of history teachers’ media repertoires and what kind of mediation competence history teachers require today