The purpose of this doctoral thesis in social studies didactics is to examine what teachers in social studies themselves perceive as the most important influencing factors for transforming the social studies subject, based on the intentions of the curriculum (the formulation arena), into social studies classroom teaching and assessment (the realisation arena), and how these perceptions have changed over time. It is thus what happens between the formulation arena and the realisation arena - the transformation arena, that is the focus of this thesis. The study is based on a hermeneutic-phenomenological lifeworld approach where phenomenological description and hermeneutic interpretation are essential. The empirical data consist of lifeworld interviews with 20 teachers in social studies in lower and upper secondary school; ten with long professional experience and ten fairly recently graduated.

Based on inspiration from the frame factor theoretical perspective, the result is thematically organised according to four dimensions of influencing factors: the personal dimension, the didactic dimension, the governing dimension and the societal dimension. Each of these dimensions is divided into a number of variations. The dimensions are defined along a continuum of the personally close to the societally distanced. In addition to these dimensions, the student-related aspect, which accounts for the students as an influencing factor, was introduced. The teachers in the study do not talk about the students as an influencing factor without linking them to one of the four dimensions.

The conclusion drawn from the study is that the 20 teachers all have very different stories about what they perceive as the most important influencing factors. Some focus on personal background or personal interests. Others focus on didactic ideas, on the curriculum or on organisational and economic frames. The study also shows that the teachers all have one or two dominant dimensions discernible in their stories, which also affect how they talk about the other dimensions. The teachers' stories also show that they feel that the teaching and what affects it change significantly over time. At the collective level, the two respondent groups differ on a number of aspects; however, the interview material reveals similarities among the individual teachers, whether they have worked for 40 years or are newly graduated, when it comes to other aspects.

Perhaps the most important contribution of the study is that it exemplifies theoretical perspectives by, for instance, highlighting that what affects the teaching of a subject is so complex that the framework factor theoretical scaffolding must be adapted to the specific study and its issues and research materials.

The purpose of this research in social studies didactics is to examine what teachers in social studies perceive as the most important influencing factors for the transformation from social studies as school subject to social studies as classroom teaching, based on didactic questions as; What?, How? and Why?, and how this is perceived has changed over a period of about twenty years or more.

The study is based on the hermeneutic-phenomenological life-world approach, where phenomenological description and hermeneutic interpretation are central. The empirical data consist of interviews with ten teachers in social studies with extensive professional experience in lower secondary school, upper secondary school or adult education.

The result is thematically based on inspiration from frame factor theory in four dimensions of influencing factors, which are; The personal dimension, The didactic dimension, The governing dimension and The societal dimension. Each of these dimensions is divided into a number of variations. The dimensions are designed on the principle of the personally close to the societal distanced. In addition to these dimensions, an aspect of these is added. It is The pupil aspect, whose content pupils as influencing factor. The teachers in the study never talk about pupils and their influence on the teaching without connection to any of the four dimensions.

Conclusions drawn in the study is that the ten teachers all have very different stories about what they perceive as the most important influencing factors. Some places the greatest emphasis on their personal background or personal interests. Others focus more on didactic ideas, on policy documents or on the economical and organizational framework. The study also shows that all the teachers have one or two dominant dimensions as most visible, that also affects the way they talk about the other dimensions. The teachers’ stories also show that they perceive that the teaching and what impact this change appreciably over time.

The study’s most important contribution is perhaps that it exemplifies theoretical perspectives, for an example highlighting that the frame factor theoretical scaffolding must be adapted to the specific study and its issues and research materials.

Den 31 oktober 2019 fyller samhällskunskapsämnet 100 år. Eller? Det beror på vad vi menar. Den 31 oktober 1919 infördes i folkskolans tvååriga fortsättningsskola medborgarkunskap, vilket kan ses som en föregångare till dagens samhällskunskapsämne. Men det var långt ifrån alla elever som gick i denna skolform. Ämnet hade bland annat funktionen att fostra eleverna till fungerande samhällsmedborgare, men redan långt tidigare hade denna funktion innehafts av andra ännen inom folkskolan. För läroverkens del låg en del som vi kan kalla statskunskap inom ramen för läroverkens historieundervisning, men denna undervisning var det än mindre andel av befolkningen som tog del av. Om vi syftar till samhällskunskapsämnet utifrån hur ämnet ser ut idag så är det betydligt yngre, vi får gå fram till 1955 och försöksverksamheten med enhetsskolan för att finna det moderna samhällskunskapsämnets tillblivelse och ska vi räkna med då det officiellt infördes för flertalet elever får vi sätta år 1962 och införandet av grundskolan som startår. Så frågan hur gammalt ämnet är får olika svar beroende på vad vi menar.

The aim of the present study is to investigate whether social studies in compulsory school grades 7–9 can be perceived as having a clear canon regarding subject content, methods, used sources and examination methods. Previous research has suggested that social studies is unclear, vague and that it lacks a subject canon. The results of the present study points in both directions. On the one hand, the study shows that there is a clear core of content around which lower secondary social studies teaching revolves and a common foundation regarding how this content is mainly conveyed and examined. On the other hand, the study shows that there is also great variation between different teachers, variation that can be partly explained by the teachers' preferences. Different teachers seem to have different preferences when it comes to how they teach, what methods and sources they use and how sections are examined. For example, there are significant correlations between how teachers who use group-based methods also use group-based examinations. An important factor for the variation between teachers can be traced to gender. At group level, we see differences regarding male and female teachers based on subject matter, methods, sources and examination methods. In general, there is a common core for most social studies teachers, regardless of gender, but female teachers tend to cover a broader subject content, use a wider array of methods and sources and more varied forms of examination.

Hur kan bilden i konsthistorien användas för att levandegöra undervisningen? Utifrån konst går det att skapa större förståelse för vår samtid, belysa maktstrukturer och normer, visualisera och konkretisera människors tankevärldar i olika tider samt sätta in den enskilda individen i ett historiskt sammanhang.

I Undervisningens konst vill författarna lyfta fram bildens didaktiska kraft som ett aktivt och medvetet komplement till olika ämnen, till exempel historia och litteratur. Genom konsthistoriska bilder, illustrationer och en variation av didaktiska upplägg visar de hur bilden kan fördjupa kunskaper samt engagera elever och studenter till ett kritiskt tänkande och engagerat lärande.

Boken vänder sig till lärare, lärarutbildare, studenter och andra som är intresserade av bilden och bildningen. Den spänner över förskola, grundskola, gymnasieskola samt högre utbildning.