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There is a general consensus that education is crucial for achieving sustainable development. Education for sustainable development aims to foster citizens capable of participating independently and actively in creating a sustainable future. The overarching aim of this thesis is to contribute to knowledge on the relationship between education and sustainability. Specifically, the objective is to analyse how content on sustainable development is constructed in educational materials. Theoretically, the thesis is guided by sociological perspectives on environmental problems, knowledge, education and individualisation. The empirical data consists of textbooks in biology, civics, geography, home and consumer studies, and religion for Swedish lower secondary schools. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the empirical material. The thesis examines how textbook content on sustainable development is organised and constructed. A key focus of the analysis relates to how multidimensionality and relationships between the dimensions of sustainable development are constructed in textbooks. The social dimension of sustainability is analysed in particular detail. Further attention is directed to how conflicts and the politics of sustainable development are constructed in textbooks. Constructions of change and historical contextualisation of sustainable development are also highlighted. A key result is that textbooks put a disproportionate focus on the ecological dimension of sustainable development. Parts of the social dimension of sustainable development, such as sexuality and gender equality, are generally not presented as sustainability issues. Another relevant result is that textbooks tend to obscure the complexities of sustainable development. Political conflicts, which are crucial for understanding sustainability challenges, are often rendered invisible. Both androcentric and anthropocentric perspectives also characterise textbook content about sustainability. Furthermore, the analysis shows that teleological and utopian narratives are dominant in the textbooks’ content about change and historical contextualisation of sustainable development. These conditions might challenge the potential role of education as part of sustainable development.

This compilation thesis contains an introductory chapter and four original articles. The studies comprising this thesis all concern aspects of how historical culture is constituted in historical media and history teachers’ narratives and teaching. It is argued that the teaching of history is a complex matter due to an internal tension resulting from the fact that history is both a product and a process at the same time. While historical facts, and knowledge thereof, are an important aspect of history, history is also a product of careful interpretation and reconstruction. This study analyses and discusses how history is constituted in history textbooks and popular history magazines, i.e. two common historical media, and in teachers’ narratives and teaching of history. The study finds that the historical media studied generally tend to present history as void of perspective, interpretation and representation, suggesting this to be the culturally warranted form of historical exposition. Moreover, the teachers studied also tend to approach history as if it were not contingent on interpretation and reconstruction. These results indicate that the history disseminated in historical media and history classrooms presents history in a factual way and disregards the procedural aspects of history. Applying the history didactical concepts of historical consciousness, historical culture and uses of history, this thesis argues that an essential aspect of historical understanding is an appreciation of the contextual contingency that characterises history. All history is conceived within a particular context that is pertinent to why and how a certain version of history is constructed. Furthermore, all history is also received within a particular context by people with particular preconceptions of history that are contextually contingent, in the sense that they are situated in a certain historical culture. Readers of historical media are members of societies and are thus affected by how history is perceived and discussed in these contexts. This thesis argues that an awareness of these aspects of history is an important factor for furthering a complex understanding of history that encompasses the tension highlighted above.

Historians are increasingly intent upon building firmer knowledge and understanding about the ways students learn history and the strategies and curricula that lead to effective learning. In Enriching History Teaching and Learning the contributors report on studies that provide important knowledge and insights about teaching and learning history in higher education. They discuss issues such as the supervision of undergraduate dissertations, the challenges of fostering critical reading, the value of making history students co-producers in the learning process, and how historians learn to become history teachers. The contributors are Alan Booth, Stefan Ekecrantz, KG Hammarlund, David Ludvigsson, Friederike Neumann, György Nováky, Ulf Olsson, Jenny Parliden, Andrei Sokolov and Alison Twells. Contents List of Tables and Figures Acknowledgements David Ludvigsson & Alan Booth: Introduction. Building Knowledge, Building Connections Stefan Ekecrantz, Jenny Parliden & Ulf Olsson: Teaching-research Nexus or Mock Research? Student Factors, Supervision and the Undergraduate Thesis in History KG Hammarlund: Continuous Assessment of Historical Knowledge and Competence: Challenges, Pitfalls, and Possibilities Alison Twells: 'More than gaining a mark': Students as Partners and Co-producers in Public History and Community Engagement Friederike Neumann: How Does a Historian Read a Scholarly Text and How do Students Learn to do the Same? Andrei Sokolov: The Development of Students' Critical Thinking through Teaching the Evolution of School History Textbooks: A case study György Nováky: The Same History for All? Tuning History Alan Booth: How Historians Develop as Teachers Funded by The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities (Kungl. Vitterhetsakademien) and a number of instances at Linköping University.

This article presents a study of how contemporary Swedish lower secondary school textbooks present the emergence of the Cold War and how 10 active lower secondary school history teachers interpreted a quotation that was ambiguous in relation to the general narrative in the studied Swedish textbooks, seeking to analyse textbooks both from the perspectives of content and reception. Applying a theoretical framework of uses of history, the study finds that the narratives presented in the studied textbooks are what could be called traditional in the sense that they do not acknowledge perspective and representation in history. While the interviewed teachers generally acknowledged that textbook narratives are representations of history and contingent on perspective, few teachers extended this to include how their own views affect their interpretations, suggesting an intermediary appreciation of the contextual contingency of historical narratives., IARTEM e-journal, Vol. 7 No. 2 (2015)

The purpose of this study is to provide a detailed description of the way fractions are processed in Turkish and Swedish mathematics textbooks. For our investigation of textbooks, we used several theoretical notions such us different ways of understanding fractions (part-whole, ratio, measure, quotient, decimal and operator), representations (treatment, conversion), making distinctions between routine tasks and problems, classifying contexts of examples and problems in terms of real-life situations, semi-realities, and pure mathematics, and about texts narrative and paradigmatic styles. Through our analyses of these three textbooks, we have come to a result that shows similarities and differences among the textbooks, regarding the topics included and their sequencing, how the concept of fractions is represented in exercises and examples. The findings are emphasized with figures, tables and diagrams that illustrate the similarities and differences between mathematics textbooks inTurkeyinSwedenas well as the textbooks’ development in Turkey. Abstrakt Syftet med denna studie är att ge en detaljerad beskrivning av hur bråk behandlas i turkiska och svenska läroböcker för matematik. I vår undersökning, använde vi flera teoretiska begrepp såsom olika sätt att förstå bråk (del-helhet, förhållande, mått, kvot, decimaltal och operator), representationer (behandling, omvandling), att skilja på rutinuppgifter och problem, att klassificera exempel och uppgifters kontexter i termer av verkliga situationer, semi-verkligheter, och ren matematik, och om texters berättande och paradigmatiska stilar. Genom våra analyser av dessa tre läroböcker, har vi kommit fram till ett resultat som visar både likheter och skillnader mellan dem, både vad gäller de ingående ämnena och deras sekvensering och hur begreppet bråk har representerats i övningar och exempel. Resultaten beskrivs med bilder, tabeller och diagram som illustrerar likheter och skillnader mellan matematikläroböcker i Turkiet och Sverige och dessutom visar läroböckernas utveckling i Turkiet.