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In light of the pursuit of historical justice for national minorities in Sweden, research has called for a stronger focus on what state redress implies in the history educational context and the teaching and learning of difficult minority histories. As an answer to this call, this compilation thesis aims to contribute knowledge about the reconstruction of Swedish Roma history in lower secondary history education in relation to ideals of historical justice, human rights and the historical and practical perspectives on the past. This thesis explores students’ perspectives and narrative reconstructions of Roma history through four original articles. The first article focuses on students’ perceptions of human rights in history (Article I). Article II center on students’ thinking and caring about the Roma past, present and future. Article III explores how students narrate agents of change in regard to the Roma past, present and future, and Article IV provides analyses of students’ perceptions and narrative reconstructions of Roma history before and after a design-based intervention in two history classrooms. The dissertation shows how what have been perceived as conflicting ideals in history education, namely the historical and practical past, are closely intertwined in students’ narrative reconstructions of the Roma past, present and future. Considering this difficult history, students underscored the importance of a shared responsibility for Roma rights in the present and future, albeit narrating the nation-state as the single most important agent of change for Roma rights in the past, present and future. Whilst the student cohorts in Article II and Article III realise and recognise Roma rights through their narrational practices and thus may become empowered to act for a just future, the studies make evident the way in which student narratives also re-establish cultural and ethnic group boundaries, which may disempower young learners. Acknowledging the complexities that lie in difficult histories, Article IV shows how a lesson design equally emphasising the historical and practical past results in students attaining a multiperspectival understanding of the Roma past and present beyond binary positions of “victims” and “perpetrators”, as well as an awareness of the historicity in narratives of the past, and a nuanced understanding of the historical and moral dimensions of the question of responsibility in the past and present. Thus, this thesis sheds light on how we may overcome some of the challenges associated with the pursuit of historical justice in the practice of history education.

The main purpose of this essay was to interview students to get an idea of what their views of images with women in their history textbook is and how the representation, or the lack of, can affect their historical consciousness and historical identity. In order to find out this information, an unstructured interview in form of a focus group, with four students in high school, was used as well as an own review of their textbook to give a picture of the students’ perspective. The main theoretical starting point was based on gender theory with a focus on the distinction between the sexes which was used to help illuminate how the book differentiates between the sexes in terms of representation. Two theories, historical consciousness and historical identity, were also used to highlight how students are actually affected by the potentially unequal gender representation in images in their textbooks. What this essay shows is that there is a very skewed representation with a majority of men in the pictures in the book and when it is a woman she is in a position of less significance of a man. This is something the students are not happy with in general and it shows that they want a better representation in the pictures in their textbook. This has to some extent also affected their view of their historical identity as well as the students’ view of the past, present and future from a historical perspective.

I skolorna talas det alltmer om utomhuspedagogik som arbetssätt och dess inflytande på elevers inlärning. Det finns forskning som behandlar huruvida arbetssättet påverkar elevers förståelse och kunskapslagring, men desto mindre kring hur arbetssättet bedrivs i praktiken. Frågor som kan ställas är om det även kan finnas faktorer som har inflytande på användandet av arbetssättet, och varför. Syftet med föreliggande studie är att bidra med kunskap om hur lärare i Stockholms innerstad kontra förorter, använder historiska platser i form av besök i samband med sin historieundervisning. Sju legitimerade grundskolelärare i årskurs 4–6 som arbetar på olika skolor runt om i Stockholm har deltagit i studien. Metoden som använts är kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med en abduktiv ansats. Intervjufrågorna som har ställts är öppna för att respondenterna ska få utrymme till mer utförliga svar med eventuella följdfrågor. Den övergripande teorin för studien är Learning by doing av John Dewey med särskilt fokus på begreppen utomhuspedagogik, platsbaserad undervisning och upplevelsebaserat lärande. Dessa är förankrade med undersökningens innehåll, och därav baseras arbetet utifrån dessa teorier gällande lärande. Resultatet av studien visade att geografiska förutsättningar ökar användningen av arbetssättet i samband med historieundervisningen, då det oftast används i innerstaden med närhet till många av Stockholms kulturhistoriska platser. In schools you often hear about outdoor education as a way of teaching and its influence of the students learning. There is research that shows whether outdoor education has an impact on the student’s understanding and memorization, however it is hard to find research that describes how it is actually used and practiced. Questions that should be considered is whether factors that affect the use of outdoor education, and why that is. The aim of the study is to contribute with knowledge about how teachers in Stockholm’s inner city versus the suburbs, tend to use historical places in terms of visits in connection with their history teaching. The respondents who participated in the research are seven licensed primary school teachers who teach the history subject in grades 4–6 and work at different schools in Stockholm. The method that is used is qualitative and semi structured interviews with an aduktiv approach. The interview questions that have been asked are opened with the possibility to give the respondent space for a more free answer and also the possibility to ask supplementary questions. The overall theory for the study is learning by doing by John Dewey, with a particular focus on concept outdoor education, place-based education, and experience-based learning. These are strongly anchored with the consent of the research, and therefore the research is based upon these theories about learning. The result shows that the geographic closeness increase the use of the working method in connection with history education, as it is most often used in the inner city with closeness to many of Stockholm's cultural-historical places.

”Representation matters: history education through the intersectional lens” is a critical intersectional content analysis based on a qualitative interview study with three grade school teachers and one high school teacher of history. The purpose of the interviews was to chart teachers ́ perspectives on history education and to analyze their history textbooks. The participants’ thoughts were thereafter connected to our pre-constructed theoretical interpretive framework. The result that appeared through the empirical data was that the teachers experience the subject of history as a male dominated arena where women are dedicated minimal attention. Furthermore, the teachers illuminate the fact that Swedish history education is characterized by Eurocentric values, since other cultures and ethnicities remain unattended. In addition, stereotyping is a frequent occurrence. Schools constitutes as childrens’ main social platform and by exposing the pupils to stereotypical illustrations of women and people of color, the children are socialized into normative hierarchical power structures at an early age. The teachers provide testimonies of encounters with children who express hopelessness and exclusion because of deficient representation. This study also shows that the teacher is completely in charge of the pupils’ learning. This means that the teachers own identity and level of interest affect the selection of history which is conveyed to the pupils. Therefore, to rely on the teachers’ good judgement makes education arbitrary and undermines the equivalent school system.

The ambition with this research overview has been to gather what is observed regarding diversity in history classes. During recent years societies have changed on a global scale towards being more culturally diverse. There is a belief that individuals with different backgrounds are in need of special treatment. This, visionary multiculturalism or föreställda mångkulturen (as it is called in Swedish), can have both positive and negative effects on teachers and students. Teachers still seem to battle with how they should teach in diverse and heterogeneous classrooms, making the area relevant for research and investigation. Therefore, we pose the question: What does research claim regarding cultural diversity in history education? Collection of research was carried out using both Swedish (Libsearch and Swepub) and international (ERC) databases. Relevant research dissertations and articles were selected from Sweden, Finland, and Australia. This paper dives into two different areas of research: the praxis of teaching and identity. We found the history subject tends to be eurocentric, and teachers tend to turn to traditional teaching and use coursebooks for guidelines. Open attitudes towards diversity were visible in theory but absent in practice; moreover, intercultural objectives are implied in the syllabus for history. Students’ linguistic deficiencies are considered a challenge that gives rise to primitive knowledge teaching. Furthermore, links seem to be implied between low socioeconomic standing and diverse cultural backgrounds. Lastly, students state they feel they have a bisected identity which further problematizes teaching in a diverse classroom.

This research overview aims to clarify and specify the term intercultural competence, as well as to distinguish which terms and concepts researchers use in tandem with this. Further, this research overview aims to examine how intercultural competence can be understood in the context of history education. Both from a theoretical, didactical perspective - and from a practical perspective. In other words, this research overview is akin to a three-stage rocket. First, key concepts and theories are introduced; secondly, the application of intercultural competence in relation to history didactics are examined; and lastly, the practical possibilities for the aforementioned application are presented. The method used to conduct this research overview study has been information searching. The three databases that were used are ERIC, SwePub, and DiVA. ERIC was used to ensure a rich collection of international research; SwePub and DiVA were used to collect research that portray Swedish conditions. Additional research and literature has been used, in consultation with our mentor. The key conclusions gathered from the results of this study are as follows: this field of research originated on the American continent - following the civil rights movement. In an anglo-american context, the term “multicultural education” is most commonly used. The research field has striking similarities with the field known as “critical pedagogy” - with an emphasis on reforming the educational institutions as such. The application of intercultural competence within history education and Jörn Rüsen’s three narrative competencies are not only plausible - but can be seen as dimensions of one-another. Lastly, this research overview shows how intercultural historical competence can be applied in real classroom situations - more research is needed on this particular point.

Motion pictures have been used in the history classroom for a long time. Despite that fact, there are not a lot written about how this can be done. This essay, therefore, explores the possibility of a theoretical frame with the aim for a motion picture to promote the development of historical empathy among students. It is not deployed in a classroom setting; however, it seeks to study the preconditions in how it can be done. The study draws from history didactics and film analysis to study Michael Haneke´s The White Ribbon from 2009. Haneke is renown in the academic world where his movies draw a lot of attention. The reason is that his movies have a tendency to depict the ongoing decay of our society. This study aims at intertwining theory of history didactics with film analysis in order to promote the development of historical empathy among students. The theoretical frame the essay provides show a possibility in how a motion picture can be used for this purpose in the history classroom.

This study examines students’ attitude towards and understand of history as a school subject. The study is particularly interested in how the teachers’ role affects the student’s attitude. The results of this study may help to shed some light on the relationship between attitudes towards the subject and the opinion of the teacher. The study is based on qualitative interview method where twelve (12) students have been interviewed through a semi-structured interview with help of an interview guide. The students are from preparatory and vocational programs from different upper secondary schools (gymnasium) in a medium-sized municipality in Sweden.The results show that most of the students have a positive view of history as a subject, with no distinctive differences between the programs. A common idea teacher have is that students from an occupational preparing program show less motivation and engagement towards a theoretical subject as history, this study proves that idea wrong. Moreover, the results show that teachers hold a significant impact on the students’ attitude towards the subject. The relationship between the teacher and the students is critical for the motivation and commitment from the students. According to this study’s results, the teacher must have a commitment towards the profession as well as the students. It is evident if the students feel a commitment from the teacher, their own motivation is empowered.

The use of historical source material and teaching in how to do historical analysis of sources is specific subject goal and knowledge requirements in all the upper secondary school's history courses. Previous research has shown that when historical sources and how the handling of these are the content of teaching, social science source criticism is practiced. Which means that the focus is not on historical disciplinary skills, which means that Swedish upper secondary school students' skills in managing sources in a disciplinary way are relatively low. The purpose of this study is to find new knowledge about which understandings history teachers have of analysis historical sources and which underlying reasoning form the basis for teachers' design of history teaching where sources and handling of them is the lesson content. The idea is that a study like this should be able to contribute with new knowledge about the problems with source handling in schools. The study uses interviews, four history teachers were interviewed, all active in upper secondary school. The results from the study partly confirm the previous research but also contribute with new knowledge. When history teachers talk and describe the teaching of source handling is based on an absolute source concept, it is likely that the teaching is conducted in an absolute and reconstructivist approach. In the process of handling historical sources, the teachers in this study describe that great emphasis is placed on source-critical criteria, arranged and simplified source exercises as well as conveying certain predetermined perspectives on history. This provides a knowledge contribution where insight and understanding are given on how history teachers perceive historical sources, how these should be handled and how they describe the implementation of their practical teaching. Previous research has been action-based or at an overall level examined source management. Through this study, new knowledge is provided that deepens and variegate the previous research knowledge of history teachers' handling of sources. Användandet av historiskt källmaterial och undervisning i källhantering utgör ett specifikt ämnesmål och kunskapskrav i alla gymnasiets historiekurser. Den tidigare forskningen har visat att när historiska källor och hanteringen av dessa utgör historieundervisningens innehåll praktiseras ett samhällsvetenskapligt källkritiksbegrepp. Detta gör att fokus inte är på ämnesdisciplinära förmågor, något som i sin tur medför att svenska gymnasieelevers färdigheter i att hantera källor på ett historiskt sätt på goda grunder kan antas vara förhållandevis låga. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilka förståelser till källhantering av historiskt källmaterial som historielärare har och vilka bakomliggande resonemang som ligger till grund för deras utformning av historieundervisning där källor och källhantering utgör lektionsinnehållet. Tanken är att en sådan undersökning ska kunna bidra med ny kunskap om problemen med källhantering i skolorna. Undersökningen utgår från forskningsintervjuer intervjuades fyra stycken historielärare, alla verksamma i gymnasieskolan. Resultatet från studien bekräftar delvis den tidigare forskningen men bidrar också med ny kunskap. När historielärare talar och beskriver undervisningen i källhantering utifrån ett absolut källbegrepp så är det sannolikt att undervisningen bedrivs på ett absolut och rekonstruktivistiskt sätt. I processen att hantera källor beskriver lärarna i denna studien att stor vikt läggs på källkritiska kriterier, tillrättalagda och förenklade källövningar samt förmedling av lärarens förbestämda perspektiv på historien. Därigenom lämnas ett kunskapsbidrag där det ges inblick och förståelse om hur historielärare uppfattar historiska källor, hur dessa bör hanteras och hur de beskriver genomförandet av deras praktiska undervisning. Tidigare forskning har varit aktionsbaserad eller på övergripande nivå undersökt källhanteringen. Genom denna studie ges ny kunskap som fördjupar och nyanserar forskningens kunskap om historielärares källhantering.

Denna studie undersöker mellanstadielärares erfarenheter om hur de arbetar för att främja elevernas motivation och måluppfyllelse i ämnet historia och hur motivationen påverkas. Lärarna som intervjuades fick beskriva sina upplevelser och erfarenheter av att arbeta med historieämnet i klassrummet. Syftet med denna studie var att få en inblick i hur lärare kan göra historieämnet intressant och eleverna engagerande och motiverade samt belysa vilka undervisningsupplägg, arbetssätt och arbetsformer som dominerar i historieundervisningen. Studien utgår ifrån pragmatismen och självbestämmandeteorin, eftersom pragmatismen sammanför det psykologiska tankesättet och beskrivs som en faktor av hur en individ lär sig, utvecklar och strävar efter en inre och yttre kapacitet. Självbestämmandeteorin beskriver tydligt hur motivationen kan påverkas av yttre faktorer och där syftet är att utveckla en inre motivationen för att bli mer självstyrd och självständig i sitt utförande. Det som betonades i intervjuerna utifrån mellanstadielärarnas tankar och erfarenheter, var att eleverna bäst lär sig genom praktiska arbeten, dramatiseringar, estetiska lärprocesser och diskussioner i par, grupp och helklass. Fokus för lärarna låg i att skapa ett historieintresse och engagemang hos eleverna för att främja deras motivation. Det framkom även andra viktiga aspekter som kan påverka elevernas motivation och engagemang, vilket lyfts i resultatdelen. Studien visade på behovet av att som mellanstadielärare levandegöra historieämnet för att eleverna ska utveckla goda förmågor. Detta genom att göra lektionerna verklighetstrogna, måla upp bilder för eleverna, men även skapa en känsla av den tid som varit. Variationen är även den del i undervisningen som ligger till grund för intressanta och tongivande lektioner i historia för att skapa historieintresserade elever. Vidare i resultatet kom mellanstadielärarna fram till att elevernas tidigare erfarenheter lyfts in i undervisningen för att eleverna ska utvecklas tillsammans som grupp och individer, viket följaktligen skapar nya historieintressen. Slutsatsen av denna studie visade på att om lärarna är intresserade och engagerade i historieundervisningen, och skapar utvecklande och intressanta lektioner, då främjas motivationen hos eleverna något som genererar i en ökad måluppfyllelse.

The aim with this research is to investigate how knowledge about the Holocaust is expressed in history teaching. The method we have used in this essay is to examine how others have researched this subject. We have used different research articles and articles from different countries, this is because teaching about the holocaust is not limited to just Sweden.There is a lot of research concerning the holocaust, but there are not many articles that relates to the specific topic that we had, so we had to narrow our articles down. We choose articles that focused on teaching and teaching materials, either by books or visiting a historical place connected to the holocaust. As we can see in the conclusion, most nations teach about the holocaust in different ways. This is because they have different historical backgrounds, and they have different ways on how to approach the holocaust.

The following knowledge overview, or SAG, aims to chart the results of scientific research to answer how historical narratives are considered in Swedish and Danish primary- and secondary history education. The methods used for collecting data are inquiries in databases and processing scientific journals. The results show that teachers are heavily affected by the historical narratives based on the historical culture they were raised in, and a subsequent consequence is involuntary tendentious teaching, presenting the learners with an already weighted take on history. Furthermore, the learners themselves carry their own narratives based on their life experiences and family histories. These narratives are not considered in teaching, leaving learners experiencing exclusion from the narratives presented in school. Thus, a lack of meaningfulness and lacking motivation for history as a school subject.

Källkritiken tycks vara ett svårorienterat undervisningsinnehåll för historielärare på gymnasiet enligt resultatet av denna uppsats. Syftet var att ta reda på hur lärare reflekterar kring källkritik som undervisningsinnehåll och genom intervjuer med sju lärare har många insikter kommit till ytan. Intervjuerna visar bland annat att lärarna tycker att det är svårt att rymma källkritiken i ett pressat tidsschema och att läroplanens mål är svåra att uppnå. En prioriteringsordning där historiskt stoff ställs före källkritiken syns i många av lärarnas redogörelser och eleverna har enligt flertalet lärare svårt att applicera källkritik och uppnå höga betyg i kunskapskravet. En anledning till deras svårigheter tycks enligt vissa lärare vara deras bristande historiska förkunskaper, och intresset verkar också vara av betydelse. Många lärare efterfrågar tips på bättre uppgifter för att komma åt dessa problem och tycker att det är svårt att formulera givande uppgifter på egen hand.

Research on school textbooks, presented by Masoud Kamali and Mia Mikander, shows that othering is a reoccurring matter. Without a national authority to examine the textbooks used in Swedish schools, in relation to teachers not having the time to examine their textbooks of choice, one wonders how this affects the education taking place in Swedish schools. Since the National Agency for Education states that the education should be factual and versatile. By using the critical discourse analysis, the aim of this study is to analyze if and how history textbooks for pupils in grades 4 - 6 articulates othering. To fulfill the aim of the study the following questions were formulated to enable the analysis of the textbooks: Where does the subjective modalities occur in the chosen textbooks? Which subjective modalities occurs in the chosen textbooks? Who are included alternatively excluded in the textbooks use of “us”? How could it be? The method used for the study is Faircloughs three-dimensional model with the text analysis as the main focus of the study. The critical analysis is used to analyze how discourses of power are reproduced through the language. The results show that the analyzed textbooks articulate othering by including or excluding groups of people based on the use of pronouns like us, our and ours. This may lead to a reproduction of the hegemony that saturates the society to take place in the Swedish classrooms as well.

The thesis examines how history teachers perceive history teaching in Swedish lower secondary schools during a time-period when two different curricula were in use: Lpo 94 and Lgr 11. The overall aim is to investigate how history can be expressed through teachers' transformation of the subject, from syllabus to classroom. The study focuses mainly on the perceived and the operational curricula, according to Goodlad et als curriculum theory. Transformation and transformation factors, i.e. factors that influence teachers' transformation, are central concepts of the thesis. Those are based on Shulman's theory of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and teachers' knowledge base. The term transformation is used in a wide sense, including the process of planning, teaching, and evaluation. Theories from both German and Anglo-american history didactics are used to create an analytical model, including three dimensions of historical knowledge and three sets of historical concepts. The model is used to analyze the respondents' stories as content knowledge, disciplinary knowledge and functional knowledge. The empirical material was collected from qualitative interviews with twenty-one history teachers at six different lower secondary schools. In addition to the interviews, teaching material in the form of teacher planning, examinations and other documents were collected. These documents were used to support, or question, the findings in the interviews. The results show that teachers transformed the history subject in several different ways, using the syllabus as starting point. The main factors influencing the teachers' choice of goals, content and methods in their history teaching were the students, the text books and their knowledge base. For the teachers in the second sub-study, the new national test had a profound impact on the choices teachers made. The three dimensions of knowledge, dealing with content (substantive knowledge), metahistorical concepts and skills (procedural knowledge), and value related issues (meaning) in history proved to be important in history teaching, both before and after Lgr 11. Although the main emphasis on knowledge as content was a continuity, the disciplinary aspects have gained importance during the period. All teachers also took the dimension of meaning into their teaching. A specific result shows that teachers who taught in multi-cultural classrooms especially saw identity and democratic citizenship as important aspects of their teaching. Another important result is that the national tests had a great impact on teachers after Lgr 11. The study also showed that history teachers were affected by the educational context, i.e. accountability, a strong emphasis on the quality of education and increased control.

In this study we analyze subject specific content in texts written in history education in school year 4 in a Swedish context. The study employs two different approaches to (text) content analysis: Analysis of representation of an historic vis-à-vis a practical perspective on the past, and analysis of the specific linguistic construals of the texts, based on a systemic functional linguistics approach. The results from the analyses are then compared to enable a synergetic account of the specific linguistic fabrics of the two historical perspectives. The results show that there are key differences in how the historical vis-à-vis the practical perspective on the past are linguistically construed, thus highlighting the intricacies of writing in history education. These findings are significant for researchers and teachers interested in furthering emergent historical literacy in early school years.

The primary purpose of this research overview is to look into previous research on how teachers use physical or virtual visits to museums in order to stimulate learners’ historical thinking skills. In this paper we use Peter Seixas and Tom Morton’s (2013) definition of the framework historical thinking. The paper is based on the research question: What does previous research say about how history teachers can stimulate learners in historical thinking in a physical or virtual museum environment? In order to find the research for this overview several databases were used, such as ERC, ERIC, Swepub and the search engine Libsearch. To meet the requirements there were several inclusion and exclusion criteria applied in the search for relevant articles. The researchers agree that there is potential to stimulate learner’s historical thinking skills during physical or virtual museum visits, and they also call for the need of preparation and cooperation between schools and museums. The results of this paper may be used by teachers to assess whether a trip to a museum or exploring a virtual reality museum is worth all the relevant preparations.

Huvudsyftet med denna kunskapsöversikt är att undersöka vad forskningen säger om hur historieundervisning kan främja interkulturell kompetens. Vi undersöker också varför in-terkulturell utbildning i historia är eftersträvansvärt. Vi har utfört kunskapsöversikten ge-nom att ta del av andras forskning, sammanställt denna och försökt utröna mönster kring undervisningsstrategier som främjar interkulturell kompetens. Sammanställningen skedde utifrån tre underfrågor; varför lärare bör bedriva interkulturell undervisning; vad undervis-ningen bör innehålla och hur undervisningen kan läggas upp. Det råder stor konsensus kring varför vi bör undervisa interkulturellt. Många forskare anser interkulturell historie-undervisning vara nödvändigt för att skapa demokratiska, aktiva, samhällsmedborgare i skolan. Detta då samtidens samhälle är mångkulturellt och för att kunna agera och hantera detta krävs interkulturell kompetens. Även när det gäller den interkulturella undervisning-ens innehåll ser vi mönster: flera perspektiv bör tas upp, mikro- och makroperspektiv samt inom- och utomeuropeiska perspektiv; historiekanon bör ifrågasättas. Läraren själv måste också ha interkulturell kompetens. Det finns även en del förslag kring hur en ska undervisa interkulturellt även om detta område är mindre utforskat. Bland annat bör undervisningen vara inriktad på att eleverna ska tolka historia och själva resonera över hur historien kan säga något om samtiden.

The purpose of this research overview is to analyze previous research and see how theeducational approach Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has affected students’ language development and subject knowledge. The study is aimed at the Swedish upper secondary school and focuses on language learning and knowledge development in the subject of ´History. The paper is based on the research question: How has the CLILapproach been implemented in history education for the purpose of promoting students’language development as well as subject knowledge, and how is this perceived from a teacher- and student perspective? Several search engines were used for the gathering of research articles for this overview, such as; ERIC, SWEPUB, Libsearch and to a small extent Google Scholar. In order to find the most relevant data, several inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to the searches. During the process of evaluating relevant articles, a smaller version of an annotated bibliography was created to speed up the work process. The research shows that there are not any clear guidelines on how effective CLILeducation should be implemented and that the subject of History does not seem to benefit from the implementation of it. However, most researchers agree that further investigation regarding the content-part of CLIL is needed to get an understanding of how the implementation of such educational approaches affect both language development and subject knowledge.

This student thesis seeks answers on history teachers´ view on the purpose of their subject, how their view on the purpose affects their teaching and how all of this affects the possibilities given to the students who study the past. The Swedish teaching plan and the curriculum of the subject history are loaded with tension. Based on this tension Swedish students attending secondary school are, on one hand supposed to affirm a certain way of understanding the past while on the other hand be educated in critical and independent thinking. In other words, the subject of history could either confirm a certain view of the past or critically view it. It is also worth pointing out that one does not cancel the other out. History teaching can contain both perspectives. While it would be interesting to apply our main questions on the whole course of the subject of history the main focus of this thesis lies within the theme of genocide. Based on interviews with Swedish history teachers this thesis explores what they see as the purpose of their subject and in particular the purpose in the theme of genocide teaching. What approach does teachers have in their teaching and how does this affect the possibilities given to the students? The result shows that history teachers´ main focus lies in more concrete knowledge, thereby excluding the previous statement about critical thinking. History teachers are also dissatisfied with the time given to the subject of history in upper secondary school. Although the teachers mainly focus on confirming certain views of the past there are teachers who, in some cases, lean towards a teaching method with critical thinking as the focal point. The respondents also vary in the way they give students possibilities to meet the past. These possibilities are often predetermined by the teachers and students’ possibilities to express critical thinking is therefore reduced and limited. While this student thesis is based around the theme of genocide teaching, the result does not necessarily suggest that the students never get the opportunity to express free critical thinking. Therefore, the result shows that the purpose of the subject of history, as presented by the interviewees, is multilayered and seldom based around only one given perspective.

Today, history education is often a contested issue over which political frontiers are drawn between adversaries advocating fundamentally different visions of what constitutes a desirable curriculum and, by extension, a desirable society. At present, this dimension is in need of increased attention, considering that populist rhetoric has gained a foothold in mainstream politics and that history, as a school subject, continues to serve the purpose of constituting “the people”, often in national and ethnic terms. Against this background, the aim of this thesis is to comprehensively grasp the political dimension of history education by conducting methodological, empirical and theoretical investigations. The thesis draws on the pragmatist philosophy of democratic education as well as on post-structuralist theories of history, antagonism and populism. Methodologically, the thesis make use of the logics of critical explanation framework (LCE) to empirically explore how history classroom practices as well as contemporary right-wing populist discourse operate. The results show that the LCE methodology constitutes a viable analytical vocabulary for generating knowledge of the political dimension of history education. Furthermore, the thesis offers empirical knowledge about how and why practices of history education are interchangeably politicised and rendered stable by teachers, students and members of the public. Theoretically, populism, as a discursive logic, is criticised and then reconceptualised into an educative mode by which history teaching practices can be enacted. Collectively, the results provide a comprehensive understanding of the political dimension of history education.

How do students use schools´ history education to develop their historical consciousness? In which ways could history education be regarded as a historical-culture expression, i.e. as a part of a society’s interest in the past? This thesis takes its point of departure in these overarching questions. More specifically the research was carried out as a contextualised case study of sixteen history lessons in a Swedish Year 9 class, in the autumn of 2009. The contextualisation consists of an analysis on historical-culture expressions in Sweden at that time. Despite conflicting opinions, the major finding was the common view of Sweden as a country that solves her problems in a peaceful way, both in the past, the present and the future. The classroom study was conducted with an ethnographical approach with close attention to teacher-student interactions. The research was guided by an analytical model inspired by the historian Jörn Rüsen’s theories on history learning processes. The results show in detail the complicated learning processes in the classroom but also the connection with the historical-culture expressions in Sweden at that moment. One major finding was the tendency to react to the rise of contemporary islamophobia and nationalism in Sweden by making comparisons with the development in Weimar Germany in the beginning of the 1930s. This tendency was present both in and outside the classroom. Hur använder elever skolans historieundervisning för att utveckla sitt historiemedvetande? På vilka sätt kan genomförd historieundervisning betraktas som en ”historiekulturell yttring” i ett samhälle? Den här avhandlingen tar sin utgångspunkt i dessa och andra övergripande frågor som rör unga människors behov av tidslig orientering i början av 2000-talet. Avhandlingen bygger på en historiedidaktisk fallstudie av en serie lektioner i en åk 9-klass. I centrum för analyserna står lektionernas pågående historiska lärande. Men studien intresserar sig också för förbindelser mellan den analyserade undervisningen och andra historiekulturella yttringar i Sverige utanför klassrumsdörren vid denna tidpunkt, hösten 2009. Av studien framgår hur eleverna genom undervisningen erbjuds möjligheter att aktivera sitt historiemedvetande, men också hur sammansatta historieämnets lärprocesser kan vara på högstadiet. Samtidigt visar studien att klassrummets berättelser om 1900-talet som ”katastrofernas århundrade” verkar stå i nära förbindelse med en schematisk ”mönsterberättelse” om Sverige som ett land som kan hantera förflutna fasor, en osäker samtid och en hotande framtid.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka historielärares syften med att använda film i sin undervisning. Studiens teoretiska perspektiv utgår från historiskt tänkande i form av Peter Seixas och Tom Mortons teori i The big six men också Klas-Göran Karlssons teori om historiebruk. Empirin utgår från en kvalitativ metod i form av kvalitativa intervjuer med fem historielärare på gymnasiet. För att analysera datan används en tematisk dataanalys, där de olika teman kategoriseras och ordnas efter studiens teoretiska perspektiv. Resultatet visar att lärarna använder sig av film när de arbetar med historiskt tänkande då det går att urskilja samtliga tankebegrepp ur The big six i deras svar. Dock är de vanligaste tankebegreppen historiska perspektiv och belägg. Studiens resultat visar också på att de flesta lärarna arbetar med historiebruk när de använder sig av film. En av studiens slutsatser är att lärarna främst utvecklar förmågorna 1, 4 och 5 i ämnesplanen för historia på gymnasiet. Studien mynnar ut i tankar kring vidare forskning om att förena elevers och lärares perspektiv om att använda film i historieundervisningen.

This study aims to investigate how history teachers talk about the historical thinking concepts change and continuity. In this study, four teachers from three different secondary schools in Sweden were interviewed. The theoretical perspectives are Seixas and Morton’s guidelines for teaching change and continuity, and these have been used as a tool to categorize and analyze the teachers’ responses and reflections. From this, five categories or topics that the teachers’ discussions covered were formulated. The most common method that the teachers talked about was to use a timeline or some other form of chronological illustration to provide a solid foundation for the students. The teachers could then use this to consolidate higher levels of understanding of the concepts. The chronological understanding enabled the teachers to address the process of change in terms of variation in paces, patterns and turning points, which the teachers emphasized had a relation to where we look and who it affects. Concerning the discussion of how teachers instruct students about historical progress and decline, it became clear that this is strongly related to language comprehension. It was also evident that students view history as a constant process of improvement. When it comes to historical periodization, all teachers agreed that critical reflection on why and on what premises these divisions has been made is important to consider. However, this was primarily applied to the concept of change, and continuity was most commonly referred to when the historical content was discussed in relation to the history of attitudes or mentalities. The teachers explained different didactical methods while discussing these topics, and they also used different ways to exemplify these with historical content and metaphors. What also became clear was the relationship between the teachers’ educational background and their variation of teaching.

This article presents a study of how history education can be understood as a practice directed towards existentialisation. Through classroom observation, teacher interviews and focus group interviews with students in grade 9 in Swedish lower secondary school, a complex teaching practice is uncovered where history teachers have to deal with matters pertaining to disseminating a meaningful narrative of the past, a critical approach to these narratives and an awareness of historicity and its implications for how we approach and understand the past. These results are then discussed from the perspectives of how history education can promote existentialisation among students, and what challenges and opportunities this may present to history teachers.

The thesis focuses on how students learn history in the classroom, more precisely on their possibilities and difficulties in developing competence in the school subject of history. There is a particular emphasis on how they explain and understand historical processes and concepts within the subject of history. Participants are students of different grades, 8–19 years old. The purpose of the study is to explore how students learn history in concrete learning situations and my focus is on the types of knowledge students understand, learn, develop and use in comparison with what they are expected to learn. This is done based on three fundamental and well-established principles of learning. To examine what kinds of knowledge students need I use three main types of knowledge: declarative content knowledge (facts and concepts), procedural knowledge (knowledge about how to do things) and self-regulatory knowledge (knowledge about how to regulate our memory, thought and learning). I also use concepts and insights from systemic functional linguistics (SFL) in order to explain why the students use language and communicate the way they do. The thesis shows that history is challenging for young students. Young students have difficulties with complex and abstract concepts in history as they treat concepts as facts. Older, more competent, students use concepts on a more abstract level and use different kinds of linguistic resources when formulating explanations of higher complexity, more similar to the way explanations in the domain of history are commonly written. The youngest students and some of the older students lacked factual knowledge, concept knowledge, domain specific self-regulatory knowledge and linguistic resources. Declarative content knowledge and facts are more important and more difficult for young students to understand, develop, organize and learn than previous scholars have shown empirically. Students’ abilities to understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework and to organize and structure facts with the help of concepts at different level of abstraction (conceptual understanding) are crucial. Students also need linguistic resources, both lexical knowledge and knowledge of text structures. Language is crucial both in the process of acquiring knowledge and in the process of communication. In the learning process, teaching is crucial, since individual students’ potential to develop competence depend on the potential of the teacher to discover and engage their preconceptions and arrange for learning in a way that give students the kind of knowledge they need.

The purpose of this study is to examine the historical consciousness and the use of history among pupils in 6th grade, in Swedish elementary school. To do this, the aim is to answer the following questions: Which types of history use are to be found among 6th graders, and how are these expressed? What historical consciousness/historical thinking do 6th graders display, and how is this expressed? What interest do 6th graders have in history? The method used in this study is a survey, which has been answered anonymously by 60 pupils in four different classes, from four different elementary schools, and in four different Swedish suburbs. The final analysis is based on theories on historical thinking/historical consciousness, uses of history, and history cultures, described by important historians, such as Rüsen, Ammert, and Karlsson. The study has led to the conclusion that, although a large majority of the pupils say that they are interested in history and think it is relevant, very few of them can mention uses of history outside the school context. The answers do not reveal a notably developed historical consciousness, even though there are signs expressing historical consciousness to a limited extent. One of the main characteristics of historical consciousness among the pupils is their use of concepts for historical change, such as development and consequence.

/Summary The study of history has always been a part of educational programmes throughout time. And the reasons behind it have also been shifting according to the needs of the society in a specific time and place. But the legitimacy of the history subject has always been in its said ability to help us understand the present through the past. Today the emergence of a globalized and multicultural society is changing both our way of life as well as our view on the world, and with it the skills and tools we need to make sense of it. And with it the reasons behind and the learning goals of history as an educational subject is shifting. International organizations have implemented guidelines and directives to its members regarding how educational goals can be used to adapt to this ongoing change. Research regarding curriculum policymaking has shown that the Swedish curriculum is influenced by the international guidelines, but the didactic specialists, Kenneth Nordgren and Maria Johansson, has found a lack of guidance for teachers to enact these general goals on a more practical day-to-day basis. This has led them formulate a concept especially designed for history education, intercultural historical learning. This essay’s aim is to find the conditions to apply the concept of intercultural historical learning through the history subject in the compulsory and upper secondary school in Sweden. By taking its departure in curriculum theory and using intercultural historical learning as an analytical framework, a hermeneutical text analysis is made on the Swedish history curriculum with its supporting documents as well as on the national tests of the subject. The results indicate that there are conditions that both encourages and discourages the implementation of intercultural historical learning in history education. The curriculum’s emphasis on the usage of historic source material and use of history examples are a major contributor to the applicably of the concept. In contrast the historical narrative created by the curriculum prevents a diversity of historical experiences and voices to be present in the teaching practice. Instead a Eurocentric and political historic narrative is dominant. However, further research is required to see what other factors than those this essay examine affect the implementation of intercultural historical learning in the Swedish history classroom. This essay’s main contribution is to serve as a starting point for such research.

It is said that we live in a society of communication, or a society of media, even. If that is true, that everyday live is affected by media, then the children of our society are also affected, and so is school. The purpose of this study was to see how four different teachers use media in their history education to spread knowledge about history to their pupils and to make them more historically aware. In doing so I was hoping that I, and others, can make use of their methods and experience of using media in the education. The results of this study shows that teachers seem to find pictures the best and most important media for pupils to understand history better. The teachers also all seem to think media in the history education can have a greatly positive impact on the pupils’ understanding of history.

The present study addresses what happens when historical feature film is used in history education. The purpose of this thesis is to develop new knowledge of historical film literacy through a study of the feature film's didactical potential in an educa­tional context. This is carried out through an analysis of the historical meaning making among upper secondary students when viewing historical feature films, and special attention is paid to the importance of emotions in the students' meaning making through historical feature film. A focus of the study is the didactical dilemma, previously addressed in historical film research, that arises in the use of feature film in history or social studies education, in relation to educational context, film experience, and historical understanding. The present thesis is an independent continuation of my licentiate thesis History as Fiction (2014). The empirical material consists of interviews with students and teachers from two upper secondary schools in Sweden, as well as documentation from students' assessments and selected scenes from feature films experienced by the students as they were used in history class. The theoretical framework for the study takes an interdisciplinary approach. It is based on Jörn Rüsens under­standing of historical meaning and histo­ri­cal culture, as well as on transaction theory described by John Dewey and Louise M. Rosenblatt. Film reception theory is equally important, represented by theories from David Bordwell and Carl Plantinga. The main research question focused on how the concept of historical film literacy could be developed theoretically. Historical film literacy is understood in this thesis as an advanced consciousness of how historical meaning making is created through the individual's transaction with film's narration in a specific context, and how meaning making ideally links historical disciplinary thinking with practical orientation in life. The core of theoretically developed historical film literacy is an understanding of the individual's emotional and aesthetic experience of historical feature film, and elaborated theoretical knowledge about the close relationship between the affective response and the more distanced cognitive activity during and after watching a film. Also crucial for historical film literacy is an under­standing of the historical film's representation of the past as a conflation of facts and fiction. The knowledge of history that students' gain from historical feature film should be constructed in a synthesis of an aesthetic and an efferent stance in the transaction process. This is because the feature film has the capacity to stimulate both a feeling of empathy and of nearness in the viewer as well as a movement of the viewer away from the narration and towards more distanced cognition. This movement helps the viewer to analyze and interpret the historical meaning making from a critical perspective, when the experience of the feature film is transformed to a reflected experience.

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.

This is the first major quantitative study of how teachers at the compulsory school look at the subject of History and its conditions. The article focuses on elements of the survey related to the content of teaching and how teachers perceive the conditions for the intercultural mission of the subject. The historical content in the form of selected time periods and geographic focus forms a clear canon: in grades 1–3 local history and Swedish history, in 4–6 Swedish and Nordic history, and in 7–9 Western European history with global, but mainly Eurocentric, outlooks. In terms of students’ skills to interpret history they encounter the result is to some extent contradictory. Empathy and critical thinking are highly valued but the actual work to develop these abilities is of lesser importance. Instead, storytelling is stressed as the major form of education. Teachers in grades 7–9 emphasize that long lines of development are important in their teaching. History’s orienting function leans more to the future and contemporary perspectives in grades 7–9, while students’ perspective on their own historical background ranked highest in 1–3 and 4–6. Future and contemporary issues are highlighted as a pattern in which racism and xenophobia become more important in higher grades while environmental issues decrease in importance. Multiculturalism and diversity issues occupy an intermediate position in this context but are perceived as important by teachers on all levels. An overall conclusion is that in the tension that exists between the traditions of the subject and an external pressure for change teachers need support to deal with the intercultural perspective.

The overall aim of this thesis is to contribute to the field of research that examines the relationship between peace efforts and nationalism. The relationship will be studied from perspectives of educa- tional history and history didactics. More precisely, by focusing on history education, this disserta- tion will analyse the demands for a comprehensive peace education in schools that were put forward by a long list of actors in the Western world during the interwar period, and as such discuss to what extent, and in what ways, nationalism influenced the content and design of this peace education. The main theoretical framework of this thesis is the concept of nationalism, and the position of nationalism as a hegemonic ideology during the first half of the 20th century. Another central un- derstanding is the assumption that the educational system, specifically history education, played a central role in creating, maintaining and strengthening collective identities as well as the prevailing ideological hegemony. The empirical investigation has been limited to studying the demands and ideas presented by Nordic peace educators, mainly The Swedish School Peace League (SSF), regar- ding peace-educating history teaching. As such, the empirical aim has been to investigate the SSF’s views on the relationship between nationalism and peace education, i.e., how internationalism and pacifism were to be taught, as well as how this understanding affected the League’s ideas regarding history teaching. The results have also been analysed from a gender perspective, based on the as- sumption that contemporary notions of gender in relation to nationalism, war and peace in different ways had an impact upon the content and format of the proposed peace education. The study shows that the SSF regarded nationalism as the very foundation and prerequisite for any peace education. SSF thus tried to reconcile nationalism, internationalism and pacifism under one and the same ideological approach; “patriotic pacifism”, which in turn strongly influenced the endorsed peace-educating history teaching. Furthermore, the study highlights boys’ central role in the peace education project, which essentially set the long-term goal of creating a new pacifist and internationally oriented male ideal and yet, despite these aims, continued an intimate association with the “national”. Key concepts in SSF’s peace education were unite and supplement, and thereby they redefined central meanings of hegemonic nationalism. SSF’s patriotic pacifism and its impact on the association's demands for a peace-educating history teaching can best be described as an “intra-hegemonic counterforce”. Historia utan gräns: Den internationella historieboksrevisionen 1919-2009

There is since 2003 an optional history course, Meeting of cultures (Kulturmöten), in the Finnish National Core Curricula for upper secondary schools. The course discusses the history of non-European societies. Some of the learning objectives can be criticised for reproducing a static picture of culture and cultural regions and for emphasising the competence to identify cultural differences rather than similarities. How images of cultural difference are constructed and what social implications and political uses they have is ignored in the objectives. The article analyses the curricula, the textbooks, and the matriculation examination questions relating to the course. It discusses, partly from an insider perspective, how the connections between curricula, textbooks and high-stakes test limit the possibility to redirect the approach in the course. It argues there has been little space in the course for reflexive analyses of the production and uses of cultural difference. Yet recent minor changes in the core curriculum may push textbook authors and exam constructors to a new fruitful direction when interpreting the objectives and contents in the core curriculum.

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.

The school subjects of history and social science are expected to contribute with historical and social scientific knowledge, skills and abilities: that is, subject knowledge. The subject knowledge that students achieve during their schooling is not only meant for future studies, but is also expected to inform a life as democratic citizens. However, the curriculum and syllabus have not always been explicit about this aim, and the relationship between subject knowledge and citizenship education is only vaguely explained. This thesis investigates this relationship within the context of history and social science education in Swedish upper secondary school. The educational dimensions of Biesta – socialisation, qualification and subjectification – are used as an approach to this investigation. The aim of the study is to explore, analyse and discuss the role of history and social science teaching for students’ citizenship education. This is done by investigating curricula, teaching and educational discourses and by using both empirical methods and content analysis. The thesis is a compilation of five articles, all exploring subject knowledge and its connection to students’ citizenship education. The first two articles investigate possible second-order concepts in social science education, which are described and discussed using theories and concepts from history didactics. The findings in these articles work as a basis for further study in following articles, where the subject knowledge and its connections to citizenship education are explored in more depth. Taken together, the articles present a rich picture of the complex reality of teaching and provide a basis for understanding better how teachers, students and curricula express subject knowledge and how this is related, or not, to citizen education. The contribution of the thesis is a more developed theoretical and conceptual understanding of history and social science education, especially through concepts that can be used in practical teaching in order to strengthen and develop citizenship education.

This thesis offers critical perspectives on a history syllabus for vocational education and training (VET) tracks in Swedish upper secondary schools and adds to our knowledge and understanding of the educative function of history education for the individual and for society. The overall aim of this thesis is to critically investigate discourses that are voiced in different fields about the construction and reproduction of the history curriculum in VET tracks. A general question addressed is how vertical (critical and theoretical) and horizontal knowledge is articulated by the discourses in terms of the meaning of history in a VET context. The following four research questions were the focus of the four different studies in this thesis: How were non-vocational subjects discussed on a policy level during the post-war period, and what meanings were ascribed to history education? What aspects of history as a field of knowledge are recontextualised into a pedagogic discourse for the VET curriculum? How do teachers perceive the history syllabus? What do the students express concerning the history syllabus and history education? The results of these studies are reported in separate papers, and the aggregated results are analysed in this thesis. The data consisted of government bills and committee reports, material from the National Agency of Education archives, and interview data gathered through interviews with 5 teachers and 46 students. The major theoretical inspiration comes from Basil Bernstein whose theories of classification and framing, pedagogic discourse, pedagogic code, and vertical and horizontal discourses are used in the analysis. With the aid of these concepts, the content and meaning of history education for VET are connected to macro levels of education, and the way in which education reproduces social order when certain forms of knowledge are distributed to different groups in society is discussed. Three major conclusions are drawn. First, history as a pedagogic discourse comes forward as versatile and contradictory when the results from the studies are aggregated. There is, however, a shared understanding that the meaning of history in VET is to educate the students to become democratic and active citizens. Secondly, the investigated discourses ascribe history education with the potential to distribute critical and powerful knowledge. The students see a value for history education in their future as citizens and for giving them access the public conversation of society. A final conclusion is that the pedagogic code, embedded in the history curriculum, can be interpreted in two different ways. The emphasis on competencies and the focus on the last two hundred years can be interpreted as (A) an expression of a wish for immediate utility and thus an instrumental view of education or (B) the recontextualisation of scientific theories, concepts, and practices into a pedagogic discourse as a means to give students access to disciplinary (powerful) knowledge.

In today’s history teaching in Sweden, role-play and historical re-enactment receive little attention. Even though many students find history as a subject boring and irrelevant, very little is done to improve the mode of teaching. My theses is that this could be done by presenting new ways of teaching and at the same time find a way to make more students interested in history. The main aim is to investigate if there are ways to offer students an experience of history by carrying out different interactive exercises with a touch of roleplay and historical recreation. In this essay, three exercises of that type have been constructed based on how historical role-plays have been used at museums and historical centres, the opinions of people who are engaged in re-enactment and living history, and on the curriculum for the Swedish upper level secondary school. The three exercises (a role-play exercise, a lecture by an invited re-enactor, and a theme week) have been analysed by four teachers who teach at upper level secondary school and high school. They responded very positively to the exercises, and judged the exercises to be fully viable in a classroom context. In conclusion, there are ways to implement re-enactment and role-play in history education to make the teaching more varied and interesting for the pupils. I argue that history is something you have to experience if you are to understand its full extent.