Läroboken i historieundervisningen : en fallstudie med fokus på elever, lärare och läroboksförfattare

The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate why history textbooks are used the way they are and to identify possible reasons for the contradictions and dilemmas regarding the role of the textbook in history education. This thesis describes a case study of the history teaching at an upper secondary school class and investigates the attitudes of the pupils, teachers and textbook authors towards history, the teaching of history, textbooks and the use of textbooks. The study also investigates the textbook used in the history class and the attitudes that the authors expose in the textbook. The analyses are based on interviews with the pupils and teacher, the pupils’ responses in a questionnaire, lesson observations, parts of the textbook, and some other teaching materials used in the lessons. In addition to constituting research on attitudes, this study is also linked to cognitive dissonance theory since it highlights dissonance among the attitudes of the teachers, pupils and textbook authors. The study shows that one main dilemma is the fact that the textbook is frequently being used in the classroom, but many pupils find it dull and uninteresting. Other dilemmas are basically explanations for this and are discussed as such. The study also shows that the pupils prefer history lessons that follow certain strategies and that these strategies are only reflected in the textbook to a limited extent. However, these strategies are used to a large extent in the teaching and when other teaching materials are used instead of the textbook. Sometimes the language used in the textbook seems to prevent the pupils from being able to take in the content but they are not given any help to cope with this difficulty. However, the pupils are exposed to other teaching resources, such as films and lectures, which helps them to understand the subject matter and they appreciate such resources more than the textbook. Moreover, the use of this type of learning resources is combined with met