'Vi kvinnor måste jobba hårdare för att uppnå samma ställning' : Hur problematiseringar av jämställdhet och arbetsmarknad i samhällskunskapsundervisningen påverkar studiemotivationen hos gymnasieelever

This study investigates how graduating students at Swedish upper secondary school perceive the content and form of education in social science regarding the subject areas of labor market and equality. The study also investigates how students perceive their own possibilities on the labor market and whether these perceptions can be derived from content in social science education. Furthermore, the study presents how the students’ perceptions of possibilities on the labor market and the content and form of social science education might affect students’ motivation to study. The selection consists of seven interviews with four women and three men from a school unit for special sports-profile programs at an upper secondary school in the north of Sweden. These students were selected because girls at this school unit generally have reached higher grades than boys for a long time and that the grade differences between the genders is remarkably bigger than the national average. The fact that the students are athletes was also an important part of the selection since the labor market for elite-athletes is often described as one of the most unequal, with prominent wage differences between men and women. Therefore, it was interesting to investigate how students who aim for that labor market perceive their possibilities and how school takes part in forming these perceptions. The result shows that the content and form of education in social science does matter for what perceptions of the labor market students develop. However, it is not the most contributing factor, especially not for the perceptions they have about the labor market for elite-athletes. Eventsfrom their childhood, found statistics as well as news and posts on social media are described as more meaningful factors. Although, all the respondents present views of the labor market as unequal and gender segregated, both for elite-athletes and in general. For many of them there is a strong connection between these percep