Att möjliggöra för ekonomisk kompetens inom samhällskunskapen : Hur möjliggör verksamma lärare ekonomisk förståelse i ämnet samhällskunskap för årskurs 4–6?

Sammanfattning: Economics is included as a central part off all society-oriented education from early years of primary school up to upper secondary school. The school´s economics teaching has an important role when it comes to supporting students to be able to understand and deal with economic issues, which makes it relevant to investigate how the teaching enables the development of economic competence in social studies.  The purpose of this study has been to investigate how teachers enable pupils ‘development of economic competence in social studies subject for grades 4-6, what subject related priorities teachers make in social studies, what purpose teachers describe the teaching with focus on personal finance is carried out in the subject. The investigation was conducted with a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews as a method. Seven respondents participated in the survey, all who are active teachers in the subject of social studies in grades 4-6. The empiricism of the study has been used together with previous research based on the theoretical perspectives of pragmatism and the socio-cultural perspective on learning to analyze and discuss the results and the respondents statements. The results of study show that economics education and its subject content have a strong relevance in social studies, especially when it comes to developing young people´s ability to take responsibility, manage and be able to make conscious financial decisions both here and now and later as adult citizens. The results also show that the participating respondents include everyday content in their teaching where students themselves try, investigate and discover problems that need to be confronted and dealt with by reconsidering different ideas. It indicates that the participating respondents want to enable students, to become familiar with develop abilities to reflect, analyze and be critical in their thinking, which are important characteristics of an active, responsible and economic citizen. A conclusion that can be drawn based on the results of the study is that economic education in general and particularly personal finance are important parts and should be prioritized in social studies. Especially based on the school´s long-term goal, to support young people to understand, manage and make decisions about financial matters, both here and now and in the future as responsible adults with financial competence.