Får alla vara med? : En läromedelsstudie i ämnet svenska med fokus på mångkulturell representation

Sammanfattning: The purpose of the essay is to investigate how today’s multicultural society is reflected in teaching materials for the elementary school’s later years in the subject Swedish. The purpose is also to investigate how the school’s mandate to develop a capacity to live with and realize the values of cultural diversity is evident in the chosen teaching materials in Swedish as a subject. The material consists of 3 teaching materials, all issued for the national curriculum in 2011 and they are also basic books for the elementary school’s later years in the subject Swedish. In addition, the lesson is published by various publishers and these three aspects, published after the 2011 curriculum, the basics and published by various publishers have been the criteria that have led to the choice of material. The idea of the paper is to get an insight into how multicultural is represented in the teaching materials used in the Swedish subject, and therefore the analysis is based on two aspects that are common regardless of teaching materials, names and authors. In order to be able to complete the essay’s purpose, it is a qualitative content analysis with quantitative elements that form the basis of the study and the teaching materials have been manually examined. A literature review shows that there are clear indications that teaching should be based on the pupils’ life worlds to create an inclusive education, where students can relate to real people with both Western and non-Western authors and example names. By reflecting both Western and non-Western, the diversity found in the classroom can identify with the content of the teaching materials. Teaching based on students’ life worlds not only benefits learning but also their self- image, which means that intercultural learning is required to accommodate the multiculturalism of classrooms. However, it turns out that the non-Western is underrepresented in all teaching materials and therefore the teacher’s role is of great importance in the content of, for example, authors and texts from different parts of the world. In addition, teaching that touches authors and texts from different parts of the world, as well as focusing on the cultural diversity events, is something that is emphasized both by the Swedish subject and the school’s value base and mission. The essay’s results suggest that multiculturalism should be better reflected in the teaching materials developed after the 2011 curriculum.