Samhällskunskapslärares ämnesdidaktiska överväganden vid val och användning av läromedel : En komparativ studie mellan samhällskunskapslärare vid högstadiet och gymnasiet

Sammanfattning: Choosing appropriate teaching materials is a central part of a teacher’s workday, However, this central aspect has been missing from my teacher education. It is partly against that background that this study has been conducted. Several studies and essays have been conducted on this general topic, but few of them have approached it from a perspective of civic and social studies, a research gap which this study aims to contribute to fil. The aim of this study has been to investigate how civic and social studies teachers’ reason about their choice of appropriate teaching materials.  This study has used a method of semi-structured quantitative interviews with a total of five civic and social studies teachers. Two of them worked with grades 7 – 9, and three of them at an upper secondary school. When analysing the teachers’ answers, four different theoretical aspects has been applied. The first is based on a – for this study specific – definition on teaching materials. The second aspect is based on Imsens understanding of frame factors and how they affect teachers. The third aspect is based on a sociocultural understanding of learning and the fourth was a general and a subject specific didactical analysis on the teachers’ choice of teaching materials.  The result of the study shows that teachers use a broad variety of teaching materials but that the physical textbook is the primary one. The textbook is complimented with secondary pedagogical materials, such as videos from Youtube and information from government agencies. Several frame factors affect teachers and their choice of teaching materials, but the two main ones are based on the schools’ economy and student related aspect, mainly their low reading comprehension and low subject specific knowledge. The school’s economy determents when the teachers are available to purchase new teaching materials, but factors related to students are more important when choosing new teaching materials. Based on a social cultural perspective on teaching the textbook is viewed as a secondary artefact for mediating cultural knowledge. The textbook is viewed as more important for teachers as students’ reading comprehension and subject specific knowledge is lower then expected. From a general and a subject specific didactical analysis the teachers focus on general didactical aspects when choosing a new textbook and subject specific didactical aspects when choosing complimentary teaching materials.