Historiemedvetandet i historieläroboken

Sammanfattning: The development of students’ historical consciousness is a key aspect in Swedish history education. Therefore, this study aims to investigate if, and how, a Swedish upper-secondary school history textbook provides students with tools to develop their historical consciousnesses. A qualitative text-analysis comparing the chapters on the Medieval era and the cold war provides the empirical data for a thematical analysis. The results indicate that the textbook, Samband Historia, provides few opportunities for activating the historical consciousness amongst the students. This could become an issue in relation to the syllabus for history since development of the historical consciousness is defined as the main target for learners. However, situations in which the learners are required to engage in critical thinking are numerous and provide sufficient opportunities to develop their critical abilities, which also are included in a well-developed historical consciousness. The study provides an analysis of the textbook’s possibilities and shortcomings regarding historical consciousness that could provide teachers and teachers-to-be with insights on the matter in their own teaching.