Att förbereda för politiskt deltagande? : Gymnasieskolans uppdrag i samhällskunskapsundervisning

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to examine how upper secondary school teachers within the social studies subject interpret and transform the mission of preparing students for political participation. Based on teachers' dictums of how the mission is interpreted and transformed ahead of teaching, as well as which factors are expressed to affect this transformation, the study aims to determine what differences exist regarding how the mission is transformed and what can be seen to cause these differences. Through semi-structured interviews with seven social studies teachers, the study aims to answer three research questions addressing how the teachers interpret the mission, their expressions of how the mission is transformed ahead of teaching as well as which factors are mentioned to affect this transformation. The general conclusion of the study is that the teachers express that the mission of preparing students for political participation contain several contrasting dimensions, which in various ways are transformed ahead of teaching. The most central differences can be seen within the knowledge conveying and participation promoting dimensions, where the variations appear as the teachers to a certain extent focus on different areas of teaching and attend to these on different levels. Furthermore, different possibilities of influence and forms of participation are accentuated to various extent. To conclude, the study indicates that the teachers, qua agents of political socialisation, are preparing the students dissimilarly for political participation.