Mångfald eller enfald?

Sammanfattning: This essay has focused on how the national curricula have changed during the past thirty yearsin Sweden. These have been the Lgy 70 and the Lpf 94. According to the syllabuses inHistory A, students should know about their culture and embrace their heritage. However, thedefinition of cultural heritage is diffuse and the latest curriculum is similar to its precursor.The syllabuses need to be more specific in their criteria of what the students should acquire.We have also analyzed in what ways non-western cultures have been presented in sixhistory books, made for students attending the Upper Secondary levels in Sweden. We havestudied if other cultures have been presented in a stereotypical way, if emotionally chargedwords have been used in an unethical way, and also from what perspective history has beentold. Older books use the word negroslave when labelling the slaves that were brought fromAfrica to the colonized countries. Other books avoid mentioning the positive things about acertain culture and emphasize on the negative aspects. Many of the non-western cultures arestereotypically presented in the history books and more often there is only room for oneperspective, which is the western ideology. In some books, cultures such as the Native tribesof North America and South America are only mentioned in one or two sentences. Moreover,it is evident that different cultures are illustrated when they are in direct contact with thewestern society.Our conclusion is therefore that the history books we have analyzed are told from aEurocentric perspective. However they fulfil the criteria set from the syllabuses in History A,but we wish that other cultures could be represented more extendedly. We should embraceother cultures and let our students know that they are a part of our multicultural society.