Purpose: This article's purpose is to examine the manifestations of the evolving modern society and what we now identify as civics or other contemporary social issues in the final examination questions from 1914 to 1937 at four teacher education institutions in Uppsala, Falun, Lund, and Landskrona. Design/methodology/approach: The method can be…

This study engages with how sustainability stories can assign meaning to sustainability matter in different ways. The study contributes to discussions on how to combine facts, norms, and the democratic action competence in pluralistic approaches in Environmental and Sustainability Education. A special focus is put on how co-created sustainability…

The objective of this article is to explore differentiation of education through juridification. We examine changes in school governing, including trends towards globalization and marketization, as well as increased regulatory intervention in addressing complex social problems. Drawing on Luhmann's theory of functional differentiation and…

Childhood marginalization is the result of complicated processes that appears difficult to address for policymakers worldwide. Neo-institutional theory enables studies of the complexity of educational organizations, showing how they evolve in responses to their contradictory surroundings and generate unintended social inequality. Three Nordic…

In this study, we provide insights about secondary school students' conversation about products' life cycles in relation to three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social, and ecological sustainable development but also what traces of view that appear in these conversations. Production and consumption are part of complex…

This article examines how teachers and students connect disciplinary knowledge to contexts outside the classroom in naturally occurring teaching in 80 Nordic lower secondary social studies lessons using a standardized observation manual. We found evidence that teachers often connected disciplinary knowledge to students' experiences and wider…

COVID-19 required educators and students to rapidly move to online learning. Simultaneously, while navigating the pandemic in lockdown, citizens were exposed to the brutal murder of George Floyd. The increased exposure to online activity and discrimination generated a hyperawareness of the potential link between the two. Our interest was to…

Social skills play a central role in shaping individuals who are able to adapt and contribute to society. This article analyzes the comparative social studies curriculum in Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway and Sweden), focusing on how students' social skills are developed through their approach to learning. The research method used is a…

This article examines the role of teachers, parents, and friends in stimulating the development of societal interest among adolescents. It assesses the extent teachers can compensate for societal interest differences among adolescents that arise due to socioeconomic differences. The YeS panel study is used, with 587 students aged 13-18 assessed…

Drawing theoretically on the Didaktik tradition, this paper examines teaching and learning content in teacher-planned human rights education with eleven- year-old pupils in two Swedish classrooms. The results suggest that the principle aim for the teaching and learning of rights is to enable good interactions with other human beings. The findings…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the foundation of higher education policies that have promoted entrepreneurship in Sweden since the mid-1990s. Design/methodology/approach: To do this, the authors use Bacchi's (1999) "What's the problem?" approach. A central assumption of which is that perceptions of a…

Previous subject-specific education research has shown that education in social studies subjects is dominated by strong subject traditions, while current social issues are seldom addressed and the connection to academic disciplines is weak. Putting this result into context, we discuss how the debate initiated by Michael Young about 'powerful…

Low completion rate in upper secondary education is seen as a big problem in the Nordic countries. School failure has shown to dramatically increase the risks for unemployment and labour market exclusion with severe consequences for both society and the young person. This paper analyses national policy measures to combat low upper secondary…

"Designs for Experimentation and Inquiry" examines how digital media is reconfiguring the established worlds of research, education and professional practice. It reflects on the theoretical, methodological and ethical issues shaping contemporary engagements with digital learning and offers insights for both analysing and intervening in…

The aim of this article is to show how the European Union (EU) and the Swedish government have recently become co-producers of education policy that increasingly emphasises compulsory education. The paper draws on the following two kinds of empirical material: 1) an analysis of central official policy documents produced by the EU and the Swedish…