Samhällskunskapsämnet och dess ämnesmarkörer på svenskt mellanstadium

ett osynligt eget ämne som bistår andra ämnen

Abstract

Based on interviews with teachers about their social studies teaching in Swedish middle schools (age 10-12), the characteristics and contents of civics, as one of the subjects in social studies, is interpreted related to the concept of "subject markers". The interviews show that civics is vague and incoherent. Yet, the teachers teach about a similar content but whose parts are unclear and not clearly interconnected. Hence, civics remains unclear and incoherent, reinforced by its outer unclear boundaries. Based on this interpretation, questions of the visibility of civics as a distinct school-subject have occurred which have led to the formation of the concept of "subject- markers". Its function is to make the subject visible. The concept has been differentiated in order to highlight different aspects of visibility and shows that the presence, or lack of, and the interactions between the various types of markers makes civics invisible as a distinct subject. More than operating independently, it tends to be pulled apart mostly assisting other school-subjects, especially geography and history. These subjects appear to be far more clear, coherent and visible as distinct subjects within social studies.