Vart bör samhällskunskapsdidaktiken gå? Om ett splittrat forskningsfält och vägar framåt

Abstract

Social Science (Samhällskunskap) is the assigned school subject with the major responsibility for political education in year 1-12 (Sandahl, 2015c; cf. other Nordic countries in Christensen, 2011; Børhaug 2011). Even though Social Science is considered important and well established in schools, it has been described as in a “stage of crisis” for several decades due to its lack of a academic equivalent (Bronäs & Selander, 2002). Furthermore, researchers interested in social science education come from different communities of enquiry such as pedagogy and political science resulting in a diverse and sprawled research community. Departing from Michael Young’s (2013) notion of ‘epistemic community’, this article discusses the need to define and demarcate the research field of social science ‘didaktik’. Moreover, the article suggests a field of research interest that might help shape a community where researchers from different backgrounds can contribute. The argument is that a strong research community can provide answers to the alleged crisis of the school subject.