Powerful Knowledge about Democracy in Swedish Social Science Education

Abstract

Session: Att lära och fostra för demokratiskt medborgarskap

“Democracy” is central content in the school subject Social Science in Sweden. However, “What?” to teach is only vaguely defined in policy. “Democracy” is a “floating significant”: a word that can be filled with myriad meanings and arguably its meaning in many arenas is so broad as to mean anything, and therefore nothing (Mouffe, 2005; Mouffe & Martin, 2013). This, combined with the trend in educational policy that is continuing its turn toward “knowledge about” rather than “capacity to” (Skolverket, 2022, 2023), creates a potential problem at the heart of (education for) democracy: For democracy as a system to thrive, a knowledgeable and engaged citizenry is required (Deng, 2020; Läroplan för grundskolan, förskoleklassen och fritidshemmet 2022, 2022; Wicke, 2019). Importantly, knowledge implies more than civic facts.

A theory of interest for this problem is Powerful Knowledge (Muller & Young, 2019). With its ontological roots in Social Realism, the theory posits that the best most objective available knowledge to understand the world can be found in epistemic communities of scholars and experts. From this theory follows the idea that on a democratic and normative basis everyone should have access to this “best” knowledge to avoid inequality. This creates my project’s overarching question:

What could be considered Powerful Knowledge about democracy in civics education,

and how is/can this be transformed from discipline to classroom?

Through an anonymized internet-based Delphi study I will attempt to answer the first part of this question. The planned study will include survey of “experts” and stakeholders in democracy as a knowledge object. Democracy scholars, teacher educators, experienced teachers, municipal government officials and political activists are some of the possible participants. Through several rounds of questionnaires that evolve through synthesized subject responses of previous rounds the study moves from investigative to “consensus” among participants. The reached consensus is a perspective on what knowledge should be taught about democracy to every democratic citizen.

Ethical issues can arise around this subject and will follow established guidelines. 

References

Deng, Z. (2020). Knowledge, content, curriculum and didaktik: Beyond social realism  [Book]. Taylor and Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351118941  

Läroplan för grundskolan, förskoleklassen och fritidshemmet 2022. (2022). Skolverket.

Mouffe, C. (2005). The democratic paradox. Verso.

Mouffe, C., & Martin, J. (2013). Chantal Mouffe : hegemony, radical democracy, and the political. Routledge.

Muller, J., & Young, M. (2019). Knowledge, power and powerful knowledge re-visited. The Curriculum Journal, 30, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585176.2019.1570292  

Skolverket. (2022). Jämför kursplanerna - Samhällskunskap Lgr22-Lgr11. Retrieved 2023-02-27 from https://www.skolverket.se/download/18.3770ea921807432e6c73c16/1660206298019/jamforelsedok_Samhallskunskap.pdf

Skolverket. (2023). Övergripande om ändringarna. Retrieved 2023-02-27 from https://www.skolverket.se/undervisning/grundskolan/aktuella-forandringar-pa-grundskoleniva/overgripande-om-andringarna

Wicke, K. (2019). Läroböcker, demokrati och medborgarskap. Konstruktioner i läroböcker i samhällskunskap för gymnasiet. Göteborgs universitet.