Kritiskt omdöme i samhällskunskap : Undervisningsutvecklande studier av samhällsanalytiskt resonerande i rättvisefrågor

Sammanfattning: Teachers struggle to design teaching that that will promote students’ social science knowledge in accordance with the citizenship education purpose of the subject. This study aims to expand the knowledge base of social science education by exploring the meaning of, and teaching for, the ability to critically analyse essentially contested value issues, specifically fairness and justice issues, in social science.The project concludes results from three studies containing five empirical intervention sub-studies of social science teaching, conducted at upper secondary, middle and lower primary school level. All studies were based on the educational design-based research approach learning study,where teaching interventions are designed, analysed and evaluated in collaboration with practising teachers. For the intervention design and the analysis of empirical data, phenomenography, variation theory and activity theory were used.The results comprise descriptions of what it is means to know how to reason critically about fairness and justice issues in social science, what the critical aspects for learning how to do this are, how this knowing can be related to different teaching practices and design principles, and what indications of an emerging ability to critically analyse these issues can be. The results can be used as tools when designing, implementing and evaluating teaching and as empirically grounded additions to a theoretical description of teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge. Based on the results, the progression of the ability is discussed and a model for social science analytical reasoning (samhällsanalytiskt tänkande) is proposed. The model expresses analytical reasoning in social science as the development of a critical judgement in relation to contested societal issues with the purpose of reaching an agency-directed citizenship education.