The Swedes and their history

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse adolescents' views of Swedish history. A small number of adults were also included in the study. The analysis shows that, regardless of the age of the informants, Sweden is portrayed as an exception from the world through its legacy of a long peace (in spite of a war-torn distant history) and through its enjoyment of progress, democracy and prosperity. We interpret this as a result of a history culture in which schools as well as other institutions produce a common, conflict-free history, which may be challenged in an emerging neonationalist era.

Controversially uncontroversial? Swedish pre-service history teachers’ relations to their national pasts

“…We are neither presented with the polythetic and alternative narratives that Stéphane Lévesque (2017) thought instrumental in fostering a tolerant and democratic society. Instead, the majority of our respondents seem to indicate a strong alignment with dominant ways of perceiving the national past, similar to the results that Goldberg (2017) and Olofsson et al (2017) have shown. Even though there are respondents who raise concerns about how Swedish history is usually narrated, they are few.…”

“…He shows that the focus of the public debate about Swedish history education was about how it could serve the purpose of creating national cohesion and identity (Samuelsson, 2017). A recent survey of how adolescents and adults perceived Swedish history (Olofsson et al, 2017) revealed that Swedish national history culture seems rather homogenous and focuses on disseminating a view of Sweden as a country that used to be plagued by war and poverty, but has now become a prosperous democratic welfare state. This is in line with what can be perceived as the grand narrative of Swedish history.…”

“…Sweden has been shown to be such a country (cf. Olofsson, Samuelsson, Stolare, & Wendell, 2017;Persson, 2016;Samuelsson, 2017;Vinterek, Donnelly, & Thorp, 2017), and in this article we are interested in how 36 Swedish pre-service history teachers narrated and approached Swedish national history. Do they present a national history devoid of conflicts and how do they position themselves in relation to this national history?…”

“…A key aspect here has been to focus on the disciplinary aspects of history as a way of reaching a consensus between conflicting narratives. Sweden presents a different case where national history generally is regarded with consensus instead of being a source of dispute (e.g., Danielsson Malmros, 2012;Olofsson et al, 2017;Samuelsson, 2017;Zander, 2001), even though, of course, Swedish history does contain topics that are challenging and could be approached from conflicting perspectives (e.g., Alvén, 2017;Indzic Dujso, 2015;Linderborg, 2001;Lindmark & Sundström, 2017;Lozic, 2010;Nolgård & Nygren, 2019;Runcis, 1998). While we have knowledge and an academic discussion of how conflict-ridden societies approach their national history in history education, we know less about how national history is approached in societies with a low degree of conflict regarding its national past and what challenges, if any, that may pose to history education.…”

Las narrativas nacionales en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de la historia: Una revisión sobre los libros de texto y las narrativas de los estudiantes

“…Si tenemos en cuenta los resultados de los estudios realizados en las últimas décadas centrados en comprender cómo construyen los estudiantes el pasado de su nación, parece claro que existe un predominio de las narrativas nacionales maestras (Barton y Levstik, 2004;Bilali, 2013;Carretero y Van Alphen, 2014;López, 2019;Olofsson, Samuelsson, Stolare y Wendell, 2017;Sáiz y López Facal, 2016). Hemos señalado cómo, por ejemplo, en el caso de España, la narrativa nacional de la Reconquista sigue fuertemente presente en la mente de los estudiantes.…”