Är samer renskötare? : En intervjustudie om hur samer framställs i den svenskahistorieundervisningen på gymnasienivå

Sammanfattning

The subject of this report was to investigate how the Sami people are portrayed in the history subject in the Swedish upper secondary school. The aim was to analyse if the image portrayed was a contributor to a generalization of the heterogeneous groups of the Sami people. This study was conducted through qualitative methods where I interviewed eight teachers. The most common courses were History 1a1 and History 1b, but other advanced courses as History 2b were also represented. The theoretical framework of this study was based upon curriculum theory to analyse why, and how the teachers choose the specific content in their teaching. The result of the study confirms earlier work that shows how the Sami people are marginalized and exemplified by both the textbooks and the teachers. Furthermore this study shows that the teachers choose conflicts that happen in the present to relate their teaching so the students can relate to the content easier. When the teachers mention the Sami people it is mostly the reindeer herding ones because the conflicts regarding the rights to land and hunting are the most publicly noticed. The Sami that are not involved with reindeer herding are therefore even more marginalized because of the lack of knowledge the teachers possess. It is hard for the teachers to teach about the Sami when the curricula do not explicitly mention the Sami, in correlation to the fact that most of the teachers do not have any education about the subject. This study shows that education is necessary for the teachers if the history of the Sami people would become more present in the teaching.