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Students’ narrative action in social science teaching in Swedish upper secondary school : Limitations and openings

Blennow, Katarina LU orcid and Olson, Maria (2023) In Acta Didactica Norden 17(2).
Abstract
In this article, we undertake a narrative analysis of social science teaching in Swedish upper secondary school as a case study. In doing so, we want to stress the need to pay attention to the contextual and situated limits and openings of the conceivable repertoire of legitimate stories of social science in the Swedish context and its related research. The students’ attempts at sense making and action in encounters with the subject matter content, approached in terms of emplotments, render visible to what extent and in what ways the students insert cultural narratives into the subject matter teaching repertoire through their own subject storytelling. Furthermore, it indicates the limits and openings of social science teaching as... (More)
In this article, we undertake a narrative analysis of social science teaching in Swedish upper secondary school as a case study. In doing so, we want to stress the need to pay attention to the contextual and situated limits and openings of the conceivable repertoire of legitimate stories of social science in the Swedish context and its related research. The students’ attempts at sense making and action in encounters with the subject matter content, approached in terms of emplotments, render visible to what extent and in what ways the students insert cultural narratives into the subject matter teaching repertoire through their own subject storytelling. Furthermore, it indicates the limits and openings of social science teaching as predetermined “truth telling”, that is, as already-established socio-political knowledge repertoires.

In focusing on students’ unique, situated and collective interweaving of their “own” experiences with established cultural and political knowledge repertoires, we wish to make a case for the potential to renew society and students’ ways of acting and being in this storytelling. If meagre attention is provided to this interweaving, we argue that there is a danger that the renewal of society and of social science education will get lost, or at least disturbed, in an undesirable way. (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
narrative, social studies, students, social science, teaching, upper secondary school
in
Acta Didactica Norden
volume
17
issue
2
article number
4
pages
24 pages
publisher
Universitetet i Oslo
external identifiers
  • scopus:85162845855
ISSN
2535-8219
DOI
10.5617/adno.9744
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
189a62d6-c59d-4daa-8fec-b114ff2fd42c
date added to LUP
2022-11-25 11:05:23
date last changed
2024-03-07 23:17:33
@article{189a62d6-c59d-4daa-8fec-b114ff2fd42c,
  abstract     = {{In this article, we undertake a narrative analysis of social science teaching in Swedish upper secondary school as a case study. In doing so, we want to stress the need to pay attention to the contextual and situated limits and openings of the conceivable repertoire of legitimate stories of social science in the Swedish context and its related research. The students’ attempts at sense making and action in encounters with the subject matter content, approached in terms of emplotments, render visible to what extent and in what ways the students insert cultural narratives into the subject matter teaching repertoire through their own subject storytelling. Furthermore, it indicates the limits and openings of social science teaching as predetermined “truth telling”, that is, as already-established socio-political knowledge repertoires.<br/><br/>In focusing on students’ unique, situated and collective interweaving of their “own” experiences with established cultural and political knowledge repertoires, we wish to make a case for the potential to renew society and students’ ways of acting and being in this storytelling. If meagre attention is provided to this interweaving, we argue that there is a danger that the renewal of society and of social science education will get lost, or at least disturbed, in an undesirable way.}},
  author       = {{Blennow, Katarina and Olson, Maria}},
  issn         = {{2535-8219}},
  keywords     = {{narrative; social studies; students; social science; teaching; upper secondary school}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{05}},
  number       = {{2}},
  publisher    = {{Universitetet i Oslo}},
  series       = {{Acta Didactica Norden}},
  title        = {{Students’ narrative action in social science teaching in Swedish upper secondary school : Limitations and openings}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.5617/adno.9744}},
  doi          = {{10.5617/adno.9744}},
  volume       = {{17}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}