This thesis explores what financial literacy is, what financial literacy becomes and what financial literacy could become within the context of a citizenship education such as the Swedish upper secondary subject of social studies.  Financial literacy does not intuitively converge with social sciences which leaves social studies teachers to both teach and realise financial literacy. Thus, teachers become co-creators of financial literacy as a school subject. This thesis explores this process via two different studies resulting in four research articles. In the first study, semi-structured interviews – analysed through PCK – are used to explore the perceptions of Swedish social studies teachers in upper secondary school regarding financial literacy teaching and learning. The findings include differences between experienced and novice teachers regarding which content knowledge and pedagogical approaches they use. However, all teachers express difficulties fitting financial literacy into social studies, mainly due to a perception of financial literacy primarily being a private matter, along with the unclear relationship between financial and societal issues. The second study is designed as a financial literacy teaching intervention. Students’ views on a financial dilemma are analysed using citizenship conceptions and threshold concepts. The findings are used to discuss design principles for financial literacy teaching. Salient conclusions in the thesis include citizenship education being able to frame financial literacy and provide epistemic features which can make financial literacy more teachable and learnable. It is hoped that the results from this thesis can inform future financial literacy teaching design as well as policy discussion related to financial literacy teaching and learning contextualised with another subject, especially citizenship education.

Financial literacy is a topic in social studies in upper secondary school in Sweden. However, financial literacy is not a defined discipline, nor has it any clear educational aim. Even though Swedish social studies teachers lack formal financial training they become co-creators of financial literacy as school subject. This thesis explores what financial literacy is, what financial literacy becomes and what financial literacy could become when taught as citizenship education. The first study investigates how teachers perceive and realise their financial literacy teaching. The second study explores possible ways to elaborate financial literacy teaching and thereby a feasible convergence between financial literacy and citizenship education. The findings suggest that financial literacy teaching and learning can benefit from utilising epistemic means from citizenship education. Thereby, students can be invited to explore financial and societal systems and to discuss financial issues as both individuals and citizens.

Many financial literacy educational efforts mainly focus on teaching money management. However, moneymanagement alone does not address financial prerequisites concerning home ownership, savings or retirementplanning since these issues are governed by agents outside households, namely the financial system andpolicy makers. This study examines students’ response to a financial literacy teaching that treats financialissues as controversial and contextually bounded to the financial and societal systems. Data consists of 36students’ conversations during a financial literacy teaching intervention. Results show that students arecapable of grasping and relating to financial concepts where association to the financial system and policymakingproduce elaborate understanding. Furthermore, students that contest given financial concepts andsystem do not only present constructive alternate solutions for the future, but these students also seemto grasp current financial and societal systems in more advanced ways and thereby demonstrate a possibleconvergence between financial literacy and citizenship education.

The aim of this article is to explore how experienced and novice Swedish social studies teachers form their financial literacy aims since they teach financial literacy without having any formal financial literacy training. This leaves both educational aims as well as teaching practice regarding financial literacy unresolved. Using teacher interviews, this article investigates how experienced and novice teachers use competencies beside content and pedagogical knowledge when planning and executing their financial literacy teaching in social studies. This knowledge is referred to as knowledge of context. Findings suggest that experienced teachers do not consult syllabus in an elaborate manner, instead they adapt their teaching in relation to educational programme, students’ age and life-world. Novice teachers, however, teach according to syllabus and do so consistently regardless of which students they teach.

-The OECD definition of financial literacy concerns money management on an individual level.

- Social science education should include financial literacy in a more elaborate way.

- Financial literacy teaching should enable students to discuss possible societal changes.

Purpose: This article aims to discuss what kind of teaching is required to enable students to critically review financial issues in a way that is in accordance with a broadcitizenship education.

Method: Content analysis where an assessment of students’ answers was compared and aligned with Westheimer & Kahne’s (2004) theory driven conceptions of citizenship.

Findings: Findings demonstrate that students’ understandings correspond with the three conceptions and give important indications of what needs to be included inteaching in order to address financial issues as citizenship education.

Implications: Focus in financial literacy education should be widened to include politicaland social aspects of the relation between households and the financial systems.

Sedan 1990-talet har individens privatekonomiska ansvar ökat beträffande sparande till pension, försäkringar för sjukvård och lån för bostadsköp. Detta har förbundit individen med det finansiella systemet, men även ökat individens privatekonomiska utsatthet vilket samtidigt ställer nya och högre krav på privatekonomisk utbildning (Lucey & Bates, 2012).

Detta hörsammades tidigt av OECD:s vars definition på privatekonomisk litteracitet med fokus på hushållskunskaper (OECD, 2016) däremot ansågs vara för snäv från forskarhåll (Davies, 2015). Detta hjälper inte individen att förstå de ekonomiska och finansiella systemen (Berti, 2016) utan reser frågor när privatekonomi ska undervisas och läras inom ramen för ett medborgarbildande ämne som samhällskunskap. I Sverige verkar dessutom samhällskunskapslärare uppfatta privatekonomiinslaget som kopplat till hushållskunskaper (Björklund, 2019), men samhällskunskapsämnet strävar, å andra sidan, mot en vidare uppfattning av medborgarbildning syftande till personligt deltagande i samhälleligt förändringsarbete (Sandahl, 2015) som överensstämmer med Westheimer & Kahnes (2004) medborgarkonceptioner.

Denna studie utforskar relationen mellan privatekonomi och medborgarbildning och undersöker hur undervisning kan utformas för att elever ska kunna förändra sin uppfattning om privatekonomi från något givet och individuellt till något dynamiskt och samhälleligt.

Undersökningen bestod av en förtestfråga där elever år 1 på gymnasiet fick svara på en fråga rörande presumtivt ansvar för en förändrad privatekonomisk situation. Resultaten pekar mot att elever uppvisar fyra kvalitativt skilda uppfattningar där tre av dessa typer av uppfattningar överensstämmer med Westheimer & Kahnes (2004) medborgarkonceptioner. För att utveckla elevers förståelse av privatekonomi mot en mer elaborerad medborgarbildning föreslår vi att det finansiella systemet ska diskuteras som en samhällsfunktion vilken kan förändras via demokratiska styrmedel.

This paper departs from Westheimer & Kahne’s (2004) three citizen conceptions and investigates students understanding of an individual’s financial situation in terms of responsibilities, agency and societal change. In line with calls from previous research, it aims to discuss what kind of teaching is required to enable students to critically review financial issues in a way that is in accordance with a broad definition of citizenship. The data consist of 97 accounts collected in collaboration with teachers where students discuss who ‘should’ be responsible (cf. Davies & Lundholm, 2012). Findings demonstrate that students’ understandings correspond with the three conceptions and give important indications what needs to be included in teaching in order to address financial issues as citizenship education.

The aim of this presentation is to present a proposal of what it means to be able to analyse societal issues in social studies education. This ability is considered central in both compulsory and upper secondary Social Studies education, and it has been suggested as one of several ways of thinking, that may be significant for Social Studies as a subject (Sandahl 2015). However, we still do not know much about what analysing in the Social Sciences means in general and for students in different age groups (Barton & Avery, 2016). Identifying this is crucial in order to design teaching that effectively enables students in different age groups to develop this ability. The study addresses the question of what it means to be able to analyse societal issues, with a focus on the 2015 migration situation, and was carried out as a learning study with iteratively conducted research lessons with students in year 1, 6 and 8 in compulsory school and year 2 in upper secondary school. The data, consisting of written student responses to open-ended questions (pre- and post-tests), as well as recorded group discussions, were analysed using phenomenographic methods (Marton, 2014) in order to identify qualitatively different ways of analysing the societal issue in focus. Results suggest that the most qualified way of analysing the migration situation was characterised by (i) seeing the migration situation as a dynamic process, where (ii) a consequence can also be a cause and where (iii) different dimensions are related.