This thesis seeks to understand what constitutes important economics knowledge from a disciplinary perspective and how such knowledge is recontextualized in textbooks and teacher training to become teachable to social studies students in Sweden’s upper secondary schools. It consists of four substudies: two covering disciplinary economics knowledge and two covering preservice social studies teachers. 

The first and second substudies focus on disciplinary economics knowledge. The first substudy, which was based on an online questionnaire for Swedish economics scholars at higher education institutions, shows that six economics terms/principles are especially important for people to understand. Such knowledge may be considered powerful economics knowledge. The second substudy demonstrates that there are great variations in the extent to which powerful economics terms appear in Swedish social studies textbooks and in how the language used shifts between everyday and scientific language. There is a risk that not all learners are given equal preconditions to develop economics knowledge through social studies textbooks. The third and fourth substudies focus on how preservice social studies teachers develop the ability to teach economic knowledge and show that students’ individual pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) depends on theoretical and practical studies. Students are unconfident about their economics knowledge, which may negatively affect their willingness and ability to teach economics when they become in-service social studies teachers.

Overall, there appears to be a problem with the recontextualization of economics knowledge in Swedish social studies textbooks and with economics education for preservice social studies teachers. This may negatively affect economics education. As a result, it is important to strengthen preservice social studies teachers’ economics knowledge through increased economics content during teacher training. The importance of imparting powerful economics knowledge and shifting between everyday and scientific language in textbooks and during teaching needs to be highlighted for policymakers, textbook authors, and teacher educators. 

Både privatpersoner och samhällsmedborgare berörs av ekonomi eftersom många frågor och beslut rymmer ekonomiska dimensioner. Det betyder att kunskaper i ekonomi också är en förutsättning för kvalificerat demokratiskt deltagande.

Finns det då kunskaper och ett särskilt undervisningsinnehåll gällande ekonomi som är viktigare än annat att behärska? Vilka kan i så fall avgöra det, och hur utvecklar blivande lärare förmågor för att undervisa elever i detta särskilt viktiga ekonomiinnehåll? Avhandlingen söker svar på dessa frågor genom fyra delstudier. Två av delstudierna handlar om vilken ekonomikunskap som nationalekonomer anser att samhällskunskapsämnet bör ta upp och vad som tas upp i läroböcker. De andra två handlar om blivande samhällskunskapslärares förberedelser att undervisa om ekonomi i gymnasieskolan. Avhandlingen bidrar därmed med kunskaper om hur elever ska få tillgång till och ges möjlighet att tillägna sig viktiga och kraftfulla ekonomiska kunskaper.