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Vilka möjligheter och utmaningar finns när det gäller användning av källor i historieundervisning? I den här antologin diskuterar författarna olika aspekter av denna fråga både i relation till en samtida historievetenskaplig praktik och till de nya förutsättningar som digitaliserade arkiv och medier kan innebära. Men flera av kapitlen utgår också från konkreta undervisningserfarenheter och boken vill på så sätt även sprida inspirerande ideer om källanvändning i klassrummet.

Antologins texter är i första hand tänkta att bidra till vidare reflektion om källor i skolans historieundervisning, men ger även läsaren kunskap om hur källbegreppet kan förstås och tillämpas på olika sätt i andra sammanhang, exempelvis inom historielärarutbildning och i mötet mellan arkiv, museer och skolor.

Att undervisa i historia på mellanstadiet är både roligt och utmanande. Ämnet kan göras medryckande med hjälp av färgstarka händelser och personer. Eleverna kan leva sig in i levnadsvillkor under andra tider och betrakta sina egna liv som en del av historiens gång. Föreställningarna om dåtid, nutid och framtid samspelar med varandra, och det är lärarens uppdrag att hjälpa eleverna att utveckla sin förmåga att relatera de olika tidsskikten till varandra. Detta är viktigt men inte alltid enkelt, och historieundervisningen ställer höga krav på både lärare och elever. 

Historiedidaktik i praktiken – För lärare 4–6 är en introduktion till undervisning i historia i grundskolans årskurs 4–6 och tydligt grundad i historiedidaktisk teoribildning. Resonemangen i boken är praktiknära och knyter an till kursplanen i historia för grundskolan. 

Vilka utmaningar finns kring bedömning i historia? Under de senaste åren har förutsättningarna för historieundervisning förändrats som en följd av en dramatiskt förändrad bedömningspraktik. Kapitlen i denna bok diskuterar olika aspekter av bedömning i historieämnet. Sammantaget ger de en fördjupad insikt om bedömningspraktiken i det moderna historieämnet, men därutöver får läsaren indirekt bred kunskap om de villkor som gäller för historieundervisning i svensk skola under tidigt 2020-tal.

The study investigates upper secondary school students' use of counterfactual reasoning when engaging in a task concerning historical explanation. The study analyses student answers to a prompt asking them to evaluate the causal importance of a historical actor for a historical event, aiming to characterize the counterfactuals used, as well as applying possible criteria for what can be considered a qualified counterfactual. The criteria for qualification of counterfactuals are based on theoretical proposals about the potential of counterfactuals in relation to historical explanation. The findings indicate that a majority of the students involved use counterfactuals in their reasoning about explanatory importance, most of them employing counterfactual reasoning in relation to the historical actor. The analysis of qualification indicates that student reasoning becomes more qualified when students instead focus on structural factors, include both structures and actors in their counterfactual reasoning, or support their reasoning by making comparisons.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and analyse how teachers and students understand the concept of historical explanation in the context of classroom teaching practices. The thesis is made up of four studies that investigate different aspects of understanding, focusing on either teacher or student understanding as expressed in words and actions.

The different studies employ differing methods, including classroom observations, interviews with teachers, and analysis of student answers to prompts intended for assessment. The studies include cases from both lower and upper secondary school in Sweden. The four studies provide empirical results that are presented in each individual study, and furthermore subjected to an aggregated analysis in order to find patterns of commonality. The aggregated analysis draws upon Rüsen's theory of historical knowledge, as well as a progression model for historical explanation based on results from previous research.

The results of the study show a clear difference between lower and upper secondary school in how students at each stage construct historical explanations, indicating differing expectations of what students are supposed to do with explanations in each stage. Teachers' practices are more varied: while a majority of the included teachers manifest a disciplinary understanding of historical explanation, in line with previous research about historical explanation in educational contexts, other approaches with other emphases are also present. These include an emphasis of learning explanations as sets of facts, as well as approaches that aim for making the knowledge of historical explanation useful outside of the history subject. Examples of such aims found in the study are to enhance empathetic understanding of other people, and helping students to orient themselves in relation to present-day issues.

Historical explanation is a fundamental component of historical accounts. Learning how to construct and analyse such explanations is therefore an important aspect of the process of teaching and learning history. This thesis investigates how teachers and students in Sweden handle this aspect in the context of education and assessment.

The thesis consists of four different studies that alternate the focus on either students or teachers, in lower or upper secondary school. Teachers are investigated mainly through classroom observations, students mainly through analyses of written answers.

The study analyses common patterns among teachers and students, finding that student answers to a high degree conform to the knowledge requirements of the course they are studying. Teachers present a wider and more varied understanding of historical explanation that goes beyond what is captured in the knowledge requirements, indicating the potential for explanations to develop empathy, and for helping students to orient themselves in relation to present-day issues.

The topic of this study is how Swedish students aged 15-16 use causal reasoning in history when given a high-stakes task about explaining a historically significant event, the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany. The study is based on student texts from the Swedish national test in history. The student texts are mainly analysed with regards to how many, and what kinds of, causal factors are used by the students. The study finds that while most students are able to combine agents and situational factors in their explanations, the explanations show a recurring theme of combining a generic sense of economic crisis with Hitler and the German people as the important agents, to the detriment of other causes that could open up for different interpretations of why the Nazi regime came to power. To counteract this, the study suggests increased emphasis on some contextual factors in teaching practices.