This qualitative study is done with the purpose of creating understanding for the theoretical democratic content in educational materials for Civic Education courses 1a1 and 1b during GY-11, so teachers create an intentional approach when using educational materials in their democratic education. This was motivated as important considering the reduction in obligatory Civic Education for the vocational programs. The study was conducted using a hermeneutic qualitative reading method where the educational materials, more specifically two series with one book for each course, was read with purpose of creating understanding for the democratic content according to ideal democratic models: deliberative democracy, participatory democracy and electoral democracy. A text voice analysis was also conducted using Bakhtins theory of dialogic and monologue text that contributed to the general result concerning the democratic content. The results show that the electoral democracy ideal is dominant in all educational materials, there is hence no striking difference between the democratic content in 1a1 and 1b educational materials. Though the study shows intention in the 1a1 educational materials towards a more participatory democracy ideal, the electoral ideal are still clearly dominant.

In this presentation I will highlight how Swedish geography teachers think about their subject and how they enact it. During the autumn 2012 a survey was conducted among 3000 teachers, who teach geography in primary and secondary schools (4–9 grade) in Sweden. Building on analyses of the questionnaire, some basic data about Swedish geography teachers are presented, and some issues about teachers’ different subject approaches and different teacher strategies are discussed. Geography teachers’ subject view varies with e.g. length of education, pedagogical approach and on what level they are teaching. In terms of teacher strategies, more student active approaches can be contrasted with more traditional textbook teaching. The results show that traditional study materials and textbooks are increasingly challenged by less structured forms of source material