Samhällskunskap i antropocen : Om lärares transformation och politiskt innehåll i undervisning om klimatförändringar

This licentiate thesis investigates how Social Studies teachers in Swedish upper secondary school address climate change. Using the concept of the Anthropocene as a background, the study highlights how human-induced planetary disruptions, such as climate change, intensify resource scarcity as a fundamental condition for politics. Social Studies (Samhällskunskap) is identified as the school subject with the clearest mandate to provide students with the political education needed to navigate these challenges. The aim is to describe the character of political education concerning climate change within this subject. The study addresses two research questions: how teachers’ understanding of climate change is transformed into Social Studies instruction, and how climate change is portrayed as political education. The methodology comprises interviews with six upper secondary Social Studies teachers and an analysis of instructional documents. The empirical material is analysed using Lee Shulman’s concept of transformation and Pedagogical Content Knowledge, alongside an analytical framework based on the concepts of Polity, Politics, and Policy, and politics understood as a system dependent on input, output, and feedback from citizens. The results show that although teachers consider climate change instruction important, it is primarily addressed informally, for example through news monitoring. Formal instruction, often located in follow-up courses, commonly includes activities such as UN role-playing. Teachers identify curriculum overload and perceived student disinterest as key constraints on instructional time. Analysis of the political content reveals a strong focus on supranational actors, such as the UN and EU. While political processes are addressed as input, instruction concerning feedback mechanisms and citizens’ roles in demanding accountability is largely absent. The study concludes that a gap exists between teachers’ normative ambition to foster active, participatory citizens and the climate-related content provided. To strengthen political understanding, the thesis argues that Social Studies instruction on climate change should more explicitly address conflicts over resource allocation and the critical role of citizens in holding political systems accountable.