Disputation i historia: Kristina Kakoulidou

Abstract
The overall aim of the thesis is to explore how teachers and young people with current experience of history teaching in the Swedish upper secondary school express knowledge in relation to history as a school subject. Three types of knowledge are applied. Knowledge in history relates to subject content while knowledge about history refers to scientific methods and principles that aim to process the content in a structured and critical way. Knowledge from history can be understood as knowledge linked to the existential and experiential dimensions of history and how historical content affects people and influences their meaningmaking.

Knowledge and history in a school context are discussed and analyzed from three
perspectives. The first perspective concerns knowledge in relation to the subject of history as expressed in national curricula and syllabi. The second perspective is based on the expressions of knowledge that manifest in teachers' assessment materials for the evaluation of students' knowledge. The third perspective focuses young people with current experience of history teaching and how they reason about knowledge linked to history as a school subject.

The thesis is based on two interview studies with elements of the think aloud method. The empirical material was analyzed using an analytical tool based on history didactical theory that combines the three types of knowledge with the six cognitive levels in Bloom's Revised
Taxonomy.

In summary, the results show that teachers assess and grade students' knowledge by using different types of tasks that focus different types of knowledge and cognitive levels. This means that students encounter different interpretations of what knowledge is important and consequently determines the highest grade in history. A conclusion is that there are differences between what functions of history students find relevant and what functions they encounter in a school context. Another conclusion is that the subject's overall aim in the Swedish upper secondary school – which is to broaden, deepen, and develop students' historical consciousness – is not focused in the actual history teaching, but is left to the students to manage on their own.