Mångfald eller enfald?

Abstract

This essay has focused on how the national curricula have changed during the past thirty years in Sweden. These have been the Lgy 70 and the Lpf 94. According to the syllabuses in History A, students should know about their culture and embrace their heritage. However, the definition of cultural heritage is diffuse and the latest curriculum is similar to its precursor. The syllabuses need to be more specific in their criteria of what the students should acquire. We have also analyzed in what ways non-western cultures have been presented in six history books, made for students attending the Upper Secondary levels in Sweden. We have studied if other cultures have been presented in a stereotypical way, if emotionally charged words have been used in an unethical way, and also from what perspective history has been told. Older books use the word negroslave when labelling the slaves that were brought from Africa to the colonized countries. Other books avoid mentioning the positive things about a certain culture and emphasize on the negative aspects. Many of the non-western cultures are stereotypically presented in the history books and more often there is only room for one perspective, which is the western ideology. In some books, cultures such as the Native tribes of North America and South America are only mentioned in one or two sentences. Moreover, it is evident that different cultures are illustrated when they are in direct contact with the western society. Our conclusion is therefore that the history books we have analyzed are told from a Eurocentric perspective. However they fulfil the criteria set from the syllabuses in History A, but we wish that other cultures could be represented more extendedly. We should embrace other cultures and let our students know that they are a part of our multicultural society.