Tolerans En kvalitativ studie gällande grundskollärares föreställningar om toleransvärdet

Abstract

The use of the concept of tolerance has increased in recent years. One of the reasons is due to the refugee flows that characterize the society and therefore constitute ground for diversity. National governing documents as well as international conventions denotes tolerance as a positive value that should be implemented in school. In order to meet differences and be able to cooperate with them, tolerance is needed. But the word also includes a repressive meaning and can in fact be perceived as contradictory. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine teachers' conceptions regarding tolerance as a democratic value. The material for this survey consists of scientific articles and a doctoral dissertation which sets ground as previous research. A qualitative method has been carried out in the survey through semi structured interviews with teachers. The teachers in this study form a representative group of respondents to address the issue of the survey. The data was processed and analyzed by a thematic analysis combined with a constructivist approach. The collected material is also treated parallel with theory formation which is presented for the study's use of the term tolerance. The result of the study displays teachers' understanding of the word tolerance and their unawareness of the complexity of this democratic value. The dilemma arises because teachers do not problematize the value tolerance, but teaches it since it is mentioned in the Swedish curriculum. One didactic consequence the result presents, is that teachers can have different conceptions regarding tolerance, and that this impacts what they teach as tolerance and what they tolerate.