Stockholms blodbad i historieboken: En läromedelsanalys under perioden 1869 - 1996

Abstract

This thesis explores in which ways the portrayal of the event known as the Stockholm bloodbath has changed during the period 1869-1996. This is done through textbook analysis. In Sweden, history has been a school subject since the 17th century, and has throughout its history had a formative role in the Swedish school system. In the middle of the 19th century it was specifically stated that the aim was to help students nurture a sense of national pride and love of country. The aim of the study is to investigate how nationally loaded events have been portrayed in text books, as well as if and how the evolution of said textbooks reflect the evolution of the history subject as a whole. The main method used is systematic qualitative text analysis, combined with a categorization model outlining different types of portrayals. The materials studied are history textbooks for the equivalent of Swedish upper secondary school covering Swedish and Nordic medieval history. The results show that throughout the period, the portrayals of the Stockholm bloodbath have shifted from descriptive to assertive as time has progressed. Furthermore, the results show that there is a period around the second world war when valuative wordings and descriptive portrayals are removed from history textbooks. This is concluded to be in line with the general development of history as a school subject at the time. It is attributed to the fact that, as previous research has concluded, the view of nationalism was changed after the first world war and then again after the second. This affected education in many ways, including changing the central aims of school subjects such as history from fostering national pride to helping students develop critical thinking skills and historical awareness.