Skolämnen och moralisk fostran: En komparativ studie av samhällskunskap och livskunskap

This article is concerned with two school subjects that were introduced in Swedish schools during the 20th century: civics and life-skills. Drawing on textbooks in civics from the 1950s to the 1960s and textbooks in life-skills from the 2000s, the aim is to analyse and compare the morality conveyed in the respective school subjects during its introductory years. It is argued that civics and life-skills can be used to get a grip of differences between different historical contexts, since the two school subjects emerged in two different time periods. Civics emerged as a school subject for the comprehensive schools during the middle of the 20th century, and might therefore be labeled as a typically “modern” school subject, whereas life skills emerged in the late 1990s, and might therefore be labeled a “late modern” school subject. Given that these two school subjects emerge as novelties in two different time periods, they can be used to discuss how the meaning of moral education in schools is related to general social tendencies.