Samfunnsfag på Småtrinnet: Læreres erfaringer med faget (SASMIL)
The resent curriculum reform in Norway, LK20, has underscored the importance of social studies in early years by, for the first time, specifying 13 competence goals for year one and two. At the same time the curriculum dissolved the main social science disciplines and integrated social science, history and geography into a common mélange while introducing three interdisciplinary structures in the overall curricula. This gives teachers overwhelming freedom, with regards to both methods and content. The extent to which the curriculum reform is implemented is unclear, and yet, in 2025, the Norwegian Minister of Education proposed removing social studies from the early years of schooling.
This study aims to shed light on the lower primary level, which has been given scarce scholarly attention in the social studies research field (Helgesen & Hidle, 2024, Utler, 2021). We have selected subject teachers’ interpretations and experiences as our focus here, due to their central role as internal agents and primary managers of the subject. We ask: What are teachers’ perspectives on teaching social studies for the youngest children in school?
International research has shown that children as young as six years old have naïve theories of politics and are interested in as well as capable of learning political knowledge (Abendschön, 2017, Goetzmann 2017). It is therefore important to understand and discuss what social studies looks like at the lower primary level. Based on interviews with 30 teachers from diverse municipalities in Norway, the findings give insight into teachers’ reflections of teaching practices in social studies. This research design thus opens for theory generation about content, concepts and questions to be used to further develop the research field and policy regarding social studies for children in the first years of school.
This study aims to shed light on the lower primary level, which has been given scarce scholarly attention in the social studies research field (Helgesen & Hidle, 2024, Utler, 2021). We have selected subject teachers’ interpretations and experiences as our focus here, due to their central role as internal agents and primary managers of the subject. We ask: What are teachers’ perspectives on teaching social studies for the youngest children in school?
International research has shown that children as young as six years old have naïve theories of politics and are interested in as well as capable of learning political knowledge (Abendschön, 2017, Goetzmann 2017). It is therefore important to understand and discuss what social studies looks like at the lower primary level. Based on interviews with 30 teachers from diverse municipalities in Norway, the findings give insight into teachers’ reflections of teaching practices in social studies. This research design thus opens for theory generation about content, concepts and questions to be used to further develop the research field and policy regarding social studies for children in the first years of school.
Publisert i NOKSA: Nordic Conference in Social Studies Education: " Social Studies in Times of Curriculum Changes", 2026
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