We are pleased to present the first issue of 2025 with four new original articles and a country report from the Czech Republic. Less pleasing is the societal development where political, social and economic structures – and democracy itself – are being questioned by populist movements and leaders. Naturally, such upheavals in general society have consequences for Academia. In mid-March, the JSSE was informed by the US Department of Education that the current administration and the Musk-led “DOGE” are – in an attempt to reduce government spending – slashing funding for the database ERIC, where educational research from all over the world is being indexed and made available for researchers and teachers. In their budget cuts, ERIC will now stop indexing many journals, and the JSSE is among them. We are probably only at the beginning of the process where US research will become increasingly pressured to follow governmental guidelines that please the current administration.

I artikeln argumenterar forskningsnätverket FUTURES (vid Stockholms universitet) för betydelsen av ämnesdidaktisk forskning runt elevers framtidsföreställningar. Utifrån en narrativ ansats, och med hjälp av empiriska exempel från en pilotstudie, analyseras och beskrivs gymnasieelevers framtidsberättelser och en diskussion förs om implikationerna för samhällskunskapsundervisningen. Analysen visar att elevernas berättelser om framtiden ofta har en eurocentrisk utgångspunkt och en genomgående pessimistisk ton. Berättelserna tar avstamp i samtida skeenden som klimatkrisen och pågående internationella konflikter. De flesta eleverna utesluter eller distanserar sig i berättelsen från det egna potentiella aktörskapet i framtiden. Två huvudsakliga implikationer för undervisningen diskuteras. För det första vikten av att samhällsundervisningen skapar möjligheter för eleverna att fördjupa förståelse av de egna möjligheterna till politisk påverkan i frågor som rör samhällets utveckling. Vi lyfter fram potentialen i att ta avstamp i ytterligare ämnesperspektiv från bland annat historia, geografi och religionskunskap när framtidsfrågor diskuteras. För det andra vikten av att eleverna ges möjlighet att i berättelser om framtiden skriva in sig själva som aktiva, engagerade och kunniga medborgare.

In this autumn issue of the JSSE, we are pleased to present five original articles. These contributions deal with social science education in different contexts and from different educational settings, reminding the reader of the heterogeneity of our common research field. Two of the articles deal with teacher training, two with considerations and understandings of teachers and one focusing on young peoples’ understanding of social issues. However, the similarities in the research contributions are also evident. All of the articles focus on the importance of inclusive, critical and balanced social science education in different ways and with different outsets. In times when democracy and human rights are being contested, it is important to highlight the role of democratic and civic education and what it can contribute with. 

As the field of history education begins to acknowledge the need to respond to the challenges of the Anthropocene, questions arise concerning students' ability to use history to make sense of pressing environmental issues. To address this, 67 Swedish upper secondary school students were asked to historicise issues like global warming and share their ideas concerning the present and the future. Within the framework of Jörn Rüsen's narrative theory, this article analyses how and to what extent these students experienced and interpreted the past and used history to orient themselves in relation to such issues. It also develops on the outcome of this process. While most students historicised the situation, many students made limited use of history. Their typical narrative can be described as a linear story of historical industrialisation driven by the hunger for progression and wealth and facilitated by ignorance. It was told with little detail or reference to evidence and in a way that generally seemed unsupported by historical thinking. Moreover, their typical narrative mostly aligned with the standard science-based Anthropocene narrative, lacking cultural and political perspectives. Although their orientations varied, students focused on technical solutions and lifestyle adjustments rather than civic engagement and politics. Students were worried about the future. However, the narrative of technological and scientific progression and the belief that people in the past lacked awareness and technological alternatives gave students hope. On the other hand, viewing them as informed or inherently selfish contributed to pessimism. Supported by theoretical work, the findings indicate ways school history may support students' ability to deal with Anthropocene issues, helping them to experience and interpret the past and the present in a more nuanced and elaborate way. They also highlight the need for content that aids students' ability to anticipate Anthropocene scenarios and reflect on strategies for engagement.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to discuss mutual understandings of political issues among students and academics. The aim is to suggest a framework that teachers can use to address politics from both the discipline’s and the students’ perspectives.

Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on semi-structured interviews with twelve students in six upper secondary schools and eight social science academics in Norway and Sweden.

Findings: We identified four guiding aspects for defining political issues in social science education to connect disciplinary thinking with students’ views of the political. These aspects are: 1) collective, 2) contemporary, 3) conflictual, and 4) contextual.

Limitations: This study relied on interviews with a selection of students and academics and what they chose to express. The results may not be applicable to other samples.

Implications: The framework presented can be used in social science education to understand and discuss the nature of political issues.

In most Western democracies, there is an ongoing discussion on the role of education, particularly in times of increasingly polarized political views, leading to democratic erosion and social unrest. Citizens have been described as living in echo chambers, relying on, and often receiving, information that confirms their own world views and political ideas. In this climate, education has been emphasized as an important antidote to provide students with knowledge, skills, attitudes and values to strengthen democracy and social cohesion. In most cases, this assignment is primarily tasked with subjects that can be considered political education, such as social studies, civics or social science education. However, there is no consensus on what kind of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values students need to fulfil a “good political education”. Historically, there has been a rift between advocates of progressive ideas such as political deliberation and those who favor an emphasis on disciplinary-based knowledge. The latter perspective has been, for some time now, highlighted in educational sciences through Michael Young’s concept of powerful knowledge, where knowledge from academic disciplines is emphasized in shaping youth into critical thinkers on social and political issues. This article critically examines the ideas of powerful knowledge and its potential for political education in secondary school. An important argument is that powerful knowledge, or disciplinary thinking, is necessary for a good political education but not sufficient in its own right. In order to deal with complex political issues, students need to be invited with their life-world perspectives.

Most salient financial literacy frameworks and curricula mainly focus on teaching and learning of simple money management. However, the financial demands placed on individuals today include much more complicated matters, such as buying a home and saving for retirement. Furthermore, financial literacy gives rise to normative questions such as what responsibility should be placed on individuals. In educational terms, this creates an alignment problem where the hopes and expectations placed in financial literacy as mass-education is not met by desirable results. This article uses previous results and the construct of powerful knowledge to discuss how financial literacy education in upper secondary school can benefit from an incorporation into social studies, which is an existing school subject in many educational systems. Findings include that teachers can utilize their existing teaching competence to also teach financial literacy. However, to accomplish results, both curricula and syllabi must guide teachers to abandon the focus on money management to instead focus on teaching students concerning the financial, economic and political issues that affect personal finances, yet at the same time can be affected by democratic decisions. Implications for financial literacy teaching and learning are discussed using the concept Powerful Financial Literacy.

Purpose: The article explores how the tension between embracing and scrutinising democracy can be productively overcome through social science teaching about democracy that focuses on trust as a subject content.

Design/methodology/approach: Empirical materials were collected through focus group interviews before and after an inquiry-based teaching segment on trust, and the materials were analysed qualitatively through three grounded themes.

Findings: It is argued that working with the displacement of subject content in inquiry-based teaching about democracy enhances the possibilities for students to deepen their knowledge about democracy, while enabling them to scrutinise the democratic system critically.

Research limitations/implications: The article reports from a small-scale study of four classes in two upper secondary schools in Sweden, and the study provides tentative observations and conclusions that should be investigated further in future research.

Practical implications: The article shows how trust as a subject content can contribute to problematising students’ understandings of democracy, and how the displacement of content can be important in formulating compelling questions and in designing inquiries on democracy.

• Social science education is the core subject assigned responsibility for citizenship education and holds a strong position in Swedish schools (policy and teaching).
• Two reforms of curricula and syllabi through years 1–9 and 10–12 are upcoming.
• There is a growing community of researchers investigating the purpose, design and conditions of social science education.
• Research is mainly small-scale and qualitative and there is a lack of large-scale and/or quantitative studies.

Purpose: This report provides an overview of social science education in primary and secondary education in Sweden with the purpose of introducing the international research community to policy-related issues concerning citizenship education, educational institutions and the scholarly state of the art. The principal topics are: a context of Sweden and its educational setting, the current policy documents and upcoming reforms, the state of teaching and teacher education, and the state of the art of Swedish social science education theory and research.

Findings: Social science education holds a strong position as the main agent of citizenship education in Swedish schools and is a mandatory subject in every school year. The current and upcoming syllabi both emphasise disciplinary knowledge as well as citizenship education. Sweden has a growing community of researchers, but this community is somewhat fragmented because researchers originate from different disciplines.