David Örbring
Making a curriculum. A study of knowledge in Swedish School geography
Lund Studies in Educational Sciences 14
2021 | English

ISSN: 2002-6323
ISBN: 978-91-89213-27-2, 978-91-89213-28-9

Many people have their own experience of school geography. Perhaps your memory of geography lessons is that you had to memorize all the rivers in a specific region, or gather facts about different countries. Or perhaps you made your own maps, which helped you to learn to analyze the landscape around you. These are examples of the aspects of geographical knowledge that are in focus in this thesis.
This thesis is a curriculum study in geography education. In four articles, the curriculum is studied as a policy document in the process of making a syllabus and in the classroom when teachers are using the curriculum. The first article elucidates learning progression in school geography. The second article analyzes different aspects of geographical knowledge in the geography syllabus. The third article examines and describes the process of making the syllabus in geography, with a focus on subject-specific abilities. The fourth article analyzes how teachers interpret the subject-specific abilities in their teaching.
With the aim of gaining insight into how geographical knowledge is recontextualized in different contexts, the thesis also contributes with a deeper understanding of the curriculum, which in turn can help teachers navigate as professionals.