The multicultural turn

Teaching history in multicultural societies – Case study Malmo (Sweden)

German Minister of Education and Research, Annette Schavan recently presented a proposal concerning a common European History Book. According to Deutsche Welle she underlined that “education is essential for shaping identity and for social cohesion in Europe”. Therefore it is possible to conclude that the content of history as a subject in schools is and will continue to be an important issue.
In the light of these words it is of importance to discuss what the common historical knowledge is according to college pupils, because they are directly effected by the political decisions. The emphasis of my research project is to determine through interviews what according to the teenagers, who live in the multicultural city of Malmö (Sweden), is regarded as a relevant historical knowledge. According to the official statistics 43 percents of teenagers living in Malmö have an immigrant background. For this reason Malmö is an excellent place to carry out studies that are both related to the questions of teaching history within multicultural societies and the young pupils’ complex social and cultural experiences and their construction of identities. Consequently it is significant to emphasize that, before one is to discuss what the content of history as a school subject should be, we should try to critically analyze the meaning of word “common history and identity” within multifaceted societies. My opinion is that people leaving in multicultural societies have multitude of socio-cultural backgrounds, identities and experiences, which makes this field of study significant.
The paper will be based on interviews with 25 college pupils who have different cultural, social, and ethnic backgrounds. It is my belief that by getting closer to the historical consciences of the above mentioned individuals I can depict young people’s opinions concerning the future of history in multicultural societies, such as Sweden. The focuses of my deconstructive perspective are gender and ethnicity, as well as the importance of gender and ethnicity for understanding of the national and regional historical writings and therefore the creation of common identity.
Consequently the main focus of this project will be the question of identity as well as my interest in what kind of historical knowledge is regarded as relevant for the development of their ethnic and gender identities. The preliminary studies have indicated that the ethnic identity is more significant for the youngsters who have a foreign background. On the other hand female pupils have shown a greater interest in the history of gender relations. As the result of these words it could be concluded that I will try to answer the following questions:
• What is according to the interviewees regarded as a relevant historical knowledge? How can we understand the relation between the taught historical knowledge and the power to decide what the “essential” historical knowledge is? How are their opinions related to their gender and ethnic identities? What are the potential consequences of the taught historical knowledge from gender and ethnic perspective on the formation of individual’s identities?