Our democratic society is strengthened by knowledgeable, participating and committed citizens. In the Nordic school system, social science education has played an important role in educating future generations in political, social and economic issues. Social science education also fulfils an important role in offering arenas for discussions on normative issues that arise from studies of contemporary topics.
Social science education as a field of research, spans over all the didactic questions of why, what and how. The field focuses on research on the nature of the subject of social science, its legitimacy and societal function, and how the subject can be taught. Social science education also includes a subject-critical and social-critical element, i.e. to critically examine how subject traditions risk being institutionalized in schools. Practice oriented research is also an important part of social science education and several studies are conducted in collaboration with in-service school teachers.
