This essay has focused on how the national curricula have changed during the past thirty years
in Sweden. These have been the Lgy 70 and the Lpf 94. According to the syllabuses in
History A, students should know about their culture and embrace their heritage. However, the
definition of cultural heritage is diffuse and the latest curriculum is similar to its precursor.
The syllabuses need to be more specific in their criteria of what the students should acquire.
We have also analyzed in what ways non-western cultures have been presented in six
history books, made for students attending the Upper Secondary levels in Sweden. We have
studied if other cultures have been presented in a stereotypical way, if emotionally charged
words have been used in an unethical way, and also from what perspective history has been
told. Older books use the word negroslave when labelling the slaves that were brought from
Africa to the colonized countries. Other books avoid mentioning the positive things about a
certain culture and emphasize on the negative aspects. Many of the non-western cultures are
stereotypically presented in the history books and more often there is only room for one
perspective, which is the western ideology. In some books, cultures such as the Native tribes
of North America and South America are only mentioned in one or two sentences. Moreover,
it is evident that different cultures are illustrated when they are in direct contact with the
western society.
Our conclusion is therefore that the history books we have analyzed are told from a
Eurocentric perspective. However they fulfil the criteria set from the syllabuses in Histor...
