Powerful knowledge in national tests in social studies subjects

The aim of this project is to investigate views of knowledge in national tests in civics, geography, history, and religion.

In an era of post-truth and alternative facts, a fundamental task of education is to provide students with the opportunity to develop powerful knowledge, i.e. subject knowledge and disciplinary knowledge, that empowers them to become active and engaged citizens in a democratic society.

National tests can be seen as expressions of a collective standard for knowledge in society, and the social studies subjects are especially important to investigate, since they focus on knowledge and abilities fundamental for civic empowerment.

The empirical material consists of the national tests from 2018 and 2019, which are publicly available in 2024 and 2025 respectively, including 1000 students’ responses from each subject.

A framework featuring three educational perspectives: traditionalism, social constructivism, and social realism provides the basis for the analysis of the tests.

The students’ responses will be analysed phenomenographically building on theories of disciplinary reasoning and second order concepts identified in the social studies subjects.

The analysis will focus on features of powerful knowledge manifested in students’ responses and a comparison across the four subjects will be made. The project group consists of four experienced researchers in social studies education and runs for three years.