Democracy and human rights. A critical look at the concept of western values in Finnish school textbooks.

Autor/in	Mikander, Pia
Titel	Democracy and human rights. A critical look at the concept of western values in Finnish school textbooks.
Quelle	Aus: Hahl, Kaisa (Hrsg.); Niemi, Pia-Maria (Hrsg.); Longfor, Rita Johnson (Hrsg.); Dervin, Fred (Hrsg.): Diversities and interculturality in textbooks. Finland as an example. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing (2015) S. 107-124Verfügbarkeit
Reihe	Post-intercultural communication and education
Beigaben	Literaturangaben S. 121-124
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; Sammelwerksbeitrag
ISBN	1-4438-7669-0; 978-1-4438-7262-1; 978-1-4438-7669-8
Schlagwörter	Sekundarstufe I; Schulbuch; Geschichtsunterricht; Moral; Demokratie; Menschenrechte; Sozialkunde; Finnland
Abstract	In attempts to explain the world, Finnish school textbooks, just like other media, tend to use the dichotomy of West and the rest of the world. In The Idea of the West, Bonnett (2004) successfully shows that as long as the notion of 'West' has existed, the definitions of 'Western' have evolved, both within and outside the West. It refers not only to a geographical marker but to an assumed collection of ideas and ideologies such as democracy and human rights. In this chapter, the aim is to examine how these concepts are connected to the concept of West (or Europe) in school textbooks. The data consists of the textbooks in grades 5- 9 published in Finland in geography, history and social studies in 2005- 2010. Inspired by the discourse theory analysis developed by Laclau and Mouffe (1985/2001), textbooks are seen as discursive documents that take part in the creation of objectivity. The analysis section consists of three parts. The first one focuses mostly on the definitions of the West and Western values as concepts, the way they emerge in descriptions such as that of Ancient Greece or the European Union. The analysis shows how differently the concepts of democracy and human rights can be tied to the concept of West. The second part discusses how the concepts of West and Western values are used in meetings with the 'other,' using history and social science textbook articulations as examples. The third part focuses on textbook descriptions of the future of the West and the concept of Western values.
Erfasst von	Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsmedien \| Georg-Eckert-Institut (GEI), Braunschweig
Update	2017/1