A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• How students use sources and information to learn social science

  2025. Jenny Rosengren.

  Conference

  Because of digitalisation and the increased use of social media, information has become fragmented, individualised and emotionalised (Haider & Sundin, 2022). False and misleading information is spreading faster than ever and a significant amount of research effort has been dedicated to investigations about how teaching and digital tools can strengthen students abilities when it comes to fact-checking (e.g. Breakstone m.fl., 2021). A limited amount of effort has been dedicated to research about how students use sources and information to learn, although this is just as important.

  Social science education aims at making students knowledgeable in societal issues as well as preparing them to become active and responsible citizens (Sandahl, 2015). Students' skills when it comes to using sources and information is an important aspect of this. Gaining more knowledge about how students handle sources and information is crucial for social science didactics in the future.

  The aim of the present study, that is part of my PhD project, is to investigate how students use sources and information to answer a societal question and learn social science. This might be difficult for students to talk about and explain in formal interviews. Therefore, elicitation techniques have been used to highlight what students do (Barton, 2015). 115 students in upper secondary school were handed six sources to use when answering a specific question about democracy. The students worked in groups. They were asked to think aloud and their conversations were recorded. The data was then analyzed using reflective thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2019) and the presentation will outline several tentative themes concerning how students in social science education read, as well as use, sources and information. Social science learning appears to be hindered when students read and use sources and information in a disengaged manner, often resulting in work that could have been produced with greater quality by generative AI. Conversely, when students actively engage with sources and information, it seems as if social science learning and responsible participation in public discourse becomes possible.

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• Meaningful interpretation of sources in social science education

  2024. Jenny Rosengren. NOKSA 2024 - Challenges of social science education in times of change and crisis, 7-7

  Conference

  School has a very important role when it comes to preparing students for the changing media landscape and the massive flow of information, where fake and false information spreads farther, faster and deeper than accurate information (Vosoughi m.fl., 2018). Having access to information is not enough, students also need to be able to find information that is relevant as well as critically examine, interpret and use the information in order to develop meaningful understanding of society and societal issues.

  The Swedish school curricula states that all subjects at all stages shall teach students about working with sources, but social science education has, because of content and tradition, a special role and responsibility when it comes to this. This is especially true when it comes to the critical assessment and evaluation of sources and information. This activity is also often put in the foreground when it comes to education material concerning work with sources (eg. in material from the European Commission, the Swedish National Agency for Education & the Swedish Media Council). Also, a lot of research tends to focus on the critical aspect of working with sources (Axelsson m.fl., 2021; McGrew m.fl., 2018), but working with sources is about more than critically assessing and evaluating. It also includes interpreting and using the sources. We know less about this, especially in relation to social science education. Critical assessment is of course present in these activities but there also has to be a fair amount of trust when students use sources with the purpose of developing meaningful understanding. Therefore, the aim of the study is to understand more about what students do when interpreting and using sources in relation to societal issues.

  This research project is based on a subject specific intervention where high school students, as part of their regular education, work in groups with a task concerning working with sources. They use a couple of trustworthy sources to answer a specific societal question. Transcripts of the students’ conversations and their written work material are then analyzed and the preliminary results about what students do, when interpreting and using sources, will be presented at the conference.

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• What are the characteristics of source criticism in social science education?

  2023. Jenny Rosengren. NOFA9 - Education, knowledge and Bildung in a global world, 118-118

  Conference

  We know from research that students generally lack the ability to critically examine information and information sources in a satisfying way (Haider & Sundin, 2020; McGrew, 2022) and that classroom interventions about civic online reasoning, lateral reading and click restraint to some extent can improve students’ knowledge and abilities  (Wineburg et al., 2022; Axelsson et al., 2021). However, most studies about source criticism tend to focus on digital source evaluation and are made in the context of history education. Is it possible to separate the digital world completely from the physical world and is source criticism the same in all subjects? This study’s point of departure is that the digital is integrated into the physical world and we need more studies that take this into account. Furthermore, it is suggested that we do not know what source criticism is when it comes to social science education and that this needs to be explored. This study aims to examine what students do and what knowledge, abilities and attitudes they need to develop in order to critically examine and evaluate different sources in social science education. What challenges do they come across? In other words, what are the characteristics of source criticism in social science? The study will be using elicitation techniques to get students to verbally express their knowledge, abilities and attitudes about and towards information and information sources in relation to what the information can be used for. A pilot has been done and a draft to an analysis of the students’ perceptions as expressed in the pilot will be presented.

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