Sara Blanck
Associate Senior Lecturer
Unit for Subject Matter Education with specialization in Social Studies EducationAbout Sara Blanck
I am a teacher of Social Studies/Civics and Swedish, working as an Assistant Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Sciences Education. My research focuses on practice-oriented studies of teaching in Social Studies and the Social Science subjects, and I am also part of a KAM project on controversial issues in teaching for younger pupils.
My dissertation, Students Encounter Social Issues, was written in two parts. I first completed a licentiate thesis on Social Studies and interdiscplinary instruction subject within a graduate school for teachers in Social Science Education at Karlstad University. There, I developed an interest in social issues and subject didactics, which led me to continue my doctoral studies in a research project on social issues and migration in middle school. This project was carried out in collaboration with subject didactics researchers in the Social Science subjects and was funded by the Swedish Institute for Educational Research.
In my teaching, I primarily work in courses on Social Science Education for student teachers in grades F–3 and 4–6, as well as in Social Studies Didactics within both primary and secondary teacher education programmes. I am also engaged in thesis courses and supervise students in both the primary and secondary teacher education programmes.
Research Interests
- Didactics in Social Studies and Social Science subjects, with a particular focus on Bildung theory and didactic perspectives on social issues and subject interplay.
- Students’ encounters with, and teachers’ didactic reconstruction of, Social Studies and Social Science subject content related to democracy and social issues such as migration, sustainability, and justice.
- Students’ development of knowledge and concepts from cognitive, ethical, and aesthetic perspectives.