All Quiet on the Knowledge Front : A curriculum analysis

After an intense debate about the quality of the Swedish upper secondary school system, the Swedish government appointed an investigation into the improvement of the grading systemand the knowledge development amongst students. The investigation resulted in a newcurriculum, including new subject syllabuses, for upper secondary school effective from July1, 2025. The following study aims to examine how the requested curriculum in the initialinvestigation, the final curriculum Gy25, and the appurtenant history syllabus may becategorized according to curriculum theory. In a qualitative document analysis using thecurriculum theory-based curriculum ideologies and curriculum models, and prominent conceptswithin history didactics, we analyse the focal point of the curriculum content, the described aimof education, and the function of knowledge. Moreover, a comparison is made between thecurriculum Gy25 and the history syllabus to detect the curriculum theoretical congruencebetween them. Our key findings include a continuity between the initial requested curriculum,the final curriculum Gy25 and the history syllabus. While all include several elements of thedifferent curriculum models and curriculum ideologies applied during the analysis of theempiricism, we argue that the curriculums and the history syllabus should be categorized mainlyas an outcome-based education curriculum model and in the social efficiency curriculumideology.