To show movies in History classes : Teachers’ didactical choices in everyday practice

To show and use movies in history classes, as practice, is a diverse and complex matter as stated in this paper. Shaping knowledge, creating empathy, creating meaning and using history as a tool for analysis are concepts that are used for analyzing four teachers’ responses and thoughts in interviews that have been made in this study. Classes in history need variation to get the students’ attention. The teachers that participated in the interviews about everyday didactical choices using films show that they use different methods, but they all preferred to use short parts of films instead of long ones or whole films. They show and emphasize different thoughts about showing the tv-series Historien om Sverige that are used as a case in this paper, and historical films in general. Empathy, creating meaning and knowledge and history as a tool for analysis are possible terms or concepts for interpreting their ideas and thoughts about showing movies during history classes.