Student history teachers’ perceptions of the role of education for democracy in history teaching in Finland and Uganda

In democratic countries and for many reasons, education for democracy has become over the past few decades an increasingly important part of history teaching. However, the way in which this aim is implemented varies greatly among different countries. In this article, we study university student history teachers’ definitions of the relationship between history education and education for democracy in Finland and Uganda. Nine students from Finland and 15 from Uganda participated, representing one university in each country. Data were collected through interviews in spring 2023 and analysed using qualitative content analysis. The results showed that in both countries student history teachers considered education for democracy to be an important part of history education in schools. However, differences existed between Finnish and Ugandan students related to the nature of democracy as well as to each country’s history. The Finnish students believed that history teaching must support a state of strong democracy, from the content to the teaching methods and ethos – a set of perceptions we label developing democracy. Ugandan students’ views, which we label creating democracy, reflected the construction of a young democracy. For them, democracy is not taken for granted, and thus the aim of education is to build democracy by, for example, emphasising its values, the democratic identity that belongs to a democratic society and its solidarity. Both Finnish and Ugandan students saw history teaching as an active part of the processes of democracy, and students in schools as active builders of democracy.