Vol. 22 No. 2 (2023): Assessment and National Exams in Social Studies and Social Sciences

Editors of this Issue

Jan Löfström, University of Turku, Finland             

David Rosendlund, Malmo University, Sweden

Birgit Weber, University of Cologne, Germany

Assessment and national exams have an ambigous function, on the one hand as instruments of New Public Management and gatekeepers for coveted social positions, but on the other hand they also can contribute to enhancing equality and fairness in education by professionalization, also in the so-called soft subjects like social studies and social sciences, even if some competences – like civic or democratic consciousness – maybe difficult to operationalise. The articles in the journal issue present different perspectives on the special theme, including the sensitiveness of instruments for measuring citizenship competence; the development of specific didactic criteria by analyzing 30 years of measurement of economic competence; the sources of influence in teachers’ decisions in assessment of students' proficiency in civics in Sweden; and the analysis of how the results in the Finnish matriculation examination correspond with the students’ performance in school social studies courses. In addition, a country report discusses the place of social studies in the Greek educational system and analyses the problems and stakes that are involved. Further, a research report from Canada analyses the financial education curriculum in Quebec, pointing out the lack of a critical view on financial issues.