”Aika paljon sai tehdä, kunhan se liittyi siihen historiaan ja opetussuunnitelmaan” – Oppilaiden valtaistuminen yläkoulun historian tunneilla

My research aim was to identify what happens in a junior high school history class when pupils gain a certain amount of power. I applied the philosophy of Jacques Rancière and other advocates of critical pedagogy in practice to create a suitable environment for education on democracy and empowerment. As a teacher, I gradually granted more power to my pupils. At the final stage of the experiment, my pupils were given the freedom to study history from the curriculum as they wanted to. The practical part of the research was carried out as a three-year action research. I gathered a large amount of research material from my four research groups. This material included lesson diaries, interviews, and all the tasks my pupils performed during the research. By analyzing the material, I answered my research questions: How did my pupils study history, what did they learn, and were they empowered? The pupils explored history, for example, by watching YouTube videos. The most common schoolwork they did was to write a short essay about a historical subject. The pupils were interested in the gamification of learning. However, the curricula requirements limited the pupils’ ability to study without a teacher. Although the pupils reported good learning results in self-assessments, they did not present much source criticism or historical interpretations in the schoolwork they returned. They learned independent study skills and IT skills. The pupils enthusiastically embraced responsibility and freedom, developed into independent learners, and were empowered. Furthermore, this teaching method supported democracy education. In the school setting, teachers have a great deal of power, which they cannot—and should not—relinquish entirely. However, certainly the pupils can study without a teacher who is actively guiding the learning process. Keywords: basic education, democracy education, empowerment, history teaching, Rancière.