Representation and diversity in educational resources such as textbooks can be regarded as multidimensional, since these include a variation of features of both individuals and societies.
By teaching different school subjects and combined with their textbooks, there is great potential to educate about diversity in a multidimensional way, which also happens by showcasing inactive diversity (Dörfel, 2023). Especially this is true for an era of continuous global flows,where information and capital exceed previous boundaries. However, in textbooks and school subjects this is not always the case. Disciplinary transformations within school subjects occur over time (Johnston, 2006). One Swedish example, is the science-based school subject of psychology. In this subject, several extensive disciplinary changes have been identified throughout recent decades (Blåvarg, 2018; 2023).
In this study, we explore a method to make disciplinary changes of school subjects visible through geographical mapping of scientific representation. By using a combination of geo-based network methods, we trace patterns of scientific change and struggles within the Swedish school subject of psychology over the past 70 years. More specifically, we use textbooks within the school subject of psychology and map references to specific researchers, their academic whereabouts (universities, disciplines and research centres) and their interdisciplinary perspectives/tradition. This, not only, enables us to gain an understanding of from where and by whom different perspectives adhere, but also of places of dominance and scientific hubs.
The multifaceted reality that prevails within different scientific disciplines can be expected to be adequately reflected in the teaching of the same. We propose this method as an input for analysing scientific representation in textbooks and highlighting what takes place in subjects in relation to the spread of the scientific field.
Stockholm, 2025.