| Summary: | According to the Swedish national curriculum from 2011 and the latest school legislation from 2008, there is greater emphasis on schools’ dual purpose. Schools’ most pre-dominant task is not only to provide students with knowledge in different subject areas. Equally important is their task to foster skilled and engaged democratic citizens, who will contribute to the greater good of their society. Studies have shown that schools are failing in preparing students for their participation in a democratic society, and therefore also failing the second part of their legislative undertaking. The backbone of this thesis is the assumption that there is room in language teaching for what I would like to call ”real content”, i.e. content which really matters to students and teachers alike. The purpose of this thesis is to examine what kind of support teachers can find in text books for English as a foreign language when it comes to fostering responsible and competent democratic citizens. Two text books were examined - Blueprint A and Blueprint Vocational, since studies point to the fact that the democratic deficit is even more prominent in vocational education, which in turn can pose a threat not only to the students of vocational programs, but to our society as a whole.The results show that for those teachers who wish to take their democratic assignment seriously and teach not only language skills but also democratic skills, there are many texts dealing with democracy and values in both text books, as well as numerous exercises with the aim to improve students’ democratic skills, such as communication, critical thinking, argumentation etc. The explanation for the shortcomings identified in many studies therefore has to be found elsewhere. Furthermore, the findings of this study confirm the differences in perception of vocational students and students who will continue their studies at university level.
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