Oma maa : Historianopetus ja irakilaistaustaiset opiskelijat

This Master’s thesis researches the hybrid national identities of the Iraqi-originated second generation as well as what kind of support the upper secondary education history teaching gives to them. I scrutinised national identities from the individual as well as collective perspectives, and throughout the study, the scrutiny was defined by the concept of hybridity. By hybridity, I mean the dynamicity, multiplicity, and situationality of identities. Along with hybridity, the study was accompanied by the concept of intersectionality, which pays attention not only to the multiplicity of the identities but also to the power relations between them. I scrutinised history teaching as a tool to transmit hegemonic narratives, which build the national identity as well as pass on the values and beliefs related to the national identity. I wanted to find out, how the history teaching and its narratives that had been stated as Eurocentric and concentrated on white Finnishness, could support the multiple identities of the Iraqi-originated second generation. I carried out the fieldwork with interviews. Three adolescents took part in the interviews, and their backgrounds represented the ethnic diversity of Iraq. First I interviewed the participants twice in individual interviews, and finally we carried out a common group and feedback discussion. The interviews were carried out in the years 2021–2022. Antiracism was the methodological guideline of the study, and in practice it meant the inclusion of the participants in the study process, making visible the power structures related to the study as well as the critical scrutiny of the researcher’s own position. I analysed the interview material using theory-guided content analysis. The study results showed that the concepts of hybridity and intersectionality are well applied not only to the national identities of the participants but also to the national identities produced by history teaching. The participants identified with the hegemonic narratives of Finnish history in history teaching regardless of whether they identified themselves as Finnish or not. Nevertheless, the other dimensions of the participants’ national identities were left without construction material due to the Eurocentric approach as well as focusing on the white Finnishness in the history teaching. Along with the information it transmits to the individual, history teaching affects identities by shaping the society’s idea of general knowledge as well as the possible identities of the individuals. When it comes to teaching, the participants missed multiplicity and multiperspectivity that they applied themselves to some extent due to their background and inner circles. Based on the analysis, I finally drafted ideas on history teaching that would transmit hybrid narratives instead of hegemonic narratives. Hybrid narratives would allow bringing forth the dynamicity and multiplicity of national identities, but at the same time, they would enable historical comparison better. In addition to that, supporting identities in history teaching would require discussing identities in the lessons: sharing different views and making own position visible.