SONOMA – the Research Group for Subject Matter Education in Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Mathematics

In our research group, we share an interest in developing the research in subject matter education – the art of teaching a subject from pre-school to higher education. Our members’ research in the scientific fields of these subjects has a central place in our group and our aim is to be a bridge between learning and the scientific subjects per se.

Within our group, we conduct research on Subject Matter Education as well as research in the areas of Religious Studies/Theology, Social Sciences including History, as well as Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics. We want to facilitate and enable interdisciplinary research activities such as social and natural science perspectives on sustainable development and education.

The Swedish name of our group is SONOMA – Ämnesdidaktiska forskargruppen för SO, NO och matematik. Didaktik in Swedish is the art and science of teaching and learning and ämnesdidaktik the art and science of teaching and learning a subject. Didaktik thus differs somewhat from the common usage of the English term “didactics.” Other descriptions for ämnesdidaktik are subject matter education and curriculum studies from the perspective of specific subjects. In the Swedish primary school, Religion and Social Sciences including History are collectively called samhällsorienterande ämnen (society oriented subjects, SO), whereas natural sciences are called naturorienterande ämnen (nature oriented subjects, NO) which, together with mathematics, yields the acronym SONOMA.