Introduction

Earlier research on educational content in civics has mostly focused on texts. This volume aims to remedy the lack of earlier studies on the role of diagrams in civic education. With the help of theories on spatial cognition, Chap. 2 gives a global overview of diagrams used for nation-building purposes in civics textbooks, illustrated by examples from ten current and historical societies. Chapter 3 focuses on textbooks from one country and period, present-day Germany, and the question of how migration is represented in diagrams in a process described as diagrammatic othering. Chapter 4 , which is focused on the visual literacy of students, builds on iterative learning studies in Swedish civics classrooms. It presents four principles for teaching critical reasoning about complex social issues and systems with the help of diagrams. Finally, Chap. 5 brings together the conclusions from the three different studies. It discusses how and why diagrams are used in civic education, analyzes the possibilities and pitfalls associated with that use, and suggests how the advantages can be optimized while the risks are mitigated.