Gabriel Bladh, Professor of Social Science Education

Gabriel Bladh was born and raised in Torsby. After completing his undergraduate studies in biology and geography at Stockholm University, he returned to Värmland and the then Karlstad University College for further studies in geography and tourism. This resulted in an appointment as lecturer in geography at the same institution in 1988, and many of his students were prospective teachers. At the same time, he commenced his doctoral studies in human geography at the University of Gothenburg. 

In 1995, Gabriel Bladh obtained his PhD with a thesis on Finskogen’s landscape and people during four centuries, which is a study of nature and a society in times of change. Informed by theory, the thesis presents a historical-geographical study of how relations between people and landscape have changed in the Finnish settlements in northern Värmland from the 1600s until the present.

Since then, Gabriel Bladh has developed his research in different projects and publications on landscape and forest history, temporal geography, the history and culture of the Forest Finns, as well as applied and integrated landscape research. 

During the last decade, subject-specific education has become an important research field. Gabriel Bladh does research on subject-specific education as part of Karlstad University’s Centre for Social Science Education (CSD) and Research on Subject-Specific Education (ROSE), one of the University’s designated strong research groups. With his current research, Gabriel Bladh aims to contribute to teaching development in geography and social sciences. 

“I am particularly interested in the school subject geography and how geographical knowledge and approaches are developed and used in schools, academia and everyday contexts. My background enables me to integrate theoretical subject knowledge and subject-specific teaching approaches to the school subject and teaching.”

Gabriel Bladh is actively involved in several international research networks, including the Geocapabilities research project that focuses on the professional development of geography teachers. At present a large EU application is being developed.

“In the future, I hope to be able to unite my interest for Finnskogen and teaching issues in a project aiming to highlight the history and cultural heritage of the Forest Finns in teaching. This may also make a contribution to the regional effort to develop Finnskogen into a World Heritage Site.”

Gabriel Bladh is married to Anne-Marie and has two children. He enjoys making the most of seasonal changes through outdoor activities and experiences – ideally by cross-country skiing, birdwatching and picking cloudberries.