The reshaping of the Swedish education system from 1945 to 1980 led to a unification of its structures and discourse in the name of equality and the common good. The instrumental reductionism inherent in the construction of the welfare state was thus extended to the sphere of access to knowledge: scientific validation of the methods used, explanation of the objectives, rationalisation of planning and training tools, etc. The thesis examines the alignment of the school system with a Swedish “model” of social hygiene through its impact on the social frameworks of cultural memory. It focuses on how the codification of relativism and the formalisation of an unbiased approach to the subjects taught impact on the authority of the pedagogical canon, while accelerating its crisis. To this end, the formal framework of history teaching, the shift to a trans-disciplinary curriculum for humanities and the changing focus of history school-books are analysed systematically.The second part of the study focuses on how the subordination of the teaching relationship to the social purpose it was supposed to serve was imposed, paradoxically, as a truth regime. In the name of their emancipatory role, schools were now required to help foster an individual sense of responsibility – whether in the area of married life or with regard to the “correct” way of raising children. The requirement for conformity and discipline reflected in this teaching would shift the teacher/pupil relationship towards an immanent symbolic third: the implementation of “Swedish” (or supposedly Swedish) values. The imaginary challenges involved in introducing a participatory approach in schools and welcoming the children of immigrants between 1970 and 1980, and the subsequent emergence of two social imperatives – the “duty” of adults to influence their children, and the social duty to “train” the parents – are examined in this light.