Although outdoor recreation has a long tradition in the Nordic countries, several studies show that a large part of today´s youth spend no or little time in nature (Dahl, Eriksson & Sandström, 2009; Pergams & Zaradic, 2008). This is especially true for young people with foreign background (Sandberg, 2009). There is therefore a risk that knowledge and responsibility for nature and the environment get lost in an increasingly urbanized society. Knowledge in biodiversity and so-called ecosystem services are essential if we are to achieve a sustainable development. If young people do not spend time outdoor, learning about nature, they must acquire this knowledge in other ways.

Textbooks are still important sources of information. Several international studies show that they are widely used and that many pupils and teachers regard the contents of textbooks as the definition of the given subject (Chiapetta & Fillman, 2007; Lazarowitz, 2007; Nelsson, 2006) Textbooks are essentially factual but many authors also try to communicate these facts by a direct tone, and by relating to experiences from everyday life. But whose daily lives do they relate to? By presenting examples few pupils have experience from, such as “when you pick cloudberries”- a quote from one of the textbooks, the authors risk excluding pupils who cannot relate themselves to such situations outside school.

This study is part of my doctoral thesis, in which a multimodal approach to texts and learning is the theoretical framework. Texts do not merely consist of letters, word and sentences; a text is built on different forms of representations – modes. Words, images, graphs, metaphors etcetera could be seen as sets of semiotic resources for meaning making. Both the design of the text and the contents affect the pupils' ability to make meaning (Bezemer & Kress, 2008; Jewitt, 2008; Kress, 2001; Kress & van Leuwen, 2001). If the pupils are supposed to be stimulated to learning through the connections to everyday life in the textbooks, these connections must be relevant and easy to relate to. If the examples can stimulate the pupils to create internal images, this would increase the possibility of meaning making.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the everyday experiences that six common biology textbooks relate to.

The research questions are as follows:
• To which extent are there formulations with the personal pronoun you and with explicit connections to life experiences outside school?
• What environments are used in the examples from everyday life?

·   What kind of experiences do pupils need to be able to recognize themselves in the everyday connections in the textbooks? 

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