At present, the attractiveness of far-right parties in the politics of numerous West-European countries is clearly visible and underlines a vulnerability of their populations to far-right ideas and discourses. France and Sweden are two of those countries in which the attractive power of far-right ideas is relatively important, which draws concerns over a future peaceful and multicultural Europe.

Departing from a social-constructivist worldview and Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus which emphasises on the importance of education in shaping the worldview of people, this research will attempt to look at the education systems of France and Sweden for nourishing the attractiveness of far-right ideas in society. The idea of this research is thus to see how education, through the study of French and Swedish schoolbooks, influences students in relation to their understanding of foreign cultures.

The findings of this research indicate that the intermediate schoolbooks of France and Sweden are responsible for spreading xenophobic, anti-immigrant, pro-European and racist elements in the minds of pupils, which ultimately create a platform for far-right ideas to flourish upon.