The purpose of this study has been to investigate how social science teachers experience the relationship between the following missions: 1.) give pupils the opportunity to develop abilities for critical thinking, and 2.) reproduce democratic societal values permeated in the curriculum. The study has focused on two research questions; what teachers express to be their interpretation of the relationship between these missions, and in what way the missions are implemented in their subject-specific didactic work. In order to answer these questions the study was conducted through interviews with social science teachers and the empirical data collected from these interviews was then analysed through a discussion of Biesta's theory regarding the three societal functions of education in combination with Sandahl's definition of two tiers of knowledge within the teachings of social science. The conclusions reached by this study are the following: The relationship between the aforementioned missions is complex and the expressed nature of it differentiates between teachers depending on their fundamental interpretation of the missions. Therefore, whether this relationship is found to be in dichotomy or dynamic by social science teachers cannot be given a general answer. Furthermore, the conclusions that can be drawn regarding how social science teachers implement these missions in their didactic work is that the approaches are many and that these approaches are impacted the conditions given in certain contexts and can be different from class to class. A common ground among the interviewees is that the classroom should be an arena where the students can discuss.