Mother-Tongue Education (MTE) and reading technologies in the new media landscape
Submitted by:
Per-Olof Erixon
Abstract:
This presentation is about how teachers of Mother-Tongue Education in Swedish lower secondary schools look upon and relate to the screen and the book, respectively, as technologies for reading linear texts in the context of MTE. It is part of the research project “School subject paradigms and teaching practice in the screen culture – art, music and Swedish under the influence” (Swedish Research Council, 2010–2012). In this presentation, the focus is on the technology and mother-tongue culture, regarding what and how to read in a school context, as important facets of both the screen and the book, and thus what influence the screen has on the identity of the school subject of Swedish. This study was conducted in 2010 and 2011, i.e. when the iPad was still a relatively new technological device. The result shows that reading on the screen offers resistance, while reading in a book is associated with relaxation for the body and a solid object. Pupils and teachers see advantages of the screen regarding the reading of short (factual) texts, so-called “efferent reading”, but disadvantages concerning the reading of fiction, “aesthetic reading” (Rosenblatt, 1995/1938). The conclusion is that the new screen technology is challenging historically established individual reading rituals like silent reading in MTE since it has not yet been appropriated neither cognitively, bodily or culturally.
Rosenblatt, Louise, M. (1995[1938]) Literature as Exploration. New York: The Modern Language Association of America.