The literature classroom in a mainstreaming organisation – the case of reading Selma Lagerlöf
Submitted by:
Anita Norlund
Abstract:
This presentation is the result of a joint project including both a teacher group at an upper secondary school and its regional university. The project refers to a transformation of the practice from an organisation where the two subjects Swedish (L1) and Swedish as a second language (L2) were separated to an alternative organisation where L2 students were mainstreamed in L1 education. The main reason for the project was the teachers’ dissatisfaction with the fact that students enrolled in the Swedish as a second language subject felt excluded. Already in the start a crucial issue emerged; i. e. how to deal with literature education (see Hammond, 2006). The two subjects had since long been characterised by two different literature traditions. Now, the L1 tradition of giving priority to classic novels, and of giving the students access to the common cultural heritage, was found to collide with the L2 tradition where priority had rather been given to identity building for young people from ethnic origin other than the mainstream and which had relied on contemporary novels. Given this the aim of the presentation is to report the analysis of what happened when the L1 and L2 literature education was conducted in a new organisational form. The novel given space by the teachers was The Emperor of Portugallia by the Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf.
The empirical material consists of focus group interviews with students, observations of lessons and formal meetings, as well as of background documents. The theoretical approach guiding the research is found within the theory of practice architecture (Kemmis et al. 2014), an approach which has previously proved fruitful in similar studies of transformation. The theory facilitates the capturing of three arrangements; cultural-discursive (how the project and activities are understood by teachers and students), economic-material (what is being done) and socio-political (how the involved teachers and students relate to each other and how they relate to artefacts such as the chosen novel and the two curricula). The theory helps drawing conclusions in terms of how the arrangements enables or constraints the students’ success.
Hammond, J. (2006). High challenge, high support: Integrating language and content instruction for diverse learners in an English literature classroom. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 5(4), 269-283.
Kemmis, S., Wilkinson, J., Edwards-Groves, C., Hardy, I., Grootenboer, P. & Bristol, L. (2014): Changing Practices, Changing Education. Springer Verlag, Singapore.