Upper secondary Swedish teachers on teaching poetry
Submitted by:
Anna Sigvardsson
Abstract:
The aim of this study is to investigate secondary teachers’ views on current challenges and opportunities for poetry pedagogy. Poetry reading is since the introduction of the new national curriculum in 2011 “key content” in the Swedish curricula and is to be taught throughout year 1–12. However, to date there is little research on poetry pedagogy in Sweden and especially teachers at the secondary level lack guidance from research (Erixon, 2004; Sigvardsson, 2016; Wolf, 2004). Even if one turns to international research, the teaching of poetry reading in secondary education is understudied (Hanauer, 2001; Peskin, 2007; Sigvardsson, 2016). Therefore, this study investigates secondary teachers’ perspectives on teaching poetry to develop knowledge that may help teachers to reflect on their practise.
The empirical material consists of transcripts of 15 semi-structured online interviews in which teachers with a keen interest in poetry discuss their teaching. Research questions are: How do the teachers describe the conditions for poetry teaching? Do they describe any challenges? How do they work with poetry reading? Do their private uses of poetry influence their teaching?
The transcripts have been coded (Gibbs, 2007) and analysed thematically (Braun & Clarke, 2006) in an inductive manner. Preliminary results show that, according to the teachers, they have been given little preparation for teaching poetry during their degree in education and they are not supported in their work by the present curricula. To develop poetry pedagogy the teachers ask for possibilities to collaborate with colleagues.
Keywords: poetry pedagogy, poetry reading, secondary teachers, Sweden
References
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77.
Erixon, P. (2004). Drömmen om den rena kommunikationen: Diktskrivning som pedagogiskt arbete i gymnasieskolan. Lund:Studentlitteratur.
Gibbs, G. (2007). Analysing qualitative data; London: Los Angeles, Calif:SAGE.
Hanauer, D. (2001). What we know about reading poetry - theoretical positions and empirical research. In D. H. Schram, & G. Steen (Eds.), The psychology and sociology of literature in honor of Elrud Ibsch. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: J. Benjamins.
Peskin, J. (2007). The genre of poetry: Secondary school students' conventional expectations and interpretive operations. English in Education, 41(3), 20-36. doi:10.1111/j.1754-8845.2007.tb01162.x
Sigvardsson, A. (2016). Teaching poetry reading in secondary education - findings from a systematic literature review. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, epub ahead of print 7 jun. 2016 doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00313831.2016.1172503
Wolf, L. (2004). Till dig en blå tussilago: Att läsa och skriva lyrik i skolan (2, [utök] uppl ed.). Lund:Studentlitteratur.