Encountering literature in textbooks
Submitted by:
Helle Rørbech
Abstract:
Encountering Literature in textbooks?
A study of the framings of literature encounters in L1 textbooks for 9th grade students
Helle Rørbech, Ph.D., assistant professor, The Danish Department of Pedagogy and Education, University of Aarhus, Denmark
This paper is based on a mixed methods study about textbooks and other learning materials for L1 teaching in Denmark (primary and lower secondary). Other participants in the project submitting papers are Simon Skov Fougt, Anna Skyggebjerg and Jesper Bremholm.
To study how frequently used textbooks might impact literature teaching in Danish L1 classrooms, the paper will discuss excerpt from two textbooks (including tasks and work-sheets) where different learning designs shape students encounters with literature and scaffold the process of interpretation in different ways and with different aims. Through an analysis of the underlying concepts of text, understandings of meaning making and of appreciated contexts of interpretation, the paper will discuss how and to which extent the different designs on the one hand give the students access to literature reading as a cultural community (Kramsch 1998) and to become skilled literature readers, and on the other hand give them opportunity to be co-constructors of the subject matter (Slot 2012) and reflect on diverse perspectives in the process of interpretation.
The study focuses on the interplay between text, student, classroom and contexts of understanding (Rørbech 2016) in the textbooks. Analytical concepts from research in the evaluation of learning material respectively expression, intentions and the activities (Bundsgaard and Hansen 2011) will be used to explore how the textbooks scaffold students’ experience and understanding of the text and organize individual and mutual work processes.
The aim of the textual analysis in the study is to explore the learning potentials of the textbooks (Bundsgaard and Hansen 2011), to describe their approach to literature teaching and discuss how this approach might impact the actual learning processes in literature classrooms.
References
Bundsgaard, Jeppe and Hansen, Thomas Illum (2011).Evaluation of Learning Materials: A Holistic Framework. Journal of Learning Design, vol. 4 (4):31-45.
Kramsch, Claire (1998). Language and Culture.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rørbech, Helle (2016). Mellem tekster – kultur og identitet i klasserummet. Frederiksberg: Samfundslitteratur.
Slot, Marie Falkesgaard (2013). ”Opgavedidaktik i dansk”. Cursiv nr. 12 (4): 61-77.