Can Emancipatory Writing Be Seen as a Way to Strengthen Communication, Equity and Equality?
Submitted by:
Ria Heilä-Ylikallio
Abstract:
Within this round table there are two projects collaborating: The Writing Proficiency Project in Finland and Sweden and The Boston Writing Project. Among other things, strength based pedagogy is emphasized as a pedagogical tool, which can be used within emancipatory writing. Further on, there are different perspectives on how emancipatory writing can be perceived. We find these aspects especially intriguing. One aspect is our geographical contexts, which are Finland, Sweden and the USA. Within these contexts we are looking at the languages Swedish, English and Spanish, mainly as L1 but also as L2 to complement our linguistic overview. Other aspects we recognize are gender differences, different ages, digital and paper based writing, diversity of genres as well as various language backgrounds and ethnicities.
Democracy and global citizenship are important in schools and educational contexts. To be a part of the society as democracy, writing skills are essential. Furthermore, writing occurs in a social context and provides the opportunity to participate in the society. In order to reach equity and equality within the society and educational frames, writing should be taught by acknowledging the individual and his/her personal needs. This makes us raise a new question when viewing educational writing culture as emancipatory writing to strengthen verbal communication.
By considering these aspects the purpose of this roundtable discussion is focused on the question: What is emancipatory writing?
Based on this question, we will take an inquiry stance and gladly invite other thoughts to be discussed. Different views on emancipatory writing contribute to L1-Education which connects us all within different educational contexts. If we learn from each other, we become united. In addition to verbal communication, emancipation also affects both arts and culture. Furthermore, within different cultures writing can be considered as an emancipatory function. We need to learn these functions in order to sustain democracy and citizenship in our global society. Hence, writing is the 21st century’s bridge into the future.
- Anders Westerlund
The emancipatory power of literature is often associated with reading books. This can, for instance, make the reader aware of thoughts and feelings, or inspire the reader to act. However, these emancipatory dimensions are also central aspects of the writing of literature. This presentation deals with the literary essay. Essential for the literary essay as a genre, is reflection on experience (Atkins, 2005). The essayist uses writing as a way towards understanding and the esthetic form strengthens the message.
References
Atkins, G. D. 2005. Tracing the essay. Through experience to truth. Athens: University of Georgia Press.
- Ria Heilä-Ylikallio & Siv Björklund & Katarina Rejman & Sofia Jusslin & Sigrid Ducander
The aim of the project is to identify what texts and types of multimodal texts are produced today by 11-18-year old students in different classroom contexts, and, to analyze different evaluation criteria for students' written texts. A comparison between students with Swedish as L1 and L2 in schools in Finland and in Sweden is done to identify potential textual and genre related features related to individual linguistic competence and the local and classroom didactical environment. From a sociocultural perspective, where learning is seen as a dialogue and a social action in interaction with culture, environment and surroundings, the different linguistic environments in the project provide excellent conditions to study the significance of the classroom context in writing in Swedish and the emancipatory potential of writing events and writing processes in individual classrooms. The project brings together researchers from the University of Vaasa, Åbo Akademi University and Stockholm University.
References
Björklund S., Rejman, K., Magnusson, U. & Heilä-Ylikallio, R. (2016). Elevtextens många uttryck – mot en multimodal analys. [Many expressions of students’ texts – towards a multimodal analysis.] In P. Hirvonen, D. Rellstab & N. Siponkoski (ed.) Teksti ja tekstuaalisuus, Text och textualitet, Text and Textuality, Text und Textualität. VAKKI-symposiumi XXXVI 11.–12.2.2016. VAKKI Publications 7. Vaasa.
Rejman, K., Magnusson, U., Björklund, S. & Heilä-Ylikallio, R. (2016). Elever i årskurs 5 skriver narrativer. [Students in grade 5 write narratives.] In H.Höglund & R. Heilä-Ylikallio (ed.). Framtida berättelser. Perspektiv på modersmålsdidaktisk forskning och praktik. [Future stories. Perspectives on research and practice in L1 education.] Rapport nr 39/2016. Åbo Akademi.
- Caroline Doktar
Usually when talking about grammar we need to decide whether to be or not to be. Nowadays there are three “modern” contentions due to the Scandinavian tradition (Teleman, 1987, p. 8) whereof one is that it gives us insight and knowledge about ourselves as language creatures, this is also called The Humanistic Contention (Boström & Josefsson, 2006, s. 27) and can be seen as the emancipatory contention. Further there are two contentions that kind of works as tools to reach other goals one of them is The Metalanguage Contention and the other one is The Language Crossways Contention (Hertzberg, 1995). Of these two it is The Metalanguage Contention which most of the three has a connection to writing. More about these contentions are discussed during the round table.
References
Boström, L. & Josefsson, G. (2006). Vägar till grammatik. [Paths towards grammar.] Lund: Studentlitteratur.
Hertzberg, F. (1995). Norsk grammatikkdebatt i historisk lys. [Norwegian grammar debate in historical light.] Oslo: Novus forlag.
Teleman, U. (1987). ”Det skolgrammatiska arvet. En inledning.” [The legacy of school grammar. An introduction.] In: Teleman, U. (Ed.) Grammatik på villovägar. [Grammar gone astray.] pp. 7–11. Stockholm: Svenska språknämnden & Esselte Studium.