The student as an individual in the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish L1 curriculum – a comparative analysis of voice, exploration and personal development
Submitted by:
Anke Piekut
Abstract:
In the presentation, I will focus on how the student as an individual is inscribed in the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish curriculum in L1 in upper secondary school. As the three curricula point at similar academic competences and qualification for the students to obtain, the understanding of the student as an individual differs in extent and significance (Deng, 2016; Pinar, 2015; White, 1980). In the Danish curriculum, the notion of ‘personal voice’ (Krogh & Piekut, 2015) in writing is connected to the student as an individual, in the Norwegian curriculum the concept of exploration and creativity seems to afford the recognition of individuality and in the Swedish curriculum, the teaching is supposed to enable personal development and trust as subjective features. The question of which perspectives on individuality are prevalent in the curricula, and how they seem to relate to academic competences and outcome, will be guiding the comparative analysis of the three curricula (Adamson, 2014; Deng, 2016). Three focus-group interviews with Danish L1 upper secondary school teachers on the concept of ‘personal voice’ will complement the comparative curriculum analysis, as research, academic debates and practice show substantial difficulties realizing ‘personal voice’ adequately. Four focus-group interviews with Swedish and Norwegian upper secondary teachers will supplement the analysis of the Norwegian and Swedish curriculum.
How and why weigh individuality as a process of, a necessity for or an aim for education will be explored, as will the different notions of individuality, mentioned above (White, 1980; Davies, 2006). The analysis of the formal curricula will shed light on the relation between individuality and values of knowledge, as the focus-group interviews will aim at the perceived understanding of ‘personal voice’, creativity and personal development as part of the L1 education in upper secondary school.
Keywords: Curriculum, comparative analysis, student as individual, upper secondary
References:
Adamson, B., Morris, P. (2014). Comparing Curricula. In: Bray, M., Adamson, B., Mason, M. (eds) Comparative Education Research. CERC Studies in Comparative Education, vol 19. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05594-7_11
Deng, Z. (2016). Bringing curriculum theory and didactics together: A Deweyan perspective. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 24(1), 75-99.
Krogh, E., & Piekut, A. (2015). Voice and narrative in L1 writing. L1 educational studies in language and literature. Special Issue on Scandinavian L1 Research, vol. 15.
Pinar, W. F. (2015). Individuality as an educational project: Kilpatrick, curriculum theory, teacher education. Encounters in Theory and History of Education, 16, 112-128.
Davies, B. (2006). Subjectification: the relevance of Butler's analysis for education. British Journal of Education, 27:4
White, J. (1980). Conceptions of Individuality. British Journal of Educational Studies, 28(3), 173–186. https://doi.org/10.2307/3120284