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The thesis aims to present the use of postcolonial literature in pursuance of developing critical literacy in English lessons of upper secondary schools, together with increasing the awareness of the postcolonial world, South Africa specifically. The theoretical part of the thesis concentrates on contemporary knowledge in the field of methodology of teaching literature, reading strategies, and critical literacy, including its development and assessment. Furthermore, the theoretical section establishes the environment for the practical part, which consists of qualitative research in a Czech upper secondary school and employs pretesting, intrinsic research, teacher's and students' assessment, and final achievement test. The research implies that critical literacy is viewed differently with respect to different experts and various fields. Furthermore, the research indicates that the assessment of critical literacy is built mainly on assumptions of the specialists interested in this field and no standardised or unified tests are available. Lastly, the research shows that postcolonial literature seems to be an optimal source for enhancing students' critical literacy since it incorporates similar themes as critical literacy. The thesis has explained that the use of postcolonial literature and relevant...

Twenty-first-century competencies have been identified as vital thinking and working skills for the 21st century. Students could contribute to social change by using information and communication technology (ICT) while developing 21st-century competencies, but this type of experience is not frequent at schools. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the experiences of 2 middle-school teachers and their 6th-grade students as they used critical literacy strategies and ICT to promote 21st-century competencies and critical democracy in a Midwestern public school. This case study was guided by the critical democracy, critical pedagogy, and competency-based education theories. The research questions asked what the experiences of the teachers and the students were, what were the reflections of the teachers about their teaching practices, and what were the students’ reflections about their learning experiences. Data were gathered through interviews, students’ online discussion forums, and artifacts. An adapted analytic induction process was used to analyze the data and explain the phenomenon. The key findings generally supported the framework developed by the Partnership for 21st Century Learning (P21), which is a coalition of businesses, education leaders, and policymakers whose goal is to promote 21st-century competencies in schools. However, the findings indicated that when applying the P21 Framework for social change purposes, an international human rights perspective needs to be added. This study demonstrated how students can develop 21st-century competencies through the implementation of ICT to address injustice and inequity in society and contribute to positive social change.

I den föreliggande studien undersöks hur makt manifesteras i tre skönlitterära verk och hur bokförlagens lärarhandledningar till respektive verk beaktar de frågor om makt som manifesteras. De skönlitterära verken är anpassade för mellanstadiet och har uppmärksammats ute i verksamheten av oss skribenter. Studien tar avstamp i Janks (2010) teoretiska modell om kritisk litteracitet för att undersöka hur makt manifesteras genom att granska omslag och bilder och genom att granska variationer i texten. De mönster som uppdagas i resultatet visar att fysiska förutsättningar och kön är återkommande variationer där makt manifesteras. Resultatet visar även att författarna/illustratörerna tydligt synliggörs i lärarhandledningarna. Resultatet visar också att lärarhandledningarna i viss mån förstärker dessa maktförhållanden.

The aim of this thesis was to study how five students linguistically express textual power in conversation and writing about reading, as well as to investigate their possibilities to linguistically express textual power. The study was performed within some of the literacy practices in the subjects of Swedish and Social Studies at the social sciences programme in upper secondary school. “Textual power” is here defined as both ability and possibility: to position oneself in relation to the text, to read/interpret critically and to show mobility in the actual literacy sphere. Two analytical tools were used: Langer’s theories about envisionment building and Martin & White’s appraisal framework for attitude and engagement. The linguistic expressions are contextualised in a model inspired by Linell. I base my discussion of the students’ mobility in the actual literacy sphere on the New Literacy theories of Barton and Street, while Anward gives the means to understand text-reproducing practices. The results indicate that the students used a limited range of positions in relation to texts, rarely expressed critical literacy and showed limited mobility in the actual literacy spheres. The students’ possibilities to linguistically express textual power were determined by the design of the teaching contexts. The students were given few possibilities to develop their ability to linguistically express textual power. To compensate for this, the students used a strategy of task solving. This caused a gap between ideally desired and actually produced text. The acceptance of the gap can be explained if the practice is considered text-reproducing. The literacy sphere where the students found themselves seems to consist of an ecological system based on a consensus-driven text-reproducing practice where critical and comparative reading and writing do not take root and thrive.

This project degree essay aims to analyze the ways textbooks made for the Swedish upper secondary school course samhällskunskap 1b [Social studies, 1b] describe the Swedish concept of källkritik [source criticism and information evaluation]. The essay uses theories formulated by prominent Swedish authors on the subject – as well as the National Agency for Education’s (Skolverket) guidelines – to perform a content analysis on textbooks produced by the biggest teaching material producers in Sweden. Furthermore, the study performs a general thematic content analysis of what kinds of source criticism the different textbooks use and how well they align with the theoretical framework. Finally, a report by the Schools Inspectorate (Skolinspektionen) is used to define four areas of development that the textbooks should be working with. The results of this study show that the textbooks vary in their descriptions of source criticism in terms of both their complexity and what core ideas are attributed to the concept. Three of the five textbooks show tendencies towards the most basic kinds of source criticism, while only one of the five show signs of the most complex kinds of source criticism. Overall, the textbooks often use a loosely defined version of source criticism and lack adaptation to the digitalization that the Swedish society is currently experiencing. Four of the five analyzed textbooks need to modernize their perspective on source criticism. All the textbooks are lacking in terms of preparing students for critically analyzing the information they meet in their daily digital lives.

I samband med den stora flyktingströmmen som kom till Sverige 2015 skrevs ett antal barnböcker som berör flykt. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att studera hur flykt skildras i ett urval av bilderböcker för att skapa en förståelse för vilka budskap som skrivs fram i dessa böcker. Frågeställningarna i studien är: Hur ser berättelsernas narratologi ut? Hur beskrivs karaktärer och relationer i berättelserna? Studien är kvalitativ med en abduktiv ansats och tolkningen av materialet har begränsats av ett teoretiskt ramverk bestående av två analysmodeller den hermeneutiska cirkeln och kulturanalys. Det teoretiska begreppet narratologi samspelar med kultur, identitet och dikotomi. Urvalet består av 10 samtida bilderböcker, som alla skildrar krig och flykt och där karaktärernas slutdestination kan tolkas som Sverige. I empirin kan mönster urskiljas och resultatet temaindelas i studiens första frågeställning till en flykts olika faser. Utrymmet till varje del i flykten kvantifieras i ett diagram, som visar var fokus ligger på berättelsen; hemlandet, flykten och det nya hemlandet. Sedan belyser vi hur narratologin skrivs ut i de olika faserna, hur berättelsernas handling pendlar från ett vardagsliv i hemlandet, till krig och kaos som tvingar huvudpersonerna på flykt till ett nytt hemland. Utifrån frågeställningen om karaktärerna och relationerna delas resultatet in i dikotomierna stor/liten, vi/dem och ond/god. Vi diskuterar relationerna med hjälp av dikotomierna och även om dikotomierna inte utgör några tydliga polariteter utan är relativa, kan de ändå användas för att belysa relationerna i berättelserna. Studiens resultat visar att i de bilderböcker som utgör vårt empiriska material skrivs karaktärerna fram som vanliga människor som upplever exceptionella händelser när de tvingas på flykt. Kriget skrivs fram både som ett uttalat hot eller att barnen inte förstår vad som sker och flykten beskrivs som antingen mödosam och farlig eller som en resa som inte möter några större hinder på vägen. Rollerna som stor/liten, vi/dem och ond/god pendlar beroende på situationen. Ibland har huvudpersonerna kontroll över situationen, men i mötet med människor som tar avgörande beslut om deras liv står de maktlösa. Författarna har valt att skriva fram berättelserna neutralt utan att ifrågasätta eller kritisera olika skeenden i böckerna.

The purpose of this youth participatory action research (YPAR) project was to challenge the pedagogy of traditional literacy instruction for low-income Latino/a students, particularly the overuse of scripted curricula and standardized tests mandated through the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Twelve student participants served as co-teachers and co-researchers as they created, implemented, and evaluated a critical literacy class based on the theoretical frameworks of critical pedagogy and critical literacy and the methodology of youth participatory action research (YPAR). The YPAR Critical Literacy Group and research took place at one of a network of small, independent-study alternative schools called Future Horizons Charter High School (FHCHS, a pseudonym), located in southern California. Critical pedagogy and critical literacy formed a theoretical foundation upon which the students and teacher built a class based on the tenets of dialogue, problem-posing, and generative themes based on the interests of the student co-researchers. This alternative practice of co-creating knowledge with students was paramount in facilitating young peoples’ learning to think critically about their positionality within their political and social spheres. Critical literacy does not focus simply on the development of decoding and comprehension skills for reading, but students of critical literacy must “read the word and the world” (Freire & Macedo, 1997), grounding their acquisition of literacy skills through their own experiences and social contexts. This research examined the capacity of critical literacy and YPAR methodology to transform both learner and teacher. The YPAR Critical Literacy Group at FHCHS positively impacted the student coresearchers. Elements of qualitative research, including interviews and transcription positively impacted the students co-researchers’ traditional literacy skills. Student coresearchers evaluated the course as a positive experience throughout, and engaged in and comprehended texts far above their traditionally-defined decoding and reading comprehension reading levels. Attendance and engagement in the class for the 4-month period was consistently higher in the critical literacy class than in other reading classes offered at the school. The students experienced preliminary transformation and early stages of critical consciousness from the beginning to the end of the course, evidenced by the evolution of their reflective writings and progressively sophisticated analyses of social injustice at the school and within the broader community.

Syftet med föreliggande studie är att få fördjupad kunskap om karaktärerna i Pippi Långstrump och Handbok för superhjältar del 1: Handboken ur ett genusperspektiv och att undersöka böckernas didaktiska potential med koppling till dagens läroplan. Detta görs genom en komparativ text- och bildanalys av de två verken. Analysen visar att det finns likheter och skillnader mellan hur karaktärerna framställs och att huvudkaraktärerna Pippi och Lisa kan ses som normbrytande. Böckerna kan även användas för att implementera de värderingar om könsnormer som läroplanen föreskriver. De har didaktisk potential och kan användas i undervisningen men med ett kritiskt förhållningssätt.

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