Under min tid som lärare i vuxenutbildningen har jag träffat många elever som har negativa erfarenheter av att studera. Flera av dem har misslyckats i sina tidigare studier av olika orsaker, men min erfarenhet är att många av dessa elever lyckas i vuxenutbildningen. Syftet med denna studie är att belysa hur vuxenelever ser på sitt lärande i ämnet svenska, dels under sin nuvarande studietid i vuxenutbildningen, dels under sina tidigare studier i grundskola samt gymnasieskola. Metoden som använts i studien är en kvalitativ intervjustudie utifrån en fenomenologisk-hermeneutisk ansats. I studien deltar sju vuxenelever som berättar om sina upplevelser av sitt lärande i ämnet svenska. Resultatet visar på flera skillnader i vuxenelevers lärande från grundskolan/grundsärskolan, gymnasieskolan/gymnasiesärskolan till vuxenutbildningen. En skillnad gäller informanternas motivation till skolan vilken har förändrats under skoltiden. Det beror till stor del på lärarens stöd, krav och feedback som eleverna fått alternativt inte fått i skolan. Ytterligare skillnader som resultatet påvisar gäller klassrumsmiljön och studiestrategier. Informanterna anser att vuxenutbildningen är bättre på att tillgodose en inkluderande lärandemiljö som ger dem förutsättningar att lyckas i sina studier. Vuxenutbildningen ger på så sätt ett erkännande till eleverna som leder till att de får en bättre självkänsla. Resultatet belyser likaså situationer som är och har varit betydelsefulla för informanterna men även situationer som försvårade deras lärande. Betydelsefulla situationer berör användningen av goda studiestrategier. Situationer som försvårade berör däremot konsekvenser från kunskapsbedömningar och bedömningar som grundats på informanternas personliga egenskaper, exempelvis epilepsi. / During my time as a teacher in adult education, I have met many students who have negative experience of studying. Several of them have failed in their previous studies for different reasons, but my experience is that many of these students succeed in adult education. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how adult students view their learning in the subject Swedish and during their current studies in adult education, as well as during their previous studies in primary and secondary school. The method that has been used in this study is a qualitative study based on a phenomenological - hermeneutic approach. The study involves seven students who talk about their experiences when studying Swedish. The results show several differences in those learning experiences that stretch from primary school to adult education. One difference concerns the informants' motivation to school which has changed during school time. It largely depends on the teacher’s support, demands and feedback that students did or didn’t receive during their time at school. Further differences that are highlighted in the results are about environment and study strategies. The informants believe that adult education is better at satisfying an inclusive learning environment that gives them the potential to succeed in their studies. Adult education thus gives the students a recognition that eventually increases their self-esteem. The result also highlights situations that are and have been important for the informants but also situations that impeded their learning. Significant situations involved the use of good study strategies while impeding situations originate in knowledge assessments and judgments that were made on the basis of the informants’ personal characteristics, such as epilepsy.

<p>Abstract</p><p>The purpose with this paper is to describe focus in the school subject swedish through a historic perspective. The purpose is also to intestigate how a group of pupils in the last grade in upper (senior) level of compulsory school and teachers with the subject swedish thinks about the subject, what is the most meaningful to pupils in the last grade in upper level of compulsory school.</p><p>The history of the Swedish school system from the 15 th century till today and the entrance of Swedich as a subject in school has been studied by literature and curriculum. With help from Mr Lars-Göran Malmgrens analysis of different swedish subjects the curriculums analyses to see which subject who appear.</p><p>Pupils from the last grade in upper level of compulsory school and their teachers in the the subject swedish have answered questions in two different questionnaires regarding what is most meaningful with the subject. The result are to be present in this paper as diagram and also in ordinary text.</p><p>The conclusion is that the subject swedish has changed from functionalism to formalism and then turned to a more literary education and finally towards functionalism again. The results from the questionnaire papers show that the pupils put most value in learning different skills while the teachers see the importance of both skills and developing the personality.</p> / <p>Sammanfattning</p><p>Syftet med detta arbete är att redogöra för fokus i svenskämnet ur ett historiskt perspektiv. Syftet är också att undersöka vad en grupp svensklärare och elever i dagsläget tänker om svenskämnet då det gäller vad som är mest meningsfullt för elever i år 9.</p><p>Via litteraturstudier och studier av undervisningsplaner och läroplaner beskrivs skolväsendets historia från 1600-talet fram till nutid och svenskämnets inträde i skolan. Med hjälp av Lars-Göran Malmgrens ämneskonceptioner analyseras de olika undervisningsplanerna och läroplanerna för att se vilket svenskämne det är som framträder.</p><p>Två enkätundersökningar har genomförts där elever i år 9 och svensklärare har svarat på frågor kring det meningsfulla i svenskämnet. Svaren redovisas dels i diagramform och dels i löpande text.</p><p>Slutsatser som har dragits är att svenskämnet har gått från en mer funktionalistisk ämneskonception till en formalistisk ämneskonception, för att sedan fokusera mer mot ämneskonceptionen litteraturhistoriskt bildningsämne, och återigen gå mot det funktionalistiska hållet. Enkätundersökningen visar att elever i år 9 lägger störst vikt vid färdigheter medan svensklärare både lägger vikt vid färdigheter och ett personlighetsutvecklande arbete.</p>

The purpose of this essay is to examine what literary heritage teachers communicate in the school subject Swedish at upper secondary school. The overall research question for this work is: Which authors and/or works are mentioned by the teachers in the school subject Swedish at upper secondary school? How well do these authors and/or works answer towards a multicultural perspective? Which factors affect teachers´ selections of texts? Based on this purpose and these research questions, the aim is to answer the didactic question of what. To accomplish the purpose of the study a quantitative method has been used. The survey was conducted in two medium-sized cities in central Sweden, and was answered by 17 teachers. The study shows that the teachers ascribe the Western and Swedish literature great importance. Authorships and/or works outside the Western literary culture sphere are very few, as well as texts written by women and by Swedish writers with immigrant origin or belonging to national minorities. The factors that govern teachers’ selection of texts are agreement in the form of solid reading lists, cooperation and coordination, thematic work, resources and students. The conclusion that follows is that it seems to be the conservative and liberal multiculturalism that emerges most strongly when it comes to teaching literature in the school subject Swedish. / Syftet med föreliggande uppsats är att undersöka vilket litteraturarv lärare förmedlar genom skolämnet svenska i gymnasieskolan. De övergripande forskningsfrågorna är: Vilka för-fattarskap och/eller verk behandlar lärare i undervisningen i skolämnet svenska på gymnasiet? Hur väl svarar dessa författarskap och/eller verk mot ett mångkulturellt perspektiv? Vilka faktorer påverkar lärarnas texturval? Utifrån syftet och forskningsfrågorna är målsättningen att ge svar på den didaktiska vad-frågan. För att uppnå studiens syfte har en kvantitativ metod, i form av en enkätundersökning, anammats. Enkätundersökningen genomfördes i två medelstora städer i mellersta Sverige och besvarades av 17 svensklärare. Resultatet visar att undersökningsdeltagarna tillmäter den västerländska och svenska litteraturen stor betydelse. Författarskap och/eller verk utanför den västerländska litterära kultursfären är väldigt få, likaså texter författade av kvinnor och texter skrivna av svenska författare med invandrarbakgrund eller tillhörande nationella minoritetsgrupper. De faktorer som styr lärarnas texturval är överenskommelser i form av fasta litteraturlistor, samarbete och samordningar, tematiskt arbete, resurser och eleverna. Slutsatsen som följer är att det tycks vara den konservativa och liberala mångkulturalismen som framträder starkast i litteraturundervisningen i svenska.

<p>Swedish as a school subject has long been debated in Sweden, and ideas concerning its content, role and function in school and society have varied greatly throughout the years. In 1994, there was an upper secondary school reform which resulted in a partial revision of the Swedish subject, including its introduction within a new course and grading system. The Swedish A and B courses became obligatory for all upper secondary students. Other courses in Swedish became largely optional.</p><p>This study consists of two levels – a rhetorical and practical level. The rhetorical level deals with understandings and ideas of the Swedish subject and instruction as they are expressed in curricula and course syllabi, as well as with the understandings and ideas expressed by the four teachers in the study. In addition, the external and internal frame factors which underlie this rhetoric are considered. The practical level concerns the four teachers’ concrete Swedish instruction, i.e. the aims and goals, content and working methods which underlie their teaching, as well as the factors which influence, limit and facilitate it.</p><p>The aim of the study is to attempt to describe, analyse and understand the role and function of the Swedish subject after the upper secondary school reform of 1994. What ideas do the four teachers express regarding the role and function of the Swedish subject in upper secondary school and society after 1994, and how should these ideas and reasons be interpreted and understood from a more comprehensive, general perspective? How do the teachers represent the Swedish subject in their teaching, i.e. how is their knowledge of subject didactics expressed? These are two central questions in the study. A third central question concerns notions of society and the good citizen implied in the chosen views of the Swedish subject.</p><p>The study has two theoretical starting points: subject didactics and curriculum theory. Shulman’s concepts of pedagogical content knowledge and transformation are central to the subject didactics drawn upon here, while frame factor theory and Bernstein’s concepts of “classification” and “framing” are central to the curriculum-theoretical perspective. The perspective of subject didactics deals with the relation between teacher and content, while the curriculum-theoretical perspective deals with the relation between content, individual and society.</p><p>This study shows that the teachers’ knowledge of subject didactics is vague.The teachers’ transformation of content in teaching resides to a high degree in an adaptation to the students; the focus is thus not on a transformation and content analysis of the Swedish subject. Further, the teachers have an instrumental approach to the steering documents. A common characteristic among the four teachers, and in Swedish instruction generally, is that a large degree of responsibility is placed on the individual student for their literary and language development. Collective meetings were very infrequent in the teaching of the four teachers in the study.</p><p>This study discerns four teacher codes which reflect understandings and ideas of school and education, formed by previous and current material and sociocultural conditions and which the individual teacher has encountered, adopted and reshaped into his/her own. These four teacher codes can be described as closeness and hierarchy, tradition and renewal, vision and reality and the individual and the collective. The teacher codes reveal that the four teachers have relatively similar teaching strategies, whereas their teaching aims, goals and content diverge significantly.</p><p>Viewed from the perspective of curriculum theory, it is evident that the teachers emphasise the individual student over the collective. It is a matter of developing one’s thought and personality and of fostering the students to be individual, active members of society. However, this active member of society does not appear to be aware and critically active, but rather a loyal and obedient member of society.</p>

Swedish as a school subject has long been debated in Sweden, and ideas concerning its content, role and function in school and society have varied greatly throughout the years. In 1994, there was an upper secondary school reform which resulted in a partial revision of the Swedish subject, including its introduction within a new course and grading system. The Swedish A and B courses became obligatory for all upper secondary students. Other courses in Swedish became largely optional. This study consists of two levels – a rhetorical and practical level. The rhetorical level deals with understandings and ideas of the Swedish subject and instruction as they are expressed in curricula and course syllabi, as well as with the understandings and ideas expressed by the four teachers in the study. In addition, the external and internal frame factors which underlie this rhetoric are considered. The practical level concerns the four teachers’ concrete Swedish instruction, i.e. the aims and goals, content and working methods which underlie their teaching, as well as the factors which influence, limit and facilitate it. The aim of the study is to attempt to describe, analyse and understand the role and function of the Swedish subject after the upper secondary school reform of 1994. What ideas do the four teachers express regarding the role and function of the Swedish subject in upper secondary school and society after 1994, and how should these ideas and reasons be interpreted and understood from a more comprehensive, general perspective? How do the teachers represent the Swedish subject in their teaching, i.e. how is their knowledge of subject didactics expressed? These are two central questions in the study. A third central question concerns notions of society and the good citizen implied in the chosen views of the Swedish subject. The study has two theoretical starting points: subject didactics and curriculum theory. Shulman’s concepts of pedagogical content knowledge and transformation are central to the subject didactics drawn upon here, while frame factor theory and Bernstein’s concepts of “classification” and “framing” are central to the curriculum-theoretical perspective. The perspective of subject didactics deals with the relation between teacher and content, while the curriculum-theoretical perspective deals with the relation between content, individual and society. This study shows that the teachers’ knowledge of subject didactics is vague.The teachers’ transformation of content in teaching resides to a high degree in an adaptation to the students; the focus is thus not on a transformation and content analysis of the Swedish subject. Further, the teachers have an instrumental approach to the steering documents. A common characteristic among the four teachers, and in Swedish instruction generally, is that a large degree of responsibility is placed on the individual student for their literary and language development. Collective meetings were very infrequent in the teaching of the four teachers in the study. This study discerns four teacher codes which reflect understandings and ideas of school and education, formed by previous and current material and sociocultural conditions and which the individual teacher has encountered, adopted and reshaped into his/her own. These four teacher codes can be described as closeness and hierarchy, tradition and renewal, vision and reality and the individual and the collective. The teacher codes reveal that the four teachers have relatively similar teaching strategies, whereas their teaching aims, goals and content diverge significantly. Viewed from the perspective of curriculum theory, it is evident that the teachers emphasise the individual student over the collective. It is a matter of developing one’s thought and personality and of fostering the students to be individual, active members of society. However, this active member of society does not appear to be aware and critically active, but rather a loyal and obedient member of society.

Abstract The purpose with this paper is to describe focus in the school subject swedish through a historic perspective. The purpose is also to intestigate how a group of pupils in the last grade in upper (senior) level of compulsory school and teachers with the subject swedish thinks about the subject, what is the most meaningful to pupils in the last grade in upper level of compulsory school. The history of the Swedish school system from the 15 th century till today and the entrance of Swedich as a subject in school has been studied by literature and curriculum. With help from Mr Lars-Göran Malmgrens analysis of different swedish subjects the curriculums analyses to see which subject who appear. Pupils from the last grade in upper level of compulsory school and their teachers in the the subject swedish have answered questions in two different questionnaires regarding what is most meaningful with the subject. The result are to be present in this paper as diagram and also in ordinary text. The conclusion is that the subject swedish has changed from functionalism to formalism and then turned to a more literary education and finally towards functionalism again. The results from the questionnaire papers show that the pupils put most value in learning different skills while the teachers see the importance of both skills and developing the personality. / Sammanfattning Syftet med detta arbete är att redogöra för fokus i svenskämnet ur ett historiskt perspektiv. Syftet är också att undersöka vad en grupp svensklärare och elever i dagsläget tänker om svenskämnet då det gäller vad som är mest meningsfullt för elever i år 9. Via litteraturstudier och studier av undervisningsplaner och läroplaner beskrivs skolväsendets historia från 1600-talet fram till nutid och svenskämnets inträde i skolan. Med hjälp av Lars-Göran Malmgrens ämneskonceptioner analyseras de olika undervisningsplanerna och läroplanerna för att se vilket svenskämne det är som framträder. Två enkätundersökningar har genomförts där elever i år 9 och svensklärare har svarat på frågor kring det meningsfulla i svenskämnet. Svaren redovisas dels i diagramform och dels i löpande text. Slutsatser som har dragits är att svenskämnet har gått från en mer funktionalistisk ämneskonception till en formalistisk ämneskonception, för att sedan fokusera mer mot ämneskonceptionen litteraturhistoriskt bildningsämne, och återigen gå mot det funktionalistiska hållet. Enkätundersökningen visar att elever i år 9 lägger störst vikt vid färdigheter medan svensklärare både lägger vikt vid färdigheter och ett personlighetsutvecklande arbete.

ABSTRACT This licentiate thesis is a study of the curriculum of the school subject Swedish from a socio-cultural perspective. The aim of the study is to obtain insights into how pupils in the seventh grade of the Swedish secondary school system read films, and further to investigate how the education in Swedish can manage and make the most of various approaches to film. The survey was conducted in a class which I teach myself, and the empirical data consists primarily of oral and written statements by the pupils, concerning the films they have seen. Furthermore the social context around the reception of the films has been mapped. As part of the empirical data there is also a record of a discussion in the classroom concerning filmmaking. With the reception model of Kathleen McCormick as a point of departure, the filmic repertoires of the pupils are analyzed, described and interpreted as they stand out within the framework of the study. The general repertoires of the pupils are also dealt with to some extent. The representations and non-representations of the readings are further discussed in a social semiotic perspective. The research shows that the pupils bring rich experiences of fiction from television as well as film to school. The research also indicates that there is a potential for specific learning processes in the reading of film, since the reception of film entails a possibility to widen the general and filmic repertoires as well as to be conscious of them. The most important potential for learning is in the meeting with films that create a tension between the general repertoires of the reader and the film itself, since the film in those cases stands for something hitherto unknown for the reader. The pupils in my survey do not, however, primarily watch film in order to obtain new experiences, or to learn something; they watch film as a means to feel and share experiences with others in order to strengthen their sense of belonging to a group. One exception appears to be films that the pupils interpret as based on reality, since there is a tendency among the pupils to be more openminded for clashes between their own repertoires and the repertoires in films when it comes to fiction anchored in reality. The true challenge of the teaching is to attract the pupils to develop conscious relationships to films that imply a tension between repertoires. The reasons for these tensions have furthermore to be investigated. When it comes to films based on reality, the study makes it clear that the population of pupils represents a diverse set of attitudes towards the films; some pupils read the films as pure facts, while others read them in a more reflective way, comparing the mediated images of reality in the actual films with other types of experiences. The teaching of Swedish with the intention to take care of the reception of film among school children must be conducted in an awareness of the fact that not all pupils are representing their readings in a way that makes it possible to create meeting places around them within the educational framework. In my view, the education in Swedish for the secondary school must in a more active way open up for the possibility for the pupils to acquire strategies for a conscious handling of their film readings, as well as access to a language by which they can make their representations. The fact that not all pupils are aware of how film can mediate constructions of reality makes it important to take care of the children’s readings in such a way that makes them aware of the semiotic resources of the cinematic medium. This is one reason why one should allow them make their own films. It is also important to use a diversity of semiotic resources when pupils are representing their readings in order to underline the plurality of interpretations and filmic repertoires. Finally, I discuss the results of my research in relation to the new curriculum of Swedish education as it is presented in the syllabus “Lgr 11” which will take effect as from the autumn semester of 2011. In my analysis I find that the space for work of the kind I have conducted in the classroom will be diminished due to the new curriculum. There are, however, still possibilities and a learning potential for a teaching in Swedish that in an active way will take care of film experiences, as well as other kinds of textual experiences.

This licentiate thesis, When emotions are allowed to rule, a study on reading literature in a multicultural classroom in upper secondary school, attempts from a didactic perspective to understand literature reading in the school subject Swedish in the light of a multicultural and changing society. From a socio-cultural perspective, the study illustrates the teacher's choice of literature, the teacher's and the students' attitudes to literature, and the ways of reading that are being negotiated in the common reading and what opportunities for understanding and meaning making that are made available. The analyses are based on reception theories and have an underlying intercultural perspective. The study has been conducted in a class represented by students with many different mother tongues in the school subject Swedish during the first year at the natural science programme at an upper secondary school. The main methods are recordings of literature discussions, which have been documented by video and digital voice recorder, qualitative interviews with students and teacher, log books, and the students' novel reading logs. The empirical material is presented in two chapters. The first chapter, The conditions of the reading, focuses on the teacher's and the students' attitudes to literature and literature reading while the second chapter, The actual reading, brings forward the ways of reading that are being negotiated in the common reading of two novels in the class. The results show that there are several factors that are of importance to the understanding and the meaning making that are made possible in the teaching of literature. The students speak about experience oriented attitudes focusing on life experiences and cultural meetings. This differs from the teacher's attitude which is focused on providing the students with language skills and literary history education. The study shows how the reading of the novel Herakles (Kallifatides 2006) results in ethic ways of reading and a rejection of the text while the reading of the optional novel leads to a subjective reading and a common interpretation from ways of reading of enjoyment. The study discusses the importance of safeguarding the students' knowledge, experiences, and emotions and of making explicit their different ways of reading as well as the different readings of the teaching. Discussed further is the need for a teaching that catches and challenges the students' general and literary repertoires from various perspectives in order to provide context and contribute to an active meaning making. The study suggests a caring way of reading, which is characterised by interpretive communities focused on openness to the foreign and different view and a reading that strives towards a cognitive, moral, and emotional understanding.