<p>This thesis looks at conditions for selections of fictional texts in the Swedish subject in the upper secondary school. Three different empirical materials have contributed to the understanding of what conditions there are for the texts to enter the classroom. The first material consists of national policy documents from 1970 to 2005. Here there is a tendency that the student goes from being an object for knowledge to becoming a subject that creates his/her own knowledge. With this development the contents and the given aims with the subject become more abstract, which leads to the framework of the curriculum becoming wider and more difficult to interpret. Simultaneously the focus is moved from mediation of given knowledge, to the development of an identity for the individual.</p><p>The second material consists of debate and method articles from Svenskläraren, a magazine for members, published by an organisation of Swedish teachers. The study comprise articles from the same period of time as the national curricula. In the articles there are three tendencies reflecting the changes in the discourse of the Swedish subject. The first tendency shows how the overall ideological debate on the subject disappears during this period. The second tendency shows how discussions about the conceptions of the subject is replaced by more and more concrete examples of methods. The third tendency depicts that the concrete text selections have moved from being partly predetermined during the seventies to become debated during the eighties, to finally during the nineties end up in a situation where some texts has a sufficient cultural capital not to need justifications, whereas others need it.</p><p>The third material consists of interviews with, and observations of, four active teachers, in order to find what conditions there are for text selections in their rhetoric and practice. The results show a clear impression of informal institutional factors and of the school culture. However, this seems to decrease with experience. There are big differences in how the teachers speak about text selections and text use and what the result becomes in practice. Here professionalism in form of knowledge in subject didactics could have a vast impact.</p>

This thesis looks at conditions for selections of fictional texts in the Swedish subject in the upper secondary school. Three different empirical materials have contributed to the understanding of what conditions there are for the texts to enter the classroom. The first material consists of national policy documents from 1970 to 2005. Here there is a tendency that the student goes from being an object for knowledge to becoming a subject that creates his/her own knowledge. With this development the contents and the given aims with the subject become more abstract, which leads to the framework of the curriculum becoming wider and more difficult to interpret. Simultaneously the focus is moved from mediation of given knowledge, to the development of an identity for the individual. The second material consists of debate and method articles from Svenskläraren, a magazine for members, published by an organisation of Swedish teachers. The study comprise articles from the same period of time as the national curricula. In the articles there are three tendencies reflecting the changes in the discourse of the Swedish subject. The first tendency shows how the overall ideological debate on the subject disappears during this period. The second tendency shows how discussions about the conceptions of the subject is replaced by more and more concrete examples of methods. The third tendency depicts that the concrete text selections have moved from being partly predetermined during the seventies to become debated during the eighties, to finally during the nineties end up in a situation where some texts has a sufficient cultural capital not to need justifications, whereas others need it. The third material consists of interviews with, and observations of, four active teachers, in order to find what conditions there are for text selections in their rhetoric and practice. The results show a clear impression of informal institutional factors and of the school culture. However, this seems to decrease with experience. There are big differences in how the teachers speak about text selections and text use and what the result becomes in practice. Here professionalism in form of knowledge in subject didactics could have a vast impact.

This thesis investigates the use of metalanguage and its relation to learning outcome in group discussions. Metalanguage is defined as a language about language, a way to talk about the features of a language using a specific vocabulary with great precision. It is suggested that metalanguage is necessary in order to develop the pupils' awareness when text analyses are carried out in school. The purpose of the study is to understand how pupils take on the task presented by the teacher, how they reach consensus, if and how they make use of some kind of metalanguage, and to what degree their discussions can be regarded as learning conversations. Twelve conversations in groups were recorded on video. The pupils were in the first or the final year of upper secondary school and they all attended either Natural Science Programme or Technology Programme. The conversations took place without the teacher being present. In three groups the conversation was observed by the researcher. The task was to talk about a phishing mail using questions provided by the teacher. The three observed conversations were transcribed following principles from Conversation Analysis, CA. The rest of the conversations were transcribed following a key close to written language in order to simplify the reading. Two analyses were carried out. First, the conversations were analysed regarding how to take on the task, interaction and use of metalanguage. Secondly, the structures of the conversations were analysed using concepts from systemic functional grammar. The results show that the conversations are symmetrical and co-operative and that the pupils are focused on solving the task. No metalanguage is used by the students; the discussions are performed using colloquial speech and dramatizations and referring to experiences. The absence of metalanguage is contrasted in effectiveness by the using of terms from the field of information technology. Using experiences from texts outside school proves to be a way of dealing with the task. However, experiences and results are not abstracted into scientific terms and no learning concerning language and text seems to take place. The using of concepts from systemic functional grammar shows that the pupils are mainly concerned with interpersonal aspects of the text, somewhat concerned with ideational aspects – especially logical – and to a less degree concerned with textual aspects. It is suggested that the lower degree of textual focus is related to the absence of metalanguage. It is also shown that the pupils discuss features of the text focusing on various strata of language. Although the pupils' frequent use of experiences from text encounters should be regarded as a great potential from a pedagogical point of view, the results indicate the need of a metalanguage to achieve precision and effectiveness in discussions about texts. Also, the need of instructions guiding the pupils to make use of metalanguage is indicated. The possibility of using concepts from systemic functional grammar is pointed out and further research is suggested.