In this study, genre is a central concept. With a theoretical basis in three pragmatical genre traditions, an analytical tool is formulated, making it possible through different criteria to identify varied expressions of the genre notion in the syllabus for Swedish with a focus on early compulsory school and three textbooks with explicit focus on the teaching of genres. The analysis mainly draws upon six writing discourses (Ivanič, 2004), which enables me to study the actual and potential expressions of genre in the curriculum and study materials.The analysis shows that the written genre expressed in the analysed text materials is heavily influenced by a sociosemiotic perspective of genre, emphasizing internal structure, and that it is, regardless of study material, situated within the genre discourse. The variation in how genres are expressed in the texts concern whether they are influenced by the process discourse or social practices discourse as well. Genre is also discussed from a sociorhetorical perspective, focusing on the social context, but is shown to have limited expression in the text materials within this study.The study concludes that the genre notion within the Swedish curriculum for the school subject Swedish in primary school and within the study materials have de-emphasised the social purpose of genres. It also concludes that genre is too varied and complex in its semantic and pragmatic variation in different discourses inside and outside of school practises to be recognized in actual teaching.

Skrivundervisning påverkas av lärares föreställningar om skrivande, skrivinlärning och vad som bedöms som godtagbart skrivande. För att ta reda på sju lärares didaktiska val i skrivundervisningen har föreliggande studie undersökt deras uppfattningar om skrivundervisningen i årskurs 3 utifrån Ivaničs skrivdiskurser. Studiens resultat visar att lärarna förhåller sig till flera olika skrivdiskurser men vanligast är genrediskursen, färdighetsdiskursen och processdiskursen. Resultatet visar även att de nationella proven påverkar innehållet som berörs i skrivundervisningen och tre av lärarna anser att det tar för mycket tid från ordinarie undervisning. Samtidigt uppskattas det bedömningsstöd som kommer med de nationella proven eftersom det kan användas i all skrivundervisning. Lärarna anser att de nationella proven är tidskrävande samtidigt som dem kan ses som en utvärdering av skrivundervisningen. Skrivundervisningen påverkas även av elevernas olika behov och eleverna erbjuds stöd i form av kompensatoriska verktyg och specialundervisning för att stötta deras skrivutveckling och utmana de med ett utvecklat skrivande. De särskilt begåvade eleverna har istället högre krav på  i skrivundervisningen. / Writing instruction is affected by teachers’ ideas about writing, learning to write, and what is judged to be acceptable writing. To ascertain seven teachers’ didactic choices when teaching writing, the present study has investigated their perceptions of writing instruction in grade 3, based on Ivanič’s writing discourses. The results of the study show that the teachers relate to several different writing discourses, but the most common are the genre discourse, the skills discourse, and the process discourse. Another finding is that the national tests affect the content of writing instruction, and three of the teachers think that it takes too much time from the ordinary teaching. At the same time, they appreciate the assessment support that comes with the national tests, since this can be used in all writing instruction. The teachers find the national tests time-consuming, while they can simultaneously be regarded as an evaluation of the writing instruction. The teaching of writing is also affected by the pupils’ different needs, and the pupils are offered support in the form of compensatory tools and special teaching to further their writing development and challenge them to achieve more advanced writing as a result of higher demands.

The aim of the study was to investigate how Swedish teachers and student teachers of Swedish vary in their assessment of a pupil’s text, in judging both the text as a whole and its parts. In the study the informants were asked to assess a pupil’s text (a text presenting an argument) from the national examination in Swedish 1 with the aid of an assessment matrix and then complete a questionnaire assessing the text as a whole and in its parts. The responses to the questionnaire were analysed statistically with a focus on how the assessments varied. A sociocultural and situated perspective was applied in the study, along with psychometry and the theory of discourses of writing, to give more perspectives on the results. The study found that the assessments varied between grades C and A for the text as a whole and between E and A for the aspects of argumentation, content and critical reading, contextual signals and reference connectors, introduction, conclusion, situational adaptation and self-sustaining. The study also found that the student teachers were generally stricter in their assessment. The greatest variations in the student teachers’ assessment were found to concern aspects of the communication discourse, while in the teachers’ assessment it was aspects of the construction discourse that revealed the greatest variation. The greatest difference between the two groups concerned aspects of the correction discourse.