Åsa af Geijerstam

Swedish - an updated school subject?

The focus in this article is the extent to which the school subject of Swedish in the new national curriculum in Sweden introduced in 2011 (compulsory school) has been updated in relation to ways of discussing mother tongue education. Discourse analysis is used to analyse the syllabus for Swedish from 2011. A comparison is made with the previous syllabus from 1994 in order to see if any changes have been made. The main finding is that the syllabus from 2011 is primarily updated with fundamental aspects of the genre approach. This is interpreted as a reason for the observed foregrounding of language and downgrading of literature in the curriculum. Further, two traditions of the teaching of Swedish in school are discussed. The first tradition concerns the focus on the formal aspects of language. The second tradition concerns the invisible socio-political perspective in the lower grades, and this perspective’s low-key character in the upper grades. It is concluded that these traditions are still alive and strongly influencing the curriculum.

Four classrooms - four approaches to reading : examples of disciplinary reading in social science subjects in years five and twelve

In this paper, we aim to explore and exemplify what opportunities to develop disciplinary reading literacy students are given access to in particular types of classroom reading environments in soci ...

Critical thinking in national tests across four subjects in Swedish compulsory school

ABSTRACT Critical thinking is brought to the fore as a central competence in today’s society and in school curricula, but what may be emphasised as a general skill may also differ across school subjects. Using a mixed methods approach we identify general formulations regarding critical thinking in the Swedish curriculum of school year nine and seven more subject-specific categories of critical thinking in the syllabi and national tests in history, physics, mathematics and Swedish. By analysing 76 individual students’ critical thinking as expressed in national tests we find that a student that thinks critically in one subjects does not necessarily do so in other subjects. We find that students’ grades in different subjects are closely linked to their abilities to answer questions designed to test critical thinking in the subjects. We also find that the same formulations of critical thinking in two subjects may mean very different things when translated into assessments. Our findings suggest that critical thinking among students comprise different, subject-specific skills. The complexity of our findings highlights a need for future research to help clarify to students and researchers what it means to think critically in school.

Curriculum studies of mothertongue education in Sweden—Introductory remarks

Over the past 40 years, issues concerning mother-tongue education have been discussed in many countries. Its function, content and identity have been the subject of dynamic discussions among teachers as well as researchers and research students (e.g. Dixon, 1976; Malmgren, 1996).