Berit Lundgren

Teachers’ professional development: Awareness of literacy practices

This article draws upon our experiences of participating in a Literacy Hub in South Africa. The aim is to describe and analyse how dialogue among grade 8 teachers in a Literacy Hub around literacy ...

Exploring Critical Literacy in Swedish Education - Introductory Notes

The thematic section in this issue of Education Inquiry has its background in the need for research interpreting literacy from a critical perspective. Teaching literacy is not solely about technical reading skills but is also about understanding and the making of meaning. From that point of view, teaching must also consider the use of language, the context within which language is used, and issues of power. The thematic section includes five articles about critical literacy in Swedish education. The contributions were developed after a workshop conducted by Professor Hilary Janks, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She introduces the framework of a critical literacy theory in the first article of the issue. Further, the contributions of Swedish scholars are united in their interest in applying a model of critical literacy designed by Janks to different practices, sites and speech-events, for example policy documents, home reading, teaching and learning practices. The articles offer a wide perspective of critical literacy in education and further understanding of the complex processes in teaching.

Bridging discourses in a writing classroom

The aim of this study is to describe and analyse the writing discourse in one classroom and how students learn through studying a topic, i.e. the teaching and learning of written argument. The study takes its stance from a sociocultural perspective and is influenced by discourse analyses, new literacy studies and critical literacy (Fairclough 1989; Barton 2007; Janks 2010; IvaniÄ 2004). Data from year 6 in Sweden consist of observations, informal conversations, teachers’ planning and students’ written texts, i.e. letters to the editor. The results are presented in terms of four themes that became apparent during the reading of the data, viz.: (1) teaching for learning – deconstruction; (2) dialogue and scaffolding for learning – enabling access; (3) feedback and students’ reflections for learning; and (4) writing to learn – reconstruction. The data are analysed and discussed on the basis of four concepts for developing critical literacy, viz. access, deconstruction, reconstruction and domination (cf. Janks 2010:21 – 32). The study indicates that explicit teaching of a written argument provides students with access to the dominating structure of the genre if they are given the time and tools to reflect and are given feedback from the teacher.

Hope and future: youth identity shaping in post-apartheid South Africa

Abstract This study explores what South African township youth presented as significant elements in their identity shaping. The youth participants were invited to take photographs and engage in reflective writing to explain the significance of what they had photographed. The theoretical framework is post modern and post apartheid views of identity, where language is the medium for expressing experiences, feelings and identity. We used a methodological framework of participatory research, in which participants engage in the process of research actively by reflecting on the lives of their own or their communities. Thirteen previously disadvantaged Grade 11 students took photos every day for a week. After which the students selected their most significant photos to write their narratives. This paper focuses on the texts that the students wrote to explain their photographs. The students’ photos and texts showed that democracy, family, present context and culture, have most influence on young peoples lives.