The Potential Role of Critical Literacy Pedagogy as a Methodology When Teaching Literature in Upper Secondary School in Sweden : A Quantitative Study of English Teachers’ Literature Choices

• Main Author: Killgren de Klonia, Kim
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Mälardalens högskola, Akademin för utbildning, kultur och kommunikation 2017
• Subjects: Critical Literacy Pedagogy; Literature; Upper Secondary School; Teachers; Literature Choices; CLP; EFL; English as a Foreign Language
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-34995

Literature’s role in the foreign language classroom has been extensively researched, and the benefits of enjoyable reading firmly established. But could teachers benefit from a new perspective in the form of Critical Literacy Pedagogy when choosing and teaching literary works? Critical Literacy Pedagogy, CLP, is a method of critically examining literature to detect possible power structures e.g. concerning ethnicity and gender. This study examines how teachers and students value a number of criteria and aspects in connection to what literature is used in the class. Two empirical web-based questionnaire surveys were conducted on a total of 23 teachers and 42 students in upper secondary school in Sweden. The results are primarily presented quantitatively with the complement of excerpts from the written answers to the open-ended questions, and has then analyzed with the help of CLP, to see if the method has a possible role in EFL-teaching in upper secondary school in Sweden.   In the present study, the participating teachers valued practical characteristics, such as level of difficulty, higher than conceptual characteristics, such as the sexual orientation of an author or character, when choosing what literary works to teach. These ratings were seen as problematic when compared to the teachers’ concrete exemplifications of taught works. Moreover, both teachers and students rated the possibility of critical and ethical discussion very highly in regard to the chosen works. A comparison between the ratings and the exemplified works indicate that CLP could be a valuable method when choosing what literature to teach.