Att skapa samhällsvetare - Ämneslitteracitet i samhällskunskap

The aim of conducting the following research is to observe how teachers in upper secondary school create conditions for developing disciplinary literacy in social science. Additionally, the aim is to examine how teachers reflect upon their practices regarding pupils’ development of disciplinary literacy. In order to carry out the aim of the research overview, two research questions were constructed. The theoretical foundation of the research consists of Vygotsky’s socio-cultural perspective, which includes the concepts mediation, appropriation, scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal Development. Furthermore, Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Learning Objectives was used in order to provide a cognitive perspective. Research on disciplinary literacy, mainly that of Shanahan and Shanahan, combined with social science research formed an additional framework for analysis. The data consists of both qualitative, semi-structured interviews with two social science teachers and collected teaching material. Consequently, a qualitative content analysis was conducted using the aforementioned theoretical framework. Results show that teachers consider perspective-taking an essential ability in social science and that the development of disciplinary literacy is a linear progression from simpler, factual concepts to complex, analytical concepts. Further, social science is characterized by its large content-specific vocabulary. In addition, teachers experience that pupils struggle with scientific reading and writing, which are skills that are viewed as essential. The chosen didactic methods of the teachers include authentic texts and examples, and content-specific vocabulary was viewed as a key component for developing disciplinary literacy. With the zone of proximal development in mind, the teachers consciously challenge the students with more complex material. Finally, the implications of the results are discussed in relation to previous research, the theoretical background and the Swedish curricula for upper secondary school. Lastly, suggestions for future research are discussed