The educational challenge of oracy - a rhetorical approach: Exploring and articulating the oracy construct in Norwegian schools

The overarching research question of this extended abstract is: How is oracy (defined as speaking and listening competence) perceived in Norwegian schools? This extended abstract attempts to articulate and explore oracy in Norwegian schools through a mixed methods study based on teachers’ and students’ perceptions. The work with oracy in schools can be placed within the research field of oracy and rhetoric in the educational context. Additionally, this study’s findings raise questions of concerns for future curriculum development as it relates to oracy as a key competence tied to health, critical thinking, Bildung, citizenship and democracy. The question under investigation is researched through three sub-studies all of which aim to identify what oracy entails for teachers and students in the school setting. The first study is a quantitative examination of teachers’ cross-disciplinary oracy construct applied for the mandatory final oral exam assessment at the end of 10th grade. An instrument, “SNAKK,” was developed to survey 1,033/495 teachers on what they assess for the oral exam. The second study is a qualitative sub-study that scrutinizes how oracy is conceptualized, taught, and assessed through a rhetorical topos analysis of semi-structured interviews with nine teachers. The last sub-study, which is also of a qualitative design, aims to reveal the oracy construct in and across subjects as well as workings with oracy based on the student perspective through a rhetorical topos analysis of 6 focus interviews with 22 tenth-grade students. In the three sub-studies, the usage and the meaning-making of the term oracy is scrutinized. The findings suggest that even though the teachers may assess oracy differently in different disciplines, there exists an overarching pattern for oracy across disciplines, which may be embedded in the teachers’ everyday practices and discipline traditions. The oracy construct valued in the educational setting emphasizes logos, but the ethos and pathos dimensions are also important aspects. The work with oracy in Norwegian schools appears to lack a metalanguage and systematic teaching structure, leading students to rely on their common knowledge when demonstrating their oracy competence. Due to the lack of a defined oracy construct, which results in inequities in the assessment of students, the Norwegian education system shows signs of being at risk for reproducing social inequalities. It is argued that rhetoric as a metalanguage for oracy should be incorporated into the everyday work with oracy in the Norwegian classroom as well as in teacher education. In the discussion chapter of this thesis, the findings of the three sub-studies are examined through didactical lenses, existing research in the field of oracy, and an Aristotelian view of knowledge. This work was completed at OsloMet - Oslo Metropolitan University