Finnish sisu in Swedish literature education : - selection, cultural identity and subjective relevance according to the experiences of three students with a Finnish background

This essay focuses on Finnish immigrants living in Sweden and their experiences of educationof literature in Swedish upper secondary school. It concerns the fact of how education ofliterature can be used to strengthen students’ formation of cultural identity. The essay tries toidentify obstacles as well as possibilities in the teaching of literature with a view to deepenand enrich this process. The method consists of a phenomenological approach includinginterviews with a group of Finnish immigrants living in Sweden. The theoretical backgroundof this composition comes from various fields such as the didactic, literary and socialpsychology sphere. Keywords in the analysis have been cultural identity, subjective relevanceand deliberative democracy. The results have shown that the cultural contents as well as thecultural variety in Finnish literature taught in class are often experienced to be unvaried andstatic. The results have also exposed the danger of a homogenous cultural landscapeaccording to Jürgen Habermas’ ideas of the public sphere and post-colonial literary theorieson how cultural power is bound up with social power. The role of the Swedish teacher hasfurthermore been discussed in ways of how to interpret and understand curriculum and how tosupport and teach literature in aim to support identity process