Writing in the literacy era

Scandinavian teachers' notions of writing in mother tongue education

Abstract

The background of the present study is the current general educational focus on literacy across the curriculum, changing traditional ‘divisions of labour' among subjects and raising questions as to the role of the MTE subject in the teaching of writing. 26 Nordic teacher diaries and interviews are examined to find patterns in the teachers' understanding of writing as part of MTE in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The theoretical underpinning is research in MTE as a subject and in discourses of writing. The study applies a phenomenological and a discourse analysis to the empirical data, revealing three fairly distinct didactic profiles which reflect the participating teachers' understanding of the aims of writing in MTE. The article concludes that a tentative answer to the question of MTE writing may be found in some Nordic teachers' descriptions and reflections of their practice. In these writing is understood and practiced as an integrated part of MTE teaching, aiming at supporting students' language and literary competence as well as their personal and social development. Inherent in this didactic project is the idea of Bildung and teachers' positioning themselves as disciplinary didacticians with professional authority and autonomy writing in MTE, literacy, Bildung, disciplinary didactics, professional authority.