Teaching and Learning Literacy in Vocational Programmes
This poster presentation will draw on preliminary results of an ongoing intervention study on literacy in the vocational classroom. The aim with the study is to identify upper secondary school students’ attitudes toward literacy in the vocational courses of the Business and Administration Programme and the Hotel and Tourism Programme. Through the intervention, the study will investigate how teaching and learning literacy in the vocational courses can influence the students’ attitudes toward literacy in the classroom. The results could hence contribute to the discussion concerning equal opportunities in education.
Previous research has shown that students in upper secondary school in Sweden are given different opportunities when it comes to developing their writing skills depending on if they are attending an academic or a vocational programme. This, according to Andersson Varga (2014), is due to differentiation, a result of social reproduction, which is closely linked to parents’ income and level of education. However, the choice of program is not the only factor in determining to what extent students are allowed to develop their writing skills. Another factor is teachers’ individual understanding of the teaching profession and their view on how students develop their writing skills (Andersson Varga, 2014).
The methodological approach of the study draws on ideas of Educational Design Research (cf. McKennney & Reeves, 2019; Bakker, 2019) with methods such as semi-structured group interviews, participatory observations, and questionnaires. Interventions in Educational Design Research follow an iterative process of cycles with different phases (McKenney & Reeves, 2019). The intervention in this study will consist of three cycles with three phases each: planning, execution, and evaluation. To prepare for the intervention, a mapping of the current literacy situation in year one in the two programmes has been conducted.
Theoretically, the study has its foundation in New Literacy Studies (cf. Street, 1984; Rowsell & Pahl, 2015). Hence, the focus of the presentation will be on the preliminary results concerning literacy events and will try to contribute to an overview of writing activities before the intervention and an understanding of how teachers can develop literacy teaching and learning in the classroom.
Keywords: intervention study, vocational programmes, literacy events, writing activities
Andersson Varga, P. (2014). Skrivundervisning i gymnasieskolan. Svenskämnets roll i den sociala reproduktionen. Avhandling. Göteborgs universitet, Göteborg.Bakker, A. (2019). Design Research in Education. A Practical Guide for Early Career Researchers. London and New York: Routledge.McKenney, S. & Reeves, T. C. (2019). Conducting Educational Design Research. 2nd Edition. New York: Routledge. Rowsell, J. & Pahl, K. eds. (2015). The Routledge Handbook of Literacy Studies. Florence, U.S: Taylor & Francis Group.Street, B. (1984). Literacy in Theory and Practice. Cambridge University Press.
2022.