Dissertation: Swedish according to the will of the state
Ph. Lic. Gunnar Gårdemar analyses the objectives and instructions in the curricula for the
upper secondary school in Sweden and Finland together with the course plans for Swedish as mother tongue, to encapsulate the objective of the education as stated by the promulgator, the state.
upper secondary school in Sweden and Finland together with the course plans for Swedish as mother tongue, to encapsulate the objective of the education as stated by the promulgator, the state.
– The curricula and course plans have great similarities in ideational structure. The plans strive to develop the pupil’s knowledge and skills in relation to the objective, that of becoming a good citizen and displaying similar appreciation and values, Gårdemar tells.
The plans have changed more regarding the interpersonal structure as the modality in the later documents is more compelling than in the earlier ones. All the plans place the responsibility for the implementation of the objectives and instructions on tuition, although the later plans allow the pupils greater responsibility. The textual structure of the plans has also changed in that the later ones often give the objectives in list for although the central vocabulary in the documents remains similar.
The plans are independently of the cultural context and the time of publication.
– However, in the later ones, the will of the promulgator emerges more emphatically. Moreover,a higher number of explicit objectives are stated in them, which may be caused by the way in which they steer the objectives, Gårdemar explains.
The intertexuality of the curricula and course plans is more manifest in the ideational and textual structures than in the interpersonal one. Objectives and instructions tend to become repeated in curricula and course plans, and therefore intratextuality is a recurring feature of the documents.
The material consists of two curricula from Sweden (1965, 1944) and two from Finland(1985, 2003). The methodological approach is comparative. Text analysis is applied tothe textual, ideational and interpersonal structures of the curricula and course plans.
The public examination of the doctoral dissertation Svenska enligt statens vilja. Textanalytiska perspektiv på läroplaner och kursplaner i svenska som modersmål för gymnasiet i Sverige och i Finland från 1960-tal till 2000-tal will be on Friday 4th of October at 14 o’clock in the Auditorium Kurtén (Tervahovi). The field of dissertation is linguistics. Professor Sven-Erik Hansén from Åbo Akademi will act as an opponent and professor Siv Björklund as a custos.
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