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Literature on thesis supervision emphasises collaborative approaches with strong and supportive relationships. Despite an increasing research interest in supervisory relationships, little cross-cultural research has been conducted on supervisory roles and relationships in expanding circle countries. This study explores how thesis supervisors negotiate different roles and relationships in supervision in English as an Additional Language (EAL) contexts. A multi-case study was employed in three contexts: a Swedish university, two Indonesian private universities, and an Indonesian public university. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with fourteen thesis supervisors. Thematic analysis and systemic-functional appraisal theory were used to analyse the discourse. Our findings revealed that supervisors expressed dealing with (a)symmetrical relationships with students and colleagues, dealing with different supervision roles, and managing priorities relating to intellectual development and instrumental goals. However, these dimensions of supervision were described differently in the three contexts. The Swedish supervisors expressed concerns about having weak authority; meanwhile, the Indonesian private supervisors described frustrated attempts to form a closer relationship with the students, whereas the Indonesian public supervisors reacted to students trying to become too familiar. Furthermore, supervisors in the three contexts had to take different unwanted roles in supervision. The article concludes with implications for understanding situated aspects of supervision.

Föreliggande studie svarar mot behovet av en mer nyanserad förståelse av skrivundervisning i tidiga skolår genom att belysa återkopplande samtal under klassrumsarbete med rådgivande brev. Studiens deltagare var en undervisande skolbibliotekarie och elever i årskurs 3 som genomförde en skrivuppgift efter högläsning av en barnbok. Materialet utgörs av ljudupptagningar samt fotograferade elevtexter. Analysen bygger på en empirinära operationalisering av Ivanićs ramverk för skrivdiskurser med fokus på hur samtalen relaterade till språklig korrekthet, struktur och kommunikativa mål. Den kommunikativa aspekten synliggörs genom Hallidays registerteori, medan interaktionen visualiseras som diskursiva rörelser mellan dessa olika perspektiv eller textnivåer. Resultatet visar att bibliotekarien ofta motiverade en viss textstruktur genom att hänvisa till aspekter som rörde den kommunikativa kontexten, såsom nödvändigheten att lugna mottagaren och ge tydliga motiveringar av föreslagna råd. Bibliotekarien förde också uppmärksamheten till behovet av att vara tillräckligt språkligt explicit i konstruktionen av texten. Därmed kunde diskursöverbryggande rörelser ses mellan ett fokus på struktur/innehåll och ett fokus på kommunikativ situation. Återkoppling gällande språklig korrekthet motiverades mer sällan med kommunikativa hänsynstaganden men detta förekom i samtal om sambandsord. Studien bidrar med en analytiskt lins som kan användas för att belysa interaktion under andra skrivdidaktiska moment.

This article concerns the relationship between general literacy skills and engagement with subject-specific content in classroom practice. The aim is to contribute knowledge about how enactment of reading strategies impacts classroom discussions about science texts. For 10 weeks, the researcher conducted observations and audio recordings of strategy-focused text discussions in Grade 4 physics and biology. The strategies employed were as follows: text knowledge, looking at text features and using prior knowledge. The analysis of the transcribed recordings and relevant parts of the textbook material was informed by Bernstein’s sociology of education and a social semiotic view of disciplinary literacy practices. The result shows that reading strategies were foregrounded in discussions about texts in ways which created and upheld boundaries to related content, activities and texts. Notably, the teacher and the students discussed single pages of science textbook material without considering how meaning conveyed by images and writing relates to other pages by, for example, bringing technical knowledge closer to everyday experience or by condensing meanings in a technical way. The study shows the potential of adhering to the information flow between given and new on textbook spreads to understand shifts between concrete and technical meaning.

Exploring how the information flow of social studies textbook spreads is negotiated in teacher-led interaction, the concern of this study is the conscious and critical use of teaching material in diverse student groups. The study involved a teacher and her Grade 6 students in a school with many migrant language learners. The data was gathered by observations, field notes, voice recordings, and the collection of teaching materials. Using social semiotic theory of visual design, the analysis of the textbook used in instruction shows that the layout perpetuated a Western-centric view of a divided world, along with an individualistic and anthropocentric view of environmental sustainability. The oral interaction, highlighting different text elements, largely reinforced the meaning perspectives promoted in the textbook. However, on occasion, the students were positioned to take a more analytical stance. Implications for using knowledge about information flow in textbooks to promote critical literacy practices in teaching are discussed.

The aim of this article is to contribute knowledge about how figurative language from literary texts is negotiated through oral interaction in second-language instruction. The material consists of transcriptions of recordings from a classroom study of basic adult second-language instruction involving two teachers and their two student groups. Theories of semantic waves and discursive mobility are used to explore and visualize discursive shifts between concrete and condensed abstract meanings. The results show a varied use of linguistic resources, where students’ contributions often serve as a bridge between the teachers’ concrete examples and abstract paraphrases in which lexical metaphors interplayed with grammatical metaphors. In some exchanges, characters and events in the literary texts were significantly expanded upon in the interaction as they were used as contextual resources. The study sheds light on second-language instruction as a dual disciplinary literacy practice, involving both language learning and the study of literary texts.

This contribution explores how subject positions and perspectives are negotiated in the discursive practices of teaching social studies. The study involved a teacher and a group of second-language learners in Grade 6, the data being gathered by observations, voice recordings, and collection of teaching materials throughout seven weeks. The analysis, drawing upon discourse theory and sociological theories of education, is conducted from the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis. The result, highlighting a curriculum area about living conditions, shows how Western-centric beliefs about a divided world were perpetuated both during introductory activities and in the searching for information about different countries. This mainstream meaning perspective was also sustained when the teacher modelled ways of using language for expressing content knowledge. Throughout, the migrant language learners were positioned as privileged Swedish citizens. Implications for shaping discursive practices of teaching in ways which builds on students’ diverse knowledges and experiences are discussed.

Although discussion-based approaches to literature have been researched extensively, there has been little qualitative research on read-aloud discussions focusing on specific aspects of literature. Moreover, considering the current bias towards comprehension and analytical skills in language arts curricula, an on-going discussion about different dimensions of literary understanding in classroom practice is necessary. Therefore, the present study seeks to contribute knowledge about possibilities for literary understanding in character-focused classroom discussions. Data, comprised of field notes and transcribed audio recordings, were collected throughout 12 lessons in a Swedish Grade 4 during the reading aloud of the picture book Legenden om Sally Jones (The Legend of Sally Jones). The analysis was guided by thematic content analysis and reader-response theories, enabling a broad view of literary understanding. The result shows that character-focused discussions promoted evaluating the characters, making inferences, and considering important events. Occasionally, the students made analytical remarks about how the story worked. In addition, the students were encouraged to empathise with the characters while making connections between the text and their lives. Furthermore, the students drew on intertextual knowledge to use the text in creative expressions involving pleasurable narrative deaths. Implications for teaching and language arts curricula are discussed.

In this contribution, we explore something rarely reported on in research on children’s literature: how an old children’s book is re-appropriated and altered in ongoing teaching practice. The material consists of the book used in instruction, a Swedish translation of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle (Tant Mittiprick), and transcribed audio recordings collected throughout six weeks of teaching. Participants include a librarian, who conducted the lion’s share of the discussions based on the books, two teachers, and two groups of Grade 3 students. The analysis is conducted based on Langer’s theory of building literary envisionments and the concept of the “third space”. The findings show that the students’ initial reception of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, playfully articulated in the classroom discussions, is shaped by literary stereotypes of old women and connections to everyday experiences. This reception is partly acknowledged by the adults. Thus, this shows the potential of the meaning making process through join negotiation of the third space—connecting prior knowledge and experience to the book. However, the librarian’s evaluations of student responses reinforce a particular didactic reading of the character as someone firm and knowledgeable, playing down the whimsical and silly characteristics of the protagonist. In reading the book aloud, the librarian made significant alterations to the text. With respect to literary language, the librarian provided numerous paraphrases and elaborations which served to support the students in making meaning of the book. More drastic alterations of the text served to avoid reinforcing outdated values, for example antiquated gender roles and references to physical punishment. While the paraphrases of literary terms created opportunities for negotiating the third space and learning about literary language, the sanitised reading of the book with respect to values failed to capitalise on opportunities for contextualising the book and making intertextual connections.

I denna studie utforskas ett litteraturarbete som involverar en larare och en grupp andraspraksinlarare inom grundlaggande vuxenutbildning. Den aktuella kursen ar Svenska som andrasprak Delkurs 3. Syftet med studien ar att utforska och synliggora de litteracitetspraktiker som erbjuds under moment som fokuserar pa romanens sprak. Materialet grundar sig pa observationer, ljudinspelningar och insamlat laromaterial. Analysen vilar primart pa Luke och Freebodys litteracitetspraktiker, Langers teori om textrorlighet samt Bernsteins utbildningssociologiska teori. I analysen betraktas litteraturarbetet som samspelande litteracitetspraktiker, dar arbetet med romanens sprak utgor en sarskild textanvandningspraktik. Resultatet visar att lararen i diskussioner kring ord, uttryck och spraklig stil for uppmarksamheten till de centrala karaktarernas egenskaper och utveckling genom romanen. Detta medfor att textanvandningspraktiken samspelar med en betydelseskapande praktik, dar de betydelser som utforskas i interaktionen overskrider betydelsen av de enskilda ord och uttryck som valjs ut och diskuteras. Detta kan tillmatas viktiga stottande egenskaper i en undervisningsgrupp dar majoriteten av eleverna skulle ha svart att forsta romanen pa egen hand. I artikeln diskuteras aven hur fokuset pa romanens sprak oppnar upp for en textanalytisk litteracitetspraktik.

Exploring spoken interaction in the teaching of texts and content knowledge to linguistically diverse Grade 6 students, this article responds to the need of a more nuanced understanding of how different patterns of interaction function in knowledge-building classroom practices. The study is based on observations and transcriptions of recorded classroom interaction in different school subjects. The analysis is based on theoretical frameworks of communicative approaches, knowledge domains and discursive mobility. The result shows how patterns of classroom interaction are connected to important functions, such as building up prior knowledge, reminding students of key disciplinary concepts, reinforcing meanings in disciplinary texts, problematizing different aspects of how subject content is represented and enabling the diverse students to connect the subject content to personal experiences and process it with innovative use of the target language. The result also shows that movements towards a disciplinary discourse can be promoted by grounding the interaction in written texts and hindered by less functional use of everyday language.

This article aims to contribute knowledge of how literacy practices are actively shaped in the teaching of history. One teacher and her two groups of Grade 6 students were followed during a content area spanning 12 weeks that focused on the Vasa era in Swedish history. The collected material consists of field notes, transcripts of peer group and whole-class interaction, samples of students’ writing, and documented teaching material. Based on theoretical frameworks of literacy and classroom interaction, the analysis of the findings shows how the teacher, using resources such as texts, images, and one epi-sode of a documentary series, facilitated the students’ initial immersion in the historical period and supported their developed understanding. The teacher is shown to employ a dialogic communicative approach while also introducing more abstract and content-relevant perspectives. Although the teacher positioned the students to consider representations of key historical figures, opportunities to critically analyze texts as historical sources were limited. The implications for shaping literacy practices in ways which promote Grade 6 students’ development of disciplinary literacy in history are discussed.

In this article, I highlight how two teachers seek to scaffold second language learners’ use of language and engagement with texts in Grade 1 and 6. The aim is to explore the communication of metaknowledge in classroom discourse, more specifically, the communication of knowledge about language and metacogni-tive reading strategies. Two teachers participated in the study, and data were gathered through observa-tions, voice recordings, and the collection of teaching materials. Bernstein’s sociology of education is operationalized to reveal different aspects of framing during teaching activities in second language teaching and geography. Drawing upon systemic-functional linguistics, I show how metaknowledge was fore-grounded by the teacher in ways that sometimes de-emphasized the subject-related texts and concepts expected to be at the center of the teaching. An important empirical finding is that the foregrounding of metaknowledge such as features of the language and cognitive reading strategies in teaching can result in a pseudo-visible modality of pedagogy that provides insufficient scaffolding for dealing with subject-related texts and participating substantially in classroom discourse. Implications for teaching are discussed.

The aim of this dissertation is to explore how two teachers communicate content knowledge and metalinguistic knowledge in the teaching of young second language learners. As a qualitative classroom study, it examines how two widely advocated forms of metaknowledge are used in instruction: metalinguistic knowledge, in particular genre knowledge, and reading strategies. Bernstein’s sociology of education theory is synthesized with systemic-function linguistic theory to explore how the participant teachers scaffold and place varying demands on the students. The central concept is pedagogic communication, which is defined as the way in which the teachers use language to communicate instructional content, build and uphold relations and organize information flows in teaching. The materials for the study have been generated through audio recordings, observations and collected teaching materials in school years 1 and 6. The school has a high percentage of second language learners and implements genre-based instruction. The empirical chapters focus on preparations for reading assignments, weekly instances of “sharing time” and a genre-based curriculum area about stories in school year one and a curriculum area about maps and population which integrates geography and Swedish as a second language in school year 6. An important finding is that strongly controlled classroom discourse was associated with introducing and reminding students of abstract concepts in the studied interaction, including metalinguistic and subject-related concepts. Conversely, weaker control tended to promote negotiation of everyday knowledge rather than disciplinary knowledge while also placing implicit demands on students’ participation in the discourse. The study also attends to less-researched features of classroom discourse and scaffolding, such as how the teachers showed solidarity and built engagement through interpersonal resources and managed the information flow through textual ones. A final important finding is that the explicit attention to metaknowledge, such as genre knowledge and knowledge about reading strategies, seemed to come at the expense of encounters with meaningful texts. Therefore, it is argued that such domains of metaknowledge should not become the main instructional content.

A crucial issue for literacy research is how teaching practices are shaped to promote diverse learners’ engagement with content knowledge and use of disciplinary language. In this article, based on a classroom study in Sweden, I explore the teaching of two historical events where the participant Grade 6 teacher created opportunities for writing and peer interaction in the content area. Using discourse analysis informed by systemic-functional linguistics, the study contributes to existing research by highlighting the role of teachers’ text choices in the shaping of disciplinary literacy practices in the teaching of history. The texts chosen and rejected by the participant teacher are analyzed and put in relation to transcripts of peer interaction and samples of students’ writing. The results show that the texts chosen – unlike those rejected – largely relied on everyday linguistic resources. As the students’ peer interaction and writing closely mirrored the texts presented to them, their opportunities to use the resources of abstract language commonly associated with school history seemed restricted. Implications for teaching are discussed.

Teachers who teach content to immigrant language learners are often asked to attend explicitly to linguistic features of texts dealing with disciplinary knowledge. This study uses the theoretical frameworks of Systemic-Functional Linguistics and Legitimation Code Theory to explore the role of language, more specifically technical terms, grammatical metaphors, and genre structures, in knowledge building. The study is based on observations and voice recordings during a curriculum area about maps and population in grade 6 with the participating teacher employing genre-based pedagogy. The studied interaction shows that an initial focus on technical terms within the field of geography in later phases shifts to features of language: genre structures, logical connections and instances of grammatical metaphors. However, these features of language are modelled in texts and wordings belonging to everyday experience rather than disciplinary knowledge. By closely examining the relationship between field knowledge and metalinguistic knowledge, the study contributes to the discussion about the role of language in content learning.

Artikeln undersöker hur fem skrivpedagogiska läromedel för grundskolan instruerar om genrestrukturer, logiska samband och värderande beskrivningar. Den ger också teoretiska redskap för att belysa relationen mellan form och funktion i undervisning om genrer. Analysen skedde genom att relatera de aktuella språkliga områdena till relevanta systemisk-funktionella och genreteoretiska kategorier.Resultatet visar en svag koppling mellan form och funktion i läromedlens instruktioner, där beskrivningarna av genrestrukturer ofta är antingen för vaga eller för specifika för att kunna användas effektivt inom de aktuella genrerna. Sedan instruerar läromedlen om logiska samband i sammanhang de inte behövs, medan instruktioner om resurser för värderande beskrivningar begränsar sig till adjektiv. Ett kunskapsbidrag från artikeln är att visa hur den funktionella basen hos instruktioner kan stärkas genom att genom att anlägga ordklassöverskridande perspektiv och i högre grad beakta hur språkliga resurser motiveras av genrer och kommunikativa behov. This article investigates how five textbooks instruct about genre structures, logical connections and resources for evaluative descriptions. It also gives theoretical tools for considering the relation between form and function in teaching genre. The analysis was conducted by relating the specific linguistic areas to relevant systemic-functional and genre-theoretical categories.The result shows a weak connection between form and function in the instructions of the textbooks, where descriptions of genre structures are either too vague or too specific to be applied effectively within the relevant genres. Furthermore, logical connections are modelled in contexts where they are not necessitated, while modelling of resources for evaluative descriptions are restricted to adjectives. A contribution from the article is to show how the functional basis of instructions may be improved by greater attention to relations between linguistic resources and communicative needs, as well as by applying perspectives transcending grammatical categories.

I denna studie undersöker jag litteracitetspraktiker i en årskurs 3 när en skolbibliotekarie leder högläsning av barnboken, Tant Mittiprick, och följer upp läsningen med enskrivuppgift. Empiriska data har insamlats genom observationer och transkriberadeljudinspelningar. I analysen integreras ramverk för litteracitetspraktiker och språkligametafunktioner samtidigt som det kusliga (umheimlich) synliggörs som ett barnboksspecifikt inslag. Resultatet visar att ett förståelsearbete under högläsningssamtalen försvidare i det skrivpedagogiska upplägget, där eleverna skriver brev till varandra och träderin i olika roller baserade på boken. Under genomgångar och återkopplande samtal görseleverna uppmärksamma på hur de behöver utveckla ett relevant innehåll, använda enpassande röst och följa ett ändamålsenligt informationsflöde. Möjligheten att förankrabåde läsandet och skrivandet i en kritisk och kreativ förståelse för barnbokens framställning och typiska drag diskuteras.

This article responds to the need of further qualitative insight into teachers’ supporting students’ factual reading by introducing reading strategies. Inspired by ethnographic methods and action research, the material of the study consists of observations and audio recordings (20 lesson) of teaching in Grade 4 which integrated the subjects Swedish and Science (Physics and Biology). The analysis is mainly based on Langer’s stances for building knowledge in academic disciplines and a social-semiotic perspective inspired by Macken-Horarik’s knowledge domains. The findings show that the classroom interaction involved considerable attention to both the features of the disciplinary texts, verbal as well as visual, and the process of reading. The reading practice allowed the students to share previous experiences and discover a need for new information. However, the teacher and the students largely relied on informal metalanguage and foregrounded connections to everyday experience, rather than using a more elaborate metalanguage to explore how knowledge is construed from the perspective of physics and biology. Implications for teaching reading strategies in ways which promote students’ engagement with disciplinary content are discussed.