Reading, Listening and Watching: Nordic Lower Secondary Students’ Encounters with Literature

Description

At a time of declining reading proficiency and reading motivation among young people, Nordic language arts teachers often use literary texts as a means to promote students’ reading comprehension and to foster the joy of reading (Nissen, 2024). Nevertheless, recent research indicates that there has been a longs-standing decrease in school related reading, for example in Swedish classrooms (Vinterek et al., 2022). Since this is an issue that needs further investigation, the present study aims to contribute knowledge on how and how often literary texts are read in Nordic lower secondary classrooms, as well as in what forms students encounter these texts.

The study takes a comparative approach and relies on a large-scale survey reaching out to teachers across the Nordic countries. Teachers were asked to provide their answers on Likert scales, and SPSS was used to conduct statistical analyses. Preliminary analyses reveal considerable differences in how often students in different classrooms are expected to read literary texts. While reading and/or listening to literary texts appeared to be a weekly activity in approximately 20% of these teachers’ instruction, some students in some classrooms hardly ever encountered literary texts in the school context. While Norwegian teachers were the ones who most frequently reported reading aloud to students and letting them watch literary works adapted for the screen, these practices were found to be least common in Finnish classrooms. Based on these and additional findings, implications for students’ development into competent and motivated readers of literature will be discussed.

Period	27 Jun 2025
Event title	Legitimising Literature in an Evolving Media Landscape
Event type	Conference
Location	Nijmegen, NetherlandsShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International