Distributor: Ekelunds Förlag AB, Solna, Sweden.
Anita Hjälme
Kan man bli klok på läsdebatten?
Analys av en pedagogisk kontrovers
Akademisk avhandling som för avläggande av filosofie doktorsexamen i pedagogik vid Uppsala universitet kommer att offentligen försvaras i universitetets lärosal X, fredagen den 26 mars 1999, kl. 14.15.
ABSTRACT
Hjälme, A. 1999: Kan man bli klok på läsdebatten? Analys av en pedagogisk kontrovers. (Can you get any wiser from studying the reading debate? Analysis of a pedagogical controversy.) Written in Swedish with an English summary. 293 pp. Ekelunds Förlag AB, Solna. ISBN 91-646-1315-1
The overall question for this dissertation is: Why is it that scholars and experienced teachers take part in a controversy on initial reading instruction with such intensity and anger?
This study focuses on the reading controversy as it appears in three polarized debates in a Swedish teachers´ magazine, Lärartidningen/Svensk Skoltidning, 1977-78, 1981 and 1986.
The backgrounds to the controversy in the U.S. and the efforts made there to solve the problem by means of research as well as to the Swedish context of the debates are presented.
The analysis of the texts is based on a model of controversy analysis used in Sweden for analyzing 'scientifically-based' controversies. The aim is to reach beyond the factual level and get an understanding of the forces behind the controversy.
The conclusions are that the root of the controversy lies in different opinions about the character of the reading process and of the process in initial reading. Political-ideological, socio-psychological and personal factors are all suggested as explanations of the dynamics in the debates.
The perspective of practising teachers includes other concerns than those of the theorists but during the period of time covered in this study there is a tendency for the polarization of the controversy among researchers to spread to the field of practice.
The final part refers to connections between this controversy and the controversy of dyslexia.
Keywords: Reading, beginning reading, initial reading instruction, reading debate,
reading research, scientifically-based controversy, controversy analysis, dyslexia.
Anita Hjälme, Department of Education, Uppsala University, Box 2109,
S-750 02 Uppsala, Sweden