Rethinking the focus of literature education – 
Model of narrative agency as a possible framework

Description

Abstract:
The curricular texts for L1 literature education include different orientations and various kind of guiding paradigms (Pieper 2020). The discussions of the future of L1 Education has brought up meta themes, like globalization, pluriculturalism, technological change, and educationalization has been
presented. These, as well as the interpretative problems with umbrella terms multiliteracies and literacies, induce us to consider the fundaments and framework for L1 education. (Krogh, 2020; Green & Erixon, 2020). Concepts multiliteracy and text seem to be losing their explicit meaning, and they
might be regarded as floating signifiers or even empty signifiers (Laclau 2005). Particularly in literature education, the concept of literacy has affected disturbance (e.g., Gourvennec et al., 2020). Instead of literacy, Krogh proposes the concept of Bildung as a general goal of L1 subjects. Conversely, Green,
Molyneux and Schull (2022) suggest approaching language and literature education with rhetoric and agency. Instead of competences like literacy, I choose activist orientation, and explore the goals and contents of literature education with the concept of narrative agency. This theoretical paper discusses how the model of narrative agency could work as a future framework for literature curricula. Narrative agency is a theoretical orientation presented in philosophy and then elaborated by narrative scholars. The concept refers to people’s skills navigating in narrative environments and using, analyzing, and challenging the narratives alone or together. The model of narrative agency covers three different dimensions towards agency: narrative awareness, narrative imagination and narrative dialogicality (Meretoja 2018; 2022). My curricular framework presents how these three dimensions and perspective awareness can combine the aims, goals and contents usually linked to literature education.

References:
Gourvennec, A. F., Höglund, H., Johansson, M., Kabel, K., & Sønneland, M. (2020). Literature education in Nordic L1s: Cultural models of national lower-secondary curricula in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. L1-Educational Studies in Language and Literature, 20, 1–32. https://doi.org.10.17239/L1ESLL-2020.20.01.07

Green, B. & Erixon, P.-O. (2020). Understanding the (Post-)National L1 Subjects: Three problematics. In B. Green & P.O. Erixon (Eds.), Rethinking L1 education in global era, pp. 259–285. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0303-55997-7_6

Green, B., Molyneux, P., & Scull, J. (2022). Rhetoric, agency, pedagogy: a “new” perspective on language and literacy education. The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44020-022-00013-3.

Krogh, E. (2020). Bildung and Literacy in Subject Danish: Changing in L1 Education. In B. Green & P.O. Erixon (Eds.), Rethinking L1 education in global era, pp. 157–176. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0303-55997-7_6

Laclau, E. (2005). On Populist Reason. Verso.

Meretoja, H. (2018). The Ethics of Storytelling: Narrative Hermeneutics, History, and the Possible. Oxford University Press.

Pieper, I. (2020). L1 Education and the place of literature. In B. Green & P.O. Erixon (Eds.), Rethinking L1 education in global era, 115–132. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0303-55997-7_6

Period	26 Oct 2023
Event title	NNFF : Nordiskt nätverk för forskning i förstaspråksdidaktik
Event type	Conference
Conference number	9
Location	Helsinki, FinlandShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International