1. LANGUAGES, LITERATURES AND LITERACIES – A NORDIC PERSPECTIVE The 10 th IAIMTE conference, Odense 2015 Jon Smidt Sør-Trøndelag University College, Trondheim, Norway

2. NO SUCH THING AS A FINAL WORD …

3. THE CONFERENCE AS A RESPONSE TO CHALLENGES IN SOCIETY The conference theme is Languages, literatures, and literacies in L1 research and education. The conference will address issues of homogeneity and heterogeneity in L1 research and education. L1 has a strong presence in educational systems across the world, but in a world of globalized economy and communication, L1 subjects face issues of identity calling for different local solutions. Language and literature constitute a historically basic dyad in national L1 subjects, but the homogeneous dyad may no longer capture the global picture of L1. Digital communication media have changed patterns of communication as well as notions of ‘language’ and ‘literature’, ethnic and linguistic diversity in the classrooms is expanding due to migration, and issues of global competition lead to a growing political interest in the literacies of reading, writing and textual competence. What are the implications for L1 practice and research? The 10 th IAIMTE 2015 conference theme aims at illuminating L1 research and education in the plural forms of languages, literatures, and literacies.

4. LANGUAGE AS POWER AND RESPONSIBILITY Deborah Brandt Ilana Elkad-Lehman

5. L1 IN MULTICULTURAL AND MULTILINGUAL SETTINGS Pamela Leung

6. L1/”MOTHER TONGUE” – from the national + unifying (??) LANGUAGE & LITERATURE to LITERACIES in heterogeneous societies

7. International Mothertongue Education Network (IMEN): Wolfgang Herrlitz

8. SITUATION TODAY Wayne Sawyer and Piet-Hein van de Ven about paradigms for L1 curricula: academic, developmental, communicative, utilitarian Sylvi Penne and Mette Nergård about the disappearing L1 subject

9. Norway as an example: some research topics last fifteen years: 1.Key competencies/basic skills (reading and writing etc across the curriculum) 2.Assessment and effective teaching and learning of reading, writing etc 3.New literacies: multimedial & multimodal. ICT changing not only practices but also thinking 4.Literacy across subjects (Content area literacy CAL) vs. Disciplinary literacy (DL): The discourses and genres of different school subjects (  also L1) 5.Development of voices/identities in different school subjects (  new look at L1) 6.Languages and literatures: Rethinking the what, why and how of MTE/L1 in multicultural societies

10. Two examples from Nordic research today 1.Faglighed og skriftlighed, SDU (Writing to Learn, Learning to Write. Literacy and Disciplinarity in Upper Secondary Education) especially: 5) Development of voices/identities in different school subjects 2.NORM Project, Norway (Developing National Standards for the Assessment of Writing. A Tool for Teaching and Learning) especially: 2) Assessment and effective teaching and learning of reading, writing etc

11. Two types of research: 1.EXPLORATIONS AND DESCRIPTIONS  generating DEEPER UNDERSTANDING, QUESTIONS and THEORETICAL MODELS (helping practitioners understand, discuss and act) (Literacy and Disciplinarity) 2.INTERVENTIONS  generating EFFECTIVE WORKING METHODS AND MODELS) (helping practitioners improve their teaching) (NORM Project) (quantitative + qualitative methods)

12. RESEARCH POSITIONINGS Gert Rijlaarsdam Graham Parr and Scott Bulfin

13. THE NECESSARY DISCUSSION: “IMPROVEMENT”? IMPROVEMENT OF WHAT? WHAT L1? WHAT LITERACY? formal competence (skills) -- content competence (Bildung) Literacy 1: Skills, competencies  participation in society 1 Literacy 2: Critical thinking, understanding, responsibility  participation in society 2 A skills discourse (literacy 1 – “competence”) vs a communication discourse (literacy 2 – “voice”) (Krogh 2012)

14. VISIONS FOR L1 (from a Nordic Perspective) The individual as part of the collective: Process  identities and “voices” (Ellen Krogh, Caroline Liberg). Entering a social stage and trying out voices. Motivating students – the “familiar” and the “strange” (Ziehe, Sylvi Penne) Radical aesthetics? (Jan Thavenius). Art as a way of thinking critically about the world. Formal competence (skills) as means to reach content competence (Bildung): (Ellen Krogh 2012). Literacy 1: + Literacy 2: Critical thinking, understanding, responsibility  participation in society 2 Literacy across subjects (content area literacy CAL) vs. Disciplinary literacy (DL): The genres of L1. The new sociocultural situation in society and schools  broadening conceptions The fight for relevance  helping teachers have a vision instead of cutting subject up in parts:

15. Coda: The responsibility of L1 research The never-ending story: All the world’s a stage. THANKS TO ALL! And SPECIAL THANKS TO ELLEN KROGH AND HER TEAM!