Starless Nights: Reading Literature at a Detention Home

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Issues in Literacy Research Roundtable 4

Abstract

This paper reports on a study of a literature project at a detention home for detained youth in Sweden. The study centers around how critical literacy is performed in the project, but also in teachers and students constructions of reading and readers. In education there is always a potential of unpredictable critical moments in the student’s encounter with different forms of text situations. The material consists primarily of field notes from observations and interviews. The study also draws on actor-network theory, which opens up for new relations in which critical aspects of literacy are performed. The analysis shows that the critical of reading can be ambiguous and sometimes contradictory - it can be empowering and marginalizing at the same time.

Author

• Elin Sundström-Sjödin, Mälardalen University