History teachers' beliefs regarding teaching disciplinary literacies in upper secondary school

Authors

• Sari Sulkunen Jyväskylän yliopisto
• Minna-Riitta Luukka Jyväskylän yliopisto
• Hilkka Paldanius Tampereen yliopisto
• Johanna Saario Jyväskylän yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33350/ka.112693

Keywords:

disciplinary literacy, history, upper-secondary school, teachers

Abstract

We investigate upper secondary school history teachers’ beliefs regarding disciplinary literacies in the context of constructing and presenting knowledge in source-based essays. In upper secondary school, each teacher is a teacher of disciplinary literacy covering literacy practices intertwined with knowledge construction. Teaching relies on teachers’ beliefs regarding disciplinary literacy practices. We study teachers’ beliefs regarding source criticism and regarding students’ own reflection in source-based essays. The data of the study consist of two teachers’ group discussions organized in fall 2020. Our method of analysis was discourse analysis. Our findings show that the teachers had conflicting beliefs regarding source criticism: some teachers saw it as a demanding expert-level skill, whereas for others, it was a key sourcing skill. It was also seen as a mechanical skill that had a minor role in assessment. Students’ own reflection was understood as knowledge construction, a skill which was unfamiliar and too demanding in upper secondary school. In the group discussions, the teachers constructed alternative concepts of what students’ reflection could consist of.