Developing democracy and citizenship with literary texts about the First World War

Abstract

This article reports on an empirical study that explores the interdisciplinary learning potential of literary texts about the First World War in the English classroom. In a 9th grade English class in Norway, learners responded to an illustrated book, two poems, and an excerpt from a novel about the war in learner-led group conversations structured by frameworks. The questions in the frameworks encouraged the learners to move from the particularity of the texts towards issues of the interdisciplinary topic of democracy and citizenship in the Norwegian national curriculum LK20. The theoretical position in this article builds on historical literacy, understood as historical awareness, critical historical thinking, and affective responses to texts about history. The texts offer opportunities for historical and interdisciplinary engagement, thus providing possibilities for developing aspects of historical literacy. Emphasising historical content through scaffolding may be beneficial for developing learners’ critical historical thinking and a deeper historical awareness. Encountering learners’ affective dimensions of historical literacy, individual responses might provide further insight.