Stockholm university
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Pia Raattamaa VisénSenior lecturer, Associate professor

Research projects

Testing approaches to reading

The project "Testing approaches to reading. Construction of reading comprehension in disciplinary reading practices" wants to develop a model that can be used to analyze reading practices in school. The study follows teaching in grades 5 and 8.

Girl and boy reading together in a classroom.

Publications

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

  • Developing Disciplinary Reading Literacies in Secondary Education

    2019. Yvonne Hallesson, Pia Visén.

    Conference

    Literacy is a crucial aspect of disciplinary and vocational competence (Karlsson 2012; Janks 2010). However, literacy emerges in specific contexts for specific, context-dependent requirements (Barton et al. 2000). As school progresses texts become more specialized and require students’ developing new reading literacies (Schleppegrell 2004). This becomes especially apparent in upper secondary school where students enrol in programmes preparing for work or further education in specialized disciplines. Therefore subject-specific reading literacy is required for students to actively take part in the knowledge practices of the different subjects (Shanahan & Shanahan 2012). This presentation deals with how disciplinary reading literacy develops in vocational programmes in upper secondary school in Sweden. The material is taken from two larger studies investigating disciplinary literacies in nine programmes in six schools. In the presentation two examples are analysed. The analyses show how students grapple with content and specialized vocabulary in subject-specific texts. Theoretical perspectives and analytical tools are retrieved from New Literacy Studies (Barton 2000), Systemic-functional Linguistics (Halliday 2014), as well as Reception Theory (Langer 2011). Focusing on how students move between every day and specialized language, we aim to show how content and specialized vocabulary are explored and used in subject-specific ways, and how students thereby develop disciplinary reading literacy.

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  • Att samtala om texter: från träteknik och svetsteori till antikens myter

    2015. Pia Visén (et al.).

    Thesis (Doc)

    This doctoral dissertation reports on results from case studies of how text-talks in a Swedish upper secondary school vocational programme, function as a zone of proximal development for reading. The aim was to investigate how text-talks function as a basis for discussion about the text content and thereby have a potential for developing understanding for the subject-specific text content in the subjects of Carpentry Technology, Welding Technology and Swedish in one class in the first year of the Industrial Technology Programme. The study is qualitative with an explorative approach (Burns 2011). Ordinary teaching and learning contexts were observed. The theorectical frame work is based on sociocultural (Säljö 2000) and sociosemiotic perspectives (Halliday 1978), a hermeneutical frame consisting mainly of the concepts of the zone of proximal development (Vygotskij 1934/2001), scaffolding (Wood, Bruner & Ross 1976), dialogicity (Bachtin 1986), and pedagogical codes (Bernstein 2000), as well as an analytical frame deriving from systemic-functional linguistics (Halliday & Matthiessen 2004) and reception theory (Langer 1995, 2011a, 2011b). Three research questions were posed: How do the teachers organise and conduct the text-talks? What linguistic connections with the text are constructed when text content is introduced and developed in the text-talk? In what ways does movement in the text manifest in the text-talk? Data were collected through class-room observations and interviews. Field notes and recordings were made of eight text-talks, and three teacher interviews. Analyses of intertextual cohesion (Eggins 2004), and activity sequences (Martin & Rose 2007) were conducted. Analyses of text-based, associative and interactive text-movability (Liberg et al. 2012b) show the collaborative meeting with the text as expressed in the text-talk. The results indicate that built-out cohesion and progressive text-movability can widen the discourse around the text and thereby scaffold reading development.

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  • Tricks of the trade or situated literacy: disciplinary reading literacy in vocational education

    2021. Pia Visén. Nordic Journal of Literacy Research 7 (1), 60-83

    Article

    In upper secondary school vocational education in Sweden practices of reading is an integrated part of teaching in vocational subjects. This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of vocational reading literacy practices, and how reading literacy practices are recontextualised into upper secondary school contexts. Three subsequent research questions specify the study: What kinds of texts are used? How is reading done and talked about? What purposes for reading (why) emerge? Theoretically, the study draws from New Literacy Studies (Barton, 2007). Nine vocational teachers were interviewed regarding reading in childcare, technical, culinary, and industrial vocations. The informants were also observed when teaching in four student groups in three upper secondary schools. Analyses were made of text categories, genres (Rose & Martin, 2012), reading literacy events, text movability (Hallesson & Visén, 2018; Liberg et al., 2012), and reading types (cf. Rosenblatt, 1995). The results reveal a wide range of text categories, from general to specialised texts, specific practice-oriented reading events, reading types that differ depending on vocational context. A conclusion is that disciplinary reading practices in vocational contexts are complex and require critical readers. Therefore, further knowledge of reading in vocational education might contribute to the teaching of disciplinary reading literacy in upper secondary vocational education.

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  • De nationella minoritetsspråken i läromedel

    2023. Pia Visén, Yvonne Hallesson. Sveriges nationella minoritetsspråk - nya språkpolitiska perspektiv, 245-278

    Chapter

    Kapitlet inleds med en översikt över tidigare läromedelsstudier om nationella minoritetsspråk. Därefter presenteras och diskuteras några huvudresultat från en multimodal textanalys av läroböcker i svenska för gymnasiet. Avslutningsvis diskuteras konsekvenser för undervisning och lärande med utgångspunkt i det som tagits upp i kapitlet.

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