Doctoral school: Culturally Empowering Education through Language and Literature

About the doctoral school

The graduate school Culturally Empowering Education through Language and Literature (CuEEd-LL) is a national research school that aims to strengthen Swedish teacher education by studying and developing culturally empowering education through language and literature.
 
The doctoral school is financed by the Swedish Research Council and, in addition to Malmö University, includes Gothenburg University, Stockholm University and Jönköping University, which coordinates the graduate school.

The purpose of the doctoral school

• To strengthen Swedish teacher education by studying and developing culturally empowering education through language and literature.
• To support equitable, high-quality education and participation in a globalised and digitised world.

Research themes

Regardless of their school placements, disciplines and teaching levels, all teachers must be competent in using language and literature to develop communicative practices and create inclusive environments in heterogeneous educational contexts. The doctoral school's research themes are informed by the fields of Southern Multilingualism and Diversities, Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, and Decoloniality. These fields view language and literature as critical for shaping and articulating cultures and (inter)cultural understanding. With these fields as a point of departure, our research aims at illuminating how language- and literature-based pedagogical interventions can culturally empower pupils and help them understand and confidently participate in complex and diverse cultural contexts.

Communication is a meaning-making enterprise that builds on the entanglement of resources from singular/multiple language modalities and embodiments: reading, writing, signing, seeing, listening, speaking, etc. Literature is also understood as communicative and an aesthetic and multilingual expression in different genres and media, that gives voice to human experiences and emotions. According to the current steering documents (in Sweden), practising language teachers shall adopt a holistic view of language and literature.

Possible examples of research themes that can be explored within the doctoral school

• Language and literature in school and other educational contexts, and in teacher education;
• Culture through language and literature in different teacher education programmes;
• Opportunities and challenges of using language and literature in school and other educational contexts, and in teacher education;
• Historical and contemporary perspectives on multilingualism, literacy and literature;
• Reading and writing processes in children and adults;
• The impact of digital processes on communication, culture, and diversity in different fields of education.