Torunn Synnøve Skjærstad

• Skjærstad, Torunn Synnøve (2024). Life skills and literary texts about the First World War. Children's Literature in English Language Education (CLELEjournal ). 12(1), s. 73–96. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This article addresses how literary texts about the First World War opened spaces for the life skills of critical thinking and empathy in an English language classroom in a lower secondary school in Norway. It reports on parts of a study conducted in a 9th grade English class, where the learners read four texts, prose and poetry – The Amazing Tale of Ali Pasha (Foreman, 2013), ‘The Soldier’ (Brooke, 1914/2014), ‘Does it Matter?’ (Sassoon, 1917/2014) and an excerpt from Stay Where You Are and Then Leave (Boyne, 2017) – and responded to them in an individual assignment. As its point of departure, this article considers the implementation of the interdisciplinary topic Health and Life Skills, one of three topics introduced in the current Norwegian National Curriculum, the 2020 Knowledge Promotion. It draws on the idea that responding to literary texts about history facilitates critical thinking and expressions of empathy. Judith Langer’s theory of building envisionments was employed to describe how the learners engaged with the texts. The findings indicate that the two prose texts proved particularly fruitful to help learners think critically and empathetically about some of the demanding and challenging aspects of life in times of war. To dig deeper and more critically into the literary texts, further teacher involvement and integration of historical information when working with the texts and responses are needed in order to balance historical knowledge and the learners’ immediate response to the texts.

• Skjærstad, Torunn (2023). Developing democracy and citizenship with literary texts about the First World War. Nordic Journal of Language Teaching and Learning (NJLTL). 11(3), s. 469–489. doi: 10.46364/njltl.v11i2.1171. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  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.

• Skjærstad, Torunn & Munden, Juliet Hilary (2022). First World War Poetry and Historical Literacy. I Kleppe, Sandra Lee & Sorby, Angela (Red.), Poetry and Sustainability in Education. Palgrave Macmillan. ISSN 9783030955755. s. 165–184. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-95576-2_8. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Munden, Juliet Hilary & Skjærstad, Torunn Synnøve (2018). English Poetry in the Foreign Language Classroom: A study of Teacher Perspectives, Purposes, and Practices. I Kleppe, Sandra Lee & Sorby, Angela (Red.), Poetry and Pedagogy across the Lifespan: Within and Beyond Disciplines, Classrooms, and Contexts. Palgrave Macmillan. ISSN 9783319904320. s. 255–276. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-90433-7_13. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This book explores poetry and pedagogy in practice across the lifespan. Poetry is directly linked to improved literacy, creativity, personal development, emotional intelligence, complex analytical thinking and social interaction: all skills that are crucial in contemporary educational systems. However, a narrow focus on STEM subjects at the expense of the humanities has led educators to deprioritize poetry and to overlook its interdisciplinary, multi-modal potential. The editors and contributors argue that poetry is not a luxury, but a way to stimulate linguistic experiences that are formally rich and cognitively challenging. To learn through poetry is not just to access information differently, but also to forge new and different connections that can serve as reflective tools for lifelong learning. This interdisciplinary book will be of value to teachers and students of poetry, as well as scholars interested in literacy across the disciplines.

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• Skogsrud, Mari Nilsen & Skjærstad, Torunn Synnøve (2024). «Tell me more» - AI literacy and chatbots in the Norwegian language subject. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Skjærstad, Torunn Synnøve (2024). Engaging with Truth in Encounters with Literary Texts about History. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Skjærstad, Torunn Synnøve (2024). Creating spaces for interdisciplinarity in the English subject: Reading literary texts about history. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Skjærstad, Torunn (2023). First World War literary texts in the English classroom in Norway. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Skjærstad, Torunn (2022). Is there a place for First World War Poetry with LK20? Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Skjærstad, Torunn Synnøve & Munden, Juliet Hilary (2019). Young children's poetry in English language teaching. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Skjærstad, Torunn (2019). Language in literary textual representations of the First World War: Developing historical literacy in the English language classroom in Norway. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Munden, Juliet Hilary & Skjærstad, Torunn Synnøve (2018). Poetry practices in the EFL classroom. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Skjærstad, Torunn Synnøve (2014). Blod og profitt. Levende Historie. ISSN 1503-4208. 9(1), s. 18–23. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Skjærstad, Torunn Synnøve; Munden, Juliet Hilary & Moen, Heidi Silje (2025). Interdisciplinary English Language Teaching through Historical Literacy: A case study of learners engaging with First World War literature in an English subject classroom in lower secondary school in Norway. Universitet i Innlandet / University of Inland Norway. ISSN 9788283805758. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This article-based dissertation explores how interdisciplinary English Language Teaching (ELT) promotes critical historical thinking, historical awareness, and empathy. Framed within interpretivist-constructivist perspectives on education, it conceptualises history as a sociocultural construct and highlights the capacity of literature to bridge disciplinary boundaries through historical literacy. Combining insights from narrative theory and reader-response approaches, the study investigates how working with First World War literary texts can advance learners’ interdisciplinary processes of meaning making, conceptualised as a holistic meaning-making process involving critical reflection on historical narratives, the development of affective engagement, and the ability to understand perspectives across time. The empirical study, conducted as collaborative action research, examines the responses of Norwegian 9th-grade English language learners to First World War literature. Over a fiveweek lesson cycle, learners engaged with these historical narratives in learner-led group conversations guided by sets of teacher-made questions and an individual assignment. Findings revealed that prose texts were more effective than poetry for fostering connections between literature and history, as learners often approached poetry through historical accuracy rather than interpretive engagement. The study underscores the importance of teacher facilitation and historical content knowledge in guiding learners’ meaning-making processes, particularly when dealing with unfamiliar historical contexts like the First World War, which reveal limited collective memory in Norway. The dissertation highlights the value of interdisciplinary ELT for broad educational aims, such as developing critical thinking, and democratically and justice-oriented citizens. It also examines the methodological potential of collaborative action research. While the study has limitations, it provides insights into how literature serves as a conduit to historical literacy and offers a framework for integrating truly interdisciplinary ELT in education. Contributing to ongoing research on interdisciplinary teaching, this research offers implications for educational policy, teacher training, and future interdisciplinary practices in ELT.

Se alle arbeider i NVA