Värmland (Re)imagined. Place Based Education in Literature and History for a Sustainable Future
The school needs to find new ways to relate to environmental issues. Based on the subjects of Swedish and History in upper secondary school, the aim of this project is to develop a didactic model for teaching regional literature to increasing students' knowledge and understanding of the interaction between humans and place in terms of sustainability.
The humanities have a very important function in relation to environmental issues, but there is a lack of empirically based knowledge about the potential of fiction in teaching about place in relation to sustainable development.
Värmland is used as a case study, its literature, places and history. Schools in three different areas with different business structures and narrative traditions participate.
Our research questions are:
- What transformations do teachers make in relation to place-based reading?
- What didactic challenges emerge from teaching literature and history, using regional fiction in relation to place and sustainability?
- How can the didactic model form a starting point for students' action competence in matters of sustainability?
This is a practice-based intervention study with research circles. nine teachers participate, and will work together with the researchers to develop a place-based teaching approach that will be tested in the classroom. The teaching practiced in the project is analyzed jointly by teachers and researchers and on the basis of this analysis the didactic model is constructed.
The project is funded by the Swedish Institute for Educational Research 2025–2027.