A lift for democracy? About the relationship between literacy, fiction and democracy

Abstract

he declining results in reading skills revealed in large-scale international surveys such as PISA are seen as a critical issue for education in general, but also for democracy, social justice, and economic competitiveness. In this article, we investigate the reading-promotion programmes in Swedish schools called “Läslyftet” (Elevated Reading), organised by the National Agency for Education. In particular, we study the link between fiction and democracy and how reading-promoting ideas are implemented by the Swedish National Agency for Education. The result indicates the effective downplaying of literature, with fiction being marginalised in the reading programme in favour of non-fiction. Also, in line with the idea that all teachers are language teachers, the school subject Swedish has become pushed into the margins to the benefit of other school subjects such as natural sciences, in which the importance of reading for the development of a democratic society is emphasised.