Att lukta på rummet som Göran Persson - En studie om retorikundervisning på yrkesgymnasier

Sammanfattning: Rhetoric is a vital subject of the Swedish school. It is only taught in the native language in the subject of Swedish but expects the students to be able to present orally in almost every other subject as well. Few Swedish teachers are educated in rhetoric, but all are expected to teach it. In vocational upper secondary schools, many do not students reach the highest letter grades (A and B) during national testing, where an oral presentation is a third of the test. This study aims to examine how Swedish teachers in vocational schools view their own teaching of rhetoric. More specifically the study examines what the teachers focus on, what their methods are for teaching and what factors they take into account when planning. To do this the study collects data through three interviews with teachers, their collected teaching material and a survey sent to 20 different vocational schools. A content analysis is used to analyze the transcribed interviews. The results show that the interviewed teachers tend to focus their teaching on what they believe is most important. This includes disposition, technical presentation aids, manuscripts and creating a safe environment for the students who fear public speaking. It also shows that teachers use varying types of scaffolding techniques to support their students’ needs. None of the interviewed teachers focus on rhetorical terminology and two of them create their own, but the students do not get the time they need to process the information and actually work with it in different ways. One teacher uses the terminology they see fit to use in practice with their students. This work later show that their students are able to apply what they have learned in rhetoric in written texts and through this elevate their writing skills. Finally, it shows that the teachers teach a very limited version of rhetoric.