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Creative approaches to literary texts may develop students’ literary competences, but little is known about how prevalent such approaches are and how they are implemented. This study explored naturally occurring, that is non-interventionist, literature instruction in the subjects L1 Norwegian and L2 English, based on the quantitative and qualitative analysis of 301 video-recorded lower secondary lessons from 73 classrooms in Norway in 2015–24. By juxtaposing L1 and L2, the study recognises the importance of literature instruction across school subjects, and it advances the understanding of how literary texts are taught in L1 relating to L2. The findings indicate that creative response activities were a recurring feature in both subjects across the studied decade, although they occurred more frequently in L2 lessons. In both subjects, teachers provided opportunities for students to exercise various literary competences when responding creatively to literary texts. However, they offered little guidance on how students could undertake these activities and rarely combined them with analytical reflection that could support students’ developing literary competences. The study discusses implications for teaching and research.

As generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) technologies develop, secondary teachers face the challenge of helping students use GenAI effectively and responsibly for learning. Based on the large-scale EDUCATE project's video recordings of naturally occurring teaching (i.e., without teacher–researcher collaboration), this study examined authentic GenAI practices in highly digitalized language classrooms. Shortly after GenAI became mainstream, we screened 75 English and Norwegian lessons across 20 classrooms in five secondary schools during 2023–24 to identify lessons with GenAI. We identified GenAI practices in 14 lessons across 10 classrooms in 4 schools, and we analyzed these lessons using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings showed that the GenAI-integrated teaching required teachers' use of professional digital competence and targeted both students' subject-specific competences and their AI literacy. The study highlights important implications for secondary teaching when combining GenAI with subject-specific teaching, emphasizing the need to support students' responsible GenAI use.

Having opportunities to work with literary texts in language teaching is crucial to promoting students' language development,general education, and personal growth. Despite the recognized importance of reading literary texts in research and in policy,to date, little is known about the frequency and characteristics of literature instruction in the teaching of English as a second,foreign, or additional language. To illuminate classroom practices, this large-scale,longitudinal, video-observationstudy of naturallyoccurring English instruction in Norway examines to what extent students read literature in the classroom, what kindsof literary texts are read, and what opportunities teachers create for students to explore those texts across 200 lessons. The studyinvolves lower secondary English teaching in 43 classrooms during the past decade (2015–2024) and integrates a quantitativemapping of the presence and forms of the literature read with a qualitative analysis of the literature lessons using an observationprotocol for exploration in teaching. The results indicate that literary texts were often included in English teaching and that theirpresence was consistent over time. However, there may be a need to support teachers in implementing in-depthexplorations ofliterary texts that can foster students' engaged, reflective, and multilayered literary reading and response.

Despite broad agreement that schools should support students in becoming digitally responsible citizens, research suggests that this dimension of students’ digital competence remains underdeveloped, even in highly digitalised educational settings. Addressing this issue, the present study explored the prevalence and characteristics of digital responsibility practices in Norwegian lower secondary schools’ English classrooms. Utilising a tracing comparative logic, it examined classroom practices over time, following the same student cohorts across Grades 8 and 10 (ages 13–15). Video recordings from 63 naturally occurring English lessons and 9 teacher interviews were quantitatively and qualitatively analysed. The findings indicate that digital responsibility was the least prevalent dimension of digital competence across both grades, with teachers rarely seizing opportunities for students to gain insight into–or to reflect on–digital responsibility and seemingly de-prioritising progression across grades. Instead, digital responsibility instruction primarily occurred in response to student queries and was often overshadowed by the teaching of functional digital skills. The findings suggest the need to support English teachers in better integrating digital responsibility into classroom practices.

This study, which contributes to research on literature in language education, maps the position of literature in six concurrently available textbook series produced for, or adapted to, English language teaching (ELT) in Swedish upper primary schools. It offers a systematic overview of the number, length and forms of literary texts included in the 33 textbook items studied and investigates how those texts are embedded in them. This comparative textbook study combines a quantitative examination of literature’s presence with a qualitative content analysis that unpacks the meanings attached to that literature. The findings reveal a strong tendency to marginalise literature. Despite robust arguments and empirical support for the value of requiring pupils to read literature in ELT, most of the sampled textbooks provide few literary texts. The common positioning of literature in the textbooks, with one exception, shows a propensity to disregard literature’s contribution to pupils’ education beyond furthering their English language and literacy skills. The main contribution of this study is the provision of detailed insights into the role given to literature in primary ELT textbooks, an educational setting in which textbook use dominates. By considering both the conceptual and practical functions of textbooks, it illuminates the value of literature communicated in ELT textbooks and the support these provide teachers to incorporate literary texts in their everyday teaching.

Rapporten er en del av Utdanningsdirektoratets evalueringsprogram for fagfornyelsen. Evalueringen pågår i perioden 2021 til 2025.

Literary works are read and studied in English across the different parts of the Swedish education system, primary education, secondary education, highereducation and teacher education. This article considers the rationale—the purposes and benefits—for doing so that are implicitly or explicitly pointed to incurricular documents, with special focus on the kinds of engagement withliterature that are authorised by the academic English subject community for the Swedish academic and school contexts. By juxtaposing and synthesising findings from three previous curricular studies, the article identifies substantive justifications and, drawing on linguistic legitimation theory, discursive forms of legitimation that interoperate in syllabi and in other steering documents to claim the validity of engaging with literature in English. It shows that the rationale that remains constant across the education system relies on the links between literature and cultural learning, or analysis, and likewise on the potential of engagement with literature in English for furthering an understanding of the world and for fostering a desired democratic citizen ethos. The cross-educational perspective of the article shows that the interdependence between the different parts of the education system has both thematic and conceptual consequences for the kinds of engagement with literature that are given the status of official legitimations.