Improve students’ self-esteem through Re-learning in Reading and Writing

Abstract

When students’ fail in their reading and writing development it also affects their self-esteem and self-confidence. Too many students in Sweden fail in literacy development and therefore don’t reach the goal stated in the curriculum. Their future education will not be what students had wished, instead they are more or less forced to enter an individual program at high school or quit after nine year in compulsory school. Many of these students have low self-esteem and self-confidence and their self-efficacy are also low when entering high school. The aim of this part of a longitudinal Grounded Theory-study was to conceptualize and generate a theory about what four teachers and their students in high school actually do when working with reading and writing using a specific method. The results based on qualitative research interviews, observations, questionnaires, video recording, and analysis in the tradition of grounded theory, show how teacher and students strive to increase and ensure every student in their reading and writing skills through what is labelled didactic arranging. Teachers’ systematic work with reading and writing, their self-efficacy and beliefs in every student’s possibilities helps students to increase their self-esteem and self-confidence.