Teaching English at multi-graded schools. A qualitative study on the effects that the school structure has on the English teachers

Abstract

About 30 per cent of the Norwegian schools have less than 100 pupils attending to them. These schools are naturally organized in several ways. Multi-graded schools are however used as a method for teaching, especially in smaller schools where the pupils would benefit from being in larger groups than their original grade can provide them with. There are little information and rules to how the teachers are to approach to this school structure. This research aims to find how find how the school structure of small multi-graded schools affects the English teachers and their work. To answer the research question I chose to use a qualitative approach. Two English teachers who both teach English at multi-graded schools were interviewed. The number of informants is to small to generalize the findings. Together with the theoretical framework of the thesis, it can however give some points of view on the situation of teachers at multi-graded schools. Individual prepatory work with a focus on variety in the teaching, is one of the ways that I have found to describe the work of an English teacher at a small multi-graded school. In addition to this, relations of different forms and varieties are in focus.