How can a Literary Scholar be Transformed Into a Literary Didact?: A Case Study on Competence Provision and Competence Development

This article highlights issues that deal with the relationship between comparative literature and literature in education. Our point of departure is a problem with competence maintenance within the subject of comparative literature in relation to teacher education. We address areas such as collaboration between comparative literature and literature in education and the role of thehumanities in the Swedish educational system. Previous publications on the relationship between comparative literature and literature in education, as well as interviews with active researchers, form the basis for a case study in which we do an overview of ways to acquire competence in literature in education. The context consists of local strategies, visions and perceptions of competence, as well as UKÄ’s (Swedish Higher Education Authority) national evaluations of subject teacher education in Swedish. Our results demonstrate that the fields have moved closer to each other in different ways, and we suggest that increased collaboration between comparative literature and literature in education  would be mutualy beneficial and that the specific expertise of both fields together would strengthen the role of teaching literature and the subject of Swedish in schools and teacher training. The results also indicate that it is crucial for literary scholars to approach issues related to literature in education in their research. A more literature-oriented didactic is needed when teaching future teachers to strengthen the students’ literary competence and raise questions about the meaning and function of literature – and humanities – in schools. The future professionalism (faglighet) of teachers in literary studies and literature in education should therefore focus on what unites the fields and be open to each other’s specific research competencies. Increased cooperation can contribute to strengthening the role of the humanities and Bildung in schools, above all by clarifying its importance for the future teachers that we teach.