Kuka aloitti kylmän sodan? Lukion historian aineistopohjaisen esseen tekstilaji tiedonalan tekstitaitojen näkökulmasta

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the genre of the document-based history essay in upper secondary schools in Finland from the point of view of disciplinary literacies. Literacies are understood as situated and constantly developing skills. This analysis is based on the objectives of history teaching, in which the interpretative nature of historical knowledge is emphasized. Completing the essays therefore requires the analysis of multiple historical documents. The data of the study consist of 52 essays that were written as part of a course exam in a Finnish high school in 2015. The study is qualitative and belongs to the field of text-oriented research. The theoretical and methodological framework is built from genre theories and systemic functional linguistics. Appraisal theory is also applied in the analysis. The research consists of four sub-studies, in which the focus is on different linguistic features of the essays: their functional structure and moves and steps, the process types which construct the ideational features of the texts, and the projections and authorial voices which construct the interpersonal features of the texts. The results offer an elaborated description of how the multiple functions of a history essay are realized in text. The typical structure of an essay follows the number of the documents of the assignment, with each being analyzed in individual functional moves. Historical discourse is reflected especially in the presentation of concepts and their definitions. Projections are used to report on and interpret the documents. The reflective approach of an essay is realized in the voices of the adjudicator and the interpreter, the latter of which is more suitable for the expository genre. The study suggests that in secondary schools it is essential to study how to write the complex and document-based essay genre so that students can acquire sufficient competences for tertiary education. However, the traditional essay writing event does not provide the best circumstances for practicing the features of historical knowledge construction practices, such as searching for information. The teaching of writing of essays and document-based texts should be integrated into subject areas to better enable their study in a disciplinary-oriented way.