A matter of facts? Linguistic tools in the context of information seeking and use in schools

Abstract

This study explores how various meanings are attributed to the term facts in Swedish schools and how this may shape conditions for students’ learning. The understanding of information activities as social, communicative, and discursive, which motivates the study, is informed by a sociocultural perspective of learning and information interaction. The study re-analyses empirical data from four previous research projects, where material was collected through various qualitative methods, mainly interviews, observations, and document analysis. The material involves 14 classes from preschool to year 12. The data is analysed thematically. In the material, 565 occurrences of facts are identified and categorised. Three themes emerged inductively. The analysis generated three themes. Firstly, facts are associated with specific genres or modalities. Secondly, facts are seen as distinguishable, external, and tangible. Thirdly, facts come across as having strong connections to neutrality and they were viewed as evidence. The analysis shows variation in how the study participants talked about facts. Despite the dominant associations, each theme displays more complex meanings of the term, which indicates that it cannot be equated to how the term has been used as an analytical term in previous research. The frequent use of the term facts can be understood as a result of the strong focus on students seeking and using certain types of information for writing school reports. The results show the importance of information researchers adopting an open and explorative approach to the meaning of language used in school activities that they study.

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