Danskfagets kontrapunktiske karakter: En helhedsorienteret forståelse

Resumé

There is a centuries-long tradition of formulating proposals for the Danish subject. Currently, such a process is taking place under the heading “Fagfornyelsen” (Subject Renewal), which calls for a rethinking of the subject as a whole. This is the ambition of the present paper. Our epistemological basis is practice and curriculum theory inspired by pragmatism and phenomenology. The analysis begins by reviewing theoretical contributions to holistic understandings in the Danish/L1 subject, which form the basis for the article’s theoretical development. This is followed by a discussion of the subject’s purpose and character, where we attempt to establish a new, coherent, Bildung-oriented holistic understanding of the didactics of the Danish subject. Based on this, we offer a more specific proposal for a content model and a Bildung-oriented approach to the subject’s content and methods. We find that Danish can and should be thought of as a semiotic and contrapuntal text subject, related to signs, texts, and contexts, but which also reflects a non-textuality linked to bodily and pre-cognitive experiences, practices, and forms of knowledge.