Literacy and Inclusive Teaching (LIT) was established in 2018 and is now one of the University's nine research centres. The centre is interdisciplinary in its approach and often works closely with schools and teachers. Pia Nygård Larsson is the director of LIT, together with Anders Jakobsson, who is also the head of research.

What is subject literacy? 
"Traditionally, literacy has been defined in terms of the ability to read and write. Today, the term also includes the knowledge needed to actively participate in society. We see the word in a broad and subject-specific perspective, where developing subject literacy also means understanding how the course contents of different school subjects, ranging from maths, to Swedish and social studies, are communicated."

What is your background? 
"I am a trained teacher of Swedish as a second language, among other subjects. My thesis was about how texts and language are used in the teaching of biology in upper secondary school classes with students from different linguistic backgrounds. Ever since then, I have had a great interest in subject literacy, language and subject-specific teaching. Over the years, I have participated in and led several research projects in the field."

What are you looking forward to the most this year? 
"We want to produce internationally recognised and socially relevant research in educational science and subject didactics. Now that we have become a research centre, I look forward to leading in these goals."

What is the centre's most important research question at the moment?
"How we can provide students with more equitable, sustainable and inclusive education, for example in multilingual classrooms. This applies to different school subjects in primary and secondary education, but also in higher education."