Recent studies show that the knowledge in and understanding of science, technology andmathematics of Swedish junior high school and high school students is decreasing. As a resultof this the Swedish government has initialized several studies, research and reforms. One ofthe theories for teaching that today is seen as effective is the socio-cultural perspective and itsdescendants, including scientific inquiry. Using the pedagogy of the socio-cultural perspectivefour assignments regarding the human body was constructed for junior high school studentsattending summer research school in the summer of 2008, hosted by AstraZeneca. Theassignments follow a structure (goal of assignment, preparations, experiment and follow-up)inspired by the concept of NTA ? Naturvetenskap och Teknik för Alla (Science andTechnology for everyone).

The purpose of our study has been to examine the methods of validation and reminiscences from an employee point of view. To answer our aim a qualitative disquisition with four assistant nurses and one pedagogue in craft was conducted. The result was divided into three different themes: the view on people with dementia, merits and demerits with the methods and to work with people with dementia. The analysis of the result was made from selected parts of the system theory and symbolic interaction theory.The result of our disquisition can be summarized in that all our interviewed persons above all only can see advantages with the methods and several express that they are good tools to use in their work with people with dementia. The majority of our interviewed persons make use of the methods in everyday, spontaneous, meetings with the elderly.

This thesis deals with the question of how and to what degree Swedish history books for schools changed between the early 20th century and the 1960s. The theoretical foundation for this study is a perspective which treats historical accounts as narratives, bringing meaning and orientation to the present. According to this perspective, historical accounts may be divided into four different types of narratives, traditional, exemplary, critical and genetical. The basis for this division is how the narratives use the past to make the present understandable.The following conclusions are reached:That Swedish history books for schools have changed less, and in a moore gradual way than those dealing with general history. There is a growing use of genetical narratives at the expense of mainly exemplary ones.

The aim of the study was to analyse relations between the school and the surrounding world and how these relations affects the schools? work for sustainable development. This was mainly an interview study but teachers? self-valuations have also been used. Totally six teachers at two primary schools has been interwied.

The aim of this thesis is to examine how the history of mathematics can be used in teaching and whether pupils? attitudes to mathematics can be affected by this. In order to do this a school project about the history of mathematics is planned, implemented and analysed.The following questions are addressed:? Why use the history of mathematics in teaching?? How can the history of mathematics be used in teaching?? Can a historical perspective in teaching affect pupils? views on mathematics?The school curriculum emphasizes the importance of history in teaching. Literature, scientific articles and government inquiries call attention to the positive effects of including a historical perspective in teaching.The school project, which underlies this thesis, is put to practice by 25 pupils in a mathematics science profile class.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how activities in elderly care matters to well-being among elderly people, from both user perspective and staff perspective. The study is made out of a qualitative method, this to create a deep-going understanding of how the people participating in the investigation are experiencing the impact of activities on well-being from their unique situation. Personal interviews have been used as method. Six persons were participating, three elderly persons and three persons working as staff. All interviews were made in a ?short-time? ward in the county of Västernorrland.The result of the investigation shows that the elderly people that were interviewed not directly related the participation in activities to feelings of well-being.

This qualitative study aims to highlight if there are any gender difference in social workers reasoning about a particular case. To achieve a deeper understanding we had to explain and understand our respondent?s answers, primarily from a gender perspective, but also from a power perspective. Our questions were: how does social worker reasoning about a particular case? How can we understand the social workers answer from a gender- and power perspective? The method consisted of a construct case and of semi-structured interviews.

We are living in a society where the digital technology is a tool that integrates into our life and changes our daily life and the way we communicate. The easy access to information and the opportunity to communication change the schools organization and demands new ways of teaching with and in contact with the surrounding world. That is why it is interesting to know how teachers can create an education environment with support of digital tools that fulfills a meaning for themselves, the pupils and the goals of the curriculum. This study is about how six teachers in one elementary school creates an education environment with support of digital tools and how they think the affect the pupils cooperation, communication and participation.The theoretical frame for this study is built in a sociocultural perspective, where people learn and develop through participation in social practices. To get the understanding of how teachers are thinking about the challenges and possibilities that digital tools have in the education environment, I choose a qualitative research method.

The purpose of this study was to describe, understand and analyze the thought behind the perception amongst pedagogues´ on multicultural work in preschools, based on an intercultural perspective. In this study, I questioned the pedagogues´ view on the work in preschools that prepares children for a life in a multicultural society and also the way they describe the cultural challenges.The study was accomplished and questions were answered by studying current literature and previous research in the field. I also interviewed four pedagogues from two different preschools located in separate areas.This study shows that many opinions that pedagogues expressed in the interviews can be traced back to an ?us vs. them? perspective, in which your own culture, the Swedish one in this case, is the most critical and should receive the greatest attention in preschool.

National Agency for Education for the results of national sample results show that students with another mother tongue than Swedish have low results with a larger percentage than majority students. Research shows that this depends on their mother tongue and the importance of language in the subject to learn.The purpose of this study was to examine how teachers experience, plan and implement their teaching field of mathematics in the preparatory class. The focus is on two perspectives; an intercultural perspective and a social perspective. The newly arrived pupils in the preparatory class come from different parts of the world which leads to an intercultural classroom being formed. The aim of the social perspective is understand how students integrate into the social in the classroom.I use qualitative methods through interviews.

The purpous of this master?s thesis is to explore how the swedish public library evolved between 1890-1911, before the state implemented the library reform in 1912. The material used to cunduct the study concists mainly of texts published during the time frame of the thesis in the form of books, booklets and articles from Folkbiblioteksbladet, a journal dedicated to the subject of the swedish public library.Drawing upon Habermas theory of the structural transformation of the public sphere and Bourdieus theories about taste as social distinction and symbolic capital, the thesis seeks to show how the public participated in the evolvement of the public library and which aspects of society that contributed to the public library?s establishment as an institution. The findings are also discussed in relation to previous research of the history of the Swedish public library.

In this study the overall aim is to find conditions for greater inclusion of pupils with SEN in X county by investigating teachers' attitudes and views on inclusion. What are the variables that may affect teachers' attitudes towards inclusion. The variables that will be studied include gender, workexperience, what age of students teachers work with and teachers' subjectknowledge. It is based on a system theory perspective with a pragmatic approach to explore how groups of activities involving or affecting each other. It is a quantitative study with a surveys selected as the method.

In a Swedish classroom today there will be students with different ethnicities, world views and religious beliefs.  The students will be taught religion through a non-denominational education, where as a teacher you are meant to be objective, open-minded and fair in the representation of different traditions. This representation is colored by the outsider-perspective and the students then learn about religion from a party which is not involved in the religion being taught. This essay discusses how to balance the outsider-perspective in religious education in the Swedish school with insider-voices. More specific, the use of Muslim websites when teaching about Islam.The material this essay studies are three Muslim websites: al-islam.se, islaminfo.se and islamguiden.se. In order to make a didactic analysis of the websites, they are compared to a standard Swedish textbook.

 Purpose: The purpose with this study is to investigate how preschool teachers understand the concept the competent child and in what ways this understanding affects their role in children?s learning. Question at issue: What perspective on children do the contributing educationalists have? How do they define a competent child? Do such children exist and if so, are they always competent in all situations? What is the educationalists perspective on learning and knowledge? What is the preschool teacher?s view of their role as educationalists? What do they consider as their most important tasks?Method: To execute this study I have made a qualitative research based on interviews with eight teachers from four different preschools.Main theories: I have built the theoretical part of this study based on four different perspectives on the concept the competent child according to the philosophies of Dion Summer, Jesper Juul and Reggio Emalia. I also describe different theories about learning, knowledge and educationalists as well as the preschools role in the development of child according to different well-known scientists and researchers.Summarized conclusion: The study shows that the interviewed preschool teachers chose to interpret the concept the competent child in three ways.

The main intention with this study was to explore how parents, employed in three Swedish small- and medium-sized companies, experienced their combination of work and parental leave. The investigation was carried out by a questionnaire, and the 21 participants estimated the attitude from and the treatment by mainly the management and the colleagues. The answers were analyzed both from a perspective of gender and in the aspect of high- and low utilizers of parental leave. The results showed that although both men and women generally estimated the attitude from the management and the colleagues towards parental leave to be positive, the parental leave was divided traditionally and unequally between the parents..