AbstractC-level essay in political science, by Frida Orlinder, spring semester 2008Supervisor: Susan Marton?Good contracting? ? A study of contracting in public procurement regarding the transportation of school children?Over the last decades models influenced by the market have been gaining influence in public administration all over the world. New Public Management has been presented as a theoretical ?shopping basket? from which concepts can be applied to the administration of municipal services. The purpose of this essay is to investigate in an explorative way how New Public Management (NPM) views contracting and the role of the internal customer in contracting.

The purpose of my essay is on one hand to research and evaluate the measures that one intermediate school in Sweden, uses in order to prevent bullying and stop it in the event that one pupil happens to get bullied or harassed. In other words, I would like to show how that school is capable of creating a safe environment. Qualitative research is used to obtain these findings.On the other hand, I also wish to examine what pupils at the school think about these measures and how they perceive the attitudes of the school?s teachers and management regarding the prevention of bullying. In order to acquire this information quantitative research is used.The conclusions that I draw after conducting my research are as follows:1- Regarding the ?Anti ? bullying Performance Plan?, my essay shows that school teachers and management actively work in order to maintain a safe environment and as a result bullying is successfully prevented the school.

This thesis has been carried out in collaboration with the IT Company MPQ consulting AB in Halmstad. The task we were assigned by MPQ concerned the development of a scooter that can be used year round. We have with the companydeveloped the criteria and requirements for the product in which the goal is toproduce a primary solution that meets the set criteria and fall within the project'sboundaries.The project involves a wide range of different design methods for idea generationand idea development. The project also addresses engineering methods such asprinciple and primary engineering. Occurringmethods in the project include FredyOlsson principle and primary engineering in cooperation with SVID's - Swedishindustrial design process, etc.The final solution will be presented in the form of sketches, CAD models withassociated drawings and a rendering from the program Keyshot..

This paper is a Master thesis for the Master?s program in International and European Relations in the Department of Management and Economics at Linköping University. As the title indicates, the aim of this thesis is to make a comparative analysis of the conflict resolution initiatives that were employed in the Sierra Leonean and Liberian conflicts. The research questions are: ? What were the root causes and trajectories of the Sierra Leonean and Liberian conflicts? ? What were the conflict resolution initiatives employed in resolving both conflicts? ? Why did the Lome Peace Accord succeed in the case of Sierra Leone whilst the Abuja Peace Accord failed in bringing peace to Liberia? In order to answer the afore-mentioned questions and fulfil the aim of this paper, a qualitative research method has been chosen.

This case study has its starting point in an unpublished study where the results showed that there is a conflict between the leadership and the employees in a private company. The conflict is identified as a result of the company leadership is steering for cost savings and efficiency The aim of this study is through analysis of  the open questions in a quantitative survey describe how the staffs  attitudes and culture is affecting the leadership of the organization. The ideological aspect is very clear and through the aspect of the structural differences between the public and private sector makes it possible to identify the staff?s social rules, ideology and group norms.  These are shown to be in conflict with the economical perspective of the private sector.

Aim and questionsThe aim of our study was to increase knowledge about successful school managers' views on teachers' mental health and their own work regarding this subject.In what ways do the school manager work preventive with measures on teachers' mental health? How does leadership affects teachers' mental health? What factors create mental health among teachers? MethodIn order to answer the questions, we have chosen to use semi-structured interviews. To get in touch with schools that have been successful with their work with the teacher's mental health, we have made a targeted step wise sample where we contacted the primary managers of six randomly selected municipalities in Stockholms län. In total six school managers have been interviewed. The empiric data were thematized and analyzed based on the demand-control-support model. ResultsAll the interviewed school managers agreed to that the concept of mental health is about feeling good, about balance in life and to feel safe.

Since the 1990?s the Swedish school system has undergone major and recurring structural reforms. Two of the most comprehensive changes has been the shift of primary schools as an integral part of the welfare state to the responsibility of the municipalities as well as the introduction of free school choice for the students. Through two months of participant observations and semi-structured interviews this thesis seeks to answer the question of how these reforms has come to effect the work of teachers in a medium sized public school in a small municipality in the outskirts of Stockholm. Earlier research has shown that public schools in socio-economically vulnerable areas are disadvantaged due to the reformation of the school system (Beach & Sernhede, 2011; Östh, Andersson, & Malmberg, 2013).

This study has examined how teachers in primary education with experience of inclusion look on inclusive education. The study was based on the concept of inclusion and how it is made possible in primary school. The study was conducted using semi-structured qualitative life-world interviews with three teachers in primary education with included pupils with learning disabilities in their class. The results show the complexity of having a pupil with learning disabilities in class. To interpret, follow and then assess under two syllabuses are seen as difficult.

Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine how teachers in primary school reason about and problematize the phenomenon of concentration difficulties. I want to know what the teachers think characterizes concentration difficulties, the situations in which difficulties creates the most problems, and whether the teachers think that these difficulties solely depend on external factors. To examine this, I chose to do interviews with three teachers in years four to six. I have completed parts of my work with my colleague Elin Preisz. We have used the same purpose and issues in our studies, although Elin has interviewed teachers in preschool. With this we want to be able to compare the reasoning between teachers at different stages in school. The results of my study shows that the interviewees think that it is hard to describe what characterizes the problems in concentration difficulties because the problems is very individual.

This essay aims to investigate the perceptions of responsible personnel in a primary school about the use and importance of EQ, emotional intelligence, in the school's early years. With a hermeneutic approach and by qualitative interviews, we have taken note of the respondents perceptions about EQ. The result shows that EQ can be understood in different ways. Instead of having a common understanding of what EQ is the respondents mention that there are different areas associated with EQ.  Two major results are 1.

The school is under constant change and school reform on the conveyor belt. In 2009 the Swedish government introduced new directives for the elementaryschool, including multi-national sample, written testimonials from grade one and grade with several grades rose from grade six. The purpose of this study is to examine currently active primary teacher perceptions of the pupils' learning and development might be affected by those earlier and clearer knowledge assessments, and how teachers perceive this reform on the basis of the Swedish school's motto "a school for all". The study was carried out with a phenomenological approach where the method has been depth interviews with five active primary teachers from grades one to six in a school. The results show that teachers perceive that the earlier and clearer assessments will affect students differently according to student performance and knowledge.

Background: School health services of today focus on prevention and health promotion within the school. A collaboration between the school health services and the student care team from the guidelines with focus on the student, is expected. Purpose: The purpose was to illustrate School nurses  vocational experiences and what the role of school health services in the student care team at upper secondary schools of John Bauer in relationship to the vision of the school. Method: Qualitative content analysis with inductive approach was used (Lundman &Hällgren-Graneheim, 2008). Data was collected by interviewing  school nurses at  School of John Bauer.

The purpose of this study is to examine in what extent primary school teachers, teaching children in the age of 6 to 9, choose to use digital tools in their teaching of mathematics. I also want to examine what these teachers think, in terms of advantages and disadvantages, about using digital tools on their mathematics lessons. Finally I want to examine what skills they possess about digital tools.I am using a quantitative method to collect my data. The quantitative survey consisted of a questionnaire survey of ten questions that 38 primary school teachers have answered.The results of my study show that the teachers to some extent use digital tools when they teach mathematics and that the availability of various digital tools are generally good. But it turns out that the availability of tools is not a guarantee that they are used in teaching of mathematics.

The purpose of this degree project is to study if there is a intentional work with technology in the elementary school, preschool to fifth grade, in a municipality. The work will also study what conditions there are in the schools in order to work with technology. 95 questionnaires were distributed to the responsible teachers in all primary schools in the municipality, from preschool to fifth grade. The results of the survey show that more than half of the respondents do not consider themselves to work with technology in the school. The conditions, in order to work with the school subject technology in the municipality, are primarily external such as: material, facilities and the ability to divide students into smaller groups.

AbstractThe overall purpose of this thesis was to investigate to what extent new research findings, in neuroscience and learning, may be useful in a school improvement context. In a qualitative interview study combined with questionnaire, we have investigated the approach to school improvement that exists in a municipality. Informants have been head teachers in preschool and primary school, special education teachers in a student health team and a development manager. The outcome of the study showed that all of the study participants, all of which have a formal mandated to work for school improvement occurs. It also shows that informants, according to their professional position, express different goals when relating to school improvement.