The main purpose of this Master?s thesis is to do a benchmarking study of the marketing activities at the public library of Valdemarsvik. The purpose is also to describe and get a deeper understanding of benchmarking as a method for improving library activity. Four major problem areas are addressed: How can one use benchmarking as a tool to achieve change? How can one learn with benchmarking? What similarities and differences are there between benchmarking and other similar methods for competence development? Is benchmarking better than other similar methods for competence development? The empirical approach was qualitative and the method chosen was action research.

This thesis is an attempt to study if the school cinema project in Kungsbacka is an establishedactivity. Qualitative interviews have been performed with the cinema owner, the projectleader and a politician of the municipality, about their views on the project. Teachers andpupils have also been interviewed. In the case of an established activity, the thesis also attemptsto answer what causes have contributed to such an establishment.The study shows that the school cinema project is an established activity in Kungsbacka andthat all parties involved are satisfied with it. The project has guaranteed the cinema's existence.According to the thesis, the reasons for the establishment are that govemment funds enabiedthe project to initiate.

This essay focuses on strategies for acquisitions in Swedish publiclibraries. The topic has been occuring in the public debate off andon since the70s. The dominant view has been that librarians haveallowed demand direct the purchases of media and thus haveignored quality literature.This debate has caused me to reflect on the librarians constantdilemma when purchasing media. Are they supposed to chooseliterature that are in demand, or should an evaluation made bylibrarians be the decisive?The previous research has shown that the library profession istraditionally characterized by a non-judgmental approach.

This thesis will discuss teachers handling of the background, experience and earlier acquired knowledge of students. Our aim is to study the teachers? use of the cultural knowledge that of which the students already possess and the consideration the teachers have for the students own parental tongue. From this we want to see if there are any obstacles or pits with the work of gathering up experiences. The study is based on interviews with seven different teachers at a multi cultural elementary school in one the suburbs of Stockholm.

Background: Mental health problems among children and adolescents have increased. The school is an important arena for prevention of mental health problems. There is a huge demand for successful interventions. SEL is a method that aims to increase the social and emotional competence among children and adolescents. The program SET applies this method.

Examensarbete för avläggande av filosofie masterexameni kulturvård, 60 hpInstituionen för kulturvårdGöteborgs universitet.2015:2.

This is a case study of work for gender equality, performed by the Employment and Competence Centre (Arbets- och kompetenscenter) in the municipality of Botkyrka. The aim of the study is to explore how gender equality is understood in the context of a municipality, and what underlying assumptions this understanding is based upon. The questions raised are; How is gender equality understood by the personnel? How do they understand gender? To what extent are women and men seen as homogeneous groups and what differences are (un)visible? What other power hierarchies besides gender are seen as important when working for gender equality? The analysis show that gender equality is a blurry vision, mainly understood in terms of equal conditions and rights, equal results for male and female participants and equal amount of women and men employed. Gender is seen as a binary system and differences between the genders are highlighted.

In recent years, the demands for effectiveness and evidence in social work have increased in all work areas, including that of healthcare. This has sparked the discussion on concepts such as practical- and theoretical knowledge and their respective roles in social work. In the light of this, the purpose of this candidate thesis is to investigate healthcare social workers understanding of practical- and theoretical knowledge in the working process as well as their respective influence and importance. This candidate thesis is based on three interviews with social workers from different departments in Norrlands Universitetssjukhus in Umeå, Sweden. To provide range to the thesis, the interviewees were chosen from a purposeful sampling.

Inom ramen för den översiktliga planeringen är samråd och utställning de främsta, lagstadgade tillfällena i plan-och bygglagen där medborgarna kan lämna synpunkter på ett förslag till översiktsplan (Boverket 2014). En av de positiva effekterna av medborgardialog är att de som bor och använder ett område dagligen har en god lokalkännedom om platsen och på så sätt kan bidra med en unik kunskap till planerarna (Khakee 2000). Medborgardialog anses däremot ofta medföra ett ökat behov av resurser i form av tid och pengar (Khakee 2006: 19). Det har även visat sig att mest inflytande över den fysiska planeringen har medelålders, vita män medan kvinnor och barn är grupper som inte har lika stora möjligheter att påverka (Henecke & Khan, 2002: 23). Idag förekommer även svårigheter med att integrera kulturella resurser i samhälls-planeringen. Eftersom samhällsplanering innebär sektoröverskridande samarbeten och behov av en helhetssyn behövs det nya metoder för att säkerställa medborgarinflytande och de kulturella resursernas plats i samhällsplaneringen (Lundberg & Hjort 2011:6-7). Cultural planning är en samhällsutvecklingsmetod vilken syftar till att inkludera kulturella perspektiv i samhällsplaneringen.

My main question in this essay has been: why does the preschool advocate being outdoors? How should we respond to parents who have a different view on this? Children's right to participation and influence is also a question that I raise. How should we preschool teachers do when we stand between the child's desire to be out and the parents wish that their child should be indoors? By reading what is written in the preschool curriculum on children's influence, I have come to the conclusion that we preschool teachers must listen to what the children express that they wish to do, otherwise we go against our policy documents.My dilemma is about how to respond to parents who have a different opinion on being outdoors than we have. Many parents express an aversionagainst their children having to be outdoors.

Lundbergs Plåt AB is a small company situated in Jönköping. Their main task is to process different kinds of steel such as stainless steel. Lately, they have shown an interest in Lean production.On the basis of the situation mentioned above, we developed the purpose to find and decrease the non value-added wastes in the production at Lundbergs Plåt AB. Out of this, we also developed and answered two questions: Which wastes can be found with help from a value stream mapping (VSM)? In what way can these wastes be reduced and how can these reductions contribute to an improved production? VSM is the method used to find the non value-added wastes.

In this essay the aim is to look at difficulties in preservation of buildings in general, andespecially the ones of the modernist era. To navigate in this huge field the study is narroweddown to take place in Finspång, a small Swedish town. In Finspång there was a swimmingpool facility built in 1967. In 2003 the facility was closed down due to its unusable conditionsand then after seven years with discussions of different plans about what to do with thefacility it was demolished in 2010. This case is the base in the essay, and why it was notpreserved.The purpose of this essay is to look at what the people in Finspång think about preservation ofbuildings with the demolished swimming hall facility as base, and what impact materiality hason questions regarding preservation, cultural heritage, memory and history.

This essay deals with the rationale and aims for doing cultural or aesthetic activities and projects in schools, and gives special focus to a specific group of students, attending schools provided at special residential homes for young people (sa?rskilda ungdomshem). These homes receive young people with psychosocial and substance misuse problems and who show tendencies towards criminal behavior. The essay investigates how working with a cultural project in schools at these residential homes is justified and also elucidates how this specific group of students and their problems are constructed in the documents surrounding the project. The essay will further ponder over possible educational and pedagogical consequences of these constructions.The investigation has its theoretical frame work in curriculum theory.

The purpose of my study has been to find out how mother tongue teachers working in preschools where a majority of the children have a mother tongue other than Swedish make use of fictional children?s books during the mother tongue support lessons. In order to determine this, I am asking the following questions:- What is the range of children's books in the children's mother tongue available at the preschool?- In what ways are the native language teachers encouraging literacy development through the usage of children's books?- How do native language teachers view the childrens? linguistic development as well as the enhancement of cultural identity through the usage of the books?These questions have formed the basis of the methodical approach, which is based on a qualitative research method. The data collection consists of three parts; the observation of mother tongue support, interviews with language teachers as well as with the nursery manager and lastly a survey of children's books in languages other than Swedish at the preschool.The essay has as its theoretical basis the socio-cultural view of learning and development.

 This thesis is based upon the assumption that in Swedish school today it is a wide gap regarding the information flow when pupils are switching school. This was one of the reasons Skolverket published a report clearly stating that this is the case. The purpose of this thesis is to examine and describe how teachers are working in a teacher team at transitions to see and understand what their work may mean individually, in a group and to the school as an organisation. The questions at issue is to see how the teachers cooperate during transitions and how they notice students in need of extra support and students level of knowledge during transitions. The two last questions at issue is first to see how teachers approach parent?s expectations on the school and the teachers, secondly it is to examine what implications their work will have on the school.