The study focuses on the use of poetry in language teaching in the lower grades in the Swedish school. Poetry has a reputation of being an art form with such specific rules and structures that children and teachers think that it is something that they do not have the ability to work with.  The purpose of this study is to get an understanding of how poetry is used in educating children. My research is based on the following questions. To which extent is poetry being used in schools and how is it being used?Can you as a teacher see any effects on childrens language development by using poetry?As a part of my study I have met with and interviewed four different people, who in one way or another is involved in teaching children. Two working teachers in the lower grades, one pedagogical resource and one artist that work with teachers in reaching different goals through the help of aesthetic processes.

This essay is an attempt to portray and explain my work as a dance pedagogue as well as an epistemological overview of the skills and knowledge I use when I teach. The study is phenomenologically oriented and the examples used are from the years when I was teaching at the University College of Dance in Stockholm. The primary objective of the study was to illustrate the practical knowledge of my teaching by examining what lies in the mind and gaze of the dance pedagogue while teaching.Having finished my essay I realize that it has come to be primarily about the body. How the knowledge that is imprinted in my body can only be conveyed when I have a student to teach and how I feel that the intermediary of knowledge occurs. Other recurrent themes are the relations of thought and consciousness to the body.

In this thesis I set out to study how the reading of fictional literature is viewed, legitimatized and operationalized in two educational domains: the recently revised steering documents that all Swedish teachers must relate to, as well as a selection of teaching materials designed for education in the Swedish language for upper secondary school. The teaching material I have studied has been recently updated in order to correspond with the new steering documents. I relate my analysis to previous research about the use of fiction in education, and I also combine my analysis of the two educational domains to see whether the underlying intentions of the steering documents have influenced the revision of the teaching material. The outcome indicates that the steering documents? previous focus on culture has diminished although a certain insecurity as to how to use the concept and deal with the issue of whose culture should be taught can be identified.

The purpose of this paper is to study the image of Strindberg that is conveyed in four different textbooks for the upper secondary school. How do the teaching authors choose to portray Strindberg? Do they focus on any one particular aspect of his writing? Adjacent to this a subsidiary aim is to see if teaching authors highlight the fictional nature of Strindberg?s works or choose to encourage a biographical interpretation. The work consists of a study of four literary history textbooks in the subject of Swedish for the upper secondary school, from 2000 to 2012. In the selected material the sections focusing on Strindberg and his writings are closely read and critically analysed.

The purpose of this study is to survey how the Sweden Democrats? success in the latest election to the Swedish parliament has changed teaching in social science. The main question is: in what way has the success of the Sweden Democrats influenced social science teaching? This leads to following sub-questions: 1) how do the social science teachers define the Sweden Democrats, 2) how do teachers relate to the Sweden Democrats in the classroom, 3) has there been a change in students? political opinions and 4) were there any discussions or proposals from the school administration which followed the parliamentary election of 2010? To answer these questions, interviews were made with four teachers. The main conclusion of this study is that the Sweden Democrats? success led to a simplification of teaching because phenomena and opinions that were previously taboo nowadays are normalized and thus have its place in the classroom.

ABSTRACTEssay in Political Science, Advanced Continuation Course, 61-80 credits, by Jonas Nilsson?The democratic islamist? - a study of three islamist movements and their potential role in ademocratization process?Supervisor: Jonas LindeThe purpose of this work has been to explain to what extent islamist movements can be said to bebearers of democratic values and if they have a role to play in future democratization processes. Thepurpose of this work is also to examine the democratic views of the different islamist movements andto compare them with each other in an effort to find a specific islamist definition of democracy.The essay is a qualitative analysis of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Front Islamique du Salut inAlgeria and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The analytical framework is based on the political institutionsincluded in Robert A. Dahl polyarchial democracy.

This study aims to explain how teachers for students aged 11-13 years old work with comprehension of words, based on reading fictional texts. The question formulations the study aims to survey is how teachers declare they are working with word-comprehension with basis in fictional texts for bothfirst- and second language learners, and how this shows in their pedagogical practice. The study also aims to survey what the effects are on the students´ learning, according to the teachers, by using this teaching-methods. In an attempt to examine this, interviews have been performed with three teachers working at different schools, teaching Swedish for students in the elementary school. In the interviews the teachers was asked questions in aim to research their methods of teaching wordcomprehension, followed up by two lesson-observations per class of each teachers´ pedagogical practice..

User education is an important aspect of university libraries' service to its users. This Masters' Thesis is about online user education. The aim of this study is to analyse five Swedish online user courses in relation to information literacy and learning theory. The web-sites were explored through textual analyses to find how concepts of information literacy and learning theory are expressed. The theoretical framework is based on Carol C Kuhlthau's three levels of user education, Paul Ramsden's three theories of teaching in higher education and Christine Bruce's different aspects of information literacy.

The purpose of this paper is to study the image of Strindberg that is conveyed in four different textbooks for the upper secondary school. How do the teaching authors choose to portray Strindberg? Do they focus on any one particular aspect of his writing? Adjacent to this a subsidiary aim is to see if teaching authors highlight the fictional nature of Strindberg?s works or choose to encourage a biographical interpretation. The work consists of a study of four literary history textbooks in the subject of Swedish for the upper secondary school, from 2000 to 2012. In the selected material the sections focusing on Strindberg and his writings are closely read and critically analysed.

In 2005 the Swedish social democratic government settled a defense treaty with Saudi Arabia. Ten years later, a new Social democratic government ends the treaty. This thesis will study the Social democratic party?s motives behind their actions regarding the treaty. Kjell Goldmanns theory regarding the three fields of interest concerning state?s foreign policy, security policy, economy and international values, will serve as the theory and operationalization of this thesis.

To be able to read and write is necessary to manage well in life. It is important to get a good start in one´s reading and writing development. My purpose in this study was to find out how to teach children to read and write. Obtain knowledge about how to best help children during the early years of reading and writing development, and what is required to teach good reading and writing skills.I wanted to find out how the pedagogues work in the schools, and if they use ant special methods in their teaching. This is something that I, as a future pedagogue didn´t have much knowledge about, which is very important for my future pupils.My research method was qualitative where I interviewed three pedagogues who work whit teaching reading and writing in the early years.

This essay investigates how teacher sees and uses mainstream movies as a teaching method. The main question approached is: How does teachers use feature films as a teaching method? Which movies are used and how does their working methods surrounding the movies look like? The purpose of the essay is to make the reader reflect over what influence mainstream media has over the historic knowledge of the students and how teachers use that for educational purposes. The business around historical film has grown over the years and is now a million dollar industry. The conclusion is that teachers mostly use feature films to provoke emotional reactions from the students.

This essay is about how basic democratic values are formed in preschool. I have focused on children´s abilities to take on responsibility and also, on the importance of relationships in the development of democratic values in preschool.This essay starts in self-perceived dilemmas, based on my own feeling that the children should have more rights and that the preschool often has too many unreflected rules and routines. The dilemma has been reflected on and has been discussed in relation to other theories. I have also reflected on my own behavior as a teacher and to what extent this behavior has influence on the outcome.The relationship between the governing documents and the work in preschool has been reviewed with the conclusion that they are not synchronized with each other.The investigation shows several examples of the meaning of a good working relationship between teacher and child and that children´s own sense of responsibility should be taken seriously and be recognized as a resource.In the discussion with the theories a connection between democracy, relationships and children´s responsibility was detected. The meaning of a good working communication and the teacher?s significance for the development is central and is made visible and problematized.The concluding words show how the approach to democratic and fundamental values must come to a change in preschools, a change that the teacher partly is responsible for.

Teaching in pre-school usually takes its starting-point in children?s reality and curiosity. Apart from that it has also been important to take contains of a special subject under consideration, for example development of language and communication or mathematics development. The purpose of this study was to investigate how natural science as a special subject in pre-school education is expressed by five trainee teachers when they teach children at the age of 2-7. Generally the study focuses on the students? teaching actions as well as their line of argument about their teaching and the choices they have to make.

The purpose of this study is to determine if and how municipal consultative entities through influence may affect the legitimacy of the Swedish democratic model. The study aims to do this through analysing the opportunities for influence present with the Youth Council and the Council of the Retired in Karlstads municipality, to determine how the councils may affect political participation and the role of elected representatives. To do so, the study asks the following primary research question:"What requisites for influence are present for participants of municipal consultative entities, as found for the representatives of the youth and the retired within the framework of their participation in the Youth Council and the Council of the Retired in Karlstads municipality?"The study answers this research question by dividing it into one question of policy and one question of democratic perspective, and investigating these matters through nine snowballing interviews with the decision makers, organisational actors and participants of the councils. The information from the interviews is then analysed per council through a framework of democracy theory, policy process theory and organisation theory.