The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine how six fantasynovels reflects or breaks the heteronormativity in society bylooking at how gender roles and sexuality are described.The theoretical framework is based on Judith Butler's theoryabout the heterosexual matrix which requires two separategenders and a compulsory heterosexuality and YvonneHirdman's two principles about dichotomy and hierarchy.The method used was idea analysis where dimensions basedon the theoretical framework were constructed. Thesedimensions were: behaviour, tasks, relationships and roles.The result shows that all of the books both breaks andreflects the society's values on gender and sexuality. Thereare some stereotypes present, for example that intuition isassociated with femininity and physical strength withmasculinity. However, the books also offer characters ofboth sexes that break the gender stereotypes, such asstrong women and emotional men.

Denna C-uppsats är en meta-analys som granskar 20 vetenskapliga artiklar om partnerrelaterat våld, grymheter i krig och könsmaktsordningar i militära familjer. Alla studier är publicerade mellan 1978 och 2011 och behandlar våld i parrelationer, grymheter som begåtts av både manliga och kvinnliga soldater och kausala samband mellan krig, militarism och det civila samhället. Mitt mål är att testa teorin som säger att krig beror på patriarkala köns-strukturer som konstruerar stereotypa maskuliniteter och femininiteter, vilka i sin tur definierar män som starka, aggressiva och känslolösa, medan kvinnor antas vara svaga, sårbara, och vårdande. Genom att undersöka och jämföra variabler i både positivistisk och konstruktivistisk forskning, söker jag likheter och skillnader som kan ge en vidare förståelse för hur detta fenomen är sammansatt..

The purpose of this study is to examine two educational materials from different decades, to see if they have a conscious gender and equality perspective, and to see if they have followed the development society made regarding gender and equality. Even the curricula have a part in my study as I will relate them to the educational materials. Equality as a concept means briefly that women and men should have the same conditions, and gender depicts our notions of femininity and masculinity.I have chosen to do textual analyses, focusing on multimodal discourse because I analyze both text and image. I also use both quantitative and qualitative methods.My questions are: In which way do the curricula and the educational materials express equality?; In which way do the curricula and the educational materials express gender?; Do the educational materials express the fundamental values written about equality and gender in the curricula? And, if this is the case, does it mean that educational materials have followed the development of the Swedish society?The conclusion of this work is that equality and gender are presented as goals in both curricula, but the new curricula have developed that section more.

The paper examines Philosophy with children as a pedagogical method for schools to practice. The questions I have posed are:Why philosophize with children and teenagers?How does Philosophy with children work?What, in the organized structure of the philosophical inquiry, can be emphasized as favourable for learning?How carefully is the structure of the philosophical inquiry really followed in practice?How can philosophy be applied as a pedagogical model?The theoretical framework of this inquiry consists of a discussion about a thirst for learning that exceeds the explicit and direct usability that motivates vocational training.I have used two different kinds of methods. The main method is a literary analysis of some of the literature in this field. This analysis is compared to field observations of children participating in communities of inquiry in school.The basic assumption is that practicing the ability of philosophical thinking can help children develop a more profound way of understanding who they are and how the world in which they exist works.

This master thesis was written in the purpose to study how the location and access to computers in the physical realm of the public library reflects the undergoing changes in the public libraries role in Swedish society. This study is done in a form of a case study of three small public libraries. All of them were in the process of transforming both their physical and virtual space. The thesis focuses on where in the library the computers are placed and how their location interacts with the libraries main tasks. It also focuses on the analysis of the relationship between these two elements and how that relationship reflects the alteration of the public libraries place in society.

The purpose of this study was to examine the narrative skill of sixyear-olds in terms of macrostructure and cohesion, and its relation tonarrative content, auditory attention, auditory short-term memory and threemeasures of word retrieval. A group comparison of macrostructure andcohesion was also performed between children with and without epilepsy.The material consisted of audio recordings of 44 children (18 with epilepsyand 26 from a reference group) retelling the story Nelli-sagan (Holmberg &Sahlén, 2000). No correlation was found between content and macrostructureor cohesion, but several between the latter two. Auditory short-termmemory and word retrieval without pictures showed several correlationswith macrostructure as well as cohesion. No differences in macrostructure orcohesion were found between the children with epilepsy and the referencegroup.

This study has been conducted as a literary analysis of four chapter books for children in the early years of compulsory school: Magister Tutnäsa, Vilken fullträff, Astrakan, Sune och tjejhatarligan, and Alva och Dum-Julia. The aim has been to analyse four teacher characters from a gender perspective. The study has focused on the teachers? personal characteristics and whether these are typically female or male. Another aim has been to study how the character reinforces or runs against stereotyped gender patterns.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine and understand how teachers of younger children view the concept of critical evaluation of information and how their interpretations of the concept relate to their teaching. The need for the development of children?s ability to critically evaluate has been emphasized through research as well as the need for collaboration between teachers and librarians in order to help pupil?s process information into knowledgeThe study has a socio-cultural perspective and the material was collected through observations and qualitative interviews with teachers. The results of the study indicate that many teachers experience uncertainty when it comes to the area of critical evaluation and that they do not teach the subject to any substantial extent.

The study highlights teachers´ perceptions of creative writing as part of learning processes in the subject of Swedish, based on creative activities. The background to this study comes from the curriculum that describes opportunities to experience different kinds of knowledge. Creative activities in various forms and the ability to one´s own creativity is emphasized. The empirical data in this study is collected through qualitative interviews with four practicing teachers. The result shows that there are two different views according to creative writing as a text creation.

The aim of this study was to examine the social relationships between children and librarians during reference interviews. Using qualitative interviews with five children's librarians I illustrate attitudes and behaviours during a reference situation which take place in psychological, social and even in pedagogical contexts. The literature review comprises studies of the reference interview with children and youth, a description of interpersonal communication and finally social interaction and dialog between teachers and pupils. The main result of this study was the demonstration of a dichotomy in modes of interpersonal communication. In one mode, the social frame is emphasized.

The aim of this study was; from a group of boys and girls description and interpretation of interaction with other young people, personnel and the environment of the youth centre illuminate how the social gender are constructed and maintained at the youth centre. In this study we have tried to analyse the phenomena from an intersectionalistic perspective. Except gender, the analytic category social class have been tried to capture. Our theoretical standing point is social constructivism. Institutionalized structures in our society are constructed by humans, gender is not only a biological construction it is also a man created construction.

The purpose of this study is to analyse asylum seeking converts understanding of their conversion process based on church context, specifically within the realm of evangelical church and theology. Through the method of content analysis this essay analyses six qualitative interviews done with converts from two Islamic traditions to Swedish free church Christianity. The essay discusses the results through the lens of Lewis Rambos seven-phase theoretical concept of conversion. The important results given by this study shows that the first contact with other Christians in a new country, which creates a new community serving as an interpretive framework for their lives, triumphs the question of the theological perception for the conversion. Also, the results shows that intellectual understanding of the doctrines of faith is less important relative to the conversion process best described by the words touched, taught, and transformed.

Mental illness is today the leading cause of long-term sick leave and insomnia, anxiety, depression and burnout are among the most common conditions. The aim of the study was to investigate the stability of these conditions and how this is influenced by gender and age, as well as the extent to which these states are risk factors for each other. The participants were a random sample (n = 2336) from the general population in the age of 18-79 years. The results showed that stable illness was more common among women than men, and that stable illness decreased with aging. The stability itself was not affected by gender or age. Relations between the conditions were bidirectional and they constitute major risk factors for each other (odds ratios, OK = 2.37 to 6.46). The largest risk factor for a condition is, however, previous occurrence of the same problem. Previous burnout was found to be a significantly larger risk factor for future burnout than previous insomnia for future insomnia (OK = 9.63 and 5.74, respectively). The results suggest that insomnia, anxiety, depression and burnout, despite their differences, are similar regarding symptoms and underlying causes. The importance of early interventions to prevent comorbid conditions which are more complicated and more difficult to treat is emphasized..

It could be argued that theories about gender are something that should be a part of every upper secondary school teachers agenda (knowledge base), because the Swedish curriculum specifically says that schools must encourage and work for equal rights between men and women.The students are supposed tobe encouraged to develop their interest, without judgment, about what femininity and masculinity is.This essay is aiming to find out how gender is used in the teacher program at Södertörns Högskola. The main focus of the essay is to see the possible differences between the curriculum of 2010 and 2013. Using quantitative and qualitative content analysis this essay is aiming to examine how gender words are used in the syllabus, study manuals and literature lists for Educational science A (2010) and Educational science I (2013). In what way are gendered terms, like boy, girl heterosexuality and man, part of the text material? Who is represented in the material? And are there any differences between 2010 and 2013?The results show that there is a difference.

Sweden has an active and growing culture of feminist comic book artists that use comedy as a mean of disseminating political ideas and critic. In this essay I do a reparative reading of Sara Granér?s comic book All I Want for Christmas is planekonomi in order to find out if it advocates alternative orders and/or ways of expression. By exploring what the comic book does to me as a reader and how, using the term ?skev? ? a hybrid of queer that examines normativity not strictly tied to sexuality ? and gulesque theory ? a mix of feminism, cuteness, the grotesque and riot grrrl ?, I show that the comic book, through the use of comedy, works as a trojan My Little Pony, reclaiming the girly franchise, while challenging several so-called dichotomies, such as: femininity/masculinity; youth/adult; high art/kitsch.