During the last two decades, the elementary, - secondary-, and upper secondary schools of especially Europe and USA have gone through a change. From being formed in the post war time and, in Europe, very influenced by the ideas of social democracy, the school today has more and more come under the influences of neo liberalism, entrepreneurship and the political and economical situations during the late 1980´s.This undergraduate work brings up the changed discourses of education and knowledge in relation to the traditional free school system for adults in Sweden, the popular education, and especially in relation to folk high schools (folkhögskolor). By using, first and foremost, the idea of Norman Faircloughs critical discourse analysis (CDA) the rules and documents concerning the folk high schools are analyzed. The purpose of the paper is to identify and recognize the movement in the discourse to reach an understanding about the political situation for folk high schools in Sweden. In the end you can see that it is possible to define a similar development in discourse surrounding the popular education, as has been in the case with the elementary, - secondary-, and upper secondary schools..

The purpose of the present study is to describe adult second language learners? experiences of mathematics learning from a past and contemporary perspective. What experiences in mathematics do they bring? What does it mean to learn Mathematics through their new language?The study is based on life-world narratives from five second language students with another native language than Swedish. Today they all study at a Swedish folk high school, at upper secondary level and they have previously studied at this level in Mathematics. The result shows that the meeting with the Swedish school and folk high school context is confusing.

The starting point of this study is national as well as international surveys which show that the study motivation and general level of knowledge among Swedish students have decreased. The Swedish Curriculum for the Non-Compulsory School System (Lpf94) states that each student shall be given the possibility to strengthen their will and ability to learn. The teachers are expected to play an important role in the effort to increase student motivation. The opinions of the students are a valuable source when trying to understand what motivates them. The purpose of this study is to provide a more profound understanding of what students express about their motivation in the interaction with the teachers.

This study draws upon the framework for analyzing the discourse of a science classroom introduced by Mortimer and Scott (2003). It has been used for many studies before on high school youths, but never on adults. Therefore, this study focuses on the interaction between teacher and students in an adult education on high school level in physics, and how students can change the classroom discourse. Observations took place in two different schools for adults, in four different teaching groups. The result was analyzed by pattern of interactions, communicative approach, teaching purpose, type of student questions and their effect on the classroom discourse.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how four teachers treats and teaches aboutxenophobia and right-wing extremism. A further aim of this study is to investigate whetherthere are any differences in how a teacher at a vocational high school treat and teachabout xenophobia and right-wing extremism against the teacher at a preparatory school, theydo. To achieve my purpose I have used qualitative interviews of semi-structuredform.These interviews were done with two social studies teacher at a vocational high schooland two social studies teacher at a preparatory school.My results show that teachers all too often respond to xenophobic views directly into theclassroom by reasoning and discussions with students. In my resault is also evident thatthere is a big difference between the teachers at the schools how much time you devoteto xenophobia and right-wing extremism in teaching.The conclusions show that these differences largely depend on which group of students thatteachers have.The conclusions will also be that there are great similarities between the way teachers reasonabout how to deal with xenophobia and the means to do, they also are relatively similar..

The purpose of this paper is to examine how four teachers treats and teaches aboutxenophobia and right-wing extremism. A further aim of this study is to investigate whetherthere are any differences in how a teacher at a vocational high school treat and teachabout xenophobia and right-wing extremism against the teacher at a preparatory school, theydo. To achieve my purpose I have used qualitative interviews of semi-structuredform.These interviews were done with two social studies teacher at a vocational high schooland two social studies teacher at a preparatory school.My results show that teachers all too often respond to xenophobic views directly into theclassroom by reasoning and discussions with students. In my resault is also evident thatthere is a big difference between the teachers at the schools how much time you devoteto xenophobia and right-wing extremism in teaching.The conclusions show that these differences largely depend on which group of students thatteachers have.The conclusions will also be that there are great similarities between the way teachers reasonabout how to deal with xenophobia and the means to do, they also are relatively similar..

A qualitative study of high school student teachers' ideas about libraries and school libraries.Interviews have been conducted with future teachers about the library's role in their education,their views on library functions in high school and whether they as teachers will use theschool library. The results show that the students have had some instruction concerninghow to use the library as students, but very little as regards their future teaching. The professorsof teacher education focus on the fact that the library should be used in high schoolteaching, not how to use it. Despite this, the student teachers look very positively upon libraries.Libraries play an important part in their education and they are all sure that they asteachers will use the school library, which includes interacting with the librarian. To them, themost important school library function is to allow pupils to seek information..

Media often discusses school, teachers and students. These discussions are often based on an adult perspective and students' views on the subject are not enhanced. Therefore, this paper intends to examine students' views on what they think makes a good teacher. Previous research shows that a good teacher can create the conditions for good learning based on the needs of students, and this is therefore important to investigate. The theoretical basis for this essay is the definition of an authentic teacher that which in this essay will be discussed from the point of view of Fibaek Laursen (2004).

The aims of the thesis are to describe ways to obtain information needed for teaching andlearning practical and artistic subjects at a folk high school, to look into which part the library plays in this search for information, and finally, to see what the library can do to meet the information needs existing arnong teachers and students of arts and craft.Qualitative interviews were made with four teachers, seven students and one librarian atone folk high school, providing data for the thesis. The results indicate five main ways to obtain information among the persons interviewed:through books, by their own work process, by sensuous experience, throughcommunication with other people, and by the master of the craft passing on his/herknowledge to the apprentice.In this thesis some suggestions are also given for helping the library to meet the information needs of people involved in arts and craft work..

My essay is on the subject of teachers work environment with focus on noise and communication. In the essay questions are raised on how a teacher can influence his or hers noisy work environment. A school is a large work place with many employees and is owned and administered by the county municipality which is an even bigger workplace. How big an acting space does a teacher have in such a large organization?My methods of research on these questions have been to conduct interviews and analyzing documentation from The Swedish Work Environment Authority.

A change has occurred in terms of recruitment to teacher education. From having been an educationof high status and reputation, a reduced application rate has led to lower admission requirementsand thus that students with much lower educational qualifications entering, which in turn means thatthe education status and reputation have been reduced significantly. Mathematics, on the other hand,has always been a topic of high status and reputation. Although there are few students who chooseto study to be a mathematics teacher. By conducting a survey of students on teacher educationtoday, both with mathematics and other approaches, I wanted to get answers to my questions aboutwhat influences students' choice of education: who are the students studying to be teachers inmathematics? Do they distinguish themselves from the student teachers who studies to be teachersin other subject specializations? Pierre Bourdieu's sociological ideas about cultural capitaltransmitted from parent to child constitute the theoretical framework of the study.Early in the study, I noticed that there is a difference between students studying to be a teacher inpreschool, primary or middle school and them studying to be a teacher in secondary and highschool, especially in terms of the mathematics student teachers.

Subject: The Teacher Training Programme, Degree Project in Educational SciencesSödertörn University CollegeAutumn Term, 2006This study titled, Those who feel worst, need help to feel better, is a Degree Project in Educational Sciences for the Teacher Training Programme at Södertörn University College. The purpose of this study is to find out how school introduction for newly arrived refugee children is organized in two schools, considering the fact that many refugee children can suffer from PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The study is qualitative, based on interviews with principals, teachers and students in one junior high school and one high school. The study also reviews literature and research on how to work with children who suffer from PTSD. The results show that lack of national policy for the school introduction and education of refugee children, leads to the fact that school introduction can vary from school to school.

The theme of this essay is literacy training in pre-school. The theme takes it starting point in a project, where my colleagues and I noticed our children playing with writing and symbols. It leads to an exciting, reflecting and developing project, a project that will go on for six months together with twenty children in the age of five and six.The essay describes how I and the rest of the staff work with the project, and also how we try to find challenges that are meaningful for our children. When we worked with the project I ended up in a dilemma how I as a teacher was to retain the children?s joy and curiosity for writing without making it boring.

The objective of this study was to bring further knowledge to the subject as to what influences students motivation and self-esteem. The study had focus on role that the teachers play in these aspects. The study was done by using both a qualitative and quantitative approach. The qualitative method was interviews based on six interviews with two teachers and four students from two different classes. The quantitative method was a questionnaire study that was done in both classes.

The aim of this paper is to examine how teachers experience their possibilities to develop democratic teaching in high school and how they reflect upon their position of power within the teaching situation. Four professional high school teachers have been interviewed for the study. The theoretical perspective of the study is an intersectional view on power and a view on democratic teaching which is partly built on the high school curriculum, but mainly defined by deliberative conversations, anti-oppressive education and norm-critical education. The result of the study is focused on three themes, which were shown in the analysis of the interviews. These themes are: choices of teaching content,  authority of the teacher and democratic teaching.