The study´s purpose is to investigate the underlying norms of how the concepts of language development and learning, used in the preschool curriculum. Knowledge of the concepts underlying norms can help to make visible what approach preschool teacher is expected to have to children's language, in relation to development and learning. The results of the study may in turn provide a picture of societal norms on children in preschool and a deeper understanding of the importance of preschool to review and analyze the content of the curriculum, then it is not a foregone conclusion.Theoretical basis is curriculum theory, which involves studying curricula in order to create a knowledge of a society and its cultural, social and economic demands. Norman Faircloughs critical discourse analysis is used as a method, in order to achieve the study´s intention and answer the questions at issues in the study. The critical discourse analysis considers that the discourse is creating the social world through language.The results of the study show that there is a language in the curriculum as normatively may influence preschool teacher.

Semantic feature analysis (SFA) is a treatment technique used foraphasic word finding difficulties after stroke. The method has earlier beenevaluated with positive outcome regarding words that have been trainedduring intervention while more varied results have been presented regardinguntrained words. The aim of this study was therefore to evaluate the effectsof the method on naming in untrained nouns and verbs, in both confrontationnaming and in discourse. The present study is the first to evaluate SFA withSwedish-speaking persons. A single-subject design was used.

Books and reading are important elements in cultural policy. On 1 January 2002 VAT on books and magazines was reduced from 25 per cent to 6 per cent. The purpose was to increase reading in all sections of the population. A special Book Price Commission was appointed to follow and examine price trends and to work for an enhancement of reading in all groups of the Swedish population. But what form of reading are the BPC talking about? With a theoretical point of departure in the theory of power and discourse by Michel Foucault the aim of this thesis is to explore if there is an existing discourse about reading and, if so, how this discourse is operating in the BPC reports.

The Oresund Region, consisting of the Swedish county of Scania and the Danish islands of Sealand, Lolland, Falster and Bornholm, is widely recognised as a successful example of European cross-border co-operation. The purpose of this region building project is to form a cross-border fully integrated functional region in order to accomplish a high level of economic growth and employment.This thesis argues, by the means of discourse analysis, that the project can be viewed as a kind of post-politics, defined as a politics that under a neoliberal hegemonic consensus strives to manipulate citizens (and to redefine them as consumers and investors) into better economic performance.This manipulation is carried out by extensive discourse production aimed at convincing people that the Oresund Region exists, that it is a successful region, and that the people who inhabit it are also successful. The deliberate vagueness and contradictory character of the Oresund discourse is investigated and explained as a discursive strategy to incorporate as many views and desires as possible..

This paper takes it points of departure in a gender equality perspective and the perceived paradox between the governmental labour market policy and family policy. The first policy area has the aim to put people to work, whereas the other introduces a reform, vårdnadsbidraget, that point in the opposite direction. Which are the problem representations within the two policy areas and are the problem representations concordant or contradictive? From a constructivist perspective, langue is closely related to power through defining and ascribing meaning to reality. Drawing on political documents, speeches and articles formulated within the government, this paper analyzes problem representations through the use of discourse analysis and feminist political theory.

Childhood as a social category is under strucural redefinition. In this thesis the child and childhood are understood as socially constructed phenomenons. Focus is laid upon the construction of the concept ?in the best interest of the child? wich in The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is defined as beeing the foremost important view to take into account when decisions wich affect children are made. As the thesis shows, a concrete and universall view of the best interest of the child is lacking in practice and would in many cases be unfortunate.

The aim of this paper is to examine how gender roles are described in two children's books and compare the results against the curriculum Lgr11 's values. The compared books have different aims though one of the analyzed books claimed to go against the gender roles and the other one isn?t. The method of analysis is discourse analysis and deconstruction of the text by using Nikolajeva´s (2004) pattern for stereotype gender descriptions and Kåreland´s (2005) analysis of story actions based on gender representations in children's literature. The analysis of the texts shows that there are differences between how the two books characters are described depending on gender. What emerges is that in one of the books femininity is valued high but instead it lacks equality between the sexes, while in the second book the main characters are described as equal even though the other characters are described in a stereotypical way.

Through a critical discourse analysis this study explores the gender norms that students on Kvinnofolkh?gskolan produce, reproduce and experience. Kvinnofolkh?gskolan is built on the understanding that the world discriminates against women politically, culturally, economically and socially, and thus intends to give women, non-binaries and trans people an education with a feminist alignment. Despite studies being made on gender segregated schools as identity forming, I argue that there is a lack of studies that show how gender discourse and theory is produced in contexts where men are excluded.

The purpose of this study was set against the background that social media today are used as an platform for companies to communicate with their customers, as well as communicate their brand. Therefore it was interesting to examine this phenomenenon through a critical point of view and try to put light on the different forms of power that is produced on this arena.The overall aim of this study was to examine how PR-consultants talk about social media as a communication channel. The empirical data consisted of five interviews with PR-consultants on five different PR-agencies. The theoretical framework was based on a social constructional perspective and Foucault?s theory of power.

This study examines negative issues that cannabis users have experienced associated with cannabis use. The author made qualitative interviewsto unveil four cannabis users? life stories. These stories were analyzed through the discourse psychologicalperspective interpretive repertoirein order to explore and identify analogies among the users. The author found that the respondents, despite their seemingly diverse backgrounds and personalities, carry a collective repertoire of similar experience and reasoning around cannabis and society which can be defined as a cannabis discourse; a discourse grounded in facts as well as speculations, arguments which separately may seem reasonable but altogether often appear contradictory, and real-life anecdotes that sometimes reflect paradoxical conclusions.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to examine how femininity, Silikon, Vecko Revyn, and Darling. The study is made from a critical discourse analytical approach and text, pictures, and layout are all analysed. Some of the main characteristics of the material are the division in the categories"we"and"them", double messages, and personal address to the reader. Femininity is strongly associated with body, sexuality, beauty, and looks.

This paper is named ?The status of the programme is low? ? Gymnasium teacher?s thoughts and attitudes towards students in the vocational- and the educational programmes. The purpose is, as the title reveals, to examine the attitude of four teachers in the Swedish gymnasium towards the vocational and the educational programmes and the students that attend either one of them. This purpose is accompanied by research which says that the educational programmes? status is higher than one of the vocational programmes.

This masters thesis aims to explore the branch libraries in Kalmar municipality and their relation to the Information and communication technology ICTsociety. How do they adapt to and assimilate with, the ICT-society? What are their roles in local social networks and do they make a difference there? To answer these questions, critical discourse analysis, CDA, as founded by Norman Fairclough is applied to four interwievs with branch library managers. Other theorists used are Michel Foucault, Chaïm Perelman and Ludwig Wittgenstein. A solid description of todays society on different levels is also given.

This paper examines how remedial teachers and subject teachers in two secondary schools talk about pupils with special education needs (SEN) both in general, and more specifically about boys and girls who need special education. The study is based on 6 interviews with teachers in two secondary schools in the Stockholm area. In the analysis of the interviews, two different theories have been used. Firstly, the teachers´ speech has been analyzed based on three perspectives; a compensatory-, a critical- and a dilemma perspective (see Nilholm, 2007). Secondly, discourse analysis has been used to examine how the teachers in the study talk about boys and girls in the special education.

 The theme of this essay arises from problematic pictures which travel journalism can bring about foreign countries, and in this specific case Mexico. These pictures can be problematic in the way that they can carry colonial elements and form colonial discourses. The main purpose of this study is therefore to investigate the Swedish travel magazines, Vagabond, RES and Allt om resor, and how they portray places and people in the written texts and photographs. This was done with a postcolonial and discourse theoretical framework, whereas empowerment of certain pictures can lead to formation of discourses, myths and stereotypes about places and people in Mexico. The method used to reveal different aspects of the travel reports was semiotic analysis, Norman Fairclough?s critical discourse analysis and critical linguistics.