This essay examines the theme of blindness in the Gospel of Mark. The two main questions asked are: 1) ?What is Mark?s view on blindness?? and 2) ?How does the Gospel of Mark?s view on blindness inform the current discourse of disability studies and how can we interpret Mark?s view on blindness today?? By the methods of metaphor analysis and character analysis, four passages of the Gospel are studied (Mark 4:10-12; 8:14-21; 22-26; 10:46-52). The analysis concludes that blindness is depicted by the author of the Gospel as a disability which also consist of a lack of cognitive ability and a hopeless state that is in need of healing.  The depiction of blindness in Mark originates out of the authors use of blindness as a metaphor for lack of cognitive ability (Mk 4:12; 8:18) and the lack of characterization of the blind man at Bethsaida (8:22-23). This view on blindness is, in comparison to a modern view, difficult, as it marginalizes persons with blindness as inconsiderate and not fully human.

The aimof this study is to contribute furthermore to understand the complexity of theprocess of learning to read and write in an inclusive environment. It focus on the syllableinstead of the phoneme as a unit in this process which is not the most common way ofdoing it. The report is based on a qualitative analysis of this task in pre-school and gradeone at a primary school in a small municipality.In the result, I have found, that the very structured working process and the diagnosticapproach helps the teachers to understand on what level pupils are at. The pupils whostart working this way in pre-school, feel safe knowing what is expecting from them andthey also learn from each other. All pupils in grade one have, before w 45 in autumnterm, very good letter knowledge and have learnt how to read words with two syllableswith a consonant-wovel-structure.

 The purpose of this essay is to examine some teachers' reflections on the importance of mathematics in preschool and the importance of language, communication and conceptualization in children's mathematics learning. The study's methodology is based on a qualitative approach, where I interviewed four teachers who work with the 6 -year-olds in two different municipal schools. The study shows the importance of language and communication in mathematics learning. It also shows the importance of the teacher's attitude as well as the educational environment to capture children's curiosity and interest.  Purpose and Issues: The purpose of this study is to investigate some pedagogue?s descriptions of mathematics in the preschool class.

This study is about the use of textbooks in teaching English as a second language and about teachers? attitudes and opinions of using textbooks during lessons. The aim of the study is to receive a deeper understanding of the use of textbooks in English teaching and to learn about why teachers choose whether to use the textbook approach or not. The study contains an analysis of the textbooks the teachers in our study used. The analysis shows the actual content and the types of texts together with the design and the structure of the textbooks.

Encouragement to develope an individual pictorial and figuratve language in combination with theoretical learning simplifies the process of learning.

The purpose of this study was to depict some elderly people?s experiences of personal safety alarms. Furthermore, the aim was to look into whether there is any difference in experience between men and women and depending on their level of care. Using a qualitative method, semi-structured interviews were carried out with eight elderly people; six women and two men. The main questions of the study were: How do the elderly people experience the practical use of personal safety alarms? In what ways, if any, do the elderly people experience that the personal safety alarm has changed their daily life? In what ways do the elderly people experience that the personal safety alarm effects their ability to stay in their own home? A cognitive perspective was mainly used to analyze the results.

The purpose of this Bachelor?s thesis is to examine university librarians? perceptions of information literacy, of students? information literacy and of education in information literacy. The focus is on how they perceive the students? information literacy development during their university studies. Also of interest in this study is how librarians think that their teaching in information literacy should be included in the students? other courses. Three librarians at a Swedish university library were interviewed using qualitative interviews.

One of the most distinguishing features of contemporary globalisation is production fragmentation, a splitting up of the manufacturing of a good into several different stages. Production fragmentation creates new opportunities through vertical specialization; a country incapable of mastering the entire production process may specialize in the manufacturing of one separate part. The aim of this thesis is to examine to what extent international integration affects a country?s ability to engage in vertical specialization in an industry characterized by production fragmentation. The analysis focuses on the european integration process over the last decade, where countries in eastern Europe with relatively low labour costs have been integrated with more capital abundant western economies.

A foundation of our welfare state is that we have a social safety net. This safety net is designed to pick up individuals who are in need of help and support to manage their way of life. This essay regards people who need help with care or people who need help with an addiction. This essay is a qualitative text analysis, which aims to see whether, and if so how, help-seekers are constructed in 40 social service documents within a municipality in central Sweden. We have endeavored to illustrate the power that the written word possesses and which categories of people are constructed depending on the language and content of the social documents.

The purpose of our examination was to survey how one preschool works with so called language groups, if the mother tongue is important and if the informants can see any complex of problems in the inclusive/exclusive way of working with language groups in the preschool. The literature review provides for example the three most important areas of mother tongue, which are the emotional, the social and the intellectual (Ladberg, 2000). Further it describes the difference between the conceptions integration and inclusion, when today the concept inclusion is preferred (Tøssebro, 2004). We were inspired by qualitative interviews as our method and from a phenomenographic perspective described the informants? perceptions about the named phenomenon.

Purpose: To explore how the changes in work life, here represented and depicted through the concepts of knowledge work and knowledge worker, have been incorporated in the official psychosocial work environment discourse in Sweden. Methodology: Critical discourse analysis, contrasting the official psychosocial work environment discourse to literature on knowledge work and knowledge worker, to explore how employees, employers and their relations are constructed within these two discourses; focusing identity, autonomy and power. Using the constructions to make visible how they are articulated, used and dealt with in a real life case from the Work Environment Authority. Theoretical perspectives: Our social world is socially constructed and language is the main tool for constructing it. Discourse analysis is thus not just a tool for deconstructing texts but also for enhanced understanding of our construction of the world and our ability to communicate about it.

In today?s society there is a discussion regarding students? level of knowledge and personalisation. The classrooms consist of heterogenic groups of students with different learning needs and levels of knowledge. The purpose of the present study is to find out how the students who participated perceive the teaching of English as an additional language with regards to personalisation, and how they believe differentiation can help develop and deepen their learning. This study has been conducted using a qualitative method with interviews as the core, complemented by observations. The results have been analysed and interpreted hermeneutically. The results show that those students who have a positive attitude to English education, irrespective of their grade, are those who see the benefit of knowing English outside the classroom, and thereby create a connection between reality and studying English.

This essay describes my work as a director in a specialized orientation within psychodrama, surrealistic psychodrama. Using the language and performance techniques of theater and under the guidance of a director, psychodrama creates an improvised narrative or story. The essay describes several dramas I have directed, reflecting on my actions and choices as a director and group leader. I examine whether my working method has allowed me to be spontaneous and creative, which I believe the example of "The dangerous bear" demonstrates. The process enabled me to establish trust and receptivity so that a newly constituted group dared to investigate conflicts in symbolic ways associated with illness and death.

Högskolan i Gävle    Examensarbete C Akademin för utbildning och ekonomi   15 hp Lärarprogrammet     Vårterminen 2011Titel: Språket i första eller andra hand? En uppsats om språkutveckling, modersmål och svenska som andraspråk.   Författare: Kajsa Hjelmblom Handledare: Daniel PetterssonSammanfattning Studiens syfte är att undersöka om lärare i grundskolans tidigare år känner till hela skolans språkutvecklande uppdrag och ta reda på hur klasslärare arbetar med att främja elevernas språkutveckling. Syftet är också att ta reda på om arbetet med elevernas språkutveckling skiljer sig mellan skolor med få eller många elever med invandrarbakgrund samt att undersöka om det finns något samarbete mellan klasslärare och modersmålslärare. Studien är en kvantitativ studie i liten skala.

The purpose of this study is to search for and compare how teachers in a multicultural municipal school and in a multicultural independent school design their teaching to benefit all the students in the classroom, regardless of background.I wanted to get information about how teachers work from an intercultural perspective. To get information I used qualitative methods, which includes interviews and observations. I interviewed four teachers working in a primary school. Two from a independent school and two from a municipal school.The result revealed that both the independent school and municipal school are working from an intercultural perspective where they try to find different methods to reach every student in the class. Their biggest similarity is that the teachers put a lot of effort on language development since the Swedish language is key to the Swedish society.