AbstractThis master thesis is a hermeneutic inspired case study of how the value base regarding the environmental and social responsibility in the Swedish coffee company Löfbergs Lila AB is affecting the company's business. A thesis inspired by hermeneutics means that it is based on two ideas, the one of interaction between entirety and partitions and the one of interpretation (Alvesson & Sköldberg 1994). This cause that the emphasis is on how the reality is interpreted and that it never can be seen as completely objective.The case study was conducted during the spring semester of 2010 at Karlstad's University and consists of both empirical and theoretical material collected during this time. The empirical material in this thesis includes, among other things, interviews with four representatives of Löfbergs Lila AB, written material from the company regarding its work related to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), some information about the coffee industry as a whole and different certifications for "ethical? coffee that exists on the Swedish market.The basic idea with CSR as a business strategy is that it can be financially beneficial for companies to take a social and environmental responsibility outside of the company (Vogel 2005).

It is extremely important that the construction of the environment where children and youngsters spend the majority of their days supports the progress of their mentality. That is why I in this study will investigate what a certain amount of teachers consider of the interplay between learning and environment and how they thought a satisfactory environment structure eras of learning and also what the teachers consider to be missing at this point.The schools where I gathered my material are located in Thailand but they use the Swedish curriculum as a starting point and the students at these schools are mostly Swedish speaking.An important element that I came across was the impact of the surrounding on how to shape and use the environment as a tool in the teaching. Thailand?s climate is different than the Swedish climate; I want to investigate if that has any effect in the teaching.The educational environment in schools includes not only the classrooms but also every other space closely connected. Earlier scientific research as well as those people that I used as objects for interviews agrees regarding the fact that a suitable and stimulating environment are one of the most impact on how well children learn.

The aim of the study is to show how a selected part of the European Language Portfolio, ELP, can support the assessment process for teachers. All the checklists at level A1 and My Language Goals from the Language Biography, a part of the ELP, are implemented and communicated in teaching in a 4th grade class of students. Two teachers are interviewed and both of their classes are compared in the study. One group worked for two weeks with the selected part of the Language Portfolio and the second group followed the regular curriculum for the same period of time. The teachers are interviewed before and after the ELP through support of mind maps.Results show that by using checklists at level A1 and My Language Goals students become aware of their own learning process.

AbstractIn the research made on the subject, homework, there are a lot of differences in the opinions regarding the meaning of homework/home assignments in the educational system today. Do they fill a purpose or do they only create social rifts and injustice.For my essay I chose to find out what attitude senior-level teachers have towards homework and what meaning it is considered to have on the students learning ability.My research is based on interviews with six senior-level teachers who all teach different subjects.The results showed that all of the interviewed teachers used some kind of home assignments in their teaching.Ultimately, the conclusion I reached is that the homework should be well prepared and given a lot of thought. The homework should also be interesting and meaningful to the students to promote the learning process..

This thesis aimed to, with the help of a case study, investigate and discuss state responsibility towards climate refugees. The state of Tuvalu was selected because of their vulnerability as a low-lying island state. This was fulfilled by on-site study how the state Tuvalu acted to climate threats, determine if the future migrants from Tuvalu can be counted as climate refugees and find out if they are by that definition included by the UN Refugee Convention. The result indicated that the state of Tuvalu is adapting to climate threats, that in the future the population can be seen as climate refugees, if they are forced from their homes due to climate change, and that they, despite that definition, can not be included by the UN Refugee Convention. The study also indicates a need for greater international protection of climate refugees by, for example, an expansion of the UN Refugee Convention so that these vulnerable people do not fall into oblivion due to a question of definition..

This thesis examines the implications of a shorter  intensive action research  project on  the formative assessments  key  strategies  four  and  five  that  are  activating  learners  as  learning  resources  for  one another and activating learners as owners of their own learning.  The research questions were ?How do the pupils experience the formative approach?? ?What didactic consequences does the formative approach  mean  for  the  role  of  the  teacher??  and  ?How  does  the  formative  approach  affects  the pupils?  results  on a  short term??. The results were that the  majority of the pupils liked the approach and that they felt like their efficiency increased. The didactic consequences were that the teacher had to spend more time on evaluation but had more time during the lesson to listen to and discuss with the pupils. The pupils? results were not changed in comparison with the control group..

The purpose with this study was to analyse students' conception of living things, and to establish how a social constructivist learning situation affect their conceptions. The method consisted of questionnaires, followed by group discussions and a final survey. The main result was that students have everyday conceptions about scientific phenomena that are reinforced by the social interaction. Some students were positively influenced by the interaction with their peers, where non-scientific conceptions were replaced by conceptions of a scientific nature. Furthermore, the cultural artifacts are of very good means, but the study showed a strong need for a knowledgeable person, e.g.a teacher, to guide students in the right direction during the discussions.

Structuring education so that students can discover connections between schoolwork and their everyday lives is a crucial task for a teacher. This is especially true in today?s school system that seeks to foster a spirit of lifelong learning, since educational motivation depends on being able to connect to the tasks at hand. In a system where these connections are not present, students will be motivated only by institutional mechanisms such as test results and grades. This leads to them using a number of techniques for ?optimizing the system? by getting maximal results for minimal effort. This essay looks at two pedagogical movements that aim to decrease the gap between schoolwork and students? reality.

The purpose of this thesis is to get a better understanding of consumers? perception and knowledge of Fair Trade and Fair Trade products in Sweden. Literature was reviewed before the empirical research was conducted. A quantitative method, in form of a questionnaire survey, has been used. We have entered different areas related to our topic.

In the world of today, crises and crisis situations are inevitable parts of an organization?s everyday life and it is important for the organization to be prepared for these crises. The organization and its employees have to be in a constant state of alert and they should also have an organized plan for what they will do when (not if) the crisis occurs. The charter tour industry has during a long period of time been active in the global market. They serve thousands of travellers every day and it is the responsibility of the companies within the industry to make sure that their customers are safe and that crises can be prevented, or at least be handled.

The main purpose of this Master Thesis is to describe students experiences of learning with Webquest för barnmorskor (Webquest for midwifes) at the University Library of Karolinska Institutet (KI), Stockholm. To investigate the possibilities of acquiring information literacy in higher education with the webquest model a qualitative case study is carried out, based on five interviews with students. The students? perceptions of the webquest course and their ideas on information seeking and information literacy are being analyzed in relation to a framework of learning theory and information literacy expressed by documents and librarians of KI. A descriptive presentation is structured from the main themes that emerged in analysis within the frames of my research questions.

Over the past decade, the fashion industry has experienced a relatively high rate of consumption with material and clothing becoming increasingly subject to waste and disposal. As a result of the increased awareness within the industry the interest in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) amongst retailers has increased substantially in an attempt to shy away from the critically amplified media attention. In addition the underlying demand from external stakeholders has forced companies to ensure they focus and act upon each stage of the product life cycle.This study provides a further in depth analysis of the fashion industry and conveys the key messages and steps that firms are taking in response to the external pressures and requirements based on four different merged process areas. This research paper examines the impact of CSR on two Swedish fashion retailers Åhléns and JC and shows how accountability relates to the external expectations and norms that prevail in society. The result shows that the firms do meet the demands within each sub category as a response to market demands.

The aim of this paper is to analyze how syllabus plans for the course Swedish for immigrants have changed in the past 40 years. The paper focuses mainly on how different theories on learning in general and second language acquisition in particular have influenced the syllabus. Furthermore, the paper attempts to identify changes in how the teachers? role is described in the documents. My results indicate that syllabus plans from the 70?s were influenced by behaviorism, progressivism and the sociocultural view on learning, while syllabus plans from the 90?s and 00?s show only influences from the two latter perspectives.

The essay's aim is to explain how responsibility distribution between private and public bodies, primarily within three important service areas, can be visualised in light of the fact that they have experienced different forms of readjustment. We have chosen to study this by looking at the restoration work taking place after the hurricane Gudrun swept across southern Sweden on January 8-9, 2005; and we have chosen to concentrate on the service areas of electricity- and telephone supply, and public transport. The responsibility distribution has been depicted by carrying out qualitative interviews with employees within both private and public bodies included in the restoration work. The conclusion produced is that there were obscurities in the formal responsibility distribution between private and public actors taking place in conjunction with the hurricane restoration work.In a deeper analysis, the result can be explained by a ?several hands? problem arising since the number of actors has increased as the public sphere has adopted leadership forms influenced by the private business sector.

The aim of this paper was to contribute to knowledge about how preschool-teachers work with the development of children?s spoken language in preschool.The study was conducted through interviews with four preschool-teachers working at the same preschool with one to five year old children. Through the interviews I came to learn about the preschool teachers experience concerning their work with development of children?s spoken language.The results show that the preschool teachers used pedagogical tools like songs, movements, rimes, jungles and stories in their work to develop the children?s spoken language. They said that conflicts and exclusion among children in a group could be a result of differences in language skills.