The purpose of this study was to investigate into the praxis based sociocultural tools that are utilized to enhance language development in early childhood education. Four pre-school teachers were involved in this study. Two were recruited from an independent pre-school "Maria Montessori", practicing the pedagogical philosophy developed by Maria Montessori. Two were from a public pre-school herein named "Kvasten", which has no official philosophy but where the teachers (like in many Swedish pre-schools) work in a general alignment with the principles of Reggio Emilia pedagogics. The theoretical fundament of the study lies in the general theories of language development and education of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotskij, and the comparative element mainly concerns the variations in pedagogical praxis between the two pre-schools, and the way the teachers reason about language development.

Syftet med denna studie var att belysa vårdlärarnas lärarkompetens och deras uppfattning om vilken kompetens som behövs i valideringssituationer inom vård- och omsorgsutbildning. Frågeställningarna var: vilken lärarkompetens har lärarna som arbetar med validering och behövs det någon specifik lärarkompetens i valideringssituationer. Vi har valt att använda oss av en kvalitativ metod i denna studie där målet har varit att få en förståelse för lärarnas egna upplevelser och uppfattningar. Studien genomfördes med halvstrukturerade intervjuer med sex lärare inom omvårdnadsprogrammet. Resultatet visar att ingen av lärarna i studien har en formell utbildning i validering, samtliga har dock gedigen erfarenhet av såväl praktiskt arbete inom sitt eget ämnesområde som undervisning inom vuxenutbildningen.

Finnish student have for several years proved to be successful in reading in international studies. This interview based study aims to describe how teachers in Finnish schools for Swedish speaking children are relating to reading and reading education during the first two years of schooling. The result shows that reading, reading training and reading comprehension are natural elements in all teaching during the first two years in school and that teaching is based on students? ability and interest. The teachers claim that they provide the students with varying opportunities to practice different kinds of reading.

The purpose of this master's thesis is to examine children's communication and interaction during story time at the public library. The aim is also to examine how to develop the story time ? in terms of participation and equality ? at a specific library.Action research was used as a research strategy and participant observation, log, tutoring and interviews as methods to collect data. Since action research is done on the basis of practice, a significant collaboration with the librarian and the participant children is taking place within this study.Research from the fields of Library and Information Science, Education and Childhood Sociology form the interdisciplinary research area to which this study links. The theoretical framework consists of theory and concepts from the Socio-cultural Perspective, Poststrucuralist Feminism and Childhood Sociology.

The primary purpose of this degree project was to investigate teachers conceptions about education for sustainable development and their education within the area. Teachers from Sweden and California have taken part and one of the aims with this study was to look if any differences could be found depending on what country the teachers came from. Therefore, this study has used a qualitative approach where conception maps and interviews have been used to get a result. Furthermore, the result showed that none of the differences that was found can be linked to the participants home country. The study also showed that several of different teaching traditions and educations philosophies was represented.

This essay discusses the subjective observations and opinions on the Swedish concept of stegintegrering, a form of mixed grade education in the subject modern languages at upper secondary level. I interviewed two headmasters, four teachers and conducted an online survey with 39 pupils in order to find out what effects the concept of stegintegrering has on teaching and learning from a teacher and pupil perspective. Due to the extent of this essay no general conclusions can be made but certain connections could be found. For once there was a connection between group size and the possibility of teaching each group separately during one lesson per week and the attitude of the concerned teachers and pupils towards stegintegrering. While both headmasters and teachers claimed that the cooperation between pupils across all levels was the main purpose of stegintegrering as it helps their learning and understanding, my study showed that many pupils did not really want to cooperate and that teachers often find it hard to construct tasks that stimulate every group.

Studiens syfte är att belysa några yrkesverksamma elbasisters syn på egen utveckling och dess samband med övning. Som metod har halvstrukturerade intervjuer använts. Informanterna utgörs av tre yrkesverksamma elbasister som berättar om sin syn på övning och utveckling samt vad de anser vara viktigt för att utvecklas som elbasist. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten för denna studie är ett hermeneutiskt perspektiv då målet är att göra en djupare analys och tolkning av de intervjuades livsvärld. Resultatet visar att informanterna tycker att viktiga byggstenar i utvecklingen är att spela tillsammans med andra och lyssna på musik.

The aim of this study is to examine how two Kenyan school's approaches gender roles, by what the curriculum says and by how the teachers way of teaching are effecting the creation of gender roles. The aim is further to find out what the Kenyan school settings are, according to gender and equality, and how these are implemented in practice. This was examined through interviews at two local schools in Kenya, with five practicing teachers from grade one through grade six. This work compares the respondents' answers to the research that is related to the topic. Because of lack in the research about Kenya, the research has been based on mostly Swedish investigations.

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.

This study was about how pupils described their school situation with special education. The specific focus was on pupils which are described as ?troubled pupils?, unconcentrated pupils?, pupils in social and emotional difficulties or characterised by similar concepts. The study was based on a sociocultural perspective and an interactional perspective. The empirical material consisted of interviews with eight pupils in age between 9 to 12 years old and who had special education.

The purpose of my essay is to see how teachers are working to integrate the two subjects Art and Swedish in their teaching, and to see how this integration is made. What do teachers think about subject-integration? What are the positive effects of it? Are there any difficulties involved? Do the teachers prioritize cooperation with other subjects?To answer my questions I have interviewed eight teachers, four of them in upper secondary school and four in lower secondary school. I have also studied literature about subject-integration and children?s learning, curriculum?s and syllabi in the subjects of Art and Swedish.The results of my study show that the interviewed teachers are positive when it comes to integrating Art and Swedish and other subjects.

My own experiences as an upper secondary school teacher and the increase in research on masculinity in educational settings that occurred during the late 1990 emphasizing on the gender gap in achievement and grades is the point of departure for this thesis. The aim is to investigate how boys in upper secondary school are constituted and constitute themselves as motivated and achieving learning subjects. Another aim is to see what possibilities there are to form different teaching practices to create other possible positions for me and the pupils. The research questions are 1) How does boys´ construction of masculinity constitute how they see their own ability to be motivated and achieve in school 2) What significance do my shifting approaches and expectations on the pupils as well as teaching have on the boys constitution as learning subjects? To answer these questions I use a theoretical framework of feminist poststructuralist.

This thesis is concerned with how identity is connected to historical writings and what normsshapes the perspectives of history. The purpose of this study is to investigate the possibilitiesfor identification offered in history books used for history teaching. This study is concernedwith what role the nation plays and how it shapes the conception of history, with the hope ofcounteracting negative attitudes towards those not being identified as ?Swedish? in the historytelling.The study was conducted through discourse analysis. The material for this analysis consistedof three history books directed towards 4-6th graders.The study shows how identity is created through putting ?us? against ?them?.

Denna studies syfte har varit att undersöka pedagogiska och didaktiska aspekter i pianoskolor för nybörjare. Detta har gjorts genom en läromedelsgranskning av pianoskolorna Vi spelar piano 1 av Carl-Bertil Agnestig samt Pianoresan 1 av Galina Sjevtjenko och Natalia Kazimirovskaja.  Resultaten av denna granskning har relaterats till olika pianotraditioner, pedagogiska teorier samt forskningsarbeten. Det slutgiltiga resultatet visar vilka undervisningsmetoder som används i de båda böckerna samt hur böckerna är uppbyggda. Pianoskolorna har undersökts utifrån deras innehåll vad gäller låtval, musikalisk progression och musikaliskt uttryck. Undersökningen visar bland annat att uppbyggnaden av Vi spelar piano 1 påminner om Rostvall och Wests schemateori för att hjälpa eleverna att uppnå kunskap.

The object of this study has been to establish how language is used to present and establish a person?s identity. The studied language usage is that of renowned author Selma Lagerlöf and the language studied is that of her personal correspondence. This language picture is placed alongside the public depiction of her and a comparison of sorts is made. The chosen method has been to study Lagerlöf?sprivate correspondence and to compare her language markers in those to the literature history?s picture of her.