The content of teaching materials considerably affects pupils? attitudes and worldview. This paper is an analysis of textbooks used in 7th through 9th grade of the Swedish School system in Swedish as a Second Language (SSL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The purpose of this paper is to look at which minority groups, the five official national minorities as well as other minorities, are included and portrayed in the textbook series Tre gånger svenska and Wings Mini as well as to see if there is any bias in their portrayal. The seven types of bias investigated; invisibility, stereotyping and generalizations, unreality, imbalance and selectivity, fragmentation and isolation, linguistic bias and cosmetic bias are an adaption of the framework to detect bias in curriculum materials presented by Sadker and Zittleman (2002/2003).

Swedish childcare has undergone radical changes in the last 15 to 20 years. It has evolved from kindergarten to pre-school, in other words, gone from simple childcare to an active learning environment with the child as the center. Official documents, such as the pre-school curriculum and other guide documents, define the role and work ethics of the pre-school teacher. In my thesis I argue that it is essential to have an ongoing and continuous discussion at pre-schools on the practical applications of these frameworks and ambitious goals.What do you do when you simply cannot give every child the individual time they should have according to rules and regulations? How do you stay an active and present pedagogue in today?s pre-school with large classes and heavy workloads? How do you establish a common professional work ethics within a pre-school so that all children are treated equally? In my scientific essay, I examine these issues based on a real-life situation: Ellen in the hallway.A pedagogue must continuously make balanced decisions based on rules and regulations, on life- and work experience which, in many cases, contradict each other.

The purpose of this thesis is to study how preschool teachers can reach the goal of the swedish educational plan to prevent traditional gender roles for children ages 3-6 through drama in education.This is answered by four hypothesis based on Judith Butler's queer theory, George Herbert Mead's social psychological theory and Gavin Bolton and Dotothy Heathcotes drama pedagogical theories. The hypotheses are tested against four teachers' examples of their work.The hypotheses areHypothesis 1: By using the expert's mantle and active observation in teacher-in-role indrama educational exercises, we can see how the children internalize the heterosexualmatrix and the outline of the internalized other.Hypothesis 2: By using the "mistakes" that occur when children repeat performativeacts that do not fit with the heterosexual matrix, these other possible behaviors can bestrengthenedHypothesis 3: Through drama exercises that are not normative teachers can widen theheterosexual matrixHypothesis 4: Through drama pedagogical methods like teacher-in-role teachers canprovide possibilities of other performative acts and the creation of a more tolerantinternalized other.The analysis show that the respondents work within all these hypotheses in different ways and thathypotheses 2 is the one with the weakest support in the interwievs. The examples are also weakregarding the use of Boltons drama pedagogical methods, but that there are a number of othermethods in use.Some of the conclusions are that more theoretical knowledge in the preschool drama pedagogics tocounteract traditional gender roles and patterns, as well as the drama of educational theory need tobe linked to queer and social psychology research. There is also no monitoring of the long term effects of the work..

AbstractAim: The purpose of this study was to describe and compare education in swimming in grade six in two different schools. Another purpose was to investigate students? perception of their swimming skills and their attitudes to education in swimming. The more précised questions were: (1) How is the education in swimming organized in each school? (2) How do the teachers control that the students reach the goals to attain in swimming in the 5: th grade? (3) How do the students judge their own swimming knowledge? And (4) What attitudes towards the education in swimming do the students have?Method: A quantitative method, a questionnaire, was used to answer the purpose and questions of the study.

AbstractThe overall purpose of this thesis was to investigate to what extent new research findings, in neuroscience and learning, may be useful in a school improvement context. In a qualitative interview study combined with questionnaire, we have investigated the approach to school improvement that exists in a municipality. Informants have been head teachers in preschool and primary school, special education teachers in a student health team and a development manager. The outcome of the study showed that all of the study participants, all of which have a formal mandated to work for school improvement occurs. It also shows that informants, according to their professional position, express different goals when relating to school improvement.

This essay deals with the various difficulties that can arise in conversations and meetings with parents and colleagues in the preschool world. The essay is based on two self-perceived stories that culminate in dilemmas that are difficult to assess, where our own actions come into question.The purpose of this essay is to gain a greater understanding and awareness of why we become insecure when our communication with others fails. Our research questions assist us in gaining an understanding that our own and others' behavior in meetings and conversations can be influenced by past experience, ourvalues and our emotions. This means, for example, that we must be aware that our values - ideal images, functions as both our guide and trip wires. We must also bear in mind that our ability to manage our own emotional reactions is  significant when it comes to facing our own and others' feelings.

Syftet med aktionsforskningsstudien är att lyfta fram förskoleklasslärares egna åsikter om förskoleklassverksamheten. Det är ett relativt outforskat område, förskoleklassreformen genomfördes 1996. Denna studie ska bidra med mer kunskaper med hjälp av förskoleklasslärares egna berättelser om förskoleklassverksamheten utifrån pedagogernas perspektiv. De fyra deltagande förskoleklasslärarna var ett strategiskt val, de fyra förskoleklasslärarna som deltog i aktionen erbjöds även att delta i studien. I denna kvalitativa studie utgår empirin från de gemensamma samtalen i aktionen. Förskoleklasslärarnas berättelser kondenserades och det skapades två fiktiva pedagoger Aina, som fick symbolisera samarbete, flexibilitet och framförhållning och Berit, som fick symbolisera konservatism, individualism och nuorientering.

I meet in my work as art teacher many students of different descent, were they, or their parents, have different school experience than the Swedish. This, in combination with therecent discussion after the Muhammad caricatures about the banning of images in Islamic religion, made me curious to study what art education in a Muslim country looked like. I went to visit the Maramra Egitim Köyü school in Istanbul, Turkey, and especially their art classesfrom grade five to eight, which are the same age of students that I have been working with thelast ten years. This was my first visit to Turkey.The question I ask is: What does the practice of Turkish art education look like, using the Marmara school as an example. Which discourses can I identify in the art teacher practice? What surprised me the most was the frequent visual exposure of the founder of the Turkishstate, Kemal Atatürk.

Our purpose with this master thesis is to look at school libraries in two separate municipal contexts and with the help of case studies try to reach understanding of how the municipal organisation in general influences and co-operates with day to day reality. In order to achieve this objective we have posed the following questions: What importance are school libraries given in relation to questions of overall management and goals in the greater organisation? How are resources distributed and management allocated in the two cases? How are the various school libraries in the two municipalities organised when it comes to workload, employee role assumption and teamwork? In the section dealing with theory and previous research we present the theoretical viewpoint and the literature of importance for our subject. This includes a short history, reports and laws, and also some research and theory on school library organisation. Our method has been to study the circumstances in two separate municipalities, Varberg and Växjö.

Background: The lack of knowledge regarding preschool children's mental health prompted Uppsala University, in collaboration with Uppsala Kommun, to start a study in which children aged 3, 4, and 5 years are screened using the "Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire" (SDQ). This screening method has been introduced into the majority of Uppsala County child care centers (BVC), and the nurses' experience of working with this method is examined in this paper.Method: A qualitative approach with semi-structured questions was used to interview ten nurses who pioneered the SDQ Method. The interviews where recorded, transcribed and analyzed using content analysis.Results: Three themes and nine categories were identified from the interviews. The themes were: "Attitude and motivation are important when working with the form", "Clearer overall picture with preschool answer", and "A tool to identify difficulties". The results show that the nurses were satisfied with the form.

Textbooks are the most dominant literature used in schools and are therefore an important source of information. Consequently, it is crucial that these are not misleading or biased and maintain a high quality along with a strict concordance to the School Department?s curriculum. The aims of this study have been to examine how Mormons, Jehovah?s Witnesses and Hare Krishna are presented in four religion textbooks used in senior high schools, as well as to examine what type of knowledge is being presented in terms of epistemology.

Equality between the sexes has been discussed in Sweden for more than 50 years. In the 60´s and during the 70´s the discourse that dominated the debate was based on the assumption that both men and women needed to liberate themselves from their traditional gender roles. In this approach information and education was perceived as the key to equality. During the 80´s however, power and subordination became the main focal point of concern within this debate, and focus upon changing the patriarchal power structures dominating society were perceived as the principal key for establishing equality between the sexes. Today, the latter discourse still dominates both the scientific and the political perspective upon equality.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur lärplattan kan användas som pedagogiskt verktyg i förskola och förskoleklass. Vi vill undersöka de lärande och sociala samspel som eventuellt sker mellan barnen. Vidare undersöks hur pedagogernas förhållningssätt inverkar på barnens möjlighet till lärande kring lärplattan. Pedagogernas syn på fördelar och nackdelar gällande lärplattan granskas. Studiens frågeställningar besvarades utifrån den sociokulturella teorin.

Motivation, meningsskapande och förskollärare om drivkrafter i det pedagogiska arbetet. The importance of motivation and meaning of creativity in the profession as a preschool teacher-The driving forces in the educational work. Kme ? Kultur, språk & medier KSM, Malmö Högskola. Den här uppsatsen har uppkommit ur ett gemensamt intresse för hur vi båda ser på motivation och meningsskapande. Genom den verksamhetsförlagda tiden (VFT) och olika arbeten på förskolor under utbildningens gång har pedagoger i möten framhållit att motivationen för yrket sjunker.

More and more preschools are choosing to reduce the sugar consumption. The reason is, inter alia, the increase of weight in the community, but there is also research showing that sugar is harmful to children. The discussions on sugar and children are also a hot media topic.I have chosen to use a qualitative method, interviews, to gather material for the essay. I have interviewed a teacher and a cook in three different preschools, in different municipalities. I have also looked at their various nutrition policies to see how the guidelines for their work on diet and health look like.