The aim of this paper is to try to explain how specific, foreign policy decisions are made, and why one state decides to use violence against another state. A qualitative method is used, and text and documents are analysed. The two theoretical points of departure are central within foreign policy analysis: realism´s theories on external threats and constructivism´s theories on ideas´ policy influence. The empirical case chosen is the US decision to use military violence against Iraq. The paper investigates whether the real threat from Saddam Hussein´s Iraq was the cause of the American military attacks, or whether the ideas of leading politicians in the USA were decisive for the decision to invade the country.

Abstract This study aims with a pragmatic approach to investigate the learning about how to solve simple equations, and what the teacher can do to help the student. Four questions asked are: (i) How and why will learning take place? (ii) What will complicate learning? (iii) How to support and facilitate learning? (iv) Is it possible to identify an influence between identity and learning? To answer these questions a qualitative study in elementary school is done. The results of the investigation are compared with previous research, and an interview with the teacher is presented. The recorded lessons are analyzed with PEA (practical epistemology analysis), and letters from the students with the Ecological Systems Theory of Bronfenbrenner.

AbstractTitle:Course:Authors: Advisor: Keywords: Problem formulation:Purpose:Target Group:Theoretical perspectives: Methodology: ResultSwedish leaders abroad ? A qualitative study about culture ?s influence on Swedish leadersBachelor dissertation - Business Administration, LeadershipAmanda Elg and Carl-Johan SaltarskiIngemar WictorLeadership, culture, impact and adjustmentHow can Swedish leaders in multinational companies adjust their leadership to the national culture?The aim of our study is to investigate whether Swedish managers are affected by the differences in national culture that exists between Sweden and the country that they operate in. We want to explore if they adapt their leadership to the culture.Our study is directed towards a target audience of Swedish leaders and other interested parties who wants to increase the understanding of culture ?s influence on an international career and what is required of the leader to deal with the cultural clashes that may rise.We have focused on theories related to differences in national culture and how it can affect the leadership and the organization.The study is of the qualitative type with a deductive approach where the empirical materials are gathered through interviews.Our results demonstrate leaders implementation of culture and leadership to influence the leadership of the national culture in which they operate. We have seen how leaders are affected by the national culture and how the leader adapts to achieve a successful leadership.

The main question of this study is about how reorganizations influence on the mental social working environment for chiefs in municipal care. We want to find out how chiefs experience their mental social working environment in a reorganization. The method we used was a qualitative method. We interviewed eight chiefs in municipal care. The interview was done in two different municipalities, where we interviewed four in each municipality.

 Abstract Study: Degree project in teacher education, Advanced level, 15hpUniversity of SkövdeTitle: A study on students' self-esteem Students' statements on the encouragement and support in a sixth gradeNumber of pages: 26 pagesAuthor: Marie Agapuu & Ingrid SvenssonTutor: Anna-Stina AhlrikDate: January 2009 Keywords: Self-esteem, encouragement, support  A good self-esteem of students will often coincide with good academic performance, but it has also shown that students do not have low self-esteem due to low academic performance. Students' self-esteem is both a complex topic and concepts. We want this study to draw attention and to discuss teachers' efforts to enhance students' self-esteem in school. Encouragement and support of the school adopted in the study contribute to strengthening students' self-esteem. The study examines whether and how nine pupils in a sixth class is that they get encouragement and support of / from their teachers in school subjects and in learning situations.

Den här undersökningen handlar om hur flickor respektive pojkar i en årskurs fem använder värderande uttryck i sina narrativa texter. 22 elevtexter, 11 skrivna av flickor och 11 skrivna av pojkar, har analyserats enligt Appraisal framework. Jag har undersökt hur många och vilka typer av värderande uttryck eleverna använder och även hur de har fördelat uttrycken över texterna i förhållande till den narrativa berättelsestrukturen. Resultaten visar att flickorna använder värderande uttryck i större utsträckning än pojkarna. Fördelningen över de olika typerna av värderande uttryck liksom fördelningen av uttrycken över texten är dock ganska likartad för flickorna och pojkarna.This study concerns the use of evaluation in narrative texts written by pupils in fifth grade.

Title: ?The letters jump?- to struggle with decoding and still understand what you are reading.Author: Maria EkUniversity of UmeåDepartment of EducationSupervisor: Asbjörg WestumExaminer: Fredrik KarlssonKeywords: Poor readers, Structured text talks, Reading strategies, Reading comprehension, Commitment and Motivation.During the past decades, Swedish studies show that reading comprehension and skills in reading strategies have decreased. In secondary school for individuals with learning disabilities there has been a focus on care-taking rather than on comprehension in general, and on reading comprehension in particular.The purpose of this study was to investigate whether Reciprocal Teaching would increase reading comprehension and motivation among upper secondary school for individuals with learning disabilities. The study presents how three 17-year-old pupils and their teacher, discussed expository fact texts during twelve lessons using the reciprocal method combined with power point-presentations to get the students to read more actively with interferences and reflections. The ambition was to make the structured text talks as interesting as possible with texts easy to read, technical aids, structure to make the students feel security when reading and to get committed pupils with an increased interest in reading.The results show an increase in motivation in reading, and the students were more prone to take an active part in discussions..

The social imbalance recruitment has been a current topic for years. Since much research has focused on the higher education's problems with this, this thesis aims to investigate if you are already at the high school choice were influenced by your social background. To get a further dimension to this topic, the French sociologist Bourdieus thoughts on people's possession of, what he calls cultural capital was used, and we made use of it in the sense of parental education. Through a survey conducted in four ninth grades in two municipalities with different characteristics in terms of socio-economic conditions, we asked questions about their choice to high school. What programs did they choose? What factors were important? And which person had influenced them? The results showed a pretty clear dividing line between the pupils who came from homes with strong cultural capital to those who did not in the same sense.

The question formulation for this work has been "is an ice-hockey audience influenced by music during time-outs in a game?". The method was to observe one period with Färjestads BK and Mora IK, but a recording was also made, together with a conversation with the arena DJ. From the recording, the audience reactions were graded from a given scale. The grades were compilated to a diagram that shows the audience reactions in relation to the time, from the first face-off to the final whistle.

The purpose of the study was, with initial position from two particular youth homes, to survey the staff?s experiences regarding different youth cultures that might occur at the institutions and how they react to them. The question formulations were as follows: What kind of youth cultures might occur at the institution and how are they being expressed, according to some of the staff members? How do the same staff members, individually, see their role and prospect to influence the type of youth culture that is developing on the institution? Earlier research in the field were used as theoretical starting positions as well as the concepts of ?looking-glass self?, ?the generalized other? and ?the overtaking of roles? in the symbolic-interactionism. Qualitative research interviews were carried through with three of the employees at the two youth homes and the results of the study evinced that both positive and negative youth cul-tures develops at both of the institutions, concluding the fact that youths affect each other both ways.

Publicity is argued to have relatively great impact on attitudes and behaviours of consumer. Especially great is the influence of negative information. At the same time it is likely for brands to be subject to negative publicity. Since companies are investing gigantic sums into buidling strong and positive associations around their brands it is of great economic interest to have a better understanding how negative publicity influence brand equity and what factors might moderate this effect. This thesis focuses on brand strength as a moderating factor of negative publicity.

Publicity is argued to have relatively great impact on attitudes and behaviours of consumer. Especially great is the influence of negative information. At the same time it is likely for brands to be subject to negative publicity. Since companies are investing gigantic sums into buidling strong and positive associations around their brands it is of great economic interest to have a better understanding how negative publicity influence brand equity and what factors might moderate this effect. This thesis focuses on brand strength as a moderating factor of negative publicity.

GIS är inte längre en ny teknologi utan har funnits i snart fem decennier. Trots det har GIS inte hittat sin plats i den svenska gymnasieskolan, jämfört med t.ex. webb-design och andra datorteknikkurser som har funnits under en kortare tid. På den tekniska gymnasieutbildningen på Polhemsskolan i Gävle har GIS-utbildning bedrivits sedan 1999.De slutsatser som framkommer i rapporten är att en teknisk GIS-utbildning inte enbart är för elever på tekniska gymnasieutbildningar utan även för elever på andra gymnasieprogram eftersom de har samma förutsättningar att lära sig verktyget. Det konstateras även att det genom åren har funnits både nationella och internationella problem med att införa GIS-undervisning i gymnasieskolan.

The aim of this study is to investigate how Lunds Vokalensemble achieves its goals and in which way the goals influence the choir's work. The study also explores the choir's artistic process. Qualitative interviews and observations were used as a method. Four singers and the director participated to the interviews. The results show that the choir's artistic goals have quite an influence on many aspects of the choir's work, both in a musical and a social way.

Hörselskadades riksförbund hävdar att en stor del av hörselskadade barn och ungdomar misslyckas i skolan idag. Det är vanligt förekommande att hörselskadade elever ska integreras i hörande klass. Trots detta finns det speciella hörselklasser för hörselskadade elever.Syftet med studien är att undersöka två hörselskadade elevers erfarenheter av att vara integrerade i hörande klass samt deras erfarenheter av skolsituationen i hörselklass. Fokus ligger på sociala- och lärandeaspekter. Studiens mål är att få fram positiva samt negativa konsekvenser för den hörselskadade eleven av att gå i de två skolformerna, så som de själva uttrycker det.Studien använder sig av livsberättelser som är en del av en narrativ metod.