Swedish university libraries traditionally collect recreational readingmaterial only to support the teaching and research interests of theirinstitutions. However many university libraries hold a substantial yetunspecified collection of popular fiction. This thesis investigates theextent of these collections and examines academic librarians' viewsabout students' recreational reading in the academic context and theirattitudes towards the role of fiction and of readers' advisory inacademic libraries. The theoretical framework includes literature andresearch about the benefits of reading for pleasure, collections' rolesand readers' advisory strategies. The empirical material was gatheredthrough quantitative surveys sent to academic librarians in Sweden.The results show that academic librarians are positive about thebenefits of recreational reading for university students.

The purpose of this report is to contribute with knowledge about the views within special education. I want to explore and compare the way students with special needs are approached within two different pedagogies in Sweden: Waldorf pedagogy and Montessori pedagogy.I have closely studied these pedagogies, read the literature from existing research and also by conducting two interviews with a representative from each pedagogy Both pedagogies claim that their teaching methods are most suitable for children with reading and writing difficulties..The Waldorf pedagogy was founded in 1919 in Germany by Rudolf Steiner. The pedagogy believes in the development of the students into independent children who can use their bodies as a tool for the learning of knowledge. The Montessori pedagogy was also founded in the beginning of the nineteenth century and stands for developing the students into independent individuals. However, the pedagogical approach to reading, writing and dyslexia is different.

The purpose of this thesis is to study to what extent the UN millennium development goals have influenced Sweden?s development policy. The research method that I have used is a qualitative text analysis and I have studied the ideas in governmental texts and millennium development goals reports from 1995-2008.My hypothesis is that the basic ideas that has symbolized Sweden?s development policy has not changed much since the adoption of the millennium development goals in year 2000. This hypothesis is based on different ideas that the basic perspectives in international development policy are rather constant.My conclusion is that many of the areas that are affected by the millennium development goals already are prioritized areas within Swedish development policy, for example poverty reduction and gender equality.

The aim of this study is to examine the roles of the children?s librarian in a reading aloud context. To reach understanding in this subject, we have conducted interviews with four Swedish librarians working in public libraries whom are involved with reading aloud practices. Previous research shows that the reasons for reading aloud in libraries are diverse and plentiful. Such reasons can be to spread cultural experiences, help children develop their language skills and promote the library to the public.

The aim of the study was to examine the reading ability of adultswith intellectual and/or communicative disabilities. The group adults withintellectual and/or communicative disabilities consisted of 66 individuals.One control group consisting of 36 children aged 7 to 12 years and onereference group consisting of 14 adults were used. Participants were given anumber of language and reading related tests. Adults with intellectual and/orcommunicative disabilities had significantly lower results than the adultreference group regarding all tests and significantly lower results than thechild control group regarding phonological processing. There was nodifference between adults with intellectual and/or communicative disabilitiesand the child comparison group regarding word decoding and readingcomprehension.

In this essay, I will look at three different Compulsory comprehensive schools in one community and I will compare final grades from students who graduated in spring 2006. I will also examine how the three schools work with students, and in what way they approach students with dyslexia/reading- and writing difficulties, so that they could reach goals set by The Swedish National Agency for Education. The aim with this essay is to show differences between schools in the same community and my question is if it is the way you approach students with dyslexia/reading- and writing difficulties that affects the student?s grades and results.The study is concentrating on three schools in one community and students with dyslexia and reading- and writing difficulties that went to those schools. I have spoken to remedial teacher at each school about how they approach students with dyslexia/reading- and writing difficulties, what kind of methods the use, how they investigate if a student is in need of special help and how they grade their students who are in need of special teaching because of their learning disabilities.

The aim of this study is to look at how librarians express theirpart in reading groups organized by public libraries. Thestudy is based on interviews with seven public librarians insouth regions of Sweden. The main theory used to analyse isfound in the article Bibliotekaren som litteraturformidler(1994) written by the Norwegian librarian Jofrid KarnerSmidt, where she talks about five different roles that alibrarian can have in this context and how they appear. Threeof these roles were used in this study: the pedagogue, theliterature expert and the marketer.The interviewed librarians mostly had a similar view on howthey look at their role in the reading group. They saw theirpurpose as to provide all kinds of people with a possibility tojoin in discussions about mutual interests and share variousopinions about books.

International reading comprehension studies, like PIRLS and PISA, state that the reading comprehension of Swedish students has decreased significantly since 2000. As a consequence, the National Agency of Education has made reading comprehension teaching a prioritised field in terms of further education for teachers. There has also been a change in Lgr 11, the national curriculum for compulsory school, where it is stated that teaching in reading strategies shall be a part of the central content throughout compulsory school. When the pupils reach upper secondary school level, reading comprehension education is no longer a part of the curriculum. Today, students at upper secondary school for individuals with learning disabilities currently share the same curriculum as the ordinary upper secondary school.

In primary school reading-books in Swedish language is something that students come across early in school and have done ever since the 1800s. After World War II there have been major changes in society. 1962 there was a school reform where the school turned into a nine-year system of compulsory education. That is why it is interesting to see what reading books contain with regard to notions of children, family and class and how the developments have been from the 1950s until the present time. This study aims to analyze and compare the different aspects of how notions of children, family and class are produced in the reading books for primary school for pupils in third grade, between 1950 and 2009.The research questions were:What are the notions of children, family and class in the reading-books?What differences/similarities exist in the reading books from the 1950s to the  recent decades?What could be the reason?I have chosen to apply qualitative text analysis originating in idea analysis.

The aim of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of the syllable as an alternative to the phoneme at the basic reading and writing. This report is based on a qualitative analysis of Håkanstorp school´s approach to the basic reading and writing in class. Their approach to reading and writing is controversial, as it is based on the syllable instead of the phoneme, as usual in the traditional reading and writing. The education result, I have found, is that the syllable leads to a very clear and structured working procedure, which ultimately leads to class teachers being able to work from a diagnostic approach. This structure, with many parts of the course helps educators to clearly follow what level students are at.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to investigate the factors of children?s voluntarily reading in their spare time. We also want to know if the children choose non-fiction books for their voluntarily reading. The method as well as the empirical basis of this study is qualitative, with interviews of twenty-eight children in ages between 9 and 12 years. We conducted nine interviews with 3?4 children in each group.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether the reading promotion project called ?A book?s all sides?, together with the activities of the book-event, can stimulate young people?s reading. The research questions are: How do the project leaders plan and organize activities for the book-event? How do the young people respond to the activities at the book-event? Do the young people get interested in the book which is presented at the book-event? Which connections between Vygotskij?s theory and the activities can be found in the book-event? The theoretical approach is based on Lev Vygotskij?s socio-cultural theory. To answer my research questions I have implemented four qualitative interviews and two interviews with the adult activity leaders and observed a book-event in the classroom.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate in what manner librarians and pedagogues can cooperate in order to help students with reading and writing problems and consequently enhance their information literacy. I aimed to investigate why cooperation between these professions is necessary. Also, I wanted to find out how the general support is on the schools regarding students with reading and writing difficulties, and if the school librarian knows what the special educator can contribute with and vice versa. Lastly, I focused on what knowledge the performers of these professions have about reading and writing difficulties and to what degree their knowledge is based on scientifically proven methods.The two theoretical points of departure are 1) theory of cooperation built upon Louise Limberg?s and Lena Folkesson?s three categories of cooperation 2) and Aidan Chambers?s reading promoting model named the circle of reading.

 The aim of this thesis is to examine men's attitudes towards literature, and how social norms affect their book reading, in order to contribute to the knowledge of why men's book reading is decreasing. This is realized through a discourse analysis of literature recommendations in men's lifestyle magazines.Two magazines, King of Sweden and Magazine Café, are examined through critical discourse analysis. Theories of discourse are combined with theories of gender to explore how gender stereotypes affect men's reading habits.The analysis shows that ideals of masculinity have a great influence on the book recommendations. Social norms, associated with gender, also seem to have significance to whether or not a book is considered suitable for men to read. These are, inter alia, norms of heterosexuality and violence.

För att skapa möjligheter för elever att utveckla sitt språk samt sin läs- och skrivförmåga behöver de goda förebilder. Genom vår utbildning har vi tagit del av hur högläsning möjliggör för läraren att vara en läsande förebild och hur man genom att prata om ord, meningsbyggnad och det skrivna språket kan främja elevers språk-, läs- och skrivutveckling. I vår studie har vi undersökt högläsning som verksamhet i skolans första år genom att identifiera samband mellan vad, när och varför lärare läser högt. Vi har använt oss av en kvalitativ studie där vi genom intervjuer av lärare erhållit den data som ligger till grund för vårt resultat. Av resultatet framkom tre samband mellan vad, när och varför lärare använder högläsning i verksamheten. De rådande sambanden har att göra med de olikheter som visar sig utifrån om högläsning används som integrerad del av undervisningen eller inte.