The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether the lower secondary school teaching in religion leads to a positive understanding and openness, concerning different religions and cultures. We want to study how pupils in grade eight and nine in two lower secondary schools in a multicultural community comprehend different religions. Since we choose a pupils perspective we decided to do a questionnaire to get a wide ground. As a complement we interviewed twelve pupils and also did observations during their religion classes. During our study we focused on three different themes.

The aim of this study is to analyze how problems are represented within SOU 2008:27. Further more, the aim is to analyze how the new subject plan for history can bee seen as a product of this document. The method used, and the theoretical frame of the study, is based on Carol Lee Bacchi?s ?what´s the problem represented to be?? approach, which basic principle is that policies are filled with representations of problems and that these representations need to be examined. These problem representations are then themselves subject for scrutiny, the second step being an analysis of the texts presumptions and assumptions concerning view of man and perception of knowledge. The results show, among other things, that a problem representations can be found in the SOU; the school system is too vague and unclear.

This thesis aims to develop a theory in the under researched field of international comparative cultural policy studies. lt does so by combining theories from the fields of political scienceand cultural studies, researching how and to what extent the concepts of culture of different states have an impact on the way cultural policies are constructed.The thesis uses this theoretical development in order to research a specific problem, namely the perceived possibility that Swedish and German cultural structures are slowly converging. Two recent official policy documents from each country are the objects of study. Through comparative idea analysis and with Michiel S. D Vries theories on decentralization, the thesis explains the convergence between the countries by differing cultural views between them.

Title: From preschool to preschool in school ? Expectations between parents, teachers and childrenAuthor: Maria Rask GradinMentor: Niclas JärvkloTerm: Spring 2012 AbstractThe aim of this study is to draw attention to the expectations between parents, children and teachers at preschools and teachers in the preschool in the school at the transition to preschool in the school. I also want to know how the mission is defined, and how it is met. Two preschools and two preschool in the school are the focus of my investigation. I interviewed teachers and parents, sent surveys to parents, observed children playing school and interviewed children about their thoughts and expectations for the preschool in the school there.The survey results show that all parties, except perhaps the children who did not express an opinion thereon, wants better cooperation between the preschool and school.

The purpose of this Bachelor's thesis is to study the reasoning behind classification, cataloging and shelf arrangement of nonfiction graphic novels in public libraries. The aim was to examine which aspects of accessibility influence in which collection nonfiction graphic novels are placed.With qualitative semi-structured interviews we learned how six librarians motivated their choices concerning nonfiction graphic novels. We also interviewed a cataloger from Bibliotekstjänst to examine how nonfiction graphic novels are classified. In our analysis we compared our results to theories and practices concerning alternative shelf arrangements in libraries and legitimization of graphic novels. We found three types of shelf arrangements for nonfiction graphic novels: graphic novel shelf, nonfiction classification code and a mix of the two.

The aim of this study is to analyze the process of an agenda setting and see how a specific issue came to materialize on the security policy agenda. The empirical goal of the study is to see why Sweden chose to participate in the EU-led operation to Chad, and how that process came to be? The analysis is based upon Kingdon's multiple streams theory (2003) where he distinguishes the process into three streams. Central for his theory is the coupling of these streams and the importance of a policy entrepreneur. I complement Kingdon's theory of policy entrepreneurs by taking inspiration from Hinnfors (1995), Gustavsson (1999) and especially Eriksson (2000) and their analysis of policy change and agenda setting.

The overall purpose of this essay is to study in which degree the democratic model that is called participant democracy works in the Swedish municipalities. To achieve what I set out to do I will focus on a central political area in which the Swedish municipalities has sovereignty versus the state, in other words in an area where they rule themselves. That political area will then represent how well the participant democracy works in the Swedish municipalities. The research questions then becomes:Does the participant democracy at Swedish Municipality level work in a satisfying way?Does the participant democracy in a large Swedish Municipality in a central political area work?Does the participant democracy in a small Swedish Municipality in a central political area work?Are there similarities and differences between the municipalities?If so, how can that be explained?To answer these questions I will study documents regarding the planning and building area.

This thesis, entitled The Headmaster and the Music, is based on interviews with four headmasters, who are all working in the Swedish compulsory school. The purpose is to investigate how they view music, both in general and as a school subject. Since the research on this topic is scarce, the study can be described as explorative.The result shows that the headmasters? personal experiences have an impact on the way they view music. Four different focus points on music in school have emerged from the material, and these represent the four very different views that each headmaster holds.

The following study is a discourse analysis of the concept of critical thinking within pre-school teacher education. It considers the following questions: how does the concept of critical thinking appear in policy documents, central to the pre-school teacher education, and which possible conceptions of critical thinking are conveyed by students and teachers active within the education. Additionally, the study seeks to discuss, as well as suggest a possible relation, between the findings of those two questions. In reviewing the material (consisting of five semi-structured interviews with students and teachers, and of a selection of policy documents central to the education), I argue the existence of a sort of project within the education, which presents critical thinking as a higher value. At the same time, I argue that the concept is not defined or concretized. This project, however, as I suggest while drawing upon Foucault?s ideas of discourse and government, involves a rather high degree of control.

This thesis is a case study that examines what political decisions have been taken and how these policies have been implemented. Further this thesis discusses how legitimacy of local policy makers and implementors is affected. The subject studied have been the social service of Jönköping municipality and the intervention of safe-housing aimed at women who have been, or are subject to violence by person close to them. In our study we have examined local policy within the territory of the intervention and how this policy is implemented. A qualitative method with semi-structured interviews was used in combination with quantitative methods to examine protocols from the social welfare board and an action program named "Skydd och stöd för misshandlade kvinnor och deras barn? [Protection and support for abused women and their children].The purpose of this study has been to highlight how the social services implemented the local policy of safe-house accommodation in Jönköping municipality from the legitimacy and discretion perspectives.

The aim of this study is about how school librarians useweblogs as a working tool. I wanted to examine how someschool librarians use weblogs as a working tool and why theyare using them. I also wanted to know the advantages anddisadvantages they see with this tool. I believe that children andteenagers are interested in social media- tools and also are bigusers and consumers of these tools. Therefore I thought it mightbe interesting to examine how school librarians who havechildren and young people as their main target group, work withweblogs which is one of many social media tools.The methodology used for this study is interviews.

Fiscal policy and its consequences have attracted much attention on both academic and societal level, in Sweden and elsewhere. However, the dependence between fiscal policy on municipality level and business cycles has only recently sparked a debate among Swedish economists. Studies point out that a law which came to force in 2000, balanskravet, may have caused municipalities to lower expenditures, alternatively raising taxes, during recessions. This thesis examines how the level of municipality taxes depends on business cycle fluctuations and the impact that balanskravet has had on this correlation. We employ econometric regressions, with annual data covering the period 1980-2014, to enable an analysis of the dependence between taxes and business cycles, both before and after the introduction of balanskravet.

Aim: To examine director?s experiences of the process to implement smoke-free working hours and also their need of support to make it feasible in the municipality of Östhammar. Method: A qualitative interview study with a descriptive design was used. Semi-structured interviews were made with six directors who were selected from different levels, localities and administrations in the municipality of Östhammar. A qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data.Results: Many positive aspects were pointed out regarding the implementation of smoke-free working hours.

The purpose with this essay is to study how children in the fifth grade experience reading in three different reading cultures; library, home and in school. The children?s experiences from reading are compared to expectations from library and school.Data, to this study, is collected through qualitative interviews in two focus groups and analyzed by using an idea analysis. The INSU-model, Information Needs, Seeking and Use, and Aidan Chambers reading circle in combination with a triangle of the three reading cultures are used as a theoretical framework. The analysis shows that children are using reading for different purposes in different reading cultures.

This study draws from Zygmunt Bauman´s theory that a governmental policy of values can reduce the personal responsibility and moral choices for employees, to focus only on maintaining the government?s internal rules and regulations. The apparent risk with this type of moral attenuation is that the employee is deprived of the possibility to react morally on conduct of the government?s external misuse of power. In this study, this theory is connected to the Swedish Armed Forces? policy of values, as these values do not include a critical standpoint for officers and soldiers.