AbstractThere is a lot of confusion when it comes to defining Special Education. An example of this appears here by a statement from Assarson (2007) "Special Education initiates a special pedagogy, but contains no innate sense of what is the special component in it" (p. 52, authors? translation). This study is an attempt to clarify the elements of the concept.

My essay is concerned with intercultural leadership and practical knowledge. The essay is about ethical dilemmas and the diversity of issues we face constantly at the preschool. In my story I examine the different views of knowledge and the opportunities to lead people in an intercultural way, and how they relate to each other. I start by looking at the ethical ideas that form the basis for our actions and our view of knowledge. Then, I examine how the practical wisdom guides the ethical dilemmas that arise at the preschool.

AbstractA Problem to Every SolutionThe Corrymeela Community, René Girard and the ambiguous pluralismThe main purpose of this study is to examine how Girard´s ideas of society, culture andreligion have become part of the reflexion in the praxis of Corrymeela Community through the work of Roel Kaptein and how this praxis can shed light over the work with dissonances of faith and values in education in RE, Social Studies and other subjects.In earlier publications I have studied how dissonances of faith and values can beunderstood in educational settings and in connection with issues of interreligious dialogue.The extensive discussion of how differences in culture, religion and value in a pluralisticsociety are to be analysed and treated in pedagogical reflexion seems to increasingly occupyactors in different parts of the educational system. It is obvious that these issues also arebrought into focus as an important field of research. My main interest in this paper is to study how a reconciliation group in the middle of the conflict in Northern Ireland has developed a view of conflict reason and conflict resolution under the influence of the French researcher René Girard and what aspects of this study that can improve the reflection over pluralism and dissonances of faith and values in everyday praxis in education.For a period of more than a decade I have been in contact with actors in the peace process inNorthern Ireland in connection to different educational projects. The attempts to analyse the different aspects of ?The Troubles? and the efforts to find ways out of conflicts and civil war are many and the literature on subjects related to these tragic history of social, cultural and religious conflicts is difficult to survey.

The aim of this master's thesis is to study how the design of the music library space affects how it is used and its role as an arena for culture. This is done in form of a case study of Library 10 in Helsinki, a public library branch that specializes in music and information technology. The backdrop to the study is the changing context for cultural activity in the information society and the role of public libraries as public space and meeting place. By analyzing the distribution of space in the library, the distribution of functions and artefacts and the spatial use of the room, I interpret the ways in which this distributional logic produces a unique place for music and culture. I discuss the music library design in a space and place perspective, utilizing theoretical tools from cultural geography and the space theories of Henri Lefebvre.

The contents of the school subject religion in Sweden, has gone through a radical change during the past century. With an origin of only treating Christianity and being a major cultural and social actor, it has developed into more of a multicultural and philosophical subject. The fact that the subject no longer has cultural recognition makes it more abstract and harder for students to relate to. Additionally, religion is experienced as a rather dull subject in school. My essay is therefore written to provide teachers encouragement of interest for religious education, by using humor. The well-known psychologist Jean Piaget claims play to be a prime state of learning.

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The aim of this study is to fill the gap in mathematics education research concerning the relationship between identity and positioning in mathematical collaboration in groups. This study elaborates on the relationship between how pupils see themselves as math students in sixth grade, how they show their identities as math students, in contrast to how they position themselves reflexively in group collaboration while engaging in mathematical problem solving. The theoretical concepts linked to this study are discourse, identity and positioning. Discourse is used to describe and form the setting and context of the study. Identity is seen as a transient and elusive concept formed by the students own perceptions of self through narratives.

The explosion of information technology has given users direct access to an ocean of information. Increased availability puts increasing demands on the ability of students and researchers to search for, filter, and structure information. In response, the role of the research library has shifted from being primarily an information resource to being an educational resource with a focus on teaching users what is known as information literacy. This thesis is a study of user-education at the Karolinska Institute Library KIB, the largest medical library in the Nordic countries. KIB has invested significant resources in developing user-education, and has a full-time user-education developer and a formal pedagogical platform for user-education.

My study is about how parents talk to their children about alcohol. The purpose of my study was to study how young teenagers communicate with their parents about alcohol. I also wanted to find out if parents have any influence over their children's choice of drinking. I have chosen to look at these questions from the perspective that alcohol is a cultural phenomenon, that children is a part of a family system and that alcohol can be viewed as a part of the children's liberation from their parents. I used a qualitative research method and interviewed five young teenagers, who are students at upper secondary schools ("gymnasium" in Swedish) in Lund, they where all under 18 years old.

The purpose of this work has been to explore what ecosystem services a small green area in an urban environment can offer and whether specific trees can be used to maximize regulatory ecosystem services in a cultural-historical environment. Additionally, it investigates whether there is any difference in ecosystem services depending on whether these trees, or trees that better fit into the cultural-historical environment, are used. Through simulations and comparisons with existing trees in Pommerska tomten, Mariestad, Sweden, a pocket park within a national interest area, different hypothetical tree planting options are analyzed and evaluated. To measure ecosystem services, the website My-Tree, developed by the US equivalent of the Department of Agriculture, was used. By inputting data about the tree, such as location, species, vitality, stem diameter, and solar exposure, My-Tree calculates some of the ecosystem services the tree provides.

We wanted to study if and how students become motivated and stimulated towards a permanent interest for regular physical activity, from a pedagogical perspective. Our goal was to examine how physical education teachers create motivation for the students and how you, as a physical education teacher, can motivate those students who are physically inactive due to obesity or other various kinds of problems. In the theoretical background, we have made a summary of sports and development of the physical education subject over the years. We also describe society´s perspective on public health. The motivation concept is definded and we explain different motivational theories.

This thesis analyses how romanies look upon schooling and how they reflect upon the possibility of getting an education. Many inquiries relating to romanies have been published in Sweden but very few are based on fieldwork among romanies. The aim of this thesis is therefore to through fieldwork focus on how romanies themselves look upon their educational situation.The main questions for this study are: How is the image of romanies as a problem constructed in school? How are romanies separated from other students? How is the interplay between romanies and school representatives formed? How do romanies look upon the possibility of getting an education and does their perception differ from the usual official apprehension?An important conclusion concerns how social workers and teachers continuously categorize romanies as different. The group is constantly differentiated from other ethnic groups and is often the target of integration projects.

The main purpose of this study was to examine how social work can be performed online, by a case study of Korrespondensgymnasiet that pursues distance education. The intention was to determine the possibilities and limits with the online communication between the school counsellor and the pupils. The study was based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with one school counsellor and five pupils and document analysis of three descriptions of the school counsellor?s profession. The theory that has been used in this study is the communication theory: Shannon and Weaver?s Model of Communication and non-verbal communication.

The aim of this study is to have a deeper understanding about the motivations and the obstacles of an immigrant?s language learning. I have studied the problem with focus on integration and language learning. The study is principally based on deep interviews with Turkish immigrants. I have studied the question by means of a socio-cultural perspective of learning; Mead?s conceptions I, Me and the generalised other; Scheff?s conception, the social bonds and Freire?s conception, dialog and Asplund?s conception social responsiveness.

This Mag. thesis discusses how a gender perspective could be implemented in themanagement of cultural heritage focusing on the built environments in Sweden.The thesis further argues for the need of a gender perspective on the conservationof cultural heritage.The two main approaches, additive through the perspective of the women?s part inhistory and integrated gender perspective, are thoroughly presented in the thesis.In the additive gender approach built objects that represent women?s experiencesand lives are added to a history that traditionally represents men and theirexperiences. The integrated gender perspective includes a gender in all activitiesas an instrument in a historic analysis. The gender perspective illustrates therelation between the sexes.