The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to investigate how diversity takes shape in children?s picture books published in Sweden. Twelve picture books, which touch the aspect of diversity in the categories of gender, ages, culture, nation, ethnicities, language, class, sexuality and functional disorder, were chosen from the Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs catalogue for youth and children?s books 2006. They have been analysed with the conception of ikonotext and with the theory of Pierre Macherey?s image in the mirror, of how literature reflects the reality of society.

The aim of this paper is to investigate and analyze practices in multilingual classrooms of mathematics in a compulsory school in Sweden where immigrant students have been known to succeed. The school is situated in a suburban and segregated area outside a major city where pupils come from mainly limited socio-economic backgrounds. The rate of second language learners are 70% of all pupils in this school.By using ethnographic methods, mainly interviews and participant observation, data was collected in four mathematics classrooms which corresponded to consecutive ages of education. The data include field notes and observation of artifacts in the environment as well as interviews and informal conversations with teachers and school leadership. Information from the school website, the authority in charge of quality in Swedish schools (Skolverket) and the municipality were also used.The analysis is based on a socio-political viewpoint that power is relational and reflected within schools.

ABSTRACTTitle: Cultural dimensions? and their relevance in the interpretation of TV commercialsThe purpose of this study has been to explain the cultural dimensions masculinity versus femininityand individualism versus collectivism and see what their impacts on interpreting commercials are.We also wanted to see if there are any other important aspects to consider when looking at theinterpretation of TV-commercials. To fulfill this purpose we also used this research question:?How are the cultural dimensions relevant when it comes to interpreting TV-commercials?We used a qualitative approach when conducting this study. We found that the dimensionindividualism versus collectivism seemed the most applicable, while the respondents? answers fittedthe best to the highlighted theories.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate whether publiclibraries language cafés can support or enable the empowerment of the participants. Empowerment means that the individuals ability to take control of their own lives is strengthened and that the individual becomes more independent. Empowerment also means that the individual takes part in a community. An important part of this is the language. I have developed two research questions: What forms of empowerment can be seen in the respondents' statements? What role do language cafés play for people from other countries, in terms of empowerment? The thesis empirical material consists of interviews whit five people involved in different languages cafes in public libraries in the city of Malmö.

AbstractThe purpose of the study was to examine if manual signs used as support to spoken and written language can be a god mnemonic for learning of word-pictures. I performed my study as an experiment in which I made a Memory game with word-pictures. I played the game with the children twice. The first time, we played without manual signs and the second time I used sign as a support. I observed the children and noted the words they learned to read with and without the support of manual signs.

The purpose of this study is to gain knowledge about how teachers in preschool regard their participation in children's play. Through this study you will get an insight into how teachers' involvement affects children's learning. I have chosen to look at the study from a socio-cultural perspective.The study is based on qualitative interviews with four pre-school teachers.The result shows that teachers believe that it is important to attend in children's play to support, challenge and develop their play. One sees that teachers take different roles based on the needs of the children?s group, such as actively participate in the play, being a supportive teacher, serve as inspiration or to be an observer.

The name of the study means ?The short arm - a study in diversity and arm?s length in the cultural collaboration model?. Right now there is a reform in the Swedish cultural administration where the responsibility for handing out state funds and grants to cultural organizations is changing from the state government to the local regional governments. The purpose of this study is to map the organisational changes caused by the reform and investigate how this affects the regional policies concerning cultural diversity and the arm?s length principle.

In previous studies there has been indications that multilingualism has a delaying effect of the onset of dementia and damage on cognitive abilities (Bialystok et al., 2007; De Bot & Makoni, 2005, s. 58). Cognitive abilities refers to memory, attention, language, abstract thinking and understandings among other things (Läkemedelsverket). Other studies have seen that individuals with Alzheimer's disease (Swedish abbreviation AS from here on) have difficulties with managing a conversation (Hyltenstam & Stroud 1989). This study aims to describe the topic treatment in bilingual individuals with AS and compare their different languages.

Klimatförändringar och andra miljöproblem kan i framtiden komma att innebära stora påfrestningar på städer. Socio-ekologisk resiliens är ett sätt att förstå motståndskraft och förändring hos sociala och ekologiska system. För att göra städer mer motståndskraftiga för yttre och inre störningar har ett socio-ekologiskt resiliensförhållningssätt till planering ansetts givande. Konceptet socio-ekologisk resiliens kan också betraktas som en brygga mellan social hållbarhet och ekologisk hållbarhet.Denna uppsats undersöker ifall det finns uttryck för socio-ekologisk resiliens i svenska kommuners strategiska planering och om det finns strategier i kommunerna för att binda ihop social hållbarhet med ekologisk hållbarhet. Genom studier av teoretisk litteratur kring socio-ekologisk resiliens har fyra utgångspunkter för en planering för socio-ekologisk resiliens tagits fram och med hjälp av dessa fyra utgångspunkter analyseras nio kommunala översiktsplaner.Planerna har valts ut för att spegla ett genomsnitt av svenska kommuner.

The purpose of this master's thesis is to find out what support students of Swedish for Immigrants (sfi) think they get from the public library during their study of the Swedish language. One important aspect in this essay is to examine whether the library can meet the need of Swedish-speaking meeting places where the sfi-students can practise their new language. The method used in this study is qualitative interviews. Nine sfi-students, one sfiteacher and one librarian have been interviewed. A sociocultural perspective on learning has served as a theoretical starting point.

The main purpose of this study was to examine how preschool teachers are working to promote each child's language development and whether they can ensure that they do that. Therefore I wanted to find out what a good language development implies for each teacher, how they work to promote each child's language development in daily practice, how they measure the actual language development and also what conditions the teachers have, to engage in a language development way to work. For the study, I chose a qualitative method, with structured interviews and all together I interviewed six preschool teachers, within the same organization in a suburb close to Stockholm.  The results showed that there is an ambiguity, among the preschool teachers, in what a good language development means, but it can be stated that they do have a language development way to work even if it needs to be developed. Further on, it has emerged that the teachers have the tools to measure children's language development, although they do not have the conditions yet to use the method to the fullest. About the preschool teachers own conditions in order to operate in a language development way to work, I concluded that they have a strong foundation to build on, but they still have much work ahead of them.

This essay aims to map the ideas behind the Swedish cultural reform called Kultursamverkansmodellen, and how the ideas are forming a discourse. Furthermore it examines the social praxis on the three levels that constitutes the model. The three levels are the state, the region and culture creators/civil society. This is a qualitative study based on primary and secondary sources collected on the three levels. The theoretical frame of reference is based on institutional theory, on Michel Foucault?s lecture on The Discourse of Language, and on New Public Management.

The purpose of my study is to contribute with knowledge about three teachers? view on the possibilities and difficulties to support students with intellectual disabilities insocial interaction.to get answers to my research questions in the analysis I have in my qualitative study used the theory of Fleck's model about thinking styles rooted in a socio-cultural perspective. In the study, I have used semi-structured interviews. My study shows that teacher?s way of thinking affect students' opportunities to practice social interaction. An important finding in the study was that the school management?s attitude, is of great importance for educator?s opportunities to support the students with intellectual disability in social interactions.

The Division of Language and Communication at Chalmers uses a web-based language tool, named EngOnline, to teach English grammar. The language tool suffers from some shortcomings. These include stability problems and an outdated interface but, above all, there is no documentation. Because of the lack of documentation and EngOnline?s need of maintenance, the Division of Language and Communication has decided to replace the language tool with a new and well documented one.The new language tool was developed using an agile work process; detailed documentation was replaced with more efficient communication.

This research shows and analyses how pupils in ninth grade in the nine-year compulsory school look at being multilingual, at the Swedish language and at Swedish as a second language. I also want to know if language and culture knowledge are taken care of in school as it says in official documents for the Swedish school and as it also is desired in an intercultural education. For my research I do eight interviews in a suburb school south of Stockholm.My work includes a limited account for the current research about being multilingual, Swedish as a second language and about the close relationship between language and culture. The applied theory is a social constructivist theory which in short can be explained like that we construct social structures that have consequences on the individual as well as on the society.I show in my research how the view of the world around the pupils influences their view on their languages, their school and their neighbourhood. I also draw conclusions from my interviews that language knowledge is little appreciated in school and that Swedish as a second language has a low status..