Since studies points out declining interest in science among students in Swedish schools, I have in this paper chosen to examine how some students at the Social Science Programme are experiencing the lessons in Natural Science and how to make lessons more interesting according to these students.The purpose of this study was to gain a greater understanding of how teachers would develop new perspectives and tools to make lessons in Natural Science more interesting. I also wanted to investigate whether an intercultural perspective could be a possible tool to increase students? interest and motivation.As a theoretical framework, I have assumed Vygotskij's sociocultural perspective, Habermas's theory of deliberative conversations and an intercultural perspective. Through a qualitative approach, I conducted interviews with students and teachers. The main results showed that students felt that natural Science lessons were too theoretical and undemocratic and that they wanted to have more student interactions, such as discussions and group works.

The purpose of this study was to examine how SOS Children's Villages as an organization in Swaziland is affected by, and takes into account, the cultural, organizational and societal context in which it acts. Material was gathered through a field study during one month in one of the three SOS Children's Villages in Swaziland. The study has a qualitative approach and is based on the result from 12 semi-structured interviews with village mothers and other representatives from the organization. The other representatives were: social worker, program director, child and youth development coordinator, board member and educational manager. Since this study is both characterized by a specific historical, cultural and organizational context, we decided to connect the postcolonial perspective with an organization theory with focus on the concepts of culture, power and a children?s right perspective.

This study concerns art education, and the importance of creativity in learning. The objective is to examine the use of art education in practice, and the school teacher?s position on this practice.The theoretical basis of the study is rooted in a Socio-cultural perspective, and concerns the relationships between theoretical concepts as learning, knowledge and art education.The investigation is qualitative and the main research methods are participant observations and structured interviews.The group studied in this investigation consisted of five active educators, who work at different schools and make use of art-based methods in their daily work.My results show that teachers believe that art education can be used by schools as a gateway to the other subjects. Art is regarded as a form of understanding through which pupils explore their surroundings, challenge their ideas and build skills through interaction with others..

The object of this thesis is to direct attention onto female inmates who is a disregarded user group within the discipline of library and information sciences. This study has been performed on location at the Hinseberg correctional institution where nine female criminal offenders constitute the empirical foundation of our inquiry. The question proposed for solution is as follows: Is there a correlation between socio-cultural prerequisites and the reading habits of the female inmates - and if so how can it be described? Among the conclusions that we have drawn from our study is that the socio-cultural environment has an influence on the well-being of the inmates which in its turn has an impact on their reading. However, the effects on their mental state vary and consequently so does also their reading.

The interactive whiteboard (IWB) is to be found in many classrooms in Sweden, and its number is growing rapidly. There is a lack of research of the use of the IWB in Sweden. The Swedish National Agency for Education refers to English research where the investment in the IWB in school is huge. In this study I will investigate how the IWB can be used as a mediating tool in the learning process. My study examines how interaction pattern appears when the teacher teaches with the IWB as a tool.

Cultural organizations set on capitalizing on artistic ideas are subject to an industry specific economic condition that requires a balance of art and commerce; two opposites reflecting credibility and non-credibility. Hence, commercialization of the cultural industries implies non-credibility in an industry insisting on symbolizing the opposite.This study aims to demonstrate how cultural industries can attract a wide audience, while maintaining credibility. This is done through the perspective of folksiness since its context indicates the existence of credible commercialism.The study demonstrate that credible commercialism is part of folksiness and is possible thanks to the folksiness context that 1) utilizes attributes that balance and disarm "negative attributes" creating an atmosphere of acceptance and 2) meets the consumer's need fulfilment of identity through individualism and belonging, and 3) contains attributes that increases loyalty..

The purpose of this study was to explore students' and teachers' experiences of the new pedagogical teaching tool, interactive whiteboard, which have gained increased popularity and wide spread usage in the classrooms. An observation during a mathematical lecture was conducted as a pilot study prior to the main research method of phenomenology; based on students? self-descriptions and interviews with two teachers, this methodological approach was used to investigate the subject matter. The interpretation, comparison and analysis of the results surrounding this new teaching method is explained by two theories, constructivism and Socio-cultural perspective. The information shared by the students and teachers have been broken down into four categories: enjoyment & interest, practical, insight and no different.

The following essay aims at the interplay between regional och municipal growth work, and theway cultural heritage is used in growth work strategies. The main issue has been whether theregional strategies are followed up in the municipal strategies, which has been investigated bymeans of question which impact the region?s strategies has at the local level.The essay draws upon an instrumental perspective on cultural heritage and cultural environment,here defined as instruments in the national development and growth efforts. Three publicationsthat highlights potential roles of cultural heritage and cultural environment to act as instrumentsin the regional and municipal development and growth efforts has thereby been selected astheoretical models. These roles has further been summarized in a tabular form as a schematicdivision of main themes with sub-categories, used as a framework for deciphering the regionaland municipal strategies.A content analysis of available strategies at both regional and local levels have been used as amethod for investigating the issue, where the role of cultural heritage and cultural environment(as defined in the schematic table) has guided the reading.

The purpose of the study is to examine the multilingual student?s use of IT in school.The study also highlights the teacher?s view of development and how they use IT in their own teaching.A qualitative approach study was conducted to acquire a deeper understanding of students' language learning by using IT. In the study, it was assumed Socio-cultural perspective in which learning takes place through interaction with others.The result shows that multilingual students have difficulty understanding information available on the internet and they are either waiting to meet a teacher to get a clearer picture of what to do or doing tasks even though in some cases misunderstand the task. Language teachers also confirm student?s impression and at the same time express the concern that students are reading less.This study shows that there may be correlation between students' learning motivation and an understanding of instructions online.

The study seeks to investigate and understand how individuals create their identity from the perspective of two countries and cultures, and how these affect their current lives today. The focus of the study is aimed at young adults who have mostly or entirely grown up in Sweden to parents that have migrated. The material is based on seven qualitative, semi-structured interviews. The result is then divided into three themes; ethnic and cultural belonging, life impact, and the preservation and passing on of culture. The derivation of the first theme is that there are mixed views regarding the cultural association of the persons interviewed.

Mathematics is a central topic in today?s society. There are many different approaches each teacher has their own way. In this essay, I compare four teachers? mathematics teaching in two different countries with regard to ways of learning, particularly in the four operations.

The purpose of this essay is to illustrate how and why teachers in New Zealand use portfoliosas a part of their teaching. The purpose is also to investigate if, and in that case how, a sociocultural perspective on learning can be shown through the work with portfolios. Toinvestigate this we have made a case study in New Zealand where we interviewed sixteachers. The result of the investigation shows that our teachers use portfolios in both asummative and a formative way. In a summative way to gather what the children have done inschool, and in a formative way to help the students to assess what they have done, how theyhave done it and what they are going to do next.

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.

The purpose of this study is to gain insight of four preschool teacher?s perspectives and reasoning in two different local if they working to counteract exclusion. The questions this study assumes are: How does the teachers in preschool reason about how they working against exclusion of children with diagnosis in the free game, if there are? How does the teachers reasoning about their methods and personal strategies they uses to include children with diagnosis in the free game, if they are excluded? How does the teachers reasoning about the diagnosis effect of these children?s social interaction with other children if the diagnosis became their identity? The method in this study to collect material about the teacher´s perspective on the subject is semi-structured interviews. The collected material has been analyzed and interpreted from a Socio-cultural perspective.

This paper examines how remedial teachers and subject teachers in two secondary schools talk about pupils with special education needs (SEN) both in general, and more specifically about boys and girls who need special education. The study is based on 6 interviews with teachers in two secondary schools in the Stockholm area. In the analysis of the interviews, two different theories have been used. Firstly, the teachers´ speech has been analyzed based on three perspectives; a compensatory-, a critical- and a dilemma perspective (see Nilholm, 2007). Secondly, discourse analysis has been used to examine how the teachers in the study talk about boys and girls in the special education.