The South African nation and society have experienced significant changes and reforms over the last decade. Less than ten years ago black and white people were not even allowed to share a bench in a park. Today they are expected to live side by side in what is called a"Rainbow Nation". When a new society is built language plays an important part. The language constantly reproduces daily the small things that identify a nation and the people living in it.

This essay captures the process toward a democratic transition in South Africa and tempts on analyzing the efforts made by civil society before the negotiation with the government in the beginning of the 90´s. The method used is a case study.By applying the theory of Elisabeth Jean Wood about the importance of continued mobilization, I try to answer the question: to what extend did civil society influence the democratization process. The focus of the study lies on the years of intensified popular mobilization, from the start of the 80´s until the beginning of the 90´s.The results following this study shows that COSATU, Congress of South African Trade Unions) and ANC(African National Congress) played both a crucial role for the democratization process in South Africa. UDF, however played a role in the process, but not in the same significant way that COSATU and ANC..

This thesis is intended to respond to the extent to which South African textbooks on the subject of history is linked to the governmental policy documents and whether they are producing and reproducing national identity. The two textbooks are aimed at students in grade 10. Both books were produced in 2008 but published by different publishers.The essay is based on Norman Faircloughs critical discourse theory which has been supplemented by Michael Billings theory Banal Nationalism, which assumes that it is the national words that remind us daily of our homeland that is producing and reproducing national identity.  The survey shows that both textbooks are closely tied to the government policy document for the teaching of history. The textbooks refer to the policy, both explicitly and implicitly. The two textbooks reproduce a common national identity in South Africa based on the discussions taking place in society.

This bachelor thesis is a study of the European Union as a role model in the world. Its main focus is to answer the question ?In what respects did the European Union (EU) work as a model at the establishment of the African Union (AU) and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR)?? By doing so it hopes to shed some light on how other unions in the world contemplate the EU. The method is partly theoretical and partly empirical. In the theoretical part, the thesis discusses in what respects the African Union and the Union of South American Nations might and might not be similar to the European Union.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate some aspects of teaching environmental issues, as they are manifested in another culture. In this paper, I will discuss how you teach environmental issues, how the teaching environment is formed, and what an environmental issue means to a South African teacher, as well as, if there are any cultural aspects to what an environmental issue is. Seven observations were made and qualitative interviews with four teachers teaching Life Science in Cradock, South Africa - The results showed that these South African teachers, independent from each other, followed a similar pattern in their teachings. These patterns contain gathering information concerning environmental issues in the immediate surroundings, as well as using the text book and teaching environmental issues through lectures. It was not possible to draw a conclusion about the cultural aspects in association to environmental issues.

This thesis is intended to respond to the extent to which South African textbooks on the subject of history is linked to the governmental policy documents and whether they are producing and reproducing national identity. The two textbooks are aimed at students in grade 10. Both books were produced in 2008 but published by different publishers.The essay is based on Norman Faircloughs critical discourse theory which has been supplemented by Michael Billings theory Banal Nationalism, which assumes that it is the national words that remind us daily of our homeland that is producing and reproducing national identity.  The survey shows that both textbooks are closely tied to the government policy document for the teaching of history. The textbooks refer to the policy, both explicitly and implicitly. The two textbooks reproduce a common national identity in South Africa based on the discussions taking place in society.

The purpose of this essay is to study if and how five South African educators work with music as a special pedagogical tool in children's language development. To achieve the purpose of this study, two research questions were created. As method, interviews of a qualitative character were chosen.  The aim of the method is to give the educators the opportunity to think about and use their own experience before answering the questions.The result shows that the South African educators are not using music as a special educational tool. They rather use music as an everyday educational tool to promote children's language development. The result indicates that music in educational activities promotes children?s communication with each other.

The purpose of this essay is to study the film culture in South Africa in a national cinema-context, focusing on the relationship between anti-apartheid film from 1974-1994 and the film in South Africa today. By pitching the South Africa-specific works of Lucia Saks and Jacqueline Maingard against the over-arching debate on national cinema as formulated by, amongst others, Stephen Crofts and Andrew Higson, this study aims to find whether or not a specific South African national cinema have existed, and exists today, or not. The study finds that an underground culture of documentaries and short films made by and for the black population has been in place since the apartheid, and the distribution method on video and television is still being used to reach the black population today. By re-examining the concepts of both the national, and of national cinema to also include film on video and television, the study shows that South Africa has indeed a film culture that can be called a national cinema..

The purpose of this essay is to study the film culture in South Africa in a national cinema-context, focusing on the relationship between anti-apartheid film from 1974-1994 and the film in South Africa today. By pitching the South Africa-specific works of Lucia Saks and Jacqueline Maingard against the over-arching debate on national cinema as formulated by, amongst others, Stephen Crofts and Andrew Higson, this study aims to find whether or not a specific South African national cinema have existed, and exists today, or not. The study finds that an underground culture of documentaries and short films made by and for the black population has been in place since the apartheid, and the distribution method on video and television is still being used to reach the black population today. By re-examining the concepts of both the national, and of national cinema to also include film on video and television, the study shows that South Africa has indeed a film culture that can be called a national cinema..

This work has been to find out what attitude the boys have towards dancing. To gather material conducted interviews with four boys from Sweden and four boys from South Africa to examine the boy?s attitude towards dancing. I wanted answers if the gender, culture or generation has an effect on the boys' attitude to dance. Two interviews were made with a teacher in Sweden and one in South Africa, which had responsibility for dance lessons at the school.

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the care providers' experiences in enabling communionship and solitude in daily living for elderly living in old age homes in a South African context. Method: This study was done using a qualitative analysing method, with empirical data obtained from nursing staff of elderly. The study was phenomenological which aims at deepen the understanding of human experiences as phenomenon. The data was collected by using a groupinterview which included five informants from an old age home in Pretoria. The analysis included two steps; Naive reading and structural analysis in order to transform the individual elucidations into an abstract which had no individual touch.

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the care providers' experiences in enabling communionship and solitude in daily living for elderly living in old age homes in a South African context. Method: This study was done using a qualitative analysing method, with empirical data obtained from nursing staff of elderly. The study was phenomenological which aims at deepen the understanding of human experiences as phenomenon. The data was collected by using a groupinterview which included five informants from an old age home in Pretoria. The analysis included two steps; Naive reading and structural analysis in order to transform the individual elucidations into an abstract which had no individual touch.

In the thesis we discuss South African teachers? conceptions of democracy in general and school democracy in particular. The essay is based on interviews with twelve teachers, working in South African high schools. We have asked questions concerning different views of democracy, such as what the term means to the teachers and how they define a democratic school. We take our stand in different theoretical approaches such as school being the ultimate link between a state and its people to make the citizens think and act democratically.

This study is about assessment, in particular formative assessment also called assessment for learning. The purpose of this study is to investigate Swedish and South African primary school teachers? views and ideas about this didactic tool. The motives for this investigation are based on the fact that correct used formative assessment supports pupils? learning process and the fact that there are few researches made about this subject in Sweden.

The theory of ?security communities? is generally understood as ?dependable expectations of peaceful change? between groups and whether or not the African Union can be said to meet that criteria has been contested in the research community. One of the central disagreements lie in the nature of the region?s conflicts, of which a majority are intrastate but with tendencies of transnational involvement. This paper seeks to understand how extensive this involvement is and how it affects the possibility of classifying the African Union as a security community.