Democracy is now a legitimate claim not only in the society but even in the classrooms. According to the 1994 Curriculum for the Non-Compulsory School System, Lpf 94 in Sweden, are all pupils in all types of schools ought to have a high level of possibilities to be able to influence their education. But many studies have led to unsatisfactory results about the actual situation in schools. Swedish students are critical of the limited opportunities they have in influencing their own learning process. This essay is only one among the many studies that have dealt with school democracy during the last 50 years.

The purpose of this study was to look into how learners of Swedish as a second language and some teachers of the subject think and reason about the choice between Swedish or Swedish as a Second Language and literature in Swedish at upper secondary schools. Similar studies have earlier been carried out at upper secondary schools in areas dominated by immigrants while the present study has been accomplished in a small municipality with comparatively few immigrants. The study is based upon qualitative interviews which have been analysed through the socio-cultural theory regarding those artifacts, communication and that mediating second learners of Swedish and their teachers and schools are using in their choices between Swedish or Swedish as a Second Language as well as selection of literature in literature teaching.  The study also shows how learners of Swedish as a second language perceive the choice between the two options of Swedish courses at advanced upper secondary school and how their teachers look upon their choice and the information given. Furthermore we will also get to know the learners of Swedish as a second language and their teachers? view on teaching Swedish literature at advanced upper secondary B-level in Swedish.

In this thesis, the results of a survey regarding grade progression between secondary and upper secondary school in a municipality in the north of Sweden serve as the starting point for a study of the experiences and expectations of a number of 16 year old girls who are in the first year of upper secondary school. The study is performed by means of focus group interviews with female pupils from the three largest upper secondary schools in said municipality in an attempt to gauge their experiences of grades, grade assessment, teacher practices and perceived differences in how boys and girls are treated. The results show that most of the girls are disappointed with upper secondary school so far. Many of them feel that secondary school was both more fun and more rewarding in a sense of learning. Their appreciation of how this more rewarding atmosphere affected their grades differed between the various groups.

The purpose of this project is to examine the development of the upper secondary school physics course and from this get a better understanding why the course is organized the way it is today. The timeless argument for studying science in school will begin this essay. After that the reader will be aware of when important discoveries in physics were made. Then school history is presented. In this part we are told when the first school started in Sweden, but the focus lies on the upper secondary school and the physics course.

This essay investigates the pupils, in Swedish upper secondary school in the greater Stockholm area, who choose to study the Russian language as a foreign language. The essay asks; who are these students, and what is motivation behind their language choice? In order to answer these two questions the essay uses both interviews and paper survey. The theoretical background ofth is essay is based on the works and theories of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, and thus the question; who are these students is aimed at the students' social and economical background in lines with Bourdieu's theories. The essay also uses the earlier study of Swedish sociologist Mikael Palme, in which he maps the different schools and programs in the greater Stockholm area, in a socio-economical context based on habitus.

This study is grounded in an interest in the Swedish Upper Secondary Schools? role as an educator of democratic citizens, with a specific interest in the moral and cognitive development of Upper Secondary School students. Development in these two areas is treated as results of citizenship education.The purpose of the study is to examine moral and cognitive development of students in Upper Secondary School to see if there are any structural differences to be found between the Upper Secondary School programs that are vocationally oriented and the programs that are preparing for further studies on higher levels ? since these differences have been both theoretically and empirically implied. The study is based on an enhanced version of Lawrence Kohlberg?s stages of moral development (with teachers? evaluations of students? capacity as a reference point of the students? actual level of moral development) as well as on Kieran Egan?s theory of development through the use of cognitive tools (as seen in five different ?shapes of understanding?).

The aim of this investigation was to determine if, and in that case how, the resources of personne1 in what in this essay will be referred to as the department of students' health in four industrial municipalities had changed from 1999 until 2004. The establishment of the department of students' health could be discussed and analys ed in regard of a few concepts from new institutionaI organizational theory and studies on implementation. The investigation answers the following questions:What differences were there between the municipalities regarding the children's accessibility to the department of students' health?What differences were there between pre-school, compulsory school and upper secondary school within the municipalities regarding the children's accessibility to the department of student's health?The municipalities were commissioned by the government to combine school health service, student welfare and the field of remediaI teaching in order to establish a new section, the department of students' health. The study was carried out quantitatively.

The aim of this study was to explore and increase understanding of how a team of colleagues at an upper-secondary school in Sweden works with students with special education needs. The team works with a group of students where the majority have experienced school failure in elementary school. The focus of the study has been to analyze a project that the school undertook 2013 to improve students? results and improve their chances to successfully graduate from their program. Data was collected from relevant documents and interviews with members of the project at hand.

The overall aim of this study was to examine if there were any difference between two different upper secondary schools with regard to the schools' work with the basic values. Our supposition was that if there were differences between the schools basic values work then it could be observed that the school that works more with the basic values has also more students expressed as a percentage who leave the school with final grades within four years. We have chosen to work with the qualitative method and made group interviews as well as individual interviews with six persons. We came to the conclusion that one of the schools worked with the basic values continuously while the other school had the intention to do it but according to our interpretation the school didn't do it. It also appeared that one of the schools had more students who finished school with final grades. The result that we have got showed that there is a difference between these two schools in the basic values work and that the school that worked with this continuously has also bigger amount of students with final grades. During work on this study we discovered other issues that we hope someone else can answer in the future..

The aim with this study is to examine how students and teachers value source criticism. Partly, this regards how teachers practice this in their teaching and how students work with it during lessons ? but also how students value source criticism in situations where the teacher not has pointed out that this topic is part of the actual assignment. Moreover, there is a focus on investigating how students who are critical of the sources take this into account in their daily lives; for example, when they surf on the Internet or when they discuss news articles or other media. This essay is based on interviews with students and teachers, using a qualitative method. The results of this study show that both students and teachers find source criticism to be of major importance.

Background: Students, at a secondary upper school, attending a practical programme have a lower physical capacity than students from theoretical programs. Our physical self-esteem has a great significance for our motivation in being physically active and thereby also for our health. The purpose: of this study is to find out if there is a difference between perceived physical self-esteem and objectively measured physical activity between students attending a practical programme and a theoretical programme. Method: Four classes, in a medium-sized town in the southeast of Sweden, participated in the study, two classes from practical programmes and two classes from theoretical programmes. All the students were in their final year at the upper secondary school, when they were part of the study during the autumn of 2011.

The purpose of this paper is to study and describe the occurrence and conditions of aesthetic subjects and choral singing in Swedish upper secondary schools 2014. The paper is based on seven recorded individual interviews with three music teachers, four principals and one director of education in three upper secondary schools in Sweden. The study uses discursive psychology and the interviews were analysed with focus on music teachers and school leaders interpretative repertoires and rhetorical strategies and how they use the language to legitimate aesthetic subjects in an upper secondary school context. In the most recent upper secondary school reform of 2011 the aesthetic subjects are no longer mandatory. Today there are different ways to provide opportunities for the students to participate in music activities but since the government no longer decides how it shall be implemented it is up to the management of each school to determine the activities.The statement made by the informants are interesting in relation to the status of music subjects, but due to the limited scope of the paper, no general conclusions can be drawn.

The purpose of this study is to examine how adult students, studying at an upper secondary school for adults, search for information for their independent tasks in different subjects. These independent tasks are frequent in most subjects and are a part of the ?investigation-work?. For most adult students this is a new way of learning. Fifteen qualitative interviews with adult students have been conducted.

The purpose of this project is to examine the development of the upper secondary school physics course and from this get a better understanding why the course is organized the way it is today. The timeless argument for studying science in school will begin this essay. After that the reader will be aware of when important discoveries in physics were made. Then school history is presented. In this part we are told when the first school started in Sweden, but the focus lies on the upper secondary school and the physics course.

AimThe overall aim of this study has been to gain knowledge about what characterize upper secondary school students participating in the subject course physical education and health (PEH). To investigate this, the following questions are formulated:What motivates the students to attend PEH?How do the students experience teaching?What influences the students' opinions of the subject?MethodWe conducted a qualitative study using interview as method. Six students, from year 2; three girls and three boys, from different studying programs at an upper secondary school in the region of Mälardalen were interviewed. The students had been recommended and asked to participate by their teachers in PEH.