Background and aim: Asperger syndrome is a neuropsychiatric disability which is essentially characterized by impairments in social interaction. Little is known about how these individuals experience social interaction and more distinctly close relationships. Therefore the purpose of this present study is to explore how initiating and maintaining close relationships could be facilitated for individuals with Asperger syndrome. Furthermore how these individuals would like others to behave towards them. By assuming an insider perspective the empirical data is based on the participants own descriptions of their experiences, thoughts and ideas about close relationships.Findings: Most respondents state that they experience difficulties initiating social interaction, the main reason being that they don?t know what they are expected to say or how to act in this type of situation.

The aim of this study is to become aware of how the children at the after-school care perceive the adults at after-school care. The most interesting parts are to find out what they thought made a good teacher, which qualities were preferable and how the children expressed their opinions. The children often spend long time at the after-school care which means that the children?s work environment matters. The children look at adults from another perspective and see other qualities than adults see in each other.

AbstractThis study was meant to cast a light on the use of music-instruments that exists in preschool environments today. Furthermore the purpose was to find out if instruments first and foremost, actually did exist, and what thoughts had been put behind that decision. The focus was directed towards the preschool teachers and their attitudes towards music instruments among preschool children, at the ages 3 to 5 years. The purpose of the study was to understand how preschool teachers thought of activities where music instruments where used. The study was made from interviews with six different preschool teachers from different preschools.

The purpose of this study is to examine discursive change regarding mathematics and language in the Swedish primary school curriculums. The study analyzes pedagogical discourses represented within the curriculums and how they represent different pedagogical theories in relation to discursive and social practice. The analysis shows a change towards a more language oriented curriculum discourse in mathematics which still carries an intertextual and discursive heritage from the prior curriculums. In relation to the early curriculums of the Swedish primary schools the former explicit differentiation of students becomes implicit as the language skills become of increasingly importance..

Uppsats för avläggande av filosofie kandidatexamen iKulturvård, Bebyggelseantikvariskt program, 15 hp, 2011.

This essay is an attempt to portray and explain my work as a dance pedagogue as well as an epistemological overview of the skills and knowledge I use when I teach. The study is phenomenologically oriented and the examples used are from the years when I was teaching at the University College of Dance in Stockholm. The primary objective of the study was to illustrate the practical knowledge of my teaching by examining what lies in the mind and gaze of the dance pedagogue while teaching.Having finished my essay I realize that it has come to be primarily about the body. How the knowledge that is imprinted in my body can only be conveyed when I have a student to teach and how I feel that the intermediary of knowledge occurs. Other recurrent themes are the relations of thought and consciousness to the body.

This essay examines the policy process of specialist medical training in three Swedish counties. The essay will first describe the policy process. Secondly the politicians parti-cipating in the process is examined. Thirdly, it is tested whether it is possible to analyze the policy process based on Ostrom's theories of cooperation around a common pool resource. In this case, the common pool resource is specialized medical practitioners skills that the Swedish county councils must collaborate on to competence should be sufficient for the county council needs, something that is not the case today.One conclusion of the study is that the health care law is not clear enough when it comes to who is responsible for providing a sufficient number of specialists.

The aim of the study was to examine which approach future social workers have regarding specific competence in the meeting with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer clients. Previous research shows that LGBTQ people have a low confidence towards social services, police and courts and say they face discrimination and degrading treatment to a greater extent than the heterosexual population. Research shows that education and better skills of LGBTQ culture among professionals can change the situation.The essay is based on a model of cultural competence in working with sexual minorities and people with a transgender expression. The model defines the meaning of an LGBTQ perspective and is designed to improve social work with LGBTQ clients.The study is quantitative and empirical data consists of 203 survey responses from students with a long experience of the social work education. The analysis of the results is based on the cultural competence three principles; attitudes, knowledge and skills.

Our governing documents give teachers guidelines as to how to carry out their task in the classroom. To guide a learner requires knowledge, not only about the policy of our governing documents but also skills to see the connection between the teacher's task and its practical implementation. By studying learners' experiences of teaching contexts, I have been able to evaluate how the teaching methods live up to the intentions of the national governing documents in Sweden.My study is based partly on a survey that I completed and partly on the theory of Dialogicity. Here I saw clear connections between my informants' experiences of verbal exercises in the teaching and the theoretical background I have chosen for my study, Dialogicity. I have presented and analyzed the verbal exercises in four differentiated contexts.

 ABSTRACTThis study focuses on immigrant women in Sweden and how their perceptions of resource loss may affect their motivation to learn Swedish. Focus group discussions were conducted with immigrant women who partake in a Swedish language learning project. Their Swedish language skills were very limited, and all of them had no or very few years of elementary level education. Results of the study suggest that the strongest motivator to learn Swedish is its potential role in facilitating everyday activities.    .

This master thesis is based on the sociocultural perspective. A qualitative research study was conducted to investigate children's attitudes towards reading, texts and libraries.The theoretical background is constituted by ideas from the new sociology of childhood, literacy-studies and reader-response theory.The study was conducted with 23 children, 13 girls and 10 boys, participating in focus groups.The results of the study reveal that children's literacy-activities in school are strongly influenced and limited by adults. Children's interest in pictures and non-fiction-reading do not correspond to the school institution that favors traditional media and fiction. The study also reveals a gender division between children's literacy-activities that tends to grow with age. All the children in the study regard libraries as book-houses and wished for libraries that combine activity and serenity.The thesis shows the importance of being aware of, and engage in, children's reading-interests and reading-practices if the reading stimulating activities in schools and libraries are to be successful.

This study hopes to provide a deeper understanding for the situation that pupils in dyslexia and special education teachers are experiencing. The aim is to examine how students with dyslexia and special education teacher / special needs education teacher are experiencing difficulties, resources, additional adjustments and support. The aim is also to examine the experience in opportunities for improvement and what similarities and differences exist between students and special education teacher / special needs education teacher regarding the allocation of resources. The study is made with focusing on a certain dilemma perspective, using methods such as interviews. The results of the study point to lack of time, time pressure, teachers 'skills, management directives and students' understanding of their own learning as factors affecting resource allocation, in which all factors influence each other and are interdependent of each other..

The main purpose of this study is to investigate in what ways librarians and schoolteachers can co-operate and combine their professional skills in order to help and motivate children with reading and writing disabilities, and how audio books can be useful in this work. The main source of information is interviews with teachers from ten schools in the province of Scania, southern Sweden. Those teachers, their schools and their local libraries all took part in a project spanning from 1993 to 1996, aiming at increasing the use of audio books in combination with the corresponding printed versions in work regarding the here addressed problem. This study was made with a qualitative empirical method supported by a normative theory belonging to the new institutional theory school. There are no statistical conclusions in the report.

The purpose of this thesis was to find out what experiences teachers have from using a class blog in teaching. What are the advantages and disadvantages by the use of blogs in education?I have used qualitative interviews with four teachers in grades 1 to 6 who have worked with a class blog in teaching between one and three years.The study has shown that teachers' experience is that the blog serves as motivation and promotes learning for many different pupils and that, together with other digital tools is more equal. The main benefits that teacher mention is the expanded concept of text that offers multiple forms of expression and the authentic reader, which makes it more real, important and meaningful. Other benefits that come up are that it helps students to see their learning and learn from and with each other.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine why graduates in librarian- and information science are employed by private companies. An initial explanation could be the influence of information technology and its impact on the librarian. A second factor relates to how employers regard the librarian outside the confines of the traditional labour market. The study is primarily based upon qualitative interviews with representatives of Swedish companies who have employed librarians since 1993, the year that the education achieved third level academic recognition. Theoretically we relied upon Manuel Castells discussion on the rise of the information society and its influence on companies and the labour market.