The purpose with this essay is to illustrate what divides and unites three educationalists approach on ?children in need of special support? within the first years of school. Three educationalists with significant positions within the school system have been chosen for interviews. On basis of the results of the interviews three themes has been selected and divided into the conceptions; ?children in need of special support?, ?resource? and ?a school for everyone?.

School and education are topics that are frequent in Swedish media. The intention of this essay has therefore been to investigate the image of teachers and their profession in Swedish daily press. The overall aim has been to analyze how teachers are portrayed in the debate that followed the TV-show Klass 9A, and by that find how the debate defines the concept of a good teacher. The representation that was found was then compared to earlier studies. The series was shown on Swedish television between January and March 2011.26 articles were chosen and the ambition was to have various perspectives represented, such as different voices and also papers from different areas of the country.

Our purpose was to investigate the schools and the social welfare´s experiences of Roman children´s school situation in a Scanian town. We have done a qualitative investigation, interviewing 14 persons from both school and social welfare. Through the interviews we wanted to find the factors which influences the Roman pupils schooling and which efforts the professionals has to their disposition to influence these children´s school situation in a positive direction.The main result of our study is that the majority of the Romans is an isolated group, both in the Swedish school system and in the society. The Romans got access to the Swedish comprehensive school first in 1965, which implies that the Romans have a young school tradition. Most of the Roman pupils have a high absent, which is grounded in a complex of problems.

Is there an unwritten art canon in Swedish schools? This work is about the art displayed and used in Swedish schools. The study examines whether there is an art canon in Swedish schools, or not. Through my profession, as an art teacher at a secondary school, I have come to take an interest in this issue. When I use art images in my own teaching it often strikes me that many of the pictures I use are the same as the ones my colleagues use.

The Swedish education system reflects the multicultural society in Sweden, therefore there is a need of school textbooks that pupils can identify themselves with to create meaning and value in their learning. According to the Swedish Education Administrations (Skolverkets) report (2006) and Selander (2003, s. 198) the school textbooks are the main source of education in class. There has been an implicit message in the older textbooks that is associated with the belief that non-Europeans are "seen" as victims, and that Europeans are privileged with a "good life".Many school texbooks has been analyzed from different points of perspectives, however, analysis from a postcolonial perspective on home economics books has practically been nonexistent.Analysis in this study are focused on how non-western people are been portrayed in six different textbooks in the subject to conclude if the colonial discourse is still maintained and reproduced in the school. To answer the question of formulation an image analysis is made of the six, previiously mentioned, textbooks.

The main purpose of this C-essay is to answer the question: What have been the consequences and effects of the merit point system on language studies and the parties concerned (teachers, students and principals) during the school year of 2010/11?The merit point system is the result of a political decision and was implicated for the first time in the Swedish upper secondary school during the school year 2010/2011. Being a completely new phenomenon it is of great interest and importance to study its effects.The study in this essay also aims to verify, falsify or nullify two hypotheses very often referred to in the political discussions regarding the merit point system:The merit point system will replace affection and interest as main reasons for language studies in upper secondary school and cause a rectification amongst the students choices of additional courses.The merit point system will have a segregating effect upon society and make it harder for people to rise in society through education in the future.A verification of these hypotheses would imply the appearance of an increased rectification amongst students as well as an orientation towards an in the future more segregated society.The empiric material has been collected and examined with qualitative as well as quantitative methods (questionnaires and interviews) and belongs epistemologically to the phenomenological and hermeneutical traditions..

Sweden's school voucher reform has made the Swedish school system into one of the world's most liberalized. The debate concerning the ownership of Swedish schools is intense and the Swedish Minister of Education is open to restricting private equity owned companies from running schools. Interestingly, fewer calls are heard for restricting smaller profit-driven companies from owning schools. This essay aims to examine whether or not the quality of education provided by an individual school changes if it is acquired by a large private equity owned school group. This is done by conducting a comparative study on four independent schools recently acquired by AcadeMedia, Sweden's biggest private equity owned school group.

This essay attempts to examine the discourse of the Sweden democrats in relation to thevalue system of the Swedish national school.To analyse the political texts I use discourse analysis and especially the method and approachconducted by Judith Lee Bacchi. Bacchi focuses on the construction of a problem in variouspolitical discourses. When performing this kind of analysis the main question is (accordingto Bacchi): ?What is the problem represented to be??I find that the Sweden democrats construct the ?migration politics? and the ?multiculturalpolitics? that is guiding the society as the cause of most problems in our society. To solvethe ?problems? they promote a nationalistic and a cultural racist discourse especiallypinpointing the ?Muslims? as being a problem.Since the Sweden democrats are striving to implement their discourse in the society andschool, and since their discourse already are reproduced by solar students in the classroom,I find it important to examine the essence of their particular discourse and contrast it withthe current value system of the Swedish schools.I don´t find the nationalistic and racist discourse of the Sweden democrats to correspond tothe value system of the Swedish school, mainly due to their strive to create alienation, andby labeling individuals in a reductive manner, instead of using apparent differences as asource for democratic discussions in the classroom.

This thesis, entitled The Headmaster and the Music, is based on interviews with four headmasters, who are all working in the Swedish compulsory school. The purpose is to investigate how they view music, both in general and as a school subject. Since the research on this topic is scarce, the study can be described as explorative.The result shows that the headmasters? personal experiences have an impact on the way they view music. Four different focus points on music in school have emerged from the material, and these represent the four very different views that each headmaster holds.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine the ideological currents that have influenced the Swedish school system since the 1990's. The background of my interest is the lively debate in schools and media about the new School reform 2011. My hypothesis is that education in 2011 largely will be influenced by neoliberal and neoconservative values. The method I`ve used is discourse and ideology critique, which examines the relationship between rhetoric and power. These concepts are useful to explain the ideological change in different policy documents and in curricula, for example Lpf 94 and School 2001. The theoretical framework is based primarily on the neoliberal and the neoconservative agenda, which are two distinct political rationalities in the contemporary postmodern world.

This study aims to analyze four gymnasium teachers? opinion on the values within the Swedish school system today, as well as the presence of conflicting values and goals in their role as a street level bureaucrat. A comparative aspect concerning private and state regulated schools was implemented into the study in order to compare one school system to the other. This was achieved by using semi-structured interviews with the aim to register the teachers? opinions on these matters.The study showed that the teachers perceive a high amount of discretion within their role as a street level bureaucrat concerning the educational aspect of their work.

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 Government announced a new school reform which aims to support teacher appraisal and professionalism within the Swedish education system. The once well renowned profession is hurting by the decreasing quality of the Swedish education system and the declining number of applicants to the university teacher program. The school reform introduced a new career path for especially skilled teachers to an occupation earlier characterized by a homogenous work force. The Government encourages principals to promote thriving teachers to first teachers, whom will receive an increase in the salary covered by state aid. By supporting these effective teachers, the Government wishes to increase the image perceived and status of the profession and improve the competitiveness of teaching's salary.

This essay is a comparative research between pupils' experience of how the headmaster, teachers and other school staff interpret and apply the democratic education. The results are based on a survey carried out in senior high school, as well as interviews with the school staff. The democratic education charge has a long history of Swedish school system and is the basis for the maintenance of a democratic society. Both policy paper of state investigations and researchers in the field, regard to school as the primary and unique instance in order to promote and develop democratic skills in children and young people. However, it is shown that those who come out from school lack of knowledge and awareness of democracy and the will to speak their mind.

The purpose of this study is to research into the role of the citizen and the educational system in Sweden throughout periods of time based on previous theoretic works, and also to deepen the understanding of students with special needs in Swedish education focusing on the primary school years. This shall be carried out by illustrating the different points of view and choices within the educational system that are at hand for students with concentration difficulties and social difficulties.I will analyze these points through a cultural and social perspective on contemporary society in order to contribute towards today?s discourse on the norm. The result of this empirical investigation presents a dilemma existing in the democratic educational system of today. Nationally and internationally, the educational system has been structured around a normative system containing both rights and duties that effect everyone working within it.