In this bachelor's thesis, we investigate the Swedish folk high school?s role in neoliberal society, which is analyzed through the lens of Norman Fairclough's critical discourse theory as well as Erving Goffman's theory of social deviants. The focus of our study has been participants in creative education, such as art, theater and creative writing. Our findings include that participants at folk high schools find great value in their education, both creatively and personally. They note that they have experienced a large amount of personal growth, regarding both openness towards others and higher confidence and their own abilities and identity.

In this paper I have examined how aware teachers are of their influence on pupils development. The method I´ve used are interviews with three teachers and one pupil each aboutMusicality - how do the teachers and pupils look at the concept musicality generally and personally?Influence I- do the teachers believe that their thinking about musicality influence the pupils self-confidence and development?Influence II- do the teachers think that other pedagogues have influenced them in their teaching and thinking?My main results show that both the teachers and the pupils have similar apprehensions as their teachers, which points towards that influence can exist. The basis is however too limited to make any extensive generalizations.The conclusion of the paper is that we have to be aware of how we influence our pupils. They carry this ?knowledge?, whether it is positive or negative, all their life..

The purpose of this research is to investigate the group constellation that is, what thoughts, feelings and sensations that arise when students and pupils change groups. The study will also affect students and pupils knowledge of why they should work in groups. Their perceived security will also be something that this study is looking for.The main questions of this study are:How does students and pupils experience the phenomenon of "group replacement"?What is considered to work or not work in the new group formations?The method that is used in this study is based on six qualitative interviews with students and pupils from three different levels of education. The target groups are college and high school students.

Inspired by a trip to Guatemala, Honduras and New York, I have done illustrations that I have translated into rugs and sculpture..

This two years master's thesis examines the experience of children who read to a dog. The theoretical framework is inspired by sociocultural theory developed by Roger Säljö and the concept carnival inspired by Mikhail Bakhtin. The sociocultural theory has been chosen because it emphasizes the role of practice, instruments and communication in learning and the concept carnival has been chosen to analyze the experience of reading to a dog.The method used is qualitative interview and observation. A total of eight interviews and two observations when children read to a dog have been collected. One interview is with a teacher and seven interviews are with the children (six children participated and one child was interviewed twice).

The current financial crisis has left its mark. It has even hit the major Swedish banks who have shown large losses. The media has not been slow to take note of this, and the constant political debate about the bonus culture has been reinvigorated. Our aim is to find out how the major Swedish banks relate to the publicity and describe how and why senior executives are rewarded, and what strategies banks are using in the design of their reward system to maintain a legitimate behavior, and thus the confidence of its stakeholders.As a starting point to answer our purpose we have used the agency theory that describes our view of how various problems occurs and how incentives can be established in order to get senior executives to act for their owners' interests. Modern theories of reward systems are taken from a variety of authors, these theories give us an insight into how reward systems can be designed in banks.

The aim of this study is to describe and understand the reasons to why people choose to become foster parents. By using the theory of action we wanted to investigate their intentions rather than their motives. The questions we wanted to answer where: How do the foster parents describe their reasons for becoming a foster home? What reasons do they give fore keeping on being foster parents? How do they comprehend their task and the fulfilling of it? The study was performed by utilizing qualitative interviews with five foster parents, four women and one man. In the analysis we used the theory of action as a theoretical perspective.

This paper describes a study examining four different GARCH models AR(1)-GARCH(1,1), AR(1)-EGARCH(1,1), AR(1)-APGARCH(1,1) and AR(1)-GJR-GARCH(1,1), and their ability to predict future volatility and thereby providing more reliable estimates for Value-at-Risk. The study is based on daily observations for the return of the OMX Stockholm 30 Index, during the time period 31st December 1996 to 29th December 2006. The coefficients for these GARCH models have been estimated using a five-year rolling estimation window, with one-year lags, for five different in-sample-periods. These five in-sample-periods, and the coefficients given by them, have been used to generate five out-of-sample predictions for the volatility in each year. Using these volatility predictions, the daily Value-at-Risk has been calculated for confidence intervals of 90 percent, 95 percent, and 99 percent, respectively, during the time period between 1st January 2001 and 29th December 2006.

I have been inspired by the Do It Yourself movement. DIY builds on the creativity of the individual, one?s capacity for initiative and one?s desire to realise one?s ideas. I have been inspired by sheets of pattern paper used in the manufacture of clothing, and my line of furniture is based on two-dimensional patterns of furniture. The sections of the pieces of furniture are printed on and relate to a standard sheet of plywood.

This bachelor thesis engages in the question of silence in the writings of Fenno-Swedish modernists Mirjam Tuominen and Gunnar Björling, silence being understood as both a poetic theme and a question of literary form. Alongside this exposition runs a discussion about the possibilities and impossibilities of interpretation in the field of academic literary studies. This query is connected to the different ideological positions of the two writers, conjoined by ideas about anti-comprehensibility. Considering certain weaknesses of classical hermeneutics as well as the theory of deconstruction, especially in the case of reading poetry, this thesis tries to point out possible routs for a practice of a more dynamic interpretation, with special regard to understanding the trope of silence in the modernist poetry of Tuominen and Björling.The composition explicitly applies a ?method of wandering? inspired by Maurice Blanchot?s understanding of the priests of Dionysus in Hölderlin?s writings ? maundering in the holy night ? as a metaphor for a critique-in-the-creating.

The topic of this essay is core value issues, how they are mediated in school and how they are practiced. I am investigating a problem concerning the existential worth of the core values-content for children, or in other words, the difficulty of reconciling the theory of the core values and their practice. This problem is portrayed by two stories. The aim of this work is to investigate how to combine the core values theory with its practice, in other words, make it meaningful. In my essay, I turn to recent research in the field to provide a background to my issue, and hereby further point to my problem.

Political realism is a general theory within political science focusing on the principle interest defined as power. The theory?s mutual standpoint is that states are inspired by power politics meaning that military and economic power or security stands in the centre while moral and ethics are placed in the periphery. This essay?s purpose is to analyze realism which helps to understand the development and change of the perspective.

Annual reports are by many considered to be companies primary way to inform their world where the CEO's words are read most carefully by shareholders. The purpose of this paper is to examine the design of the CEO's words in annual reports in light of the financial crisis in 2008. The study seeking explanations for change, similarities and differences in the various texts based on three themes which are results, future and confidence. In this qualitative study five CEO's words are explored by means of a discourse analysis, all from large Swedish industrial companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Some of the results shown is that the CEO tends to talk about the company's results in a self-serving manner and CEO speaks more aboutm the results before than after the crisis.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate thephenomenon language café, an activity that is held in public libraries into which anyone is welcome who wants to practice their skills in Swedish, and see how this can be put in relation to integration. To reach the purpose we developed two research-questions; What does the language café fulfill for its participants? and How can the language café contribute to the promotion of integration? The study is based on semi-structured interviews with seven participants from language cafés. The theory used to analyze the results from the interviews is the Swedish sociologist José Alberto Diaz theory about the integration process which can be divided into seven dimensions. The findings of the thesis were that the language café can fill the function as a place to Speak Swedish, for Community-information, a place to meet and a place for trust and self-confidence.

Annual reports are by many considered to be companies primary way to inform their world where the CEO's words are read most carefully by shareholders. The purpose of this paper is to examine the design of the CEO's words in annual reports in light of the financial crisis in 2008. The study seeking explanations for change, similarities and differences in the various texts based on three themes which are results, future and confidence. In this qualitative study five CEO's words are explored by means of a discourse analysis, all from large Swedish industrial companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Some of the results shown is that the CEO tends to talk about the company's results in a self-serving manner and CEO speaks more aboutm the results before than after the crisis.