This essay examines the decline of reading comprehension in Swedish schools, and also aims to provide insight into the debate concerning a literary canon and its usage in schools. While some claim that the literary canon is only a list of irrelevant white dead men which only serves to perpetuate feelings of alienation in, for example, female students, others see it as a means to bring society together using the only literature that stood the test of time. This essay will look to studies concerning reading comprehension, and questions regarding reading habits which our own students answered. It will also explain the different viewpoints of both sides of the canon debate.There are several studies that show this decline in reading comprehension, PISA and PIRLS being the foremost of them. They point to a trend where the reading skills of boys are much worse than those of girls, a trend which still has not panned out.Bloom and the different researchers who are the basis for Verhaest's thesis are of the opinion that canonical literature serves a purpose in that it teaches students aesthetic literary values.

Under 1970-talet såg forskare inom näringsfysiologin en stigande trend av ökad konsumtion av fett- och sockerhaltiga produkter på bekostnad av bland annat matbrödskonsumtion. I tid  av livsmedels- och energikriser förespråkade forskare en alternativ diet med ett större inslag av grönsaker och fullkornsprodukter då det hade slagits fast att ett högt intag av fett och socker ledde till bland annat hjärt-kärlsjukdomar samt karies. Matbrödsproducenterna och Socialstyrelsen höll med experterna och detta ledde till ett samarbete mellan parterna som mynnande ut i Brödkampanjen med start år 1976 där den svenska befolkningen uppmanades att äta mera bröd. Denna undersökning har visat på hur experterna argumenterade för en ökad brödkonsumtion och varför just bröd var ett bra alternativt livsmedel genom att ta del av Socialstyrelsens arkivlämningar med intervjuer av experterna bakom kostrekommendationen..

Speech intervention for children with language impairment aims to both strengthen specific language skills and to reinforce the ability to participate in interactional contexts. Children with language impairment often have problems in interaction; therefore the contributions of the conversational partner are of great importance. Thus, the demands are high on the speech and language pathologist (SLP) for sense and cohesion in intervention. The aim of the present study was to examine how SLPs and children with language impairment interact in language intervention. An approach influenced by Conversation Analysis was used in order to identify various phenomena that occurred, and their effect on the structure of the interaction was analyzed.Four SLPs, two men and two women, were enrolled in the study.  They participated in intervention with two children with language impairment each, i.e.

The purpose of this paper was to describe how a phenomenon is constructed into being a social problem, by studying articles on honour killing in the Swedish daily press and in the technical journal Socionomen. The main questions were: can different discourses on honour killing be identified, and if so, have they changed over time, and are there differences between the discourses identified in the daily press and in Socionomen? The method used was a qualitative analysis of discourse influenced by Faircloughs Critical Discourse Analysis. The main conclusion was that honour killing has been textually constructed as a social problem in the studied media. There was one main discourse which clearly pointed out groups as bearers and victims of the social problem.

In this study we compare Ekot with P3 Nyheter with a comprehension analytical perspective. The more traditional radio news program Ekot differs from the younger P3 Nyheter in a lot of aspects. One of them is that P3 Nyheter?s primary target group is young people between the ages of 20 to 34. Because of this, P3 Nyheter aim to make their news as adjusted to their young audience as possible.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the customer profitability in a wholesale company. A case study of Eugen Wiberger AB has been conducted. Firstly the authors have examined the current perception of the company regarding their customer profitability and the results of their calculation of the customer profitability. Secondly an Activity-Based Costing analysis has been performed and has been compared to the perception in the case company. The conclusions are that the smaller customers are the least profitable, and in some cases unprofitable, whereas the larger customers are profitable.

Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language -3 is an American picturebasedtest developed to examine children?s auditory comprehension of language.The aim of the study was to create a translation and to examine if the test wouldcontribute to the information about a child´s language comprehension received bysimilar tests that are used today. In the present study the test items were translatedinto Swedish. The translation was evaluated with 32 children in three different agegroups at a school in central Gothenburg. A linguistic examination of thetranslation and a list of the grammatical structures that are tested were made.

What role does the state play in economic development? This thesis seeks to investigate the relationship between a strong state and economic development. To define the concept of a strong state I focus on the relationship between the scope of state functions and the efficiency of which these functions are implemented. The concept of a strong state is in this thesis defined as the efficiency of the state functions. By using a database constructed by three economists; David Kaufman, Aart Kraay and Massimo Mastruzzi as a measurement of a strong state I test the relationship with economic development empirically.

The starting point of this thesis is the debate surrounding the two referenda?s in France and the Netherlands in May and June 2005, regarding the proposal of a European constitution. The aim of this study is to analyse how democratic legitimacy and the role of the citizens portrays within the democratic discourse of the European Union. The empirical material is based upon both speeches from the European Commission and news articles from the French newspaper Libération and the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter. Discourse analysis is used as a theoretical frame of reference combined with models of democracy.

This study is based on the will to understand the importance of a specific theory within social work. From the concept of neo-liberal governmentality, the aim is to critically examine and discuss how governance and self-governance is manifested in social work methods and interventions, exemplified by the theory cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT). This will be accomplished through an analysis of:? How governance (and self-governance) is manifested in text through the advocacy of CBT and methods based on CBT.? How (governance and) self-governance is manifested in text through the contents of CBT and methods based on CBT. The study has a deductive approach including the hypothesis that the discourses inherent in social work methods and interventions, exemplified by the theory of CBT and methods based on CBT, may be related to the West?s development of a neo-liberal concept of governance.

Den amerikanska historien har visat att USA är ett land som till hög grad påverkar andra staters politik och ett land som inte låter sig underkuvas. Vi ämnade att med hjälp av statistik undersöka ett eventuellt samband mellan analys¬enheterna, arbetslöshet och BNP, och stöd till presidenten för att se om det finns ett samband till presidenters val att använda sig av avledande taktik i form av att gå in i väpnad konflikt.Resultatet av undersökningen blev att det inte gick att påvisa en genomgripande trend bakom valet att gå in i väpnad konflikt med Vietnamkriget och Irakkriget (2003) som fallstudier. Vad som åskådliggjordas var att de båda presidenterna använde sig utav idealpolitik för att rättfärdiga invasionerna för folket. Medan den inofficiella anledningen kan kopplas till realpolitiska skäl med en önskan om ett ökat inflytande i regionerna..

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine the role of librarian in order to illustrate how the librarians work, how their competence and education have changed and developed during the last decade, and ultimately to see what the role of librarian looks like in the 21^st century. After describing the librarians work, competence and education in the 21^st century, we discuss whether or not the changes that have arisen during the last decennium have affected the possibilities for librarianship to develop into an accepted profession. The method of investigation is a qualitative analysis of printed sources. As a basis of the discussion and analysis Andrew Abbotts theory of professions is used. We also use Per Tengblads analysis model, which includes six important steps in analysing the professionalism of an occupation.

Glimmingehus is one of the most well preserved medieval castles in Sweden. This essay examines why it was built ? what were the intentions of the Lord, Jens Holgersen? Even though we?ll never be able to ask him, the answer to the question ?why?? can give us aninsight of how a man of his position thought in the Late Medieval time. To answer the question the castle are explored through three different angles ? the Lord of the castle and thesocial context the castle was built in, the landscape surrounding Glimmingehus ? has Jens Holgersen left any structural clues there, and finally the castle itself ? how has a potential visitor experienced Glimmingehus? The methods are greatly influenced by Gunhild Eriksdotter, who in her book Bakom fasaderna explores the possibilities of an analysis ofexperience together with an analysis of function in the archaeology of buildings.

In this report a study is carried out with the aim to identify added values of EPC projects implemented in schools in order to increase the interest of EPC projects on the market. The report examines how the planned maintenance, supervision, maintenance and corrective maintenance is affected, how insurance premiums and terms are affected, the indoor environment and how the tasks of the operating staff is changing. A literature study of energy savings, energy use in schools, maintenance and insurance as well as how energy efficiency improvements are related to the Swedish environmental objectives has been made. Visits were carried out in Ludvika, interviews were also carried out with operation technicians and local strategists in Ludvika as well as employees of insurance companies.Schools often have neglected maintenance and problems with ventilation and indoor environment. Schools also have a large energy saving potential due to their low utilization, mainly because they are empty parts of the year.

How the United States anti-terrorist strategy is affecting the view of democracy is the main analysis of this paper. The mechanisms that affect the idea of democracy have been studied on the basis of the philosopher Michael Foucault?s thoughts and the main direction in French discourse analysis. The study is restricted to the period between the 11th of September 2001 and today. Information has been collected entirely from the White House?s website http://www.whitehouse.gov, including speeches, conferences and reports.