This thesis examines the relationship between recognition of prior learning and the aim to increase social and ethnical diversity in higher education. Recognition of prior learning is a result of educational politics aiming to broaden social and ethnical recruitment to higher education. By examining if recognition of prior learning rather can, and shall, be seen as part of what Pierre Bourdieu calls educational social reproduction I try to question whether it fulfils education policy goals or not. My results show that persons responsible for recognition of prior learning rather recognise knowledge from prior educational institutions than knowledge gained outside the educational system. Considering this, recognition of prior learning does not quite live up to the aims.

This master?s thesis analyzes how cultural policy was problematized in three governmental policy areas; culturalpolicy for the free sector, education policy and popular education policy, during the social democrat Ragnar Edenman?s time (1957-67) as minister of ecclesiasticalaffairs. Earlier research has examined the policy for the free sector, concerning artist?s economic problems. This thesisadds an analysis of the other fields of policy, which were reformed in the 1960?s by the same ministry.

The purpose of this study is to explain the development of the first higher technical education in Trollhättan, with the added perspective of Trollhättans strong industrial profile as a city. The interesting thing being that the city did not try to first and foremost get a regular higher education, but a technical higher education instead. The study describes the political twists and turns the question took from its most early stage in the year 1940 and how the city's industrial profile did indeed have an impact on the development of the first higher technical education. Especially because there was a need for educated engineers in the city, as well as the country of Sweden in large during this time. The study also tries to explain the problems related to such a development, primarily by describing the lack of sufficient housing for schools during the 1950's, this meant that the higher regular school and the higher technical school had to cooperate in finding said housing.

This paper analyses education regarding its profitability from an individual?s perspective. The method for conducting the analysis is an ex ante cost-benefit analysis and the time period examined is between the days the education begins until retirement age. The conclusions of this paper are that tertiary education is not profitable for an individual given the conditions stated in this examination. Furthermore the longer the education lasts, the more unprofitable it is.

The following study is a discourse analysis of the concept of critical thinking within pre-school teacher education. It considers the following questions: how does the concept of critical thinking appear in policy documents, central to the pre-school teacher education, and which possible conceptions of critical thinking are conveyed by students and teachers active within the education. Additionally, the study seeks to discuss, as well as suggest a possible relation, between the findings of those two questions. In reviewing the material (consisting of five semi-structured interviews with students and teachers, and of a selection of policy documents central to the education), I argue the existence of a sort of project within the education, which presents critical thinking as a higher value. At the same time, I argue that the concept is not defined or concretized. This project, however, as I suggest while drawing upon Foucault?s ideas of discourse and government, involves a rather high degree of control.

The purpose of the present paper is to examine the political debate on the education of newly arrived immigrant pupils at secondary school age. The following issues are under scrutiny:What are the goals, expressed by politicians during the examined periods, for the education of newly arrived pupils?What ideas about education and what educational ideals can be observed in the political debate on the education of newly arrived pupils?Has there been any change, during the examined period, in the policy debate on the education of newly arrived pupils?The research material consists of reports and statements of the Education Committee, as well as a number of parliamentary protocols. Two five-year periods, 1971-1975 and 2006-2010, are studied and compared. All in all, the material consists of 23 documents issued during these periods.

Recent studies have reemphasized the importance of competition in democracy. An ideaoriginating from Weber: that demoeratic competition leads to more qualified leaders, has been resurrected. Research shows that democracies are more Iikely to elect leaders with a high leve l of education, and with in demoeratic states stronger competition correlates with elected politicians with higher education, more political experience and higher previous income. This study researehes whether the earrelation between greater competition and electedcandirlates with higher "Curriculum vitae-qualities" holds between electoral systems. Does a more competitive electoral system elect candirlates that score higher on such measures? Using education as a proxy forthese qualities the study traces different outcomes on education in a mixed electoral system, camparing the majoritarian (more competitive) part of the electoral system with the prop011ional (less competitive) part.

This essay deals with the relationship between the influx to higher education and the situation on the labor market in Sweden. It also examines whether overeducation as a phenomenon is present among Swedish academics and if there is any obvious discrimination between the sexes. The Swedish government has an outspoken goal that at least 50% of every age group shall undergo an academic education. Therefore, they have expanded the possibilities ofobtaining one. We have used three economic theories to investigate the subject of this thesis and applied these on the statistics of 4 different educations.

A reform of higher education in Sweden in 1993 led to stiffer competitive climate among educational institutions. The reform meant that educational institutions now had the opportunity to plan their curriculum autonomously. Prior to the reform educational planning was restricted to the Swedish government. The new rules spelled a greater opportunity for educational institutions to profile themselves based on their educational offerings. The higher degree of competition means that marketing becomes increasingly important when recruiting new students.

The aim of this study is to investigate the discourses of widening recruitment to higher education in some political documents from the 21st century. The scientific method applied is critical discourse analysis as developed by Norman Fairclough. This implies the analyses of the actual texts, the social practice as well as the discursive practice, i.e. the conditions under which the texts are produced, distributed and consumed.The major results include four discourses: a post-modern discourse, a neoliberal economic discourse, a political discourse of multi-culturalism and a modern discourse with its roots in the 20th century?s discussions about social imbalance in recruitment to higher education.

The purpose of this study is to examine pupils´ experiences from getting grades in upper secondary education for pupils with learning disabilities and which impact this has on these pupils how they form and get formed as schoolchildren. Four pupils in upper secondary education for pupils with learning disabilities in a Swedish community have participated in qualitative semi-structured interviews. All analysis that has been made has focused on these pupils´ stories about getting grades. I have asked openly formulated questions so that the pupils themselves have had the possibility to highlight those experiences that they want to share.Three categories that I have used, with starting point from the questions in this study, to analyze the answers in the interview material is how the pupils talk about the bases for grading, the pupils´ self-awareness when they talk about their own grades and the pupils´ view when they talk about the importance of grades. The theoretical base of the study is policy enactment.One conclusion of this study is that both teachers and pupils in upper secondary education for pupils with learning disabilities often is based on other factors than what different policy documents says about what should be the ground for teachers grading.

What affects Hiv in South Africa's different provinces? This thesis examines if education, unemployment rate, GDP per capita, and the literacy rate has any relationship with the Hiv prevalence. This is analyzed using theory and data in the form of a simple microeconomic model and an econometric regression analysis based on cross sectional data of the provinces of South Africa. The regression analysis shows that unemployment rate and education have significant effects of the Hiv prevalence in South Africa. The microeconomic model in the thesis indicates that when education is higher, individuals are more aware that the probability of being infected by Hiv is higher when the Hiv prevalence is high.

Events that have effected music teachers? view on education - Interviews with four violin-teachers. The purpose of this research is to find out what forms the violin-teachers view on how education shall be operated. Through qualitative interviews, four violin-teachers from around Sweden have told about their growing up, higher musical education and what is current. The result shows that the higher musical education and their own teachers throughout the years are factors that have partially shaped their views.

This is a qualitative research paper, which aims to examine how religion classes are conducted in inner-city and suburban schools. Interviews have been performed with two religion teachers, one at Grindtorp School in Alby and one at the English Gymnasium in Södermalm. There have been performed interviews with eight students, four from each school. The students have a different age, sex and religious beliefs. With these interviews we can get a better understanding how the students of today?s school think about the religious education.

The study is quantitative and the purpose was to examine the effects of ethnicity and education on three working-related identities and striving among 80 participants. The participants consisted of foreign-born people living in Sweden and people who were born in Sweden, with different educational background. Each groups consisted of 20 participants. The result showed that the highly educated participants had higher professional identity. The participants with lower education level had a stronger colleague identity than the higher educated participants and the Swedish-born participants had a lower identity.