Vårt examensarbete skrivs inom specialpedagogik som fördjupningsspecialisering, därför ligger fokus på specialpedagogik som verksamhetsfält, diskurs och som synsätt. I Sveriges största morgontidning Dagens Nyheter har det länge förts en livfull diskussion angående skolan och dess aktörer. De flesta människor har någon koppling till skolan och därför också åsikter om verksamheten. Blivande lärare får ibland anstränga sig för att inte tappa fokus inför olika viljeyttringar. I det skenet är det viktigt att studera debatten närmare för att se vad som skrivs och inte skrivs. Syftet med uppsatsen är att granska dagens samhällsdebatt angående skolan, företrädesvis specialpedagogiken, i Dagens Nyheter, liksom att relatera debatten till tidigare forskning om skolans verksamhet. Det empiriska materialet utgörs av ett antal artiklar från Dagens Nyheters avdelningar DN Debatt och Insidan. Utifrån dessa har en textanalys gjorts med inspiration från bland annat diskursanalys men även en hermeneutiskt tolkande ansats ligger till grund för uppsatsen. Resultatet visar att specialpedagogikens verksamhet är ett oprioriterat område, istället fungerar de politiska och mediala arenorna som slagfält där ordet maktkamp väger tyngre.

Till följd av Vattenfalls uppmärksammade investeringar i fossilbränslebaserad energiverksamhet har vi genom att analysera den riksdagspolitiska debatten kring Vattenfall, sökt efter återkommande yttranden, genom vilka vi  konstruerat diskurser som står för vad riksdagspolitiska aktörer anser i frågan om det statliga styret av Vattenfall. Vi kommer fram till att det inte helt oväntat går att skapa två övergripande diskurser, där de olika politiska blocken verkar inom varsin diskurs i frågan om hur Vattenfalls miljöintentioner ska uppnås.

This thesis continues the discussion of the role of interests and values as determinants of Canadian foreign policy by examining closely their treatment in the Martin governments 2005 foreign policy statement, <i>A Role of Pride and Influence in the World</i> (RPIW). The purpose of the thesis is to capture the expression and interplay of interests and values within RPIW vis-à-vis past foreign policy expressions. It begins by presenting a literature review of selected works by Denis Stairs, Jennifer Welsh, Kim Richard Nossal and Cranford Pratt, which will reveal the state of the discourse on the role of interests and values in Canadian foreign policy. It proceeds with a textual analysis of RPIW: Overview, comparing its structure and content to those which appear in <i>Canada in the World</i> (1995), <i>Competitiveness and Security</i> (1985) and <i>Foreign Policy for Canadians</i> (1970).<p> This textual analysis ends with the conclusion that RPIW not only incorporates past criticisms by Denis Stairs and Kim Richard Nossal, but also seems to embrace the interests-driven, values-based orientation put forward by Jennifer Welsh in <i>At Home in the World</i>. However, as the thesis moves on to a comparison of RPIW: Overview and RPIW: Development, the thesis exposes the fact that in RPIW: Development, the interests-based, values-driven approach seems to have been abandoned in favour of policies, such as the section titled Good Governance, that use values as policy drivers in and of themselves. The thesis concludes that development, despite the Martin governments deliberate efforts in RPIW, appears to be a consistently altruistic, values-driven exercise. If aid effectiveness has any hope of being strengthened, it must be done under both an acknowledgement of the altruistic character of the development enterprise, as well as careful thought as to what the desired outcome of Canadian development policy ought to be.

Huruvida det ska finnas en västerländsk kanon i skolan eller ej är ett omdiskuterat ämne. Från att ha varit en självklarhet i svenskundervisning och sedd som någonting berikande har den kommit att bli uppfattad som elitisk och uteslutande i vissa hänseenden. I den här uppsatsen diskuteras detta vidare genom att undersöka frågor som vad som egentligen är västerländsk kanon och vilken litteratur som ingår i den, varför man ska läsa denna litteratur, samt ta reda på verksamma lärares och elevers åsikter om kanons legitimitet i skolan. Undersökningen är baserad på kvalitativa intervjuer med två verksamma svensklärare på gymnasiet, samt fyra elever varav hälften läser studieförberedande gymnasieprogram, och den andra hälften yrkesförberedande dito. Undersökningen visade att lärarna hade både skilda åsikter men även kunskaper om kanons legitimitet i skolan; den ena var emot den, men använde sig av litteratur ur den, medan den andra förespråkade den. Elevernas kännedom om kanon var mindre, likväl stämde deras kunskaper om varför den är berättigad i skolan väl överens med rådande forskning som menar att den är allmänbildande, för vidare kulturarvet, och mer språkutvecklande än exempelvis populärlitteratur. Med detta inte sagt att man bör utesluta det ena eller det andra, utan de kan berika varandra. / Our investigation is based on qualitative interviews with two working upper secondary teachers and four second year students; two of these students attend university preparing programs and the other two attend work preparing programs. The results of the investigation show that the teachers have different opinions about the importance of the literature in the Western canon: one was against it and the other participant acknowledged it and even praised it. Despite the differences in opinion they both use it in their teaching because “it is classical literature that we all can learn something from”. It tells tales about the past - society, economy and politics. The students who were interviewed knew considerably less about the Western canon, although they knew such a thing existed they were insecure about what kind of literature it contains. When being shown the list of Western literary canon they recognized quite a few authors and books, because they had, at some point, read them or about them in their literary studies. All of the students recognize the canons importance and understand why it exists. It educates the general public about a way of life that has had a great impact, and still has, on our society and all aspects of it. It gives us the opportunity, through reading these canonized books, to see with our own eyes, past life and understand why some things have happened and developed the way they did.

L'éducation à la citoyenneté comme forme de socialisation juridique est un moyen parmi d'autres qui nous permet de concevoir un possible dépassement de la « raison paresseuse» dans laquelle sont engagés les modèles politiques occidentaux. Les bases d'un nouveau code moral proposant à la fois une identité individuelle et collective pour le citoyen sont nécessaires. Ainsi, les énergies consacrées à la meilleure formation possible des futurs acteurs de la société québécoise, au partage d'idées et de perceptions dans une perspective contemporaine, ne peuvent être que bénéfiques pour l'avancement et l'avènement d'une société où l'équité coexiste avec la différence. C'est en réfléchissant et en échangeant sur le sujet avec notre entourage que nous avons décidé de concentrer nos recherches dans le domaine de 1'« éducation à la citoyenneté» avec comme contenu le droit. Naturellement, l'analyse à proprement positiviste du droit est ici mise de côté. Comme nous le verrons plus loin, une étude qui aborde la vision que se font les jeunes de l'univers juridique qui les entoure commande plutôt une approche sociologique. Les conclusions tirées de notre projet de recherche contribueront au débat entourant les concepts de citoyenneté, de droits fondamentaux et de responsabilités sociales dans une dynamique d'apprentissage. En tenant compte de la dimension culturelle de la citoyenneté, nous décrirons les différences d'interprétation et de représentation des droits fondamentaux et des responsabilités sociales dans la conscience d'« initiés» et de « non initiés» à une activité de socialisation juridique organisée par le Centre de développement pour l'exercice de la citoyenneté (CDEC), Débats de citoyens. Ce n'est qu'une fois cet exercice complété que nous tenterons d'évaluer le bienfondé et la validité d'une telle approche pédagogique. / Citizenship education as a form of legal socialization is a way to conceive a possible overtaking of the « lazy reason » that embodies western political paradigms. The basis of a new moral code proposing an individual and collective identity for each citizen is necessary. Thus, the efforts invested in the best possible development of future actors in the province of Québec, in the sharing of ideas and views in a contemporary perspective, can only benefit the promotion and the upcoming of a society where equity coexists with difference. It is through reflection and while exchanging on the subject with others that we decided to concentrate our research on citizenship education with law as its content. Naturally, a positivistic analysis of the law is absent in such work. As we will see, a study that tackles young individuals' view of the legal universe they live in, rather commands a sociological approach. The conclusions we reached will contribute to the debate on the concepts of citizenship, fundamental rights and social responsibilities in a learning environment. Taking into account the cultural dimension of citizenship, we describe the differences in the interpretation and the representation of fundamental rights and social responsibilities in the conscience of "initiated" and "non-initiated" to a legal socialization activity organized by the Centre de développement pour l'exercice de la citoyenneté (CDEC). This activity is called Débats de citoyens, which translates to Citizens' debate. Only once this work is done will we attempt to evaluate the value and worth of such a pedagogical approach.

This essay will focus on the people using and are involved in, and have a large interest in the horror film genre. The purpose of this essay is to find what urge these people to continuously watch horror movies and how they believe to be acknowledge by the society in a modern sense. Our study is mainly based on two separate interviews and therefore, mainly from the users perspective. This essay is also complemented by earlier research on this topic. In context of stigma, violence debate, exclusion we found that the users truly can be found in a rare type of alternative sphere, besides the public sphere. But this is also in relationship with age and gender of the user. Our stands in all this is that horror movies should be accepted as an escape from reality, not a genre that twist people to become violent, and that users can see the difference between reality and fiction and using horror movies should not be considered a deviant behavior in a modern society.

Technology literacy is the latest achievement benchmark for 8th grade public school students under No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Although necessary for contemporary academic and professional success (Selfe, 1999; Pearson & Young, 2002), this benchmark is at odds with the legacy and current state of social inequities within American public education, as all students have not been provided with equal opportunities for engaging and safe learning environments (Kozol, 1991; Darling-Hammond, 2006)—much less technology enabled ones. The purpose of this qualitative study was to design culturally informed technology activities for urban middle school students in the Computer Assisted Debate (CAD) after school program and then observe the consequences of these activities within the community. The guiding research questions are: (1) What occurs in a CAD program community when an ethnographic approach to instructional design is implemented? (2) What is the impact of the culturally informed technology activities on the students and faculty within the CAD program community? Taking an ethnographic approach to instructional design, the researcher observed and participated in CAD after-school sessions at one urban middle school for 7 months. Data sources for the study included field notes, student artifacts, student and faculty interviews, and surveys. Evidence regarding their existing technology literacy knowledge base revealed varying levels of skills among the debate students, and that students themselves may not be able to calibrate what they know versus what they do not. Findings also revealed that the introduction of the activities influenced student participants’ technology literacy by allowing them to demonstrate web-based research skills. Other emergent topics regarding impact of the activities included classroom management, faculty curriculum materials, and visual instruction. Among other recommendations, the researcher found that activities should be designed to elicit a high level of student engagement and motivation, which tend to be unique for distinct student groups. The research findings contribute to scholarly literature regarding (1) developing innovative educational technology strategies to help urban kids learn and (2) instructional strategies within urban debate. Future studies should more closely examine consistent technology supported instruction over time and within urban debate, and debate faculty experiences regarding teaching with technology.

This thesis presents a study of the debate on drugs in the Swedish press from 1970 to 1999. Applying a social constructionist and critical discourse perspective, it aims to map out and analyze the discourse on drugs in a large number of Swedish newspapers. The main focus is on debate articles and editorials. The research questions are concerned with (1) how the drug problem has been articulated, and with (2) what the represen¬ta-tion¬al patterns found say about Swedish society, its social relations and social history on a higher level of abstraction. The practical analysis is oriented towards discerning (a) major themes, standpoints and controversies, (b) major views on people using drugs, and (c) major ideas about what should be done and how, within the drug discourse of Swedish media during three decades. Parts of the analyses are also devoted to finding out which actors have been influential in the debate on drugs, and what type of rhetoric has been employed. Results are presented in three chapters: one about the 1970s, one about the 1980s, and one about the 1990s. The drug problem is formulated, already during the 1970s, as a pressing and urgent problem in Swedish society. During the course of the two following decades, this fact is underlined more and more – even though an increasing amount of voices critical to this perspectives are raised towards the end of the 1990s. The threat is articulated during the 1970s as stemming from a faulty political system driving certain groups of people into helplessness drug abuse. During the 1980s and 1990s, however, impending liberalization of attitudes and legislation was increasingly constructed as the most imminent danger. The drug user was represented as a victim of social injustices during the seventies, but to an increasing extent – during the eighties and nineties – as belonging to certain youth groups who were perceived to be at risk of becoming drug abusers. When it comes to the measures prescribed, a steady development in the direction of increased repressiveness and tougher attitudes towards drugs and their users, is to be found over the course of the time period under study. The concluding discussion illustrates that the discourse on drugs is related to a number of other discourses to which it relates at various times, with various effects (a discourse of social critique, a legal discourse, a moral discourse, a discourse on youth and popular culture, and a discourse of Swedishness). The identified tendencies and discursive patterns are discussed in relation to the unique history of the temperance movement in Sweden, and analyzed with the help of John B. Thompson’s theory of media and ideology, Stanley Cohen’s theory on “folk devils and moral panics” and Kai T. Erikson’s idea about “boundary crises”. The main conclusion is that the drug debate is a vehicle through which such far reaching issues as those of morality, law and politics, national identity, the upbringing of youth and the future can be channeled.

This essay examines the debate that arose in connection to the sale of Carl Larsson’s monumental painting Midvinterblot in 1987. My main purpose is to examine which meanings the debaters ascribed Midvinterblot and in which way the debate influenced the paintings significance as cultural heritage. I will therefore argue that the debate initiated a renegotitation of the paintings meaning as cultural heritage. In the debate the debaters emphasized the National Museum’s responsibility over cultural heritage, Midvinterblots aestethic, the paintings economic value and its national implications. The controversies concerning the painting shows that its meaning as cultural heritage was not constituted by the painting itself but by the meanings which the debaters placed upon it. The debate also sheds light on that there may be a wide variety of opinions concerning what it is that constitutes as cultural heritage. The meanings the debaters ascribed Midvinterblot related, however, in a crucial way to each other. My examination of the debate also show how cultural heritage is created to fill a specific purpose, for example, to maintain cultural values, to attract tourists or as a resource in the formation of group identities.

This thesis continues the discussion of the role of interests and values as determinants of Canadian foreign policy by examining closely their treatment in the Martin governments 2005 foreign policy statement, <i>A Role of Pride and Influence in the World</i> (RPIW). The purpose of the thesis is to capture the expression and interplay of interests and values within RPIW vis-à-vis past foreign policy expressions. It begins by presenting a literature review of selected works by Denis Stairs, Jennifer Welsh, Kim Richard Nossal and Cranford Pratt, which will reveal the state of the discourse on the role of interests and values in Canadian foreign policy. It proceeds with a textual analysis of RPIW: Overview, comparing its structure and content to those which appear in <i>Canada in the World</i> (1995), <i>Competitiveness and Security</i> (1985) and <i>Foreign Policy for Canadians</i> (1970).<p> This textual analysis ends with the conclusion that RPIW not only incorporates past criticisms by Denis Stairs and Kim Richard Nossal, but also seems to embrace the interests-driven, values-based orientation put forward by Jennifer Welsh in <i>At Home in the World</i>. However, as the thesis moves on to a comparison of RPIW: Overview and RPIW: Development, the thesis exposes the fact that in RPIW: Development, the interests-based, values-driven approach seems to have been abandoned in favour of policies, such as the section titled Good Governance, that use values as policy drivers in and of themselves. The thesis concludes that development, despite the Martin governments deliberate efforts in RPIW, appears to be a consistently altruistic, values-driven exercise. If aid effectiveness has any hope of being strengthened, it must be done under both an acknowledgement of the altruistic character of the development enterprise, as well as careful thought as to what the desired outcome of Canadian development policy ought to be.