Thesis advisor: Rebecca Lowenhaupt / School districts throughout the Commonwealth have engaged in initiatives to increase educators of color. Ingersoll et al. (2019) argue that while “many believe that the small number of minority teachers is caused by a lack of recruitment or intake” they concur with Pearson and Fuglei (2019) that recruitment is not the only problem. The issue is retention. Recent studies like these shed new light on the need for additional research on factors that increase the retention of educators of color. I posit that supporting the development of critical consciousness in Educators of Color can also support their retention in school districts. The purpose of this individual study is to identify the practices that Educators of Color (EOCs) report to be supportive, increase their critical consciousness, and/ or impact their retention in the district. This study centers the experiences of Educators of Color (EOCs), and amplify their voices in order to learn about the impact of school-based and district-sponsored practices. This individual study is part of a group qualitative case study that examines the practices of district leaders, school leaders, educators, and students to foster and advance the development of critical consciousness. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

This thesis explores how coloniality of heritage, denial of racialization and forced passing impact Black women in Sweden. In response, it investigates practices of self-care adopted to buffer and cope with racism-related stress. Often, we connect self-care to spa-days, luxurious masks, and spoiling oneself as capitalism has translated self-care into one if its buzzword for people to consume. It is characterized by the privatization of wellbeing rather than a collective endeavor, which feeds into a capitalist agenda (Michaeli, 2017). Queering self-care and adopting self-care as self-preservation in the words of Audre Lorde (2017), provides a holistic embodiment of Black feminist thought, especially for us facing intersecting oppressions. Healing circles as a method for this research provides a safe-space where experiences can be shared over the commonality of being Black women in Sweden. Moreover, separatist settings are found to hold therapeutic value as they limit the risks of being alienated when talking about a common identity. In extension, the healing circles of this research explore how representation in media and art provide possibilities of being included in a global community as a response to not having access to physical affinity groups. Concludingly, I suggest how healing circles can and should be integrated in gender and feminist studies as an intersectional methodology that further develops the possibilities of not speaking for the Other.

The 19th century was a time when a large number of voluntary associations were being formed both in Sweden and in Europe as a whole. Their ambition was to engage in health care and poor relief issues as well as in the educational system. Furthermore, the general idea was to promote temperance and foster a sense of thrift among the poor and the working class population. While the starting-point of the thesis was the question as to why the voluntary associations founded various charitable activities as well as how the philanthropy was designed, organised and modified throughout the century, the aim has been to elucidate the motive force and incentives for their social reforms. In order to answer the two main questions of the dissertation, the association De Badande Wännerna (the DBW), which engaged in several philanthropic activities in the Swedish province of Gotland as early as the 1810s, has been selected for a case study. In the literature a number of different reasons have been stressed as to why voluntary associations chose to engage in charitable activities. In order to shed light on what factors that underlay their philanthropic work, the process of negotiation regarding the various institutions established by the DBW, as well as the practical layout of the establishments, have been analysed from the perspectives of a theoretical model based on affinity groups. The study has shown that the incentives of philanthropy were complex. Furthermore, the incentives changed concurrently with the expansion of the public poor relief and educational system, which from the middle of the 19th century took over many of the humanitarian efforts hitherto run by the voluntary associations. The result of this development was that the voluntary associations created new spheres of activity. They continued to fulfil important societal functions, but their establishments also fulfilled a more internal desire for pleasure and delights.

Olika former av digitala medier är något som får allt större plats både i samhället och i skolan. I detta arbete har vi därför undersökt datorspelens pedagogiska möjligheter för kunskaps-utveckling utifrån de didaktiska frågorna i svenskämnet på en gymnasieskola med en utpräglad datorspelsprofil. Insamlingen av det empiriska materialet har skett via två kvalitativa metoder. Tre lärare har intervjuats genom semistrukturerade intervjuer och tre fokusgrupper, med fyra elever i vardera grupp, har genomförts. Analysen av den empiriska undersökningen grundar sig i teorin om sociokulturellt lärande, vikten av litteracitet kopplat till datorspel samt samhörigheten i affinity groups. Mycket av analysen bygger på tidigare forskning av James Paul Gee och Christina Olin-Scheller där bejakande av elevintresse och motivation är något som figurerar prominent. Resultatet visar på svårigheter att inkludera datorspel i svenskundervisningen på grund av utformningen av ämnesplanen, trots att många likheter mellan mer traditionella texttyper och datorspel nämns av lärarna. När datorspel används nyttjas det främst som ett motivationsverktyg för att få de datorspelsintresserade eleverna intresserade av att genomföra skoluppgifter. Detta är något som samtliga elever uppskattar, även om lärarna anser att det måste existera en balansgång mellan bejakandet av elevintresse och syfte och mål. Vår diskussion kretsar kring huruvida svenskämnets historia är det som försvårar användandet av datorspel på grund av sin tradition där typografisk text fortfarande värderas högt i skolan. Även frågan om hur bejakande en lärare kan vara i sin undervisning av elevintressen samt att datorspel kan ha en positiv effekt för att avdramatisera misslyckanden diskuteras.

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Ce mémoire vise à analyser le processus de construction de l'identité collective du mouvement queer à Montréal dans un contexte francophone. Bien que plusieurs travaux portent en partie sur les groupes militants queers québécois, aucune recherche ne s'est employée à comprendre comment les militant.es queers à Montréal se constituent comme un collectif qui développe une identité. Pour analyser le processus de construction de l'identité collective du mouvement queer montréalais, je m'appuie sur la théorie de Melucci (1985; 1996), qui définit l'identité collective d'un mouvement selon plusieurs axes : les champs d'action, les moyens employés et les fins visées, ainsi que le mode d'organisation. Afin de répondre à cette question de recherche, j'ai effectué une recherche documentaire ainsi que sept entrevues avec des militant.es queers montréalais.es francophones. L'analyse des données a été faite grâce à divers travaux qui portent sur les champs d'action, les valeurs, les fins et moyens, le mode d'organisation de mouvements contemporains anti-autoritaires et anti-oppressifs, ainsi qu'en fonction de trois dimensions élaborées par Melucci (1985) : le conflit, la solidarité et les limites du système. Je conclus que l'identité collective comme processus s'articule autour de plusieurs enjeux : premièrement, la diversité des champs d'action, les valeurs anti-oppressives, les relations d'affinités, le mode de vie alternatif et le mode d'organisation anti-oppressif des militant.es queers permettent au mouvement de créer une solidarité interne, d'affirmer une position anti-autoritaire qui brise les limites du système dominant et de se différencier du mouvement LGBT mainstream. Par ailleurs, les actions militantes concrètes qui réalisent le changement dans l'ici et maintenant participent à créer une solidarité et une reconnaissance entre militant.es, ainsi qu'à mettre en lumière un conflit avec le système dominant oppressif. Enfin, les perspectives francophones sur le mouvement queer ne semblent pas donner au bilinguisme du mouvement un rôle fondamental dans la construction de son identité collective. Cependant, l'intérêt marqué des militant.es francophones comparativement aux militant.es anglophones pour la politique institutionnelle fait émerger de nouvelles interrogations sur l'impact que pourrait avoir le mélange des cultures francophone et anglophone à Montréal sur la culture politique et l'identité du mouvement. / This dissertation aims at analyzing the process of construction of the collective identity of the Montreal queer movement in a french-speaking context. Although several works partly focus on queer militant groups from Quebec, no research tries to understand how queer militants in Montreal are formed as a collective which develops an identity. To analyze this process, I employ Melucci's theory (1985; 1996), which defines the collective identity of a movement according to three axes : the field of action, the means used and the ends aimed, as well as the forms of organization. In order to answer this research question, I carried out a documentary research and seven interviews with french-speaking queer militants from Montreal. The data analysis is based on various works concerning the fields of action, the values, the means and the ends, as well as the forms of organization of anti-authoritative and anti-oppresive contemporary movements, but also through three dimensions developed by Melucci (1985) : the conflict, the solidarity and the limits of the system. I argue that collective identity is articulated around several challenges : firstly, the diversity of the fields of action, the anti-oppressive values, the relation of affinity and the anti-oppressive form of organization of the queer militants allow the movement to create an internal solidarity, affirm an antiauthoritarian position which breaks the limits of the dominant system, and dissociate itself from the mainstream LGBT movement. In addition, concrete militant actions play a part in the social change here and now, contribute to creating solidarity and recognition between militants and reveals a conflict with the dominant oppressive system. Lastly, from the perspective of its french-speakers, the bilingual feature of the queer movement does not play a fundamental role in the construction of its collective identity. However, the shown interest of french-speaking militants for the institutional policy by comparison with english-speaking militants brings up new questions concerning how the mixture of the french-speaking and english-speaking cultures might have an impact on the political culture and the identity of the queer movement in Montreal.