Syftet med studien är att genom kritisk granskning få en fördjupad förståelse av fristående gymnasieskolors multimodala kommunikation på sina hemsidor gentemot grundskoleelever och deras vårdnadshavare. Avsikten är att jämföra de friskolor i Stockholmsområdet som hade högst respektive lägst meritvärde för antagning höstterminen 2019. För att undersöka detta används multimodal analys av tio fristående gymnasieskolors hemsidor. Resultatet presenteras utifrån olika kategorier med en bakgrund i sociosemiotisk teori. I resultatet framkommer att skolorna i gruppen med högst antagningsgräns ofta använder liknande semiotiska resurser vilka skiljer sig från de skolor med lägst antagningsgräns som inom sin grupp använder sig av semiotiska resurser som liknar varandras. De olika skolorna riktar sin kommunikation till olika grupper av elever och vårdnadshavare. Alla skolor använder sina egna semiotiska resurser för att skapa mening. Kombination av de semiotiska resurserna på en skolas hemsida skapar en viss förståelse hos betraktaren. / The purpose of this study is to achieve a greater understanding of multimodal communication towards prospective students and their guardians on webpages of independent upper secondary schools in Sweden. The intention is to compare independent schools in the Stockholm area which had the highest as opposed to the lowest limit of admission in the autumn of 2019. To investigate this, multimodal analysis of the websites of ten independent upper secondary schools is used. The results are presented in different categories based on social semiotic theory. Furthermore, the results show that the schools in the group with the highest admission limit often use similar semiotic resources and that they differ from the schools with the lowest admission limit. This group on the other hand, use semiotic resources that are similar to one another. The different schools direct their communication towards different groups of students and guardians. Schools use several individual semiotic resources which create understanding in combination with each other.

Many students change their choice of secondary school programme or fail to complete their studies which results in a great cost to society or personal costs for the student. The purpose is to examine the experiences of two groups of upper secondary school students regarding their choice of upper secondary school programme. The questions we wanted answers to were: what influenced the student’s choice of study, what support did the students receive from comprehensive school and what might have caused them to choose another programme. The study was carried out in two focus groups where one of the groups was made up of students who had chosen the “right” programme and the other made up of students who had chosen the “wrong” programme. One thing that influenced the student’s choice of upper secondary school programme was whether or not the programme provided eligibility to higher studies which they had heard from primary school and parents was a choice that would give them many possibilities in the future. It appeared that there had not been much of a guidance process for developing career management skills which could have given the students support in reflecting over their transition to upper secondary school. The students’ interests and the parents and people near the students influenced the students’ choices. The study shows that students needed a longer guidance process and a clearer understanding of its purpose. Narrow and wide guidance varied depending on a student’s comprehensive school. They would have needed a better description of the consequences such as what study demands were required for the programme and what moving or commuting would mean in practice.