abstract: The purpose of this study is to explore the local life stories of five youths in Belize City, Belize as they experience satellite mediated programming from Black Entertainment Television (BET). It illuminates the manner in which social imagination plays a role in the liberatory practices of the Kriol youth in Belize City, Belize by documenting their life histories in relation to their interactions with BET. The study addresses the following: a) the ways that Kriol youth in Belize make sense of international cable programming; b) the degrees to which these negotiations result in liberatory moments. The study investigates the stories the youth in an through narrative inquiry research methods that can expose how, and to what degree local experiences in the Caribbean can help individuals employ their social imagination for personal growth. Readers of this text may become empowered to adopt the identities of others as their own, and may as a result witness the world from a fresh perspective, perhaps even experiencing moments in which their own life stories are altered. The contextualized categories involving popular BET programming emerged based on how power was distributed and organized in the every day lives of the informants. Empirical examples of hegemonic levels of interaction arose from within the stories. An analysis based on the works of Caribbean scholar Rex Nettleford (1978) was used to study relationships between these levels. There emerged from within the narratives four kinds of hegemonic power negotiations based on degrees of social: Dependence, Impulsive Resistance, Conscious Subordination, Leverage, and Creolization. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2011

This study focuses on, and explores the curriculum content and resources used when teaching on the European Union (EU) and EU-questions within civics education at lower secondary level in Sweden. The research findings have been examined from a ‘best practice’ perspective in relation to subject matter which is seen as positive in the context of political participation. The content, which includes polity, policy and politics, has together with an approach to treat the content as domestic politics, been viewed as a successful model leading to political participation. In order to assess to what extent the taught content facilitates pupils political participation, the EU content taught at lower secondary education is compared to national politics. In addition, as it can be expected to have an impact on what is taught, the context and actual content what is taught about EU and national politics is also compared. The results, based on information and findings collected through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with teachers from six different municipalities show that EU education does not compare well when contrasted against the educational content taught in relation to national level polity, policy and politics. The curriculum content taught on the EU illustrates primarily that it is the polity dimension which is dominating whereas all EU education is framed more as foreign policy politics rather than as part of domestic politics. Swedish national politics on the other hand, to a larger extent, show signs of the three dimensions and has clear characteristics of domestic politics. The citizen’s ability to influence politics is at the core of education in relation to national politics. However, this does not seem to be the case when it comes to education in relation to the EU. The politics of Swedish political parties advocated at a national level is, for example, explored in detail; however, none or very little of their politics at EU level is addressed. The dominant question, in relation to EU studies, is if Sweden should be a full member of the EU or not. The educational design in relation to national politics comes across as better planned when compared to EU studies. What is brought into the educational content in relation to EU studies depends to a large extent on the context and subject area in which it is being raised.

Labour force in the art sector is characterised by high qualification, but low income for those people who perform the core contribution in art, i.e. the artists. As artists are typically self-dependent in managing their business, they should have managerial skills besides those skills necessary to perform their artistic core activities. If the lack of managerial skills is a reason why artists fail to make a living from their talent, then this chain of cause and effect could be ruptured by adequate educational opportunities. This paper analyses the curricula of a wide range of institutions offering art education programmes and identifies their managerial learning content. In doing so, we focused on German-speaking countries, the so-called DACH region (i.e. Germany, Austria and Switzerland, whereas D, A and CH are country codes). We identified and analysed 159 course syllabi of 81 art universities, schools and academies. The results of our study indicate a lack of managerial learning contents: a vast majority of institutions follow a rather traditional approach to art education, focusing solely on artistic competences. We suggest the implementation of managerial learning contents to better prepare art students for successful careers in the arts.

The focus of this study is planning for the school subject History in the Swedish upper secondary school. In a goal-oriented educational system teachers have – to some extent – the possibility to interpret and decide how the formal curriculum should be realized in practice. The starting point of this study is the claim that planning is a complex process and that more knowledge is needed about its implementation in today´s school. The planning of the History syllabus, as planned and performed by two teachers in upper secondary schools has been studied during one term with special emphasis on the teachers´ planning related to the national documents. Starting from the teachers´ description of their planning, a model that seems to be a relevant tool to help describe and analyse central aspects of planning, has been used. Their planning has also been described by the help of various concepts and perspectives. The study includes, among other things: the teachers´ selection of story and organizing principle, the measure of intention when planning for the goals in the formal curriculum, the selection of various analytical tools, the teaching for resonance, the planning for transparency and progression of the assessment, the selection of assessment tools and the basis for assessment. The study has also included the issue of whether the goals in the formal curriculum have primarily been interpreted in a general manner or related to the special school subject History, and to what extent the goals in the formal curriculum have been integrated in the didactic decisions made in order to plan teaching and evaluation. / Baksidestext Beskrivningen av planeringsuppdraget i ett målstyrt system handlar ofta om hur uppdraget är tänkt att utföras och mer sällan om hur uppdraget genomförs i praktiken. Med tanke på att det är lärare och elever som i sista hand beslutar om hur undervisningen och bedömningen ska utformas så är det praktiska genomförandet intressant att studera och diskutera. Den här studien har som mål att med praktiknära utgångspunkter analysera frågan om vad planeringsarbetet för en kurs i historia kan handla om. I undersökningen har två lärares beskrivning av sin planering av undervisning och bedömning följts under en termin. I studien har det visat sig att planering av en kurs i historia handlar om en mängd olika beslut som kan beskrivas med olika begrepp och perspektiv. Som exempel kan nämnas: val av kursens berättelse och organisationsprincip samt val av olika redskap som eleverna ska få. Med utgångspunkt i lärarnas beskrivning av sin planering har undersökningen lyft fram en planeringsmodell som framstår som ett relevant verktyg för att beskriva och analysera centrala aspekter av planeringsarbetet. Studien har uppmärksammat frågan om i vilken grad som kursplanens mål tolkats generellt eller ämnesspecifikt samt frågan om i vilken grad som kursplanens mål integrerats i de didaktiska beslut som tagits för att utforma undervisning och bedömning. Förhoppningen är att begreppen och perspektiven kan underlätta diskussion och reflektion vid praktiskt planeringsarbete.

This thesis examines narrative articulations in the films Bend It Like Beckham, Bhaji on the Beach, and American Chai as a complicated conversation in relation to bicultural-identity construction in the Indian diaspora. Unpacking the way desi identities are managed in/as a quantum (third) space – one that is continuously shifting and deferred – the films exemplify how "desi" is a heterogeneous cultural "group" without a homeland from which to speak or to return. The narratives of these films are considered cultural translations that expose inter-generational culture-clashes in the spaces between Indian and Western cultures. Screenplay pedagogy was used as a methodology to (re)read analysis of the films, revealing the ways that different movies employ and reinscribe themes of the multicultural pastoral, the carnivalesque, and melodrama, respectively. This thesis concludes by opening up some of the places from which individuals enunciate their desi identities, including the possibilities for (self)reflection.

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This discussion explores the opportunities, challenges, and tensions of integrating curriculum studies scholarship into methods courses at the elementary pre-service level.

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Den här studien avhandlar skolämnet Pedagogiks utformning och praktiska karaktär liksom ämnesområdet pedagogiks betydelser på en gymnasial nivå i Sverige. Till skillnad från pedagogikämnet inom forskning eller som universitetsämne är skolämnet Pedagogik, som främst gest på gymnasiets Barn- och fritidsprogram, outforskat. Genom en textanalys av officiella styr- och policydokument för skolämnet, lärares material från undervisning i det och elevproducerade texter från något av ämnets kurser har den här studien ämnat ändra på det. För att kunna undersöka hur ämnet eventuellt omskapas, konstrueras och förstås på en gymnasial nivå formulerades en huvudsaklig forskningsfråga med tre underställda frågeställningar. Frågeställningarna om hur pedagogik beskrivs i officiella styrdokument, hur lärare uttolkar och konstruerar det och hur elever förstår ämnet besvarades i textanalysen av 36 empiriska texter, insamlade från en handfull lärare från tre olika skolor runt om i Sverige. Analysen använde sig av Basil Bernsteins teori om rekontextualisering för att kunna analysera vilken rekontextualisering av ämnet som sker mellan de olika aktörer som på olika sätt fastställer, påverkar eller nyttjar ämnet. Framför allt Bernsteins begrepp fält, agenter och ideologiskt spelutrymme kunde bidra till att analysen lyckades belysa hur det sker en rekontextualisering – en förflyttning, uttolkning och ett omskapande – av vad pedagogik som ämne är och innebär. Skolverket och undervisande lärare försöker på olika sätt påverka och styra definitionen av skolämnet Pedagogik, men även elever som läser det och deras förståelse av ämnet har viss inverkan på hur det kan sägas se ut. / This study centres around the formation and shape and the practical character of the Swedish school subject Pedagogy, as well as the subject area’s meanings on a secondary school level in Sweden. Different from research about pedagogy within different researching fields or as a subject on university level, the school subject Pedagogy, which is mainly studied on the vocational secondary school program Child and Recreation, is unexplored. Through a textual analysis of official policy documents for the school subject, teachers’ material from their teaching of it, and texts produced by students taking it, this study has aimed to change this fact. To be able to analyse how the subject of pedagogy is possibly reshaped, constructed, and understood on a secondary school level, one main and three subsequent research questions were phrased. The three subsequent research questions concerned how official policy documents describe the subject, how teachers interpret and construct in, and how students understand it. They were answered through the textual analysis of 36 empirical documents, collected from a handful of teachers in three schools around Sweden. The analysis used Basil Bernstein’s theory on recontextualization to be able to analyse what kind of recontextualization of the subject takes place between these different kinds of actors, who in different ways define, affect and/or make use of the subject. Specifically Bernstein’s notions of fields, agents and space for ideology at play were useful in how the analysis managed to put a light on the fact that there is a process of recontextualization – a transference, an interpretation and a recreation – of what pedagogy as a school subject is and means. The Swedish National Agency for Education and teachers teaching the subject try to affect and steer the definition of pedagogy in different ways, but also students who study Pedagogy in school and their understanding of it has some impact on how the subject could be said to appear.

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