The purpose of this study is to investigate how assessment processes in secondary school Physical Education and Health (PEH) are manifested in PEH teachers’ concrete grading based on the new Swedish curriculum from 2011. Three major questions are formulated: Which difficulties and possibilities do PEH teachers experience during assessment based on the new curriculum? How do they motivate their grades? Which dilemmas do they describe in connection with their grading? The curriculum theories by Bernstein and Swedish theorist Linde were chosen as theoretical framework. Furthermore, a hermeneutic perspective was applied in order to interpret and analyse the results from video recorded interviews. The results show that the new curriculum and syllabus are described as more structured and more interconnected than the previous ones. The new grading scale, the explicit syllabus and the fact that teachers have to offer a wider spectrum of activities are described as strengths. Grades are meticulously documented since this is a way to justify the grades both for the pupils and their parents. Almost all participating teachers in the study use matrices to document their assessments. Theoretical knowledge has gradually become more important in PEH, for example Health is mainly assessed based on theoretical assignments. However, the constant assessment has become so comprehensive that the PEH teachers fear that the joy of being active will decline. The difficulties experienced in relation to the new curriculum are, to a large extent, focused on the new grading scale and the description of what is required to obtain a certain grade. Teachers are hesitant as to the meaning of expressions like “to a certain degree”, “relatively well” and “well”. They feel insecure in their assessment, for example how to handle the proportions between different capabilities. It is obvious that further in-service training is necessary in order to obtain more equivalent grades. The requirements for each step of the grading scale must be clarified.

Syftet med avhandlingen är att öka förståelsen för aspekter som inverkar på relationen mellan yrkeselevers kunskaper och de kunskaper som behövs i yrkeslivet. Detta görs genom att undersöka olika aktörers perspektiv på yrkeslivets behov av  matematikkunskaper, matematikundervisning på yrkesprogram och utformningen av läroplanen Gy11. Studien görs inom gymnasiets naturbruksprogram med inriktning mot lantbruksutbildning och inom lantbruksyrket. Det empiriska materialet består av kvalitativa intervjuer med yrkesverksamma lantbrukare, yrkeslärare och matematiklärare samt intervjuer och enkäter med elever. Resultaten från den empiriska studien har analyserats i relation till läroplanen Gy11. För analysen används framförallt Bernsteins läroplansteoretiska perspektiv med begreppen pedagogiska koder och diskurser, i vissa delar tillsammans med D’Ambrosios etnomatematiska perspektiv. Resultaten visar att lantbruksyrket kräver goda matematikkunskaper, men att det i vissa fall finns ett diskursivt gap mellan skolans matematikundervisning och behovet av matematikkunskaper i yrkeslivet. Trots ämnesplanens inriktning mot en matematik som är relaterad till elevernas yrkesinriktning, är matematikundervisningen ofta starkt knuten till en matematikbok utan relation till det yrke eleverna utbildas för. Undervisningens organisering styrs av en mängd ramfaktorer som både kan handla om tid, gruppsammansättningar och schema, men också om lärarnas syn på kunskap. De nationella proven utgör en betydande ramfaktor som i många fall styr undervisningen i högre grad än vad innehållet i ämnesplanen gör. Undervisningens svaga koppling till elevernas yrkesinriktning gör dem omotiverade att lära sig matematik eftersom de har svårt att se hur de ska kunna använda sina kunskaper i sitt kommande yrke. En del elever har också svårigheter med att rekontextualisera sina  matematikkunskaper från skolkontexten till yrkeslivets kontext vilket bland annat kan försämra deras anställningsmöjligheter. / The aim of the thesis is to increase understanding of aspects that affect the relationship between vocational education students’ knowledge and knowledge needed in professional life. This is examining through different actors' perspectives on the professional needs of mathematics skills, mathematics teaching in vocational programs and the design of the national curriculum Gy11. The study is conducted in the upper secondary natural resources management program with focus on agricultural education and the agricultural profession. The empirical material consists of qualitative interviews with professional farmers, vocational teachers, mathematics teachers and students. The results of the empirical study have been analyzed in relation to the curriculum Gy11. Bernstein's curriculum theoretical perspective, and particularly the concepts educational codes and discourses, is used for the analysis, in some parts along with D'Ambrosio’s ethno mathematical perspective. The results show that good math skills are essential for the farming profession but in some cases there is a discursive gap between school mathematics teaching and the need for mathematical skills in professional life. Although the subject plan for mathematics is focusing on mathematics related to the profession students are trained for, the mathematics teaching is largely tied to a textbook with tasks unrelated to the students’ future profession. The organization of the teaching is controlled by a variety of frame factors that can concern time, group compositions and schedule, but also the teachers' view of knowledge. The national tests represent a significant frame factor which in many cases controls the teaching to a higher degree than what the content of the subject plan does. The weak connection to the students' professional orientation makes them unmotivated to learn mathematics because they have trouble seeing how they can use their knowledge in their future profession. Students also have difficulties in recontextualizing their mathematical skills from the school context in the professional life context, which among other things can reduce their employability.

<p>Preschool is a central part of Swedish family life. The manner in which the state regulates preschool through laws, ordinances, and various kinds of written objectives has an impact on many people in the Swedish society. </p><p>The thesis examines the development of preschool state regulation from the 1940s until 2008. The starting point of the study is a draft for a new Education Act, put forward in 2003, which proposed that preschool should be integrated into the school system as a new form of school. The purpose of the study is to generate knowledge about the state regulation of Swedish preschool, and how it has contributed to the shaping of preschool as a societal institution. Questions considered in the analysis are how regulation delimits preschool as a social category, what role this regulation assigns preschool in relation to other actors and societal institutions involved in early childhood education and care, and what principles this regulation is based on.</p><p>The study has evolved within the research tradition of curriculum theory as developed in studies in educational politics. The analysis is carried out as a text analysis, where the concepts of boundary work, official classification and activity system serve as important analytical tools. Texts produced within the formal chain of decision and legislation: directives for committees, government white papers, ministerial task forces, bills, legislative texts etc., form the empirical foundation for the study. </p><p>The analysis shows that economic as well as legal and ideological governing instruments are used in the shaping of the framework of preschool. These frameworks are indicated in the form of different boundary markers that delimit preschool as a specific category and arrange it in relation to other categories. The boundaries indicated by these boundary markers have been subject to extensive discussion during the formulation process. Through this boundary work, preschool has been constructed as a full time preschool, commissioned to provide both education and care. The boundaries of this commission are in some respects indistinct and contain several overlapping elements with regards to family, social services and school. At the same time, preschool holds a fixed core with more distinct boundaries, in the form of a part time public preschool delimited by time and age and regulated by far-reaching legislation regarding the rights of children to attend. Owing to this construction, preschool may balance several different and partly contradictory demands placed on it by other institutions and by different interest groups, while at the same time maintaining a core of identity of its own. In that sense, preschool may be described as a boundary object. Thus, when it is suggested that preschool should constitute a form of school and be placed in the more formal regulation structures of the school system, the balance of this construction is challenged. </p>

This thesis, Space, Curriculum Space and Morality, focuses on the two roles of the school, i.e. developing identities and transmitting knowledge. The latest curriculum reform commissions the teachers to transform the fundamental values of the curriculum to the separate subjects. The principal object of the school subjects is to contribute to the implementation of the curriculum goals, namely to educate and promote democratic citizens. Since the new course syllabi lack guidelines about subject content and method, the intention of this work it is to analyse in what way the teachers’ fill this curriculum space, which subject content the teachers choose in order to connect the curriculum goals to the course syllabi goals and, to the practical teaching of geography as a school subject. The understanding of the teachers’ choice of subject content is the overall aim of this thesis. The thesis can be placed within a curriculum theory tradition that regards education and its content as situated in a field of tension ultimately determined by social and political forces engaged in struggle. Within this tradition, an approach has been developed which examines the educational content of the school subjects as contingent. A curriculum historical analysis – supplemented by a text analysis of textbooks, a number of observations (81) of geography lessons in upper secondary school and the following qualitative interviews with geography teachers – shows that the teachers’ choice of content can be understood and explained by the strong selective traditions which have formed within the subject during 150 years. These selective traditions together form a school subject discourse which implies that the moral dimension is lost as the subject content is characterized by an essentialistic approach. The consequences of the findings can be discussed in relation to what content is excluded in the school geography education. Some examples are a gender perspective, issues regarding equality, ethnicity, solidarity, social justice and sustainable development. The issues that the school geography excludes contain ethical and moral considerations. If these issues were presented, they would relate to the fundamental values and the promotion of democracy, issues given strong prominence in the curriculum.

The purpose of the essay is to examine and discuss the attitudes presented from different players involved in the development of religious education (RE) for upper secondary school in Sweden, and see if and what solutions are presented for solving these problems. A qualitative content analysis was used in order to investigate the different players, the Swedish schools inspectorate and the different researchers involved in the development of RE,attitudes and criticism towards religious education in Sweden.This study has shown that there are many fundamental issues with religious education in Sweden in such areas as different attitudes from both teachers and students towards RE, teachers competence in RE and towards the goal and criteria in the curriculum “outlooks onlife” (Swedish: Livsåskådningar). However, this essay has also proven that there have been no clear solutions presented by any of the players as to solving the issues of RE in Sweden, leaving a gap between schools, teachers and the other players involved in the development of religious education in Sweden.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka vad införandet av obligatorisk förskoleklass innebär för läsundervisningen i årskurs f–1. Studiens teoretiska ram utgår från läroplans- och ramfaktorteorin. Studiens data omfattas av olika regeringsförslag, den nya läroplanens framskrivning gällande förskoleklass och läsning i f–1 följt av åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer med fyra läromedelsförfattare och fyra verksamma f–1 lärare. Insamlade data analyserades utifrån Lindes (2012) tolkning av läroplansteorins tre arenor: formuleringsarenan, transformeringsarenan och realiseringsarenan. De tre arenorna samt ramfaktorer som läroplan, tid och behörighet är centrala i analysen av resultatet. Resultatet visar att införandet av en obligatorisk förskoleklass har potential att bidra till många fördelar gällande den livsviktiga läsundervisningen och den enskilda elevens läsutveckling, då fokus nu kan läggas på läsundervisningens progression och lärare kan fånga upp de svaga eleverna i ett tidigare skede. Studiens resultat visar också att läroplanens framskrivning för förskoleklass kan komma att bidra till en utökad undervisningstid i förskoleklass, eftersom förskoleklassens timplan fortfarande varierar från skola till skola trots det obligatoriska införandet. Det råder dock delade meningar om vad införandet av obligatorisk förskoleklass innebär för läsundervisningen i årskurs f–1 och hur vidare läsundervisningen kommer att förändras eller bedrivas på samma sätt som innan. Slutligen indikerar studiens resultat att det finns vissa oklarheter om vem som ska arbeta i förskoleklass, lärare eller förskollärare, och att det beslutet kan bära med sig konsekvenser för att kunna uppnå en likvärdig skola för alla.

<p>Swedish as a school subject has long been debated in Sweden, and ideas concerning its content, role and function in school and society have varied greatly throughout the years. In 1994, there was an upper secondary school reform which resulted in a partial revision of the Swedish subject, including its introduction within a new course and grading system. The Swedish A and B courses became obligatory for all upper secondary students. Other courses in Swedish became largely optional.</p><p>This study consists of two levels – a rhetorical and practical level. The rhetorical level deals with understandings and ideas of the Swedish subject and instruction as they are expressed in curricula and course syllabi, as well as with the understandings and ideas expressed by the four teachers in the study. In addition, the external and internal frame factors which underlie this rhetoric are considered. The practical level concerns the four teachers’ concrete Swedish instruction, i.e. the aims and goals, content and working methods which underlie their teaching, as well as the factors which influence, limit and facilitate it.</p><p>The aim of the study is to attempt to describe, analyse and understand the role and function of the Swedish subject after the upper secondary school reform of 1994. What ideas do the four teachers express regarding the role and function of the Swedish subject in upper secondary school and society after 1994, and how should these ideas and reasons be interpreted and understood from a more comprehensive, general perspective? How do the teachers represent the Swedish subject in their teaching, i.e. how is their knowledge of subject didactics expressed? These are two central questions in the study. A third central question concerns notions of society and the good citizen implied in the chosen views of the Swedish subject.</p><p>The study has two theoretical starting points: subject didactics and curriculum theory. Shulman’s concepts of pedagogical content knowledge and transformation are central to the subject didactics drawn upon here, while frame factor theory and Bernstein’s concepts of “classification” and “framing” are central to the curriculum-theoretical perspective. The perspective of subject didactics deals with the relation between teacher and content, while the curriculum-theoretical perspective deals with the relation between content, individual and society.</p><p>This study shows that the teachers’ knowledge of subject didactics is vague.The teachers’ transformation of content in teaching resides to a high degree in an adaptation to the students; the focus is thus not on a transformation and content analysis of the Swedish subject. Further, the teachers have an instrumental approach to the steering documents. A common characteristic among the four teachers, and in Swedish instruction generally, is that a large degree of responsibility is placed on the individual student for their literary and language development. Collective meetings were very infrequent in the teaching of the four teachers in the study.</p><p>This study discerns four teacher codes which reflect understandings and ideas of school and education, formed by previous and current material and sociocultural conditions and which the individual teacher has encountered, adopted and reshaped into his/her own. These four teacher codes can be described as closeness and hierarchy, tradition and renewal, vision and reality and the individual and the collective. The teacher codes reveal that the four teachers have relatively similar teaching strategies, whereas their teaching aims, goals and content diverge significantly.</p><p>Viewed from the perspective of curriculum theory, it is evident that the teachers emphasise the individual student over the collective. It is a matter of developing one’s thought and personality and of fostering the students to be individual, active members of society. However, this active member of society does not appear to be aware and critically active, but rather a loyal and obedient member of society.</p>

<p><p><p>Syftet med framförliggande uppsats är att bidra till ökad kunskap om gymnasielärares förståelse av ämnet samhällskunskap genom en beskrivning och analys av lärares målsättning och syfte med undervisningen med avseende på mål, innehåll och selektionsavvägningar. Den övergripande forskningsfrågan för detta arbete är: <em>Vilken förståelse har gymnasielärare av innehållet och undervisningen i skolämnet samhällskunskap? </em>Utifrån syftet och forskningsfrågan är målsättningen att ge svar på de didaktiska frågorna <em>vad </em>och <em>varför.</em></p><p>För att uppnå studiens syfte har en kvalitativ metod anammats och fem semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts med gymnasielärare som undervisar i ämnet samhällskunskap. Lärarna i studien definierar ämnet i innehållsliga termer samt i termer av blocktillhörighet. Studien visar att undervisningen i samhällskunskap bör bidra samt syfta till förståelse av samhällets struktur och funktion, men även ge eleverna kompetenser och färdigheter för att fungera som medborgare i ett demokratiskt samhälle. Vidare visar studien att målsättning är att eleverna ska utvecklas till goda, självständiga, kritiska och handlingskraftiga demokratiska medborgare med ett samhällsintresse, där de förvärvade kunskaperna kommer till användning genom att sättas in i ett sammanhang. Resultatet ger indikationer på att kunskapsområdena politik och ekonomi, kopplat till begreppet demokrati, utgör basen för ämnet. Ämnets mest centrala begrepp är demokrati och de flesta begreppen hämtas från områdena politik och ekonomi. Studien visar också att samhällskunskapsämnet är ett "aktualitetsämne" och därför prioriteras aktuella händelser i undervisningen. Vidare påvisas att det finns ett flertal faktorer som påverkar lärarnas val av ämnesinnehåll bl.a. läroboken, lärarens intressen och preferenser, elevers och kollegors inflytande, lokala planeringsinstrument m.m. En skillnad som framträder mellan lärarna på de teoretiskt respektive pratiskt inriktade programmen är användningen av läroboken, men det råder även delade meningar bland lärarna om de lokala planeringsinstrumentens behov och betydelse för undervisningen. Resultatet visar att lärarna är tillfredsställda med samhällskunskapsämnets utformning och de tror inte att någon större framtida förändring kommer att ske med avseende på ämnesinnehållet. Men några av lärarna tror emellertid att vissa kunskapsområden och samhällsfrågor som exempelvis massmedia, livskunskap, globala frågor och miljöfrågor kommer att få större utrymme.</p></p></p> / <p><p><p>The purpose of this essay is to contribute to increased knowledge of high school teachers' understanding of the subject social science through a description and an analysis of teachers' aims and purpose of their instruction, regarding goals, contents and selection of subject contents. The overall research question for this work is: <em>What understanding does high school teachers have of the contents and the teaching of the subject social science</em>? Based on this purpose and this research question, the aim is to answer the didactic questions of <em>what </em>and <em>why.</em></p><p>To accomplish the purpose of the study, a qualitative method has been used, and five semi-structured interviews have been conducted with high school teachers who are teaching social science. The teachers in this study define the subject in terms of contents as well as in terms of blocs belonging. The study shows that the instruction in social science should contribute to, and aim for an understanding of society's structure and function, in addition to giving the students competence and skills regarding their function as citizens of a democratic society. Furthermore, the study shows that the aim is for the students to develop into good, independent, critical and resolute democratic citizens, with an interest in society, where the obtained knowledge can be put into a context. The result indicates that the fields of politics and economics, connected to the concept of democracy, constitute the base of the subject. The most central concept of the subject is democracy and most of the concepts are drawn from the fields of politics and economics. The study also shows that social science is a subject which is sensitive to current issues, and for that reason on-going events are given priority. Furthermore, it is shown that there are several factors that influence the teachers' choice of contents: for example the course books, the teacher’s own interests and preferences, as well as that of students' and colleagues', the local instrument used for planning etc. A difference, which appears between the teachers on the theoretical and practical programs, respectively, is the use of the course book, but there is no unity amongst the teachers concerning the need for and importance of the local planning instruments, regarding the instruction. Results show that the teachers are satisfied with the form of the subject social science, and that they believe that no extensive future change will occur, regarding the contents of the subjects. However, the teachers believe that certain fields, such as mass media, "life science", global issues as well as environmental issues will be given more space.</p></p></p>

This thesis examines the activities within the Swedish steering system concerning upper secondary school. Sweden has a long history of shared responsibility between the state level of government and the municipalities, dating back to federal decisions concerning the establishment of a compulsory school system. By the early 1990s two parallel changes were taking place within the Swedish educational sector, one concerning the steering system which evolved towards deregulation and decentralization, and the other an extension of the compulsory school. A consequence of the latter change was that in practice upper secondary education became mandatory. The political aim was to realize the vision of “one school for all”. In this study the political vision and the larger question of how to turn it into reality (the differentiation question) is used to show how activities at national as well as the local level of the steering system are formed.

This dissertation focuses on the municipality (the local authority) as a participant in Swedish educational policy. The reform of school governance in the 1990s, gave municipality wider authority in the educational field and a greater responsibility for education. Discussions about the equivalence of education were a key aspect in decentralising school governance and responsibility for education, and questions were raised about how equivalence would be affected by increased local influence on education. Since the meaning of equivalence had become contested in educational policy, the answer differed. In the dissertation, political discussions about the municipality and about equivalent education are merged, and together form a base for the main question: In what different ways are the municipality constructed as a participant in educational policy? The analysis is undertaken within a curriculum theory tradition and from a discourse theory perspective that focuses school and education as situated in a field of tension determined by social and political struggle. The research interest is directed to the world as constructed in language and communication. The empirical material studied in the dissertation consists of national political texts, texts from the National Agency for Education and interviews with local politicians (local authority committee members). From the analysis, three discourses about the municipality as a participant in educational policy are identified. These are: The municipality as responsible for performance, which centres the construction of the municipality on a responsibility for educational performance. All actions undertaken by the municipality are in the discourse defined within a framework of goal achievement and results. The municipality as a non-participant, where the municipality has no place in educational policy or realisation of the educational system. Education is considered as a matter between the state, the professionals and the families. The municipality as a political-ideological actor, where the municipality is constructed as a participant with scope to organise school on the basis of certain political and ideological principles. The ideological stance adopted by the political majority guides the municipality’s actions in the educational field. The discourses have tangible consequences for the shape which school education assumes on a day-to-day basis in municipalities. Depending on which discourse that dominates a municipality’s understanding of its own role, the actions undertaken by that municipality will be more or less directed towards education performance, and more or less ideologically based. / Avhandlingen fokuserar kommunen som en part i Svensk utbildningspolitik. När styrningen av skolan reformerades i 1990-talets början fick kommunerna ett ökat ansvar för skolan, och större möjligheter och befogenheter att fatta beslut om hur den egna skolan ska organiseras. Diskussioner om utbildningens likvärdighet utgjorde en nyckelaspekt för den decentraliserade styrningen av och ansvaret för skolan, och frågan restes om hur likvärdigheten skulle påver-kas av ett ökat lokalt inflytande över utbildningsområdet. Eftersom betydelsen av likvärdighet hade blivit omstridd i den utbildningspolitiska debatten, fick frågan olika svar beroende på vilken innebörd som gavs begreppet likvärdighet. I avhandlingen förs de politiska diskussio-nerna om kommunens ansvar för skolan och om likvärdig utbildning samman, och dessa te-man utgör en helhet som ligger till grund för avhandlingens huvudfråga: På vilka olika sätt framträder kommunen som en part i utbildningspolitiken? Avhandlingens ansluter sig till en läroplansteoretisk tradition, och till ett diskursteoretiskt perspektiv där utbildningen och dess innehåll betraktas befinna sig i ett spänningsfält ytterst bestämt av sociala och politiska krafter i kamp. Forskningsintresset riktas mot världen som konstruerad i språk och kommunikation. Avhandlingens empiriska material består av natio-nella politiska texter, Skolverkstexter, kommunalpolitiska texter och intervjuer med kommu-nala skolpolitiker. Utifrån analysen kan tre diskurser om kommunen som en part i utbildningspolitiken identifie-ras. Dessa är: Kommunen som resultatansvarig, där konstruktionen av kommunen centreras kring ett ansvar för utbildningens resultat. Alla kommunens handlingar definieras i diskursen inom detta ram-verk av måluppnående och utbildningsresultat. Kommunen som icke-part, där kommunen inte ses ha någon uppgift i utbildningspolitiken eller skolans genomförande. Utbildning betraktas i diskursen som en angelägenhet mellan staten, skolans professionella och familjerna. Kommunen som politisk-ideologiskt handlande, där kommunen konstrueras som en part med utrymme att organisera skolan utifrån specifika politiska och ideologiska principer. De ideo-logiska ställningstaganden som görs av kommunens politiska majoritet är kraftigt vägledande för kommunens handlingar på utbildningsområdet och påverkar hur utbildning organiseras i kommunen. De olika diskurserna får påtagliga konsekvenser för hur den konkreta skolverksamheten tar form i en kommun. Beroende på vilken av diskurserna som dominerar en kommuns uppfatt-ning om sin egen roll, så kommer kommunens handlingar att vara mer eller mindre inriktade mot utbildningsresultat, och mer eller mindre politiskt-ideologiskt präglade.