Thesis (Ph. D.)--Uppsala University, 2005. / Title taken from PDF title screen (viewed September 10, 2007). Includes bibliographical references and index.

The topic of this essay is about teachers, who teaches in the subject Swedish, opinions in a literary canon. This study will present how they argue about a formally decided literary canon and how the teachers argue in using canon in their education. I have used an argumentative analysis to analyse the teachers’ arguments. The earlier research in the field concluded that the canon debate is polarized and mostly discussing whether canon is good or bad, and not so much on trying to discuss it in a constructive way on how to use canonized literature in school. My research concludes that the teachers’ opinions on canon are essentially polarized, but many teachers also think that a canon is at the same time beneficial, important and problematic. A majority of the arguments used on both sides are the same arguments that are used by the scientific literary field which studies canon. The biggest difference is the alignment to an educational context. The result show that the teachers’ use different pro-arguments and suggestions on how to establish a definite literary canon that could be used within the school system. Some argue for a formally decided literary canon established by the state and mean that the education will be equal and distinct, and students will develop the same cultural references. But not all teachers are positive to the proposition of a state established literary canon. The arguments on why and how teachers use canon in the education are similar to why there should be a definite literary canon in all schools. The contra-arguments the teachers’ use for a formally decided literary canon are that it will intrude in the teachers’ possibilities to adapt the education to the students. They also use contra-arguments that says the canonized literature is not adaptable to the students’ interests and that it is narrow and exclusive. They also mean that it is time consuming and will remove teachers’ possibilities to plan their education and make it adaptable for the students. The teachers’ contra-arguments on using canon in the education are similar to the above contra-arguments that the canonized literature is problematic in the perspective of authors and adaptiveness to different groups of students.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Duquesne University, 2004. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-298) and index.

This master's thesis focuses on popular literature and its place on czech secondary schools with a research on how much this kind of literature is involved in the reading lists for the Maturita exam. Based on examples we will try to give some proposals not only for what literature lessons should look like and which questions should be answered by the students but we will also prepare worksheets for the Maturita exam where selected parts from works of popular literature will be used. As initial sources we will use basic dictionary works, guides for elementary and secondary schools, Trávníček's researches on reading and reading culture and also expert works concerning popular culture and literature for children and adolescents.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis explores the representation of women, identity and education in the works of Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions (1989) and The Book of Not (2006), and Kopano Matlwa, Coconut (2007) and Spilt Milk (2010), through the lens of postcolonial studies. The arguments presented deal with the complicated factors associated with the formation of new identities in independent Zimbabwe and post-apartheid South Africa. I focus on how African women are represented in the texts taking place at particular socio-historical moments, including implications and interpretations of the literal and cultural shift from the indigenous, rural or segregated environments to Western, urban and racially mixed ones. My argument outlines the ways in which the stories are allegorically the stories of the fledgling democracies from which they emerge. I explore the texts in terms of symbolics of food, language, accents, family, academic settings, and the liberating and limiting elements associated with each. The authors present a complicated reality for the women of the novels, one where education is prioritized although somewhat to the detriment of traditional values and norms. The representation of women in the novels varies, leaving few successful role models for navigating workable identities for the characters as mothers, wives, and autonomous individuals. The novels offer interesting imaginaries for the future of their respective countries. The texts promote education tempered with a respect for home cultures and racial reconciliation. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis ondersoek die uitbeelding van vroue, identiteit en opvoeding in die werke van Tsitsi Dangarembga en Kopano Matlwa vanuit die oogpunt van postkoloniale studies. Die voorgestelde argument hou verband met die ingewikkelde faktore van identiteit-vorming in 'n onhafhanklike Zimbabwe en 'n post-Apartheid Suid-Afrika. Ek fokus op die uitbeelding van swart vroue in hierdie tekste wat gedurende spesifiek sosio-historiese oomblikke plaas vind. Dit sluit in die gevolge en interpretasies van letterlike en kulterele verskuiwings vanaf inheemse, landelike en gesegregeerde omgewings tot Westerse, stedelike en veelrassige omgewings. My argument sit uit een hoe hierdie vroue se stories as allegorieë vir die jong demokratiese lande waaruit hul na vore kom, beskou kan word. Ek verken die tekste ook in terme van die simboliek van voedsel, taal, aksent, familie en opvoeding, en fokus verder op die bevrydende en beperkende elemente van elk. Die skrywers bied 'n ingewikkelde werkliheid vir vrouens in die romans aan, een waar opvoeding 'n prioriteit is, maar ietwat tot die nadeel van tradisionele waardes en norme. Die uitbeelding van vrouens in die romans wissel en bied min suksesvolle rolmodelle aan waarvolgens die karakters identiteite soos moeder, vrou en selfstandige individue kan vorm. Die tekste bevorder wel die verkryging van 'n volledige opvoeding, maar nie tot nadeel van tradisionele kulture, of die moontlikheid van rasseversoening nie. Beide die romans bied 'n interessante blik op die toekomste vir die onderskeie lande dur hierdie uibeelding van die vroulike karakters.

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This dissertation sets out to analyze the manner in which the writers of dramatic fiction deconstruct the mythology and ideology of the private boys' boarding school in their work. It also seeks to interrogate the sociological and philosophical notions that underpin this fictional work. The central thrust of this dissertation is to explore the representation of the private boys' boarding school experience on the South African stage, with particular reference to writers whose work reflects their personal experiences within such institutions. Private boys' boarding schools promote the ideology that they provide a superior education based on liberal and democratic principles. These institutions supposedly oversee the development of the individual's mental, physical, spiritual, cultural and social education. The projected ideology of the private boys' boarding schools has become entrenched and has manifested itself as a pervasive mythology, which glorifies and glamourises the social reality of such institutions. This mythology is challenged and refuted by the appropriation of various sociological, and philosophical theorists, including: traditional Marxist critiques such as the theories of Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis (1976); structuralist theories such as those proposed by Louis Althusser (1971) and Antonio Gramsci (1971), whose notions of hegemony carry much relevance when considering private boys' boarding schools; and finally, Michel Foucault's (1977) theories of power and power hierarchies (Lotringer, 1989; Smart, 1985). Since South Africa's democratization in 1994, a number of fictional works have emerged that have engaged with the social reality of private boys' boarding schools. Most notably, two plays, Anthony Akerman's Old Boys (2000) and John van de Ruit's War Cry (1999), have highlighted issues surrounding private boys' boarding schools in South Africa. Together with a variety of texts written for different media these works have formed a critical base that, to some degree, has undermined the supremely positive resonance of the entrenched private school mythology, and in so doing, challenge the projected ideology. This dissertation's prime focus is on South African private boys' boarding schools; however, it also includes texts that articulate the social reality of private education in England and America. These texts are relevant firstly because the South African private schools are modeled very closely on the English public school system and secondly, because their inclusion adds weight and variety to the discussion. Important areas of study within this dissertation will be the interpretation of the various thematic concerns raised, and character constructions created by the various writers. This will be underpinned by the theoretical framework, which analyzes systems of power and power hierarchies, and the notion of hegemonic masculinity. Finally, the private boys' boarding school will be examined as a site for hegemonic struggle where power and privilege are continually contested in a relationship characterized by coercion and consent. The critical discourse of the fictional texts and its theoretical underpinning will be placed in opposition to the elitist mythology of the private boys' boarding school and the ideology that these institutions espouse. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

This research explores the availability and potential educational uses of different forms of poetry that can be read using a postcolonial approach. The focus is on contemporary France and Spain, two contexts where people with different cultural heritages coexist and need to negotiate cultural imbalances inherited from colonial and neo-colonial domination. This research highlights poetry’s overlooked suitability to engage young people in the expression of cultural difference in a progressively globalized world where cultivating cross-cultural understanding and tolerance needs to be at the top of our agendas. For this reason, the dissertation includes an analysis of poems (currently available for young people) aiming to foreground the possibilities of a postcolonial reading. I also studied similarities and divergences between the French and Spanish scenarios based on evidence gathered during a survey of the Spanish and French fields of poetry for young people and from interviews with informed agents. The survey of the field consists of the exploration of textbooks and anthologies but also the examination of poetry circulating through on-line channels. The interviews were undertaken with selected French and Spanish representatives of people currently involved in the production and dissemination of poetry for young people. I observed that the number of poems showing connections to a postcolonial legacy was scant in the French school material and even more in the Spanish books that I examined. I also confirmed that little attention was given to oral ways to deliver poetry especially showing little regard for the oral literary practices and traditions of non-European French and Spanish speaking communities. The Spanish lack of attention to these traditions is more salient. This contrasts with observations about non-school contexts. Spanish and French young people can nowadays easily engage with varied cultural traditions in poetry which circulate in poetry events and social media. Interviewees confirmed these observations but also raised issues about Spanish and French poetry education that need to be dealt with so as to improve school attention to mixed cultural heritages in poetry. The main contribution to knowledge of this thesis consists in identifying the underused and unexplored educational potential of French and Spanish poetry currently available for young people that can be fruitfully approached using postcolonial lenses. The evaluation of the information gathered in this research reveals that dominant French and Spanish approaches to poetry and limited poetry repertoires hinder the visibility of some contemporary forms of poetry and restrain the effectiveness of some poetry already present in mainstream poetry corpora. However, the comparison of scenarios shows that France offers more accessible and relevant ‘places of enunciation ’ than Spain does for poets to address young people. For instance, comparing contexts, French young people have easier access and more support than Spanish youth to engage with poets’ expressions of being culturally displaced.

This study examines the major works of Judith Sargent Murray, Hannah Webster Foster, and Susanna Haswell Rowson, three major writers of the 1790s whose writing responds to the ideologies of the early American Republic. I suggest that Murray, Foster, and Rowson write conduct fiction which responds to the changing attitudes toward women and education after the American Revolution. Using fiction, these authors comment on the republican woman, the need for women’s education, and the necessity for women to gather in communities for support. Despite the prevailing notion that reading too many novels would corrupt young women, Judith Sargent Murray’s novella, The Story of Margaretta (1786), Hannah Webster Foster’s novels, The Coquette (1797) and The Boarding School (1798), and Susanna Rowson’s novels, Charlotte Temple (1794) and Reuben and Rachel; or, Tales of Old Times (1798), were some of the most popular books in the late eighteenth century. If these novels were not meant to be read by young women, who were the authors’ primary audience, why were they so popular? This project situates these questions in the political environment the authors were writing in to show that a relationship exists between what women were reading and how authors of conduct fiction helped facilitate the changing roles of women in the early Republic