The aim of this essay is to study the contents of two upper secondary school textbooks in religious studies and more specifically, to study the representation of the books among world religions. The first of the textbooks is Swedish. It has been written out of a non-confessional context. The second book is Finnish and it has its foundation on a religious confessional context. To do this the following questions were answered: Are the contents of the textbooks affected by their confession or non-confession? Are different religions presented in different ways in the two textbooks? What are the similarities between the two textbooks? How much space in the textbooks are each religion given, and are they equally divided? How much of the religions ethics are being presented? Are any of the religions compared to Christianity in order to facilitate the student’s understanding? The method applied while commencing this study was content analysis. The results showed greater differences within each textbook, rather than the two compared to each other. Both textbooks showed signs of confessional influence.

Since the regional policy nowadays is an important subject in the European institutions, the involvement of regional and local authorities in the programming, management, evaluation and monitoring of operations is essential for the success of EU level policy. A Regional Problem is defined as a problem that arises in an area of a country where there is dependence on a narrow industrial base often faced with declining manufacturing activity, and lack of general infrastructures. Other challenges include low levels of GDP and a net migration out of a country or region. The EU is trying to overcome these challenges by using the Structural funds financing programs to help firms in these regions. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the innovation policy and the industrial policy at the national and regional levels in Ireland and Finland, over the 1990s. In both countries the period from 1991-99 was marked by expansion, as measured by steady output growth for manufacturing as a whole (albeit at substantially lower levels in Finland than in Ireland). / In general, the evidence presented in this paper suggests a positive relationship between innovation policy as reflected in financial support to firms for R&D and business level investment in R&D and innovation activity. R&D financial assistance to firms has been a significant feature of the industrial development policy in Ireland since the 1980s. At the same time, the proportion of manufacturing firms undertaking R&D, product and process innovations increased steadily throughout the 1990s. In Ireland the construction industry boosted economic development as foreign businesses could find favourable conditions for setting up their businesses. Initially tax and grant incentives were given to firms which were later on complemented by high killed labour that could be utilized in high tech businesses. / zeqavete@gmail.com khanomair82@gmail.com

The Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA, administered by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, surveyed fifteen-year-olds for the first time in 2000. PISA focuses on mathematics, science, and reading literacy, and intends to undertake a new study every three years. The administration in 2003 added a section that measured problem-solving skills. The results from all three surveys thus far have placed Finland as the highest achieving country in PISA. Finland’s top performances in PISA astonished the educational world. More so than previous cross-national surveys such as TIMSS and PIRLS, PISA has drawn worldwide educational interest towards Finland and its educational system. PISA, unlike TIMSS, does not measure mastery of curriculum, but rather outcomes of education. PISA focuses on real-life applications of knowledge. Triggering global curiosity, the PISA has placed Finland on the itinerary of those wishing to discover the influences behind educational success. This research focuses upon Finland’s historical, cultural, and social context as a part of the Nordic countries and also its immense success in PISA. This project uncovers some of the factors contributing to Finland’s success in education, as indicated by the results in PISA. Finland’s history as a part of both Sweden and Russia has intertwined education with the movement for independence. The struggles after independence, including war and recession, have also reinforced the importance of education within Finnish society. The important status of teachers in Finland, in addition to their high quality, has further enhanced the excellence of the Finnish education system. PISA findings, however, have indicated that the Swedish-speaking Finns score lower than the Finnish-speaking Finns, a phenomenon explored within the research. This project investigates the reasons behind this counterintuitive result. The project incorporates perspectives through interviews with teachers and head teachers from the six sample schools, both Swedish-speaking and Finnish-speaking, Finnish education ministers, PISA creators from the OECD, and Finnish educational researchers and professors responsible for executing PISA in Finland. Their insight, from many different points of view, illuminated different perspectives on PISA and education in Finland.

No description available.

No description available.

This study aims at examine why the agricultural policy in Sweden and Finland has turned out different, despite the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The study is a compare case study where Sweden and Finland are used to draw general conclusions. The question asked to pursue the aim are; what kind of agricultural goals did Sweden and Finland negotiate for during the membership-process to the European Union (EU), what kind of agricultural goals did the both states negotiate for during the reform of CAP 2003 and 2015, are their differences in the national regulations that can explain the actual development and can the agricultural policy today be seen as a result from the goals during the membership-process? In this study an analytical model is created and used to analyze the aim, the model is based on the theory of historical institutionalism to describe the general development and it’s also applied in the empirical analysis. The empirical material consists of books, articles and primary document etc. One general conclusion asserts that the actual development in the agricultural policy can be traced back in the historic context. In Sweden’s case the process can be connected to the agricultural deregulation that took place before the membership. In Finland’s case the development can be associated with the overproduction during the 1960-1970 and its goals with a high level of self-sufficiency. Another conclusion affirms that the national regulation where Sweden and Finland has had the opportunity to shape their own regulations and structures is one of several explanations to the aim.

Syftet med denna studie är att fördjupa förståelsen av finska och svenska speciallärares arbete för att främja läsinlärningen. Nutidens samhälle kräver en god läs- och skrivförmåga. Det innebär en utmaning för pedagoger och speciallärare i skolan att verkligen se till att samtliga elever får de verktyg som är nödvändiga för att nå såväl en god läsförståelse som en god avkodningsförmåga. Under de senaste åren har det skrivits om Finlands goda resultat vad gäller läsning hos elever i grundskolan. Det fick oss som speciallärarstuderande att undra över vilka de finska framgångsfaktorerna var. Även olika orsaker till elevers svårigheter gällande läsutveckling tas upp samt speciallärarnas roll för att möta hinder i läsinlärningen. Finska och svenska styrdokument lyfts. För att genomföra studien har ett kvalitativt perspektiv använts med semistrukturerade intervjuer som metod. Fokus för undersökningen har varit att undersöka hur fjorton speciallärare i Finland och Sverige [1]beskriver sitt arbete med att identifiera elever i behov av särskilt stöd gällande läsinlärning samt hur de beskriver sitt dagliga arbete med elever i behov av särskilt stöd gällande läsinlärning. Även likheter och skillnader som framträtt i dessa beskrivningar belyses. Resultatet har analyserats utifrån en fenomenografisk analysmodell med utgångspunkt i studiens frågeställningar samt utifrån ett komparativt perspektiv. Ett par slutsatser som kan dras av studien är att det framkom en likhet som innebar att samtliga informanter hade elevens behov i fokus samt en skillnad mellan informanterna som berörde informanternas utbildningsbakgrund. [1] De finska informanterna har alla en speciallärarutbildning och hade en speciallärartjänst. Med finska speciallärare avses finska speciallärare verksamma i svensktalande skolor i Finland.  Två av de svenska informanterna hade speciallärarutbildning och två hade specialpedagogutbildning. Tre av de svenska informanterna studerade till speciallärare. Alla svenska informanter hade tjänst som speciallärare. Samtliga svenska informanter benämns som svenska speciallärare. Benämningarna gäller genom hela studien.

The aim of this research was to discuss about event management theory and how the Liiga (the major ice hockey league in Finland) team organisations could use this theory to improve their home game events. This topic has been divided into two research questions from which the first discusses the current situation and the other gives suggestions for future improvements for the Liiga team organisations. This research is conducted as a master’s theses and it has been conducted in years 2014 to 2016. In order to understand the research topic the general theory of event management has been told from the sporting event point of view. This theory has been divided into two different sections which are the five stages of event management and the operational strategies of event management. Answers for the research questions have been search with a qualitative research and its methods of interview and questionnaire, observation and content analysis. These methods and the way these have been used in this research are introduced after the event management theory. The data collected with the selected qualitative research methods has been introduced as empirical findings. These empirical findings are introduced a research method at a time and in a same order as the data has been collected. After introducing the collected data it has been carefully analysed. The analysis have also been divided into two section from which the first answers to the first research question concerning the current situation and the other the second questions concerning the future improvement that could be done. The first part of analysis has been made in a same chronological order as the event management theory has been written in order it to be easy to compere these two to each other. In the end the conclusions of this research and its research questions are introduced. Also the knowledge which this research is offering for the tourism industry and for its readers have been discussed. This are also a lot of different ways how this research could be continued and made further and these ways have been discussed as well. Last but not least the research has been viewed critically and the quality of it has been questioned.

Finland is like Sweden, Denmark, and Norway a stable democracy. Political rights are well developed and according from reports made by Freedom house, all the Nordic countries are classified as free. Therefore, they have perfect conditions to reach a high turnout. The Nordic states are very like each other, there are no big differences between the Nordic political systems. All the Nordic states are using a proportional election system and each country only has one chamber. Despite our similarities, the voting turnout in Finland is significantly lower than in the other Nordic states. For the last elections, Sweden and Denmark have never had a turnout below 80 percent in their parliament elections and Norway has not been under the level of 75 percent. Finland on the other hand has been struggling with their political turnout for a long time.  I chose to do a case study and my case is Finland and their low turnout in parliament elections. My theory was developed by Sören Holmberg and Henrik Oscarsson and this theory can explain why some states have a low turnout and why some states has a high turnout.  In the case of Finland, they have a low turnout for number of reasons. Their institutional design, contextual factors like political options and individual factors like unemployment.

This study is a postcolonial literary analysis of Miika Nousiainen’s novel Hallonbåtsflyktingen from 2007. The aim is to analyse how Sweden and Finland, along with the Swedish and Finnish characters, are portrayed in the novel. Through a close norm-critical reading and with postcolonial theory as a basis, the content and characters in the novel have been analysed. The result shows that the Finnish characters are portrayed in stereotyped patterns and described in general forms. A dichotomy of “us” and “the others” is created in the novel. The Finnish characters and Finnish culture are described negatively and constantly contrasted with positive descriptions of Sweden and Swedes. If literature teaching in school gives pupils knowledge and skills in postcolonial reading of literature, they may learn to identify and analyse negative portrayals. This might makes it possible to break down their assumptions and prejudices, and instead they become critical individuals who act in a global context. By comparing how different nationalities and cultures are presented, pupils can potentially begin to reflect on themselves and their picture of the Other.