School is supposed to be a place of equal opportunity for all students to achieve academic success no matter who they are or what background they have. Yet in the Swedish school today, girls generally perform better and receive better grades than boys regardless of socioeconomic background or ethnicity. This trend is not exclusive to Sweden; multiple countries experience this as well as reported by OECD (2020). The purpose of this project is to study why girls outperform boys in the Swedish school. This project applies the hypothesis that girls are, consciously or unconsciously, more encouraged and have higher expectations placed upon them by their teachers, guardians and their classmates. To study this a survey was handed out to 75 students of both sexes where they answered questions about their academic achievements as well as about their general, inner and outer motivation, encouragement and expectations from their teachers, guardians and classmates. The results show that the students have the same general motivation and experience almost equal encouragement from teachers and guardians. Girls, however, have slightly higher inner motivation, much higher outer motivation and experience much more encouragement from their classmates as well as higher expectations from their teachers, guardians and their classmates than boys do. These results are then analyzed and compared to what previous research found and eventual differences are discussed.

The main purpose of this C-essay is to answer the question: What have been the consequences and effects of the merit point system on language studies and the parties concerned (teachers, students and principals) during the school year of 2010/11? The merit point system is the result of a political decision and was implicated for the first time in the Swedish upper secondary school during the school year 2010/2011. Being a completely new phenomenon it is of great interest and importance to study its effects. The study in this essay also aims to verify, falsify or nullify two hypotheses very often referred to in the political discussions regarding the merit point system: The merit point system will replace affection and interest as main reasons for language studies in upper secondary school and cause a rectification amongst the students choices of additional courses. The merit point system will have a segregating effect upon society and make it harder for people to rise in society through education in the future. A verification of these hypotheses would imply the appearance of an increased rectification amongst students as well as an orientation towards an in the future more segregated society. The empiric material has been collected and examined with qualitative as well as quantitative methods (questionnaires and interviews) and belongs epistemologically to the phenomenological and hermeneutical traditions.