The mission of Catholic Education in Mauritius is to ‘humanise’ education and pedagogies to be consistent with Catholic values. The vision of a ‘humanised’ education explicitly teaches collaboration and cooperation. In January 2005, the Catholic Education Bureau (BEC) opted for a ‘mixed ability’ philosophy whose articulation fosters inclusiveness in all Catholic secondary schools. To achieve this, schools need to re-invent and restructure themselves into learning organisations to make obvious the ‘mixed ability’ philosophy at the middle level of schooling from Form I to Form III.The first purpose of this study is to explore an integral model for an effective education for Catholic secondary schools in Mauritius that acknowledges diversity in the classroom particularly in Form I. The second purpose is to investigate the beliefs and understandings of educators in Catholic secondary education in Mauritius of this model.For the first purpose, a review of the literature was undertaken to understand the concepts of middle schooling, differentiation, learning theories and implications for practice, the enabling structures for Catholic secondary schools to develop into learning communities and the leadership role of key actors. For the second purpose, the perceptions of educators were investigated using a predominantly qualitative, interpretative methodology around an instrumental multi-site case study.The study found a number of challenges faced by Catholic educators in Mauritius regarding the implementation of the integral model. These challenges present a new direction for these schools to focus on the human person, leading to the development and implementation of the ‘mixed ability’ program. The study concluded with a cogent set of recommendations and directions which need to be put in place in order to improve student learning outcomes at the middle level of schooling and achieve the vision of a human-centered education within the espoused Catholic mission.

The objective of this study has been to investigate the beliefs of Swedish middle school teachers in supporting the development of students’ reading comprehension of literature. The study is based on two central research questions that include what motivates teachers in choosing literature for reading comprehension instruction as well as considerations of reading strategy instruction aimed towards developing the reading comprehension of Swedish middle school students in grades 4 – 6. The theoretical basis of the study is grounded in teacher cognition regarding teachers’ beliefs in addition to reader-response theory as it relates to methods of literature reading comprehension instruction. The study method consists of directed qualitative content analysis of semi-structured interviews with six teachers alongside document analysis of teaching materials used by the informants. Teachers were selected to emulate a representative sample of the teacher population with a variation in professional experience. The results show a consensus among teachers in the literature selection criteria that involve appropriate language complexity in addition to opportunities for students to appeal to and identify with familiar thematic content. Furthermore, personal experiences and interests influence teachers in the literature selection process. Moreover, the results indicate that the teachers make use of a content-focused approach and that reading strategies are applied to a varying extent in reference to influential instructional models, professional experience as well as school structures. The teachers convey insecurities in providing adequate equal support for students, which demonstrates a need for improved structural professional development. Suggestions for future research in reading strategies instruction development are also discussed. / Studiens syfte har varit att undersöka uppfattningar hos lärare i årskurs 4 – 6 om arbetet medutvecklingen av elevers läsförståelse av skönlitteratur. Undersökningen genomfördes utifrån tvåcentrala frågeställningar om lärarnas val av skönlitteratur i undervisning i läsförståelse och hur lärareväljer att arbeta med lässtrategier för att utveckla läsförståelsen av skönlitteratur hos elever i årskurs 4 – 6. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkter utgörs av lärarkognition gällande lärares uppfattningar såvälsom receptionsteori i anslutning till beskrivningar av arbetet med läsförståelse av skönlitteratur.Studiens datainsamling har utgjorts av riktad kvalitativ innehållsanalys av semistrukturerade intervjueri anslutning till dokumentanalys av undervisningsmaterial med sex lärare som valts för att efterliknaett representativt tvärsnitt av lärarpopulationen utifrån yrkeslivserfarenhet och skolform. Resultatet avstudien visar att lärarna uttrycker en samstämmighet i motiveringar till skönlitteratur och att verk väljsutifrån kriterier gällande böckernas språkliga nivå och tematiskt innehåll som eleverna identifierar sigmed och engageras av. Lärarna baserar även litteraturvalen på sina personliga övertygelser ocherfarenheter. Resultatet visar dessutom att lärarna fokuserar på läsningens innehåll och undervisar ilässtrategier i varierad omfattning med hänvisning till enstaka strategiprogram, erfarenheter ochskolans strukturer. Lärarna uppvisar osäkerheter i likvärdighetsarbetet och ger uttryck för ett behov avett kontinuerligt fortbildningsarbete. Förslag på vidare forskning inom området för utvecklingen avarbete med lässtrategier presenteras.