Syftet med denna undersökning är att undersöka hur musikvideor producerade för barn i åldrarna mellan 4-12 år förmedlar skillnaden mellan det som betraktas som ”norm” och ”den andre” utifrån ett postkolonialt perspektiv. Utifrån detta övergripande syfte utgår studien utifrån följande frågeställningar: På vilket sätt upprätthåller musikvideor vars målgrupp är barn från 4-12 år den koloniala distinktionen mellan de som utgör ”norm” och de som utgör ”den andre”? Hur gestaltas ”den svarte andre” och ”den orientale andre” i musikvideorna? Vilka typer av konflikter och maktförhållanden produceras i materialet, vilka intentioner tycks framställningen ha? En kvalitativ text- och tolkningsanalys har tillämpats på undersökningens material där jag använt semiotikens teckenlära som analysmetod. I samverkan med semiotiken som metodologisk utgångspunkt ställde jag följande analysfrågor till texterna: Vad berättas uttryckligen i videorna? Hur framställs maktförhållanden och konflikter? Vilka stereotyper porträtteras? Vilka framstår som auktoriteter? Vilka kläder eller kroppsattribut förmedlas? Vilka beteenden syns? Vilka miljöer skildras? Till grund för undersökningen ligger det postkoloniala fältet där jag bland annat använt mig av teorier gällande västvärldens kunskapsproduktion om ”den andre”. Teorierna behandlar bland annat vilka faktorer som möjliggjort ett skillnadstänkande av grupper som betraktas som ”de andra”. I och med analysen blev det möjligt att urskönja gemensamma drag sinns emellan vissa utav musikvideorna, men även tydligt vilka skillnader som fans dem emellan. Exempelvis blev det möjligt att se vissa gemensamma drag beträffande maktutövning och framställningen av ”den andre”. Analysen belyser även med teoretisk anknytning hur skillnadstänkandet reproducerades i undersökningens material, samt vilka intentioner som tycks ligga bakom texterna.

The present study focuses on teacher’s attitudes to the European Language Portfolio (ELP) in mother tongue English programs. More specifically it will explore how effective the ELP and portfolio assessment are in mother tongue teaching inSweden. The aim is also to assess whether mother tongue English students perform equally well in the four language skill areas. This case study seeks to find the strengths and weaknesses of the ELP according to the teachers that are using the ELP as an assessment tool, as well as investigating previous evaluation materials used to identify achievement in mother tongue. For this purpose, a case study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with four English mother tongue teachers at theLanguageCenterin Göteborg (henceforth LCG). The teachers interviewed at the language center use the ELP assessment but do not actively use the other parts of the language passport. The LCG materials for the mother tongue ELP were adapted from the original ELP 6 to 16 years created for Österåker municipality by Iakovos Demetriádes in 2007. Mother tongue teachers in Göteborg have since identified a number of the ELP’s strengths, as well as some of its weaknesses. The ELP is compatible with the Swedish syllabus, which makes it easier to write a written assessment for each class from the 1st grade and up.  There are however problems with individual teachers interpretation of ELP descriptors.  These problems will be brought to light later on in this paper.

This master’s thesis deals with the cultural diversity policies of Denmark and Sweden within the cultural sector. It attempts at explaining why these two “most-similar” scandinavian countries having in common the same cultural model, “the architect model”, opted for different policies when it came to cultural diversity: Assimilationism for Denmark and multiculturalism for Sweden. I show that though institutional and power-interest factors had an impact, ideas as “programmatic beliefs” (Sheri E. Berman 2001) or “frames” (Erik Bleich 2003) played the ultimate role. I evaluate their relative importance by analyzing the anthropological dimension of the countries cultural policies since 1969. The study confirms that at least in the cultural sector, Danish policies have been assimilationist and Swedish ones multiculturalist and proposes a new classification of terms.By investigating immigrants cultures, it fills a gap left by previous researchers working on a common Nordic cultural model.

The Norwegian Rom community (Gypsies) leads a life outside large society. Most of the members are illiterate and poor and they are dependent on social security. Moreover, the Rom children are not going to school because education is not a part of the Rom culture. This situation raises various ethical dilemmas regarding cultural rights and obligations. In this thesis the author asks which of the conflicting rights should weigh most: The parent’s right to bring up their children in accordance with their own culture and beliefs, or the child’s right to education? The author’s argument is structured around two main problem areas. First, what is it with education that is good for all people? The short answer to this question is that education is important for functioning in society. Knowledge provides for a wider range of opportunities, and how to use this knowledge is up to each person. The other problem area is the limits of cultural toleration in liberal societies. Here, the author argues that although the right to culture is important, liberalism cannot accommodate illiberal practices. Childrearing that restricts the child’s access to the world outside its original community is one example of intolerable practices. In order to get the Rom children in to school, dialogue is the preferable way to go. However, if the establishment of dialogue is impossible because of fundamentalist or non-dialogical attitudes, an alternative argument is provided: Discursive paternalism is a compulsion to argue on contested norms. This compulsion reconciles individual freedom (autonomy) and paternalism, and can therefore be justified by liberals. Main references are Will Kymlicka, Martha Nussbaum, Chandran Kukathas, Adeno Addis and May Thorseth.

With its focus on immigration to the United States and development of American identity, Bharati Mukherjee’s fiction eludes literary categorization. It engages with the various contexts of multiculturalism, postcolonialism, and globalization, yet Mukherjee adamantly positions herself as an American author writing American literature. In this essay, I investigate the intersections between Mukherjee’s focus on the American character, culture, and people and developing theories and critical debates on globalization. Through Mukherjee’s works, we can see American identity in a state of flux, made possible by the immigrant and the relationships established between the transnational individual and America. Mukherjee’s immigrant characters challenge and expose American mythology from the American Dream of individual achievement to the canonical literature of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, rewriting them to show how foundational the immigrant is to American culture. I trace Mukherjee’s redefinition of the American character in and through three successive novels – Wife, Jasmine, and The Holder of the World. In Wife, Mukherjee challenges America’s adoption of multiculturalism because she considers it a means of essentializing ethnicity and both maintaining and enhancing difference. This multiculturalism, as part of America’s assumed principles of acceptance, alienates the protagonist Dimple from her immigrant community and the larger American culture, resulting in her violent attempts to force her Americanization. Jasmine continues to work against multiculturalism by explicitly inserting the immigrant into the American mythos, reshaping the Western literary canon to include the transnational individual and to assert the immigrant foundations of American ideology. Mukherjee expands her focus in Holder of the World as her protagonist Hannah travels to England, India, and the bourgeoning United States, rewriting The Scarlet Letter to suggest that globalizing forces have been present throughout American cultural history, not just at the end of the 20th century when critical debates began to flourish. Through analysis of these novels, I argue that Mukherjee’s reformulation of American character reasserts American ideals by including and developing with the rise of globalization theory.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Open University. BLDSC no. DX231423.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2001. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-161). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (D.Min.)--Asbury Theological Seminary, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 170-174).

Thesis (doctoral)--Göteborgs universitet, 2003. / Extra t.p. with thesis statement and English abstract inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. 273-[284]).

Thesis (L.L.M.)--York University, 2000. / "Graduate Programme in Law, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University." Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ59546.