<p>Pupil achievement and behaviour in schools was earlier seen as given by socioeconomic and biological factors. But since the late 1970s the school effectiveness research has come to give school factors a much greater role for pupils’ attainments. Research has shown that schools´ pedagogical and social climate, which is to be seen as a complex product of deeply felt values and norms held by school principals and teachers and developed through practical actions, can explain variations in effectiveness between schools. Effectiveness is here to be seen as a higher mean cognitive and non cognitive student outcome than is expected with regard to initial attainment or family background. In this context all schools can be effective.</p><p>The purpose of this dissertation is to study the pedagogical and the social climate in two secondary schools in order to answer the question of how the climate can describe their conditions for future evolvement in effectiveness. The method of data collection is qualitative enquiries and has been conducted through interviews with principals, teachers and pupils. Our two schools are based in the same council and have a similar intake of pupils. The results derived from the study show that one school has a better pedagogical and social climate than the other which at the same time gives it greater conditions for future effectiveness.</p>

<p>This paper examines corporate responses to the voluntary UN initiative; the Global Compact and the legally binding UN Norms initiative that are attempts, at the urging of the international community, at different types of regulation of corporate activity in international socio-economic settings. This examination is done within the framework of the Modern World-Systems theory and both questions of the paper are therefore grounded in the MWS theory`s possibility to predict and explain the corporations` response to the two initiatives. The two hypotheses used in this paper are corresponding to the questions and they state that the MWS theory can answer the two questions. The paper therefore employs an overreaching congruence method that uses the MWS theory to predict and explain the outcome of the case study and a complementary descriptive argumentation analysis. This is conducted in order to attain the data needed and to elucidate what the differences and similarities are between the two initiatives and what aspect can be attributed most explanatory value to understand the possible differences in attitude by the corporations. The outcome of the case study shows that corporations are more in favor of the Global Compact then they are concerning the UN norms which they opposes vehemently. This difference in reaction is attributed to the latter’s legally binding principle and this is in accord with the logic of the MWS theory which is granted high predictable and explanatory value concerning the corporations` response to the Global Compact and the UN norms.</p>

<p>Nonverbal communication such as body language is a vital component of our communication, and since scholars agree that there are some notable differences in the way men and women use body language, the study of gendered nonverbal communication as a social construction is vital to our understanding of how we create gendered identities. The aim of this paper is to investigate how social gender norms concerning body language appear in constructed communication. By studying the body language of the characters in the American sitcom Friends, and with focus on leg postures, I examine how the show Friends enacts and represents stereotyped sex differences in body language. The study encompasses both the distribution of leg positions between the genders, and what these postures seem to accomplish in interaction. As for the relationship between gender and leg postures, I observed the sitting positions of the characters Chandler, Ross, Joey, Monica and Rachel in six episodes from the 1999/2000 season of Friends for the first study. For the analysis of leg postures in relation to the communicative situation, the entire corpus of ten episode recordings was used. Based on repeated inspection of scenes where leg positions could be studied in relation to gender and communication, systematic patterns were identified.</p><p>The results of the study are consistent with the findings of scholars like Vrugt and Luyerink (2000); women tend to sit in closed postures or with their legs crossed, which is regarded feminine, while men sit in wide positions with their legs spread, which is regarded masculine. Furthermore, the characters/actors in Friends seem to perform their gender roles partly by using different leg positions and wideness of postures. However, leg positions alone were not found to be decisive in the messages communicated, and emotions and stance were communicated using verbal and other non-verbal channels and cues. Instead, leg positions remained gender-stereotypical regardless of the message communicated, and men and women seem to communicate the same message using different leg positions. It is therefore concluded that leg positions are an inherent part of “doing gender”, but that leg positions as such are not necessarily related to the type of message or emotional stance that is communicated.</p>

<p>I detta examensarbete har jag granskat två läromedel ur ett genusperspektiv. Båda böckerna, A Piece of Cake 2 och Allez hop 8, riktar sig till elever som läser engelska och franska i grundskolans senare år. Frågan jag ställt mig är hur dessa båda böcker, i sin utformning, lyckas leva upp till de krav som styrdokumenten ställer på jämställdhet mellan män och kvinnor samt vilken som bäst lever upp till dessa krav.</p><p>Resultaten av min undersökning visar att båda läroböckerna till väldigt stor del är fast i en traditionell utformning där genusvariationer i yrke, fritid, hur man beskrivs samt familjemönster begränsas till förmån för en manlig norm. Böckerna reproducerar uppfattningen om att män och kvinnor lever i olika sfärer vilket förmedlar en bild av att män och kvinnor tillskrivs olika värde i en samhällshierarki där kvinnan inte har samma möjligheter som mannen.</p><p>Jag har även kommit fram till Allez hop är den bok där texter och bilder är mest nyanserade, som på ett bättre sätt luckrar upp de traditionella könsmönster som råder idag och som, med vissa delar av sitt innehåll, har stora möjligheter att skapa diskussion i språkklassen. Detta konstaterande väger dock inte upp mot det faktum att ovan nämnda läroböcker på intet sätt lever upp till kraven styrdokumenten ställer på jämställda läroböcker.</p> / <p>This study examines two text books from a gender perspective. Both books, A Piece of Cake 2 and Allez hop 8, address students who study English and French in secondary school. The focus is on the degree to which these books meet the curricular demands of promoting equality between men and women.</p><p>My findings show that both text books to a great extent are trapped in a traditional pattern where gender variations in areas such as occupations, interests and attributes are reduced and the male norm is privileged. The books also, to some extent, reproduce the image of the male and the female spheres, thus conveying and perpetuating the message that men and women are valued differently in a social hierarchy where women lack the same opportunities as men.</p><p>I have also reached the conclusion that Allez hop is the only book that contributes with gender varied texts and images that in some sense can reverse the traditional gender patterns of today and instead create a discussion in class. This last statement, however, does not make up for the fact that neither of these two course books meet the requirements of gender equality as stipulated in the national curriculum.</p>

<p>Syftet med detta examensarbete har varit att försöka förstå varför så få homosexuella ungdomar väljer att komma ut offentligt med sin homo-bisexualitet i gymnasieskolan. Min frågeställning löd ”Av vilka anledningar väljer så få gymnasieelever att öppet visa sin homo-bisexualitet”. Metoden jag använt består i tre kvalitativa intervjuer med två lärare och en rektor. Intervjuerna spelades in på band. Tre gymnasieklasser svarade också på en enkät bestående av tio frågor, sammanlagt deltog trettiotvå elever.</p><p>Resultatet av undersökningen visar att lärare och rektor inte har någon erfarenhet av öppet homo-bisexuella elever, och därmed inte känner sig insatta i problemet. De anser inte heller att homofobiska skällsord är vanligt förekommande i skolan. Majoriteten av eleverna känner heller inget obehag inför homo-bisexuella personer men anser att homofobiska skällsord är vanligt förekommande i skolan. Litteraturen och samtliga informanter är ense. Rädslan är stor för allmänhetens förlöjligande och fördömande av öppet homo-bisexuella personer.</p> / <p>The purpose of this examination work has been to understand why so few high school students choose to come out with their homo/bi sexuality. The question at issue were “Why are so few high school students open with their homo/bi sexuality?” The methods being used were three quality interviews with two teachers and one principal. The interviews were recorded on tape. Three high school classes answered a questionnaire, containing ten questions, in all there were thirty three students participating. The result of the survey shows that teachers and principals don’t know how to handle situations with openly homo/bisexual youth because of lack of experience. Their view is also that homophobic foul language isn’t commonly occurring in school. The majority of students don’t fell any discomfort in present of homo/bisexual students but consider that homophobic foul language is commonly used in school. Both the literature and all other sources are in agreement. Homosexual youth are afraid of people’s reactions and for them to condemn their sexual aptitude.</p>

<p>Purpose/Aim: The aim with my study is to reveal changes in the construction of gender in weekly press over time. To do so I study the picture of the woman on front pages of the Swedish magazine Veckorevyn.</p><p>Material/Method: Qualitative research method, semiotic picture analysis.</p><p>Main results: There have been a lot of changes in the picture of the woman in Veckorevyn over the years and the results points to a more objectifying picture. The woman has gone from doing something and actually having a role, to simply being there to be looked at, all passive.</p>

No description available.

The present thesis explores talk in institutional settings, with a particular focus on how institutionality and institutional norms are constructed and reproduced in interaction. A central aim is to enhance our understanding of how institutional agendas are talked into being. In line with the ethno­methodological approach, norms are viewed as accomplished in everyday interaction, whereas institutionality represents dimensions of talk where participants demonstrably orient to particular contextual constraints. Five studies were conducted using Conversation Analysis (CA), focusing on how institutional constraints impact sequential trajectories and shape different opportunities for participants. The data consists of two corpora of video recordings: group tutorials at a Swedish university (UTs), and performance appraisal interviews in an organ­ization (PAIs). The thesis pays particular attention to the interactional management of knowledge, entitlement and stance, and analytic foci include how speakers manage epistemic claims and rights at a certain point in interaction, and how they accomplish social positioning. The UT studies examine the negotiation of rights to speak for others in a group (Study I), and how diver­ging understandings of the institutional activity-at-hand can be negotiated on the basis of students’ advice-seeking questions (Study II). In Study III, orientations to institutional and sociocultural norms are investigated in the PAIs, where managers and employees treat negative stances on stress as problematic. The relationship between theory and institutional practice in the use of question templates in PAIs is also examined, through an analysis of the delivery and receipt of a particular question in different interviews (Study IV). Focusing on different adaptations of a preset item, this analysis shows how the same question sets up for a variety of subsequent actions. Finally, deployment of the verb känna (‘feel’) in managing epistemic access and primacy is examined (Study V). It is argued that ‘feel’ allows for a reduction of accountability when making epistemic claims. The studies highlight the relationship between linguistic formats and social actions and illustrate how institutional agendas have consequences for participant conduct. Attention to the details of actions in institutional interaction can thus shed light on social and linguistic underpinnings of the enactment of institutional norms.

No description available.

When Sweden was hit by the massunemployment of the 1920s the preferred way of distributing the help to the unemployed was to engage them in publicly financed and run relief works. This dissertation investigates why the work approach made such a strong imprint on the Swedish unemployment policy. It also analyses why the work approach, viewed as a social political measure, to understand how it structured national, local and individual conditions. In previous research there has been a tendancy to treat the work approach as the only natural way to handle unemployment. A comparison with the British case has shown that there clearly existed other ways of dealing with the problem of unemployment, and hence that the work approach should be viewed as a deliberate chiose. The study has also shown that existing institutional arrangements do not in any binding way stake out the course for future policies, and that the conditions for adopting the work approach was not any more favourable in Sweden than in Britain. The explanation suggested here is that the unemployed was looked upon with greater mistrust in Sweden than in Britain. The study shows that the work approach was designed to enforce norms and values connected to work ethics, self-support and gender. To enforce the norm of self-support it both discouraged people from seeking help, with low wges and strict conditions, and by putting them to work if they did. To enforce the norm of the male breadwinner the relief jobs were reserved mainly for male breadwinners, and women were excluded from the eligibility to appaly for unemployment support. In spite of the National Unemployment Commission's rather stron hold over the work approach, much of the implementation was left to the local authorities. This rendered them a certain amount of freedom of action, which put them in a difficult position. The local authorities had to balance long term economic goals and short term immediate needs, they had to carefully weigh the interests of different preassure groups against national, local and individual interests. Despite the powers of the Commission it was very much up to each local council to decide what the experiences of the unemployed would be. People were, by the unemployment authorities, assigned to three main categories: unemployed deemed undeserving, those on cash support and the relief workers. Creating different categories meant that the unemployed were split up, and made it very difficult to organise the unemployed to a powerful opponent to the authorities. The dissertation has shown that the social dimension is important in addition to the economical and political if you want to understand the choice and effekts of the work approach. It has also shown that it was a choice made in spite of prevailing conditions. Finally it suggests that the creation of the work approach was the really ground breaking move in the unemployment policies of the inter.war period, and that the "new" policy of the 1930s, with relief salaries paid according to negotiated rates, was rather a minor revision of the existing polcy. The main reason for the relief works in 1930s, as well as in teh 1920s, was to test the willingness to work. the aim of the work approach was to get the unemployed to take a job at any cost, and the primary method to achieve thi goal was to put the unemployed to work - at any cost.