In this study, teachers’ perceptions of digital tools in teaching of the hairdressing program are examined. The theoretical starting point for the essay is how the role of digitizing can be seen from a socio-cultural perspective. The collection of data has been made through interviews with a qualitative phenomonographic approach, and five hairdressing teachers in ages 28-57 in the hairdressing program have been interviewed. The result of this study emphasizes that teachers’ knowledge of digital tools’ functions are varied. The examination also point to a relation between teachers’ interest and actual use of digital tools when teaching. In the interviews, the teachers share different views concerning the role of digitizing when it comes to learning. Some see digital tools as a natural element in teaching as our society is becoming more and more digitizing. However, the perception is also that digital tools might pose a threat to the social profession that the students should be trained for.

Enligt läroplanen (Lgr11) och skollagen (SFS 2010:800) är det lärarens uppdrag att individanpassa sin undervisning. Dessa styrdokument är tydligare kring den individanpassade undervisningen än vad tidigare styrdokument har varit. Min erfarenhet var att detta inte gjordes fullt ut som det förväntades. Med detta som bakgrund ville jag undersöka lärares förståelse av individanpassad undervisning. Därmed blev mitt syfte att undersöka och studera lärares skilda uppfattningar av individanpassad undervisning. Detta valde jag att göra genom en kvalitativ metod med intervju som datainsamlingsteknik. Studien har sin utgångspunkt i fenomenografin. I studien har fyra verksamma lärare intervjuats. Resultatet visade två skilda uppfattningar av individanpassad undervisning: Individanpassad undervisning som generell princip för undervisning och Individanpassad undervisning som utopi. Det som blev tydligt i resultatet är att kategorin Individanpassad undervisning som generell princip för undervisning är den kategori som var mest frekvent förekommande i det empiriska materialet, det vill säga lärarna uppehöll sig i intervjuerna kring resonemang som kan hänföras till innehållet i den beskrivningskategorin. Lärarna ger alltså uttryck för att de använder sig mycket av individanpassad undervisning. Innan studien antog jag att lärarna i större utsträckning skulle se den individanpassade undervisningen som något som de ville jobba med, men inte ansåg sig ha tid, resurser eller möjligheter till. Vid en analys av relationen mellan de skilda uppfattningarna kunde det konstateras att kategorin Individanpassad undervisning som generell princip för undervisning kan betraktas i ett elevperspektiv som mer utvecklande än kategorin Individanpassad undervisning som utopi. / According to the curriculum (Lgr11) and Education Act (SFS 2010:800) is the teacher's assignment to individualize their education. These policy documents are clearer about the individualized education than previous policy documents have been. My experience was that this wasn´t done fully as it should. With this as background, I wanted to investigate teachers' understanding of individualized education. This made my purpose to examine and study the teachers' different conceptions of individualized education. This, I chose to do through a qualitative approach to interview data collection techniques. The study was based on phenomenography. The study has four active teachers interviewed. The results showed two different conceptions of individualized education: Individually tailored teaching as a general principles of teaching and individualized education as a utopia. What became clear in the results is that the category Individually tailored teaching as a general principle of teaching is the category most frequently occurring in the empirical material. The teachers expressed that they use a lot of individualized education as a general principle of teaching. Before the study, I assumed that teachers in the greater would see the personalized education as a utopia, as something they wanted to work with, but felt they had time, resources or opportunities. When analyzing the relationship between the different positions, was it clear that the category Individually tailored teaching as a general principle of teaching can be seen in a student perspective as more developed than the category Individually tailored teaching as a utopia.

Syftet med denna studie är att få en förståelse för hur rektorer väljer att organisera kompetensutveckling för lärare gällande erfarenhetsbaserad undervisning. Min empiri är insamlad med hjälp av datorstödda mailintervjuer. I och med detta söker jag mönster i respondenternas olika svar utifrån en fenomenografisk ansats. Studiens resultat har gett svar på de frågeställningar som studien utgår ifrån och resultatet visar på en stor variation. Dels finns det variation i respondenternas tolkning av begreppet erfarenhetsbaserad undervisning och det finns även variationer kring deras tolkning av styrdokumenten. Det går också att se olikheter gällande den kompetensutveckling som rektorer organiserar för lärare. På grund av de variationer som råder i samtliga utsagor så kan det bli aktuellt att lyfta vikten av centraliserad tolkning av bärande begrepp på nationell nivå för att komma så nära likvärdig undervisning som möjligt. / The aim of this study is to gain an understanding how the principals choose to develop teacher competence in experience-based teaching. I seek patterns in the different interview answers based on phenomenographic approach. My empirical data was collected with the help of computer-aided mail interviews. The results of the study have given answers to the questions on which the study is based upon and the results show a great variation. Variation in the interpretation of the concept of experience-based teaching and the governance document. But the results also vary regarding the skills development the principals offers teachers. Due to the variations that seem to prevail in all statements, it may be relevant to emphasize the importance of centralized interpretation of key concepts at the national level, in order to get as close to equivalent teaching as possible.

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has been adopted in various countries in the world. This is especially true in an EFL context in Ethiopia where it has received considerable attention both at policy and classroom levels. This study aimed to investigate English as Foreign Language (EFL) instructors' conceptions and applications of CLT in teaching grammar lessons in private universities in Ethiopia. Due to the nature of the issues addressed in the study, the mixed-methods approach was employed. The data for the study were collected from 25 EFL instructors teaching in four private universities through semi-structured interviews, quantitative questionnaire, and classroom observation. The qualitative data collected from the semi-structured interviews and classroom observation were analysed thematically, using deductive thematic analysis. The quantitative data garnered through the questionnaire were analysed using the latest version of SPPS (Version 20) available at the time of data analysis. While the study highlighted four major EFL instructors' misconceptions stemming from the discrepancies in understanding the term communicative, it revealed that the majority of the EFL instructors' conceptions of CLT were consistent with the CLT literature. To that effect, the study illuminated the EFL instructors' conceptions of grammar and CLT concerning the teacher’s role, the learners’ role, the types of teaching materials, the place for grammar in CLT as well as the methods of teaching grammar lessons and assessing the learners’ performance in grammar lessons. Nevertheless, the classroom practices of the majority of the EFL instructors were inconsistent with their conceptions of CLT because they predominantly employed the lecture method to teach grammar lessons. The study also found various socio-cultural and economic variables practically affecting the application of CLT in teaching grammar lessons in private universities in Ethiopia. Consequently, the study identified teacher-related factors, student-related factors, institutional factors, curriculum-related factors, and system-related factors as the main difficulties of implementing CLT in teaching grammar lessons. The study recommends that measures that align policy with practice should be taken to ensure that the instructors' conceptions are realised in classroom situations, thereby minimising the discrepancies between their conceptions and their classroom practices. / English Studies / Ph. D. (Languages, Linguistics and Literature)