Denna studie grundar sig i frågeställningen ’Hur påverkas SO-lärares prioriteringar i det centrala innehållet och undervisningen av samhällsförändringar?’. Frågeställningen besvaras genom att analysera tidigare forskning och en empirisk undersökning i form av tre intervjuer med SO-lärare i den svenska grundskolan. Läroplanen är en styrande faktor för all undervisning i den svenska grundskolan, men det finns även andra påverkansfaktorer. Samhällsförändringar kan vara en sådan påverkande faktor. Transformeringen av läroplanen är en annan faktor, det vill säga hur läraren tolkar den skrivna kursplanen för sitt ämne till den faktiska undervisningen. Centrala tankegångar i den teori som studien använder sig av, läroplansteori, är vad som anses vara viktig kunskap vid en viss tidpunkt men även hur detta synliggörs i undervisningen. Vilket kan liknas vid de didaktiska centrala frågeställningarna vad, hur och varför? Resultatet visar att samhällsförändringar påverkar både läroplanens innehåll och själva undervisningen, men på olika sätt. Samhällsförändringar är endast en av flera påverkande faktorer för undervisningen och det är bland annat lärarens intressen som påverkar hur denne väljer att koppla sin undervisning till aktuella händelser och samhällsförändringar.

This investigation is about how the Civic Orientation Course within Umeåregionen has been received among newly arrived refugees. The purpose of the essay is to research how the Civic Orientation has worked within the Umeåregion with focus on the municipality of Umeå, with both a perspective of transmitter and receiver. The Civic Orientation Course is a legal right for all refugees between 18-64 years in Sweden and it is an introduction to the Swedish society. To do this, interviews have been done with one Social Consultant from Umeå kommun and three newly arrived refugees. The requirements on interviewed newly arrived refugees have been that they have finished the Civic Orientation course and are over 18 years. To answer the investigation questions; what kind of information and through which communication channels have Umeå kommun addressed their communication to newly arrived refugees, how have the information from Umeå kommun been received among the newly arrived refugees and how cultural and social differences may matter in the receiving of the information, three theories have been used; orientalism by Said, Shannon and Weaver “Model of Communication” and the Encoding/Decoding by Hall. The result shows that language is the largest barrier for newly arrived refugees to interact within the Swedish society, even though it is not the purpose of the Civic Orientation to teach Swedish the course has to give ideas about where interaction can happen with other Swedes. Overall social and cultural experiences have been the purpose to the distance between refugees and Swedes. The interviewed are pleased with the course and the teachers but lack information about how they in certain specific situations are supposed to act in the Swedish society.

In this essay the aim is to analyse the Social orientation course as a part of the Establishment program of newly arrived immigrants in Sweden. The questions I intend to answer through qualitative interviews and analysis of policy documents are: What factors limit the local work with refugees and immigrants within the framework of the Social orientation course as an establishment effort? How is the Social orientation course as a part of the Establishment Reform implemented in Växjö Municipality? And, how can the result of the Social orientation course in the local context be explained by the theory of street-level bureaucracy? In the light of Michael Lipsky’s theory about street-level bureaucracies the study contributes to a better understanding of the factors that limit the work with Social orientation as an establishment effort. The result shows that the local work with newly arrived immigrants in Sweden is much influenced and limited by the features of street-level bureaucracies: the resources are inadequate to the task, goal expectations are vague and conflicting, goal achievement is difficult to measure, and the clients do not serve as bureaucratic reference groups. The limitations result in an introduction program which is an inadequate basis for successful integration of immigrants. This knowledge of the outcomes of the Establishment Reform is of great importance for the newly arrived immigrants in Sweden to whom the reform is directed, as well as for the policy makers.