Departing from an understanding of today’s liberal capitalist society as deeply concerned with individual growth through higher education, this paper aims to explain the well documented fact that working class students are underrepresented within the higher levels of the Swedish educational system. The study assumes that the prevailing recruitment pattern is created by informal societal structures influencing the individual decisions of would-be students. It then continues to explore the decision-making processes leading a number of students from working class backgrounds into higher education, as well as their experiences of navigating this new environment, in order to better understand the obstacles that this group need to overcome in order to enter the academic area. This is done through an analysis of semi- structured interviews, informed by the career choice theory of Careership. The reading shows that these student’s choice to enter higher education largely has been a pragmatic-rational one, driven more by the need to adapt to circumstances like a changing job market than social expectations to continue their education. The interviewed students often describe the process of entering this new arena as filled with feelings of inferiority and a sense of not belonging that seems to persist even after they acquire additional cultural capital in the form of knowledge and acceptable behaviors. The results of this study implies that a long-term approach towards reversing recruitment bias within higher education must start with the development of a full understanding of these and other challenges facing underrepresented groups.

The educational system in Sweden is expanding and while some see higher education as a remedy for unemployment, others argue that credentialing of the society with diplomas will harm the competition on the labour market and the value of higher education. However, the effects of educational expansion are noticeable not only at the macro, but also at the micro level. Studies have shown that Sweden is internationally on the bottom of the list when it comes to gross returns of higher education. During the 1990s the educational expansion led to the impairment of university and college degrees to uplift individuals to high income positions. Studies have also shown that fluctuations in training premia are inconsistent with the supply of higher educated labour force. The focus of this quantitative dissertation is on the period between 2000 and 2010. By measuring the success on the labour market in terms of monthly salary the aim is to find out how the educational expansion affected Swedish labour market after the 1990s. By using SPSS, a multiple linear regression analysis is applied on data that is extracted from Levnadsnivåundersökningen (LNU) 2000 and 2010. The results suggest that even though the effects of higher education are not dramatically different between these years, it explained more of the total variance in monthly salary in 2000. Furthermore, social background and social networks had stronger effects on the success on the labour market in 2010. This implies that meritocratic principles were utilized more during the early twenty first century and that social status continues to determine salaries in a modern capitalist society.

The aim of this study is to explore how young people act and the organisation of school practice, and what possibilities they have of influencing the content and the forms practiced. The study focuses on how the pedagogic practice is organised in two classes in their first year of upper secondary school, one Social Science programme class and one Vehicle programme class. This embraces questions as: How, where, when and for what cause do students act to influence, and then with what result? Are students offered influence, and in that case which students? How does the organisation of and the content in the pedagogic practice prepare students to act in order to be able to exert influence in the future? These questions have been studied with focus on differences between the programmes with regard to social background and gender. The thesis has its theoretical base in Bernstein’s theory of pedagogy and code (1990, 2000), feminist perspectives (Arnot, 2006; Arnot &amp; Dillabough, 2000; Connell, 1987; Gordon, 2006; Gordon, Holland &amp; Lahelma, 2000) as well as theories of structuration (Giddens, 1984). The empirical material of the thesis was ethnographically produced during one school year, through classroom observations, individual interviews with students, teachers and head teachers, and the gathering of school and teaching material. The main results in the analysis are that actions taken to gain influence were rare, that the organisation of and the content in the pedagogic practice was mainly focused on students as becoming, i. e. it focused students possibilities to be able to influence in the future and not the present. Furthermore, changing of pedagogic content or pedagogic forms was dependent on students’ own actions. There was a lack of teacher organisation to promote student influence. Finally, what was evaluated in the pedagogic practice, i.e. factual learning, did not promote student influence. The thesis demonstrates how pedagogic practice was gendered and classed, which had consequences for how students could influence and how students were prepared to influence in the future. Since the Social Science programme mostly attracts students from a middle-class background and the Vehicle programme those with a working-class background, the content in the programmes contributed to reproducing hierarchical social relations. The content for the Vehicle students proved to be simplified, personal and context dependent, whereas the content of the Social Science programme was more advanced, general and context independent, knowledge which, in argumentation for influence, is usually highly valued. In previous research, working class masculinities have often been associated with opposition towards study-oriented subjects. However, the current study indicates that there is an interest in studying Swedish, English and maths. The students argued that it was necessary for future employment, and that the Vehicle industry is now asking for this kind of knowledge. / <p>Akademisk avhandling för avläggande av filosofie doktorsexamen framläggs till offentligt försvar i D270, Högskolan i Borås, fredagen den 16 november 2012, kl. 13.00.</p>

The topic of my thesis is fencing which is kind of sport close to me, however not widely known in public. In level of theory I write about history of fencing, introduce fencing as a sport discipline and describe specifications of trainings. In research part by questionnaires and created graphs and charts of performance based on representative set of respondents I try to find an impact of the social background to fencer's performance. The focus of my work is to disclose whether good social background can have any influence to good fencer's performance or not.

<p>The purpose of my study is to examine if the total study results differ between music classes and regular classes. Are there higher grades in music classes? If so, what are the causes for this? I chose to make an inquiry at two schools in different town districts, with music classes. At those schools I also collected data of pupils grades, and was informed by the principals and the music teachers about the activities. The number of respondents were ninety.</p><p>The inquiry showed that the grades were markedly better in music classes, and that you can see great differences in well-being, parental engagement and ambition level, compared to regular classes. The study gives several factors. The social background has some significance. The group effect of the music playing and the well-being in class has good influence on the grades.</p>

This degree project has three aims. First, it will investigate students’ attitudes towards reading novels in English and how their motivation for reading differs whether they attend vocational or university-preparatory programs.  In order to investigate this, a total of 73 students were asked to participate in the implementation of a questionnaire. Second, this degree project sets out to study if there are differences in how four teachers approach reading novels in English and third, it will study how these four teachers motivate their students in their studies. This part of the investigation was conducted by performing qualitative interviews with each of the teacher informants. The theoretical framework of this degree project has its basis in the theories regarding cultural capital by sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. The results show that there are clear divisive lines between the attitudes and the motivation of students depending on which program they attend and that these divisions can be attributed in part to students’ social background. The results also indicate that teachers are aware of these differences and approach reading novels in the classroom accordingly.

The purpose of my study is to examine if the total study results differ between music classes and regular classes. Are there higher grades in music classes? If so, what are the causes for this? I chose to make an inquiry at two schools in different town districts, with music classes. At those schools I also collected data of pupils grades, and was informed by the principals and the music teachers about the activities. The number of respondents were ninety. The inquiry showed that the grades were markedly better in music classes, and that you can see great differences in well-being, parental engagement and ambition level, compared to regular classes. The study gives several factors. The social background has some significance. The group effect of the music playing and the well-being in class has good influence on the grades.

<p>Diss. Umeå : Universitet, 1985</p> / digitalisering@umu

Abstract: According to the curriculum of the Swedish school the pupils should develop their historical consciousness. The aim of this study was to find out which pupils develop this consciousness by listing to an historical novel, talking about that book and writing stories. The study went on for four weeks and the subject of the teaching was the Middle Ages. 28 pupils took part and a variety of methods were used: 1: questionnaire about the lives of the pupils, 2: Making observations of their attitude to the teaching and 3: story writing. The results show that the social background does not influence the development of an historical consciousness. Pupils who wrote diaries, spoke many languages and were interested in history, they had already or could more easily develop one. It is not sure that this depends on the cultural capital, which includes many different parts. Therefore there could still be a connection, this, however, has not been confirmed in this study. It is also shown that pupils who lived in the countryside already had an historical consciousness or could more easily develop one. It is difficult to explain the reasons for this influence.

The purpose of this study was to analyze and discuss why historical consciousness may be expressed in different ways and possible causes for these differences. High school students' and history student teachers’ answers to a historical test were analyzed in relation to historical consciousness.  The German philosopher of history, Jörn Rüsen, has in numerous publications presented four forms or expressions of narratives and historical consciousness and these have been applied in the analyses. Rüsen’s four main categories of historical consciousness (i.e. traditional, exemplary, critical and genetic) stretch from a simple understanding of history to a more complex one. The main findings here show that expressions of historical consciousness differed significantly among the respondents. In view of these findings, education and age seem to affect respondents’ expressions of historical consciousness. Traditional expressions of historical consciousness were less prominent among history student teachers than among high school students, for instance. Gender differences were also prominent among the respondents: the female respondents manifested exemplary forms of historical consciousness to a higher degree than the male counterparts. There were also big differences among the gender groups as the high school student boys expressed traditional forms of historical consciousness and male history teacher students were more inclined towards a critical historical consciousness. Social background also seemed to influence the expression of historical consciousness to some extent, especially if the parents were university educated. However, some results in this study seem to indicate that social environment is more relevant to explain differences in historical consciousness than social background. For these reasons the school context has been highlighted in this study.