Lebanese society involves the Western, i.e. liberal and democratic model, and the Islamic model of society as umma. This Lebanese model originated and has been maintained as a compromise between communities of different value paradigms where no significant shift can be expected as Lebanon is situated at the borders of their territorial expansion. According to my analysis on the basis of theoretical concepts of neo-realism and social constructivism the external players prevail over the internal players. External players have essential influence on the development of Lebanese society and state. It is also the regional status quo or regional and international order that influences the development in Lebanon and is responsible for almost every conflict, conflict initiation or struggle in Lebanon. Lebanese multiconfessional society has always made an effort to achieve and has achieved by itself a consensus for its coexistence. That is why the international community and organizations should promote and use their influence more to maintain the peaceful co-existence.

abstract: The purpose of this action research was to work with Brazilian trained educators in a Community of Practice (CoP) to explore how teachers collectively define and talk about critical thinking (CT). The research also examined how past teaching experiences shaped their attitudes toward emphasizing CT in teaching. In addition, the research studied how participation in a CoP focused on CT changed classroom planning. The study is grounded in Community of Practice and Social Constructivism. As an international school, this study examined related research conducted in Jordan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Pakistan. This qualitative action research was 12 weeks in length with six participants who were all from Brazil and worked at a private bilingual international secondary school. Participants completed an initial interview and final interview. They also completed online journals, which were assembled weekly for 45 minutes, and maximized their efforts constructing a unit plan utilizing the Understanding by Design method. The results of the study describe the teachers’ definition of critical thinking, and also present an understanding of how the CoP shaped their attitudes. This, in turn, resulted in members’ updated classroom planning, which was due to participation in the cohort. Further issues and credibility, contextualization, and transferability as well as researcher positionality were discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Leadership and Innovation 2019

This thesis examines in Swedish teacher education often neglected areas to increase the understanding for the essential differences between the two sexes and furthermore: how these differences affect us from an evolutionary and biological perspective. The study investigates previous research within the area - particularly evolution, neurology, hormones and genetics that affects our behavior. It also scrutinizes theories of social construction which primarily lodged the foundation for learning within the last century and served as explanation model for how human beings turn out in life. Research is analyzed regarding how music may be perceived differently and how they may affect stereotypical choices regarding instrument and other preferences. Also, the study evaluates research regarding how the Swedish school is designed to uphold gender equality in their goals and in their national curriculum. Finally, conclusions whether the Swedish school is providing enforcement regarding scientific regulations, which the law demands from it – in this case biological factors – are being looked at. The results show that biological differences between males and females may influence human behavior to a greater degree than earlier predictions, and that the Swedish school is mostly founded on a social constructionist point of view. These results indirectly question the Swedish National Agency for Education’s definition of equality, which paradoxical may lead to equity. Or, equality by outcome. Which do not take biological sex differences, or even individual differences into account.

Flipped Classroom (flipp) is described in both school and scientific contexts as a new teaching method where the individual pupil and her active learning is placed at the center and where lesson time to a greater extent is used for discussion and laboratory work, while information gathering takes place outside lesson time via ICT. Flipp has in recent years become widely spread in Sweden, which is why it is interesting to investigate flipp in a Swedish context. This has so far been made to a very limited extent. This study aims to deepen the understanding of flipp as a teaching method as the method appears in the speech and actions of upper secondary school teachers who claim they use flipp when they teach. The study addresses three general issues. First, teachers' purposes with flipp are explored, second, the roles that emerge in flipped teaching is investigated and third, individualization in teaching where flipp is applied. The study is a case study based on interviews and observations with three upper secondary school teachers who flip their teaching. The study is based on social constructivist theory formation and Dewey's progressivist philosophy of education is the discussion partner in this study. Previous research suggests that in the development of flip, inspiration was drawn from pedagogical ideas from the early 1900s, which makes it advisable to discuss possible points of contact between flipp as expressed in the case study, and progressivism. Previous research presents flipp as a method for creating flexibility and individualization as well as a method that helps the teacher and students spend more time together for laboratory work and discussions. The teachers express that flipping helps the students to become active during lessons. Observations, however, show that there are significant problems with the students not preparing for the lesson to the extent that was expected, which will have negative consequences for the opportunities to work and discuss during lessons as intended. The study thus shows evidence that there is a discrepancy between the image that the teachers produce and the image of the flip that has been observed. / Denna licentiatuppsats handlar om hur gymnasielärare som flippar uppfattar och  tillämpar undervisningsmetoden. I studien undersöks vilka syften lärarna har med att flippa, vilka roller lärare och elever har när man flippar och i vilken mån flipp kan bidra till att individualisera undervisningen. Tre verksamma gymnasielärare har deltagit i studien och de har intervjuats och observerats vid flera tillfällen. Flipp beskrivs av lärarna som har deltagit i studien som en undervisningsmetod som kan bidra till att de kan göra undervisningen mera individualiserad och flexibel. Studien visar även att den omdisponering av tid, som flipp syftar till, innebär att lärare ger elever ansvar för att på egen hand arbeta med grundläggande kunskapsinhämtning, vilket i kombination med andra bärande element i flipp, kan missgynna elever som av olika anledningar har svårigheter i skolan. Karen Stormats är verksam som lärarutbildare vid Högskolan Dalarna. Hon har tidigare erfarenhet av undervisning i historia och samhällskunskap på gymnasiet. Under tiden som forskarstuderande har Karen ingått i forskarskolan Skolnära, ett samarbete mellan Pedagogisk utveckling Dalarna (PUD), Högskolan Dalarna och Karlstads universitet.

<p>This study aims at using discourse analysis to analyze SFI students attitudes to religion and religiosity in an SFI-context. The questions are: How is the discourse constructed and maintained by religion and religiosity of SFI students in an SFI context? How do SFI participants experience that their religion has affected their time at SFI?</p><p>Using a case study approach, interviews were conducted with a group of SFI students. The results show that the religious discourse in SFI is influenced by the SFI-context and affected based on the current education discourse that exists there. Furthermore, the discourse is designed and maintained by the participants private religious beliefs and the religion of the majority of the group, One canhere speak of a strong social unit forming a plausibility structure The power structure that emerges is that the majority has the power to define the significance of religion and place within the SFI context. </p><p>In the SFI-context the participants view is that religion is something private that should not be expressed in the school environment. They express that they do not want to talk about religion among a collection of people from other cultures since one would not want to risk creating conflict.</p>

<p>Denna uppsats behandlar frågan kring fördomar, muslimer och interaktion. Undersökningen sker genom en intervjuundersökning där respondenterna får svara på frågor som berör deras syn på muslimer utifrån deras interaktionsnivå. Tidigare forskning säger att den socialt konstruerade bilden av muslimer är negativ, och att den upprätthålls av samhället, däribland filmindustrin. Som ramverk för att undersöka detta används socialkonstruktivismen och kontaktteorin. Kontaktteorin, som introduceras av Gordon Allport, säger att interaktion mellan grupper minskar fördomar genom att grupperna interagerar som jämbördiga och med gemensamma mål. Dessa grupper beskrivs som ingroup och outgroup. Uppsatsen behandlar således om interaktionen hos respondenterna påverkar perceptionen de har av muslimer i Sverige. Slutsatsen är att interaktionen hos respondenterna påverkar uppfattningen de har av muslimer. De respondenter som hade regelbunden kontakt med muslimer, uppfattade inte gruppen i negativa termer.</p>

<p><strong><p>Abstract</p><p>The author Selma Lagerlöf was born in 1858 at Mårbacka, in Värmland and died in 1940. Fifty years after Selma´s death were her correspondence released and ten thousand of letters were found in the collection. But it was just the correspondence between Selma and Sofie Elkan who interested people because they wanted to know if Selma and Sofie have had a sexual relationship. Later, in time for Christmas 2008 the Swedish Television shows a film about Selma. "Selma Lagerlöf Society" was critical to the movie and thougt that the movie focused too much on Selma`s sexual orientation. This situation aroused a curiosity and a desire to find out why the film was perceived in this way. The purpose of this work is to show how the producer uses gender constructions to show that Selma was a lesbian and for that reason a thematic analysis was made from a social constructionist perspective. Different themes about gender constructions emerge in the analysis, and those themes are presented together with feminist theorist as Judith Butler, Yvonne Hirdman and Simone De Beauvoir. The discussion is about the presentation and how this can be perceived, but also about the reasons they might have had in mind when they made the presentation that way.</p></strong></p> / <p>Författarinnan Selma Lagerlöf föddes 20 november 1858, på Mårbacka i Värmland, och dog 16 mars 1940. Femtio år senare släpptes Selmas korrespondens fri. Tiotusentals brev fanns i denna brevsamling men det var endast brevväxlingen mellan Selma och Sofie Elkan som ansågs intressant. Detta på grund av att man ville veta om Selma och Sofie hade en sexuell relation eller inte. Senare lagom till julhelgen 2008 visar Sveriges Television en film i två delar, som handlar om Selma. Bland annat Selma Lagerlöf sällskapet ställde sig kritisk till filmen och menade att man fokuserat för mycket på Selmas sexualitet i filmen. Detta väckte en nyfikenhet och en önskan hos mig, att ta reda på varför filmen uppfattades på detta sätt. Syftet med detta arbete är att visa på hur man i framställningen har använt sig av könskonstruktioner för att visa att Selma var lesbisk Av denna anledning har det gjorts en tematisk analys ur ett socialkonstruktivistiskt perspektiv med utgångspunkt i filmens innehåll . Under analys har olika teman framträtt som på något sätt handlar om könskonstruktioner. Dessa teman presenteras i analysdelen tillsammans med feministisk teorier av bland annat Judith Butler, Yvonne Hirdman och Simone De Beauvoir. I diskussionen behandlas det hur framställningen kan uppfattas och även vilka motiv man kan tänkas ha haft i åtanke när man gjort framställningen på detta sätt.</p>

Thesis (M.A. (Sociology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2005.

This study aims at using discourse analysis to analyze SFI students attitudes to religion and religiosity in an SFI-context. The questions are: How is the discourse constructed and maintained by religion and religiosity of SFI students in an SFI context? How do SFI participants experience that their religion has affected their time at SFI? Using a case study approach, interviews were conducted with a group of SFI students. The results show that the religious discourse in SFI is influenced by the SFI-context and affected based on the current education discourse that exists there. Furthermore, the discourse is designed and maintained by the participants private religious beliefs and the religion of the majority of the group, One canhere speak of a strong social unit forming a plausibility structure The power structure that emerges is that the majority has the power to define the significance of religion and place within the SFI context.  In the SFI-context the participants view is that religion is something private that should not be expressed in the school environment. They express that they do not want to talk about religion among a collection of people from other cultures since one would not want to risk creating conflict.

Abstract The author Selma Lagerlöf was born in 1858 at Mårbacka, in Värmland and died in 1940. Fifty years after Selma´s death were her correspondence released and ten thousand of letters were found in the collection. But it was just the correspondence between Selma and Sofie Elkan who interested people because they wanted to know if Selma and Sofie have had a sexual relationship. Later, in time for Christmas 2008 the Swedish Television shows a film about Selma. "Selma Lagerlöf Society" was critical to the movie and thougt that the movie focused too much on Selma`s sexual orientation. This situation aroused a curiosity and a desire to find out why the film was perceived in this way. The purpose of this work is to show how the producer uses gender constructions to show that Selma was a lesbian and for that reason a thematic analysis was made from a social constructionist perspective. Different themes about gender constructions emerge in the analysis, and those themes are presented together with feminist theorist as Judith Butler, Yvonne Hirdman and Simone De Beauvoir. The discussion is about the presentation and how this can be perceived, but also about the reasons they might have had in mind when they made the presentation that way. / Författarinnan Selma Lagerlöf föddes 20 november 1858, på Mårbacka i Värmland, och dog 16 mars 1940. Femtio år senare släpptes Selmas korrespondens fri. Tiotusentals brev fanns i denna brevsamling men det var endast brevväxlingen mellan Selma och Sofie Elkan som ansågs intressant. Detta på grund av att man ville veta om Selma och Sofie hade en sexuell relation eller inte. Senare lagom till julhelgen 2008 visar Sveriges Television en film i två delar, som handlar om Selma. Bland annat Selma Lagerlöf sällskapet ställde sig kritisk till filmen och menade att man fokuserat för mycket på Selmas sexualitet i filmen. Detta väckte en nyfikenhet och en önskan hos mig, att ta reda på varför filmen uppfattades på detta sätt. Syftet med detta arbete är att visa på hur man i framställningen har använt sig av könskonstruktioner för att visa att Selma var lesbisk Av denna anledning har det gjorts en tematisk analys ur ett socialkonstruktivistiskt perspektiv med utgångspunkt i filmens innehåll . Under analys har olika teman framträtt som på något sätt handlar om könskonstruktioner. Dessa teman presenteras i analysdelen tillsammans med feministisk teorier av bland annat Judith Butler, Yvonne Hirdman och Simone De Beauvoir. I diskussionen behandlas det hur framställningen kan uppfattas och även vilka motiv man kan tänkas ha haft i åtanke när man gjort framställningen på detta sätt.