This study investigates the development of a community of learners by observing the changes in teachers' and children's participation in four Year 3 / 4 classrooms. The study also explores the teachers' and children's perspectives of learning and teaching and the impact of these on the development of a community of learners. Factors enabling and constraining this developmental process are also identified. These research foci respond to a synthesis of research revealing the importance of teachers and children learning together in cohesive learning communities (Alton-Lee, 2003); a sociocultural approach that is uncommon in New Zealand primary classrooms.Sociocultural theory also informs the generation, analysis and presentation of data. Participant observations, sustained conversations and interviews with the teachers and target children were used to generate data across three cycles of collaborative action research over one school year. Analyses of these data were made by observing the teachers' and the children's transformation of participation through Rogoff's (2003) personal, interpersonal and institutional lenses. The results of this analysis process are presented according to the lens through which the transformation was observed.The findings showed a community of learners as comprising reciprocal connections across cognitive, social, emotional, spiritual and physical dimensions. Transformations of the teachers' and the children's participation in these five reciprocal connections were observed as evidence that a community of learners was developing. These new forms of participation in the classroom shaped, and were shaped by, new identities as learners and teachers, new perspectives about learning and teaching, as well as new culturally authorised values and practices for learning together. Multiple factors constrained the development of a community of learners. The most pervasive constraint was the persistence of teachers' and children's traditional perspectives that prevented understanding of the reciprocity and responsivity of shared activity. A range of factors also enabled the development of a community of learners. The opportunity for professional dialogu in this collaborative action research most enabled the teachers' to develop a community of learners in the classroom: the opportunity for guided participation with teachers and peers in shared classroom activity most enabled the children to learn together.These findings reveal the demanding, complex and mutually constituting nature of developing a community of learners in a primary classroom. The transformation of participation observed in this study provides evidence of the positive contributions sociocultural theory can make to both teachers' and to children's learning. Implications based on these findings are considered for teachers, children, researchers and education providers who together share responsibility for developing and sustaining a community of learners as accepted instructional practice in primary classrooms.

This research study presents an investigation of interpreter trainees acquiring New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) as a second language (L2) outside their formal classroom learning. This study was motivated firstly by a concern that a considerable reduction in learner and lecturer contact hours within an NZSL interpreting programme would compromise graduate NZSL competency, necessitating a compensatory approach predominantly in the context of the Deaf community. Secondly, the study attempts to address a marked gap in research related to L2 sign language learning from a socio-cultural perspective. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in a bilingual context (NZSL and English) in order to gain the ‘inside’ perspectives of six NZSL learners who had just completed a two-year Diploma in Sign Language Interpreting. The interviews sought to uncover the informal NZSL language learning opportunities used by the participants, especially within the social context of the Deaf community, and the individual learner strategies utilised by ‘good learners’ of NZSL. Interview data were transcribed and were analysed by employing qualitative methods. Coding of the data revealed a number of categories which were subsequently examined for salient themes relating to the research questions. The main findings of the study revolved around the significance of L2 learner access to social and material resources, especially within the Deaf socio-cultural context. Of particular significance was the enhancement of learner motivation and confidence as was the frequency and depth of interaction with Deaf people and degree of mediated NZSL learning from NZSL mentors. Of key importance were the social relationships and networks developed with L1 users, which facilitated access to an array of NZSL learning opportunities. Material language learning resources, such as NZSL video samples and equipment were also useful, when interaction with Deaf people was not possible due to heavy study demands, especially in the second year of the programme. Learner involvement in the Deaf community, particularly within Deaf social networks, resulted in significantly improved linguistic, pragmatic and socio-cultural competency. The findings of the study raise two main implications. Firstly, the study highlights the need for NZSL interpreting curriculum enrichment and the resourcing of the programme to foster learner autonomy. Secondly, to date there has been little research on adult L2 sign language learning outside the classroom context and the study may stimulate further studies of the acquisition of sign language as a second language. The study may also be of benefit to autonomous L2 sign language learners and stakeholders in sign language interpreting education around the world.

<p>The inherited education and the (un)free choice?</p><p>- A comparative survey between five different programs on University of Örebro</p><p>The aim with this paper has been to examine and to report for different sociocultural background factors (class property, the parents' level of education, the parents' income) importance for the choice of type of education and to see if there is any differences between different university courses with respect to class property. Our issues were following:</p><p>1. What/which sociocultural factors have had most importance for the choice of programs on universities?</p><p>2. How is the distribution between the different classes in the different university programs?</p><p>Our study is a comparative survey with the aim to detect possible connection patterns, differences and resemblances with respect to the students' social background. In our survey we have used questionnaires as a method for data collection. Our ambition has not been to give a comprehensive picture of what/which sociocultural factors that had most importance for the students' choices to begin to study on universities throughout Sweden. Therefore, we delimited us only to carrying out the survey at University of Örebro. Our population consists thus of a programme from each faculty on University of Örebro.</p><p>The empirical material from the questionnaire survey, has been presented with appropriate statistical methods, it has been analyzed and discussed with the aid of Bourdieus habitus theory.</p><p>In this survey we can among other things establish that it occurs certain differences between the different programs, which have been included in the study, among other things with respect to class property. We have also found other relevant connection among different variables.</p> / <p>Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka och redogöra för olika sociokulturella bakgrundsfaktorers (klasstillhörighet, föräldrarnas utbildningsnivå, föräldrarnas inkomst) betydelse för valet av typ av utbildning samt se om det finns skillnader mellan olika universitetsprogram med avseende på klasstillhörighet. Våra frågeställningar är följande:</p><p>1. Vilken/vilka sociokulturella faktorer har haft mest betydelse för valet av program/inriktning på universitet/högskolan?</p><p>2. Hur ser fördelningen av klasstillhörigheten mellan de olika programmen ut?</p><p>Vår studie är en komparativ surveyundersökning med syftet att upptäcka eventuella sambandsmönster, skillnader och likheter med avseende på studenternas sociala bakgrund. I vår undersökning har vi att använt oss av enkäter som en metod för datainsamling. Vår ambition har inte varit att ge en heltäckande bild av vilken/vilka sociokulturella faktorer som haft mest betydelse för studenternas val att börja studera att på högskola/universitet i hela Sverige. Därför avgränsade vi oss endast till att utföra undersökningen vid Örebro universitet. Vår population består således av ett program från varje fakultet på Örebro universitet.</p><p>Det empiriska materialet från enkätundersökningen, har presenterats med lämpliga statistiska metoder, har analyserats och diskuterats med hjälp av Bourdieus habitusteori.</p><p>I denna undersökning har vi bland annat kunnat konstatera att det förekommer vissa skillnader mellan de olika universitetsprogrammen, som har ingått i studien, bland annat med avseende på klasstillhörighet. Vi har även funnit en del andra relevanta samvariationer mellan olika variabler.</p>

<p>ICT and digital artifacts is an important resource in the society, especially in schools. That is why we have chosen to study if and how teachers uses ICT and other digital technology in their education in the history subject. We think that both subjects are important because history is a subject that has to do with the past, the present and the future.</p><p>We made qualitative interviews with seven teachers from three different schools. We have analyzed if the teachers sees ICT as a burden or a resource in their education and also in which extend they have digital literacy. We have chosen to discuss different authors view on ICT in the education and digital literacy. We also examined the teaching plan Lpo94 to see what it says about media in the history subject.</p><p>In our analysis we have worked with different perspectives on learning and knowledge. These perspectives are a socio cultural perspective, the cognitive view and the behavioristic view.</p><p>The results indicate a connection between a socio cultural perspective and a cognitive view on learning and also in which extend ICT is used in the history education.</p>

<p>Diskussionen om kunskap och lärande stannar aldrig, men för verksamma i skolan är det relevant att vara på det klara med hur kunskapsbegreppet kan förstås i skolan. Lärarens syn på kunskap och lärande bestämmer hur hon förhåller sig till sitt uppdrag och hur hon lägger upp undervisningen. Skoldiskursen kan undersökas på olika vis. I den här uppsatsen har fyra av Skolverkets publikationer analyserats. Syftet är att undersöka vilken kunskapssyn som förmedlas i texterna och vilken strävan som finns att upprätthålla eller förändra den rådande diskursen. I analysen har begreppen kunskap, lärande, skola, lärare och elev stått i centrum.</p><p>Slutsatserna av analysen är att det finns en strävan att omformulera det som i texterna beskrivs som den traditionella diskursen inom skolan. Det råder konsensus om att skolundervisningen vanligtvis utgått ifrån ett ensidigt kunskapsparadigm, men att den traditionen nu utmanas av ett nytt paradigm som definierar kunskap som någonting situerat och som skapas i interaktion mellan människor. I samtliga texter förmedlas ett sociokulturellt perspektiv på kunskap och lärande. Det som skiljer texterna åt är att de förhåller sig till de två kunskapsparadigmen på olika vis. I två av texterna argumenteras för det nya kunskapsparadigmet, medan det i de andra två finns en idé om att de två paradigmen kan föras samman.</p><p>Publikationerna fördjupar sig i begreppen kunskap och lärande. Däremot lämnar tre av de fyra texterna en djupare diskussion kring vad som ingår i lärarprofessionen om kunskap och lärande förstås som de definieras i texterna. En slutsats som också kan dras av analysen är att den didaktiska hurfrågan inte går att få svar på i publikationerna. Kanske är det decentraliseringens baksida, att Skolverkets publikationer inte behöver ta sig an de praktiska frågorna.</p><p> </p> / <p>The discussion about knowledge and learning never ends. For those who are working in school it is relevant to have a clear idea of how the term knowledge can be understood in an educational context. A teacher's idea of knowledge and learning decides what pedagogical methods she uses. The school discourse can be analysed in different ways. In this paper has a discourse analysis been done of four publications from Nation (Sweden) Agency of Education. The aim is to see what ideas of knowledge that is represented in the texts and what ambition there is to alter or maintain the current discourses. The analysis work has especially focused on the terms knowledge, learning, school, teacher and pupil.</p><p>Conclusions that can be drawn from the analysis are that there is a striving to reformulate a traditional school discourse. In the publications there is an agreement concerning that traditional teaching generally come from a one-sided knowledge paradigm that now is being challenging by a new paradigm. The new paradigm defines knowledge as something dependent of the context and that it is created in interaction between people. All four publications mediate a sociocultural perspective on knowledge and learning. The difference between the texts is the attitude they apply to the fact that there is two paradigms that have influences in the school discourse. Two of the texts argue for the new paradigm, while the other two mediate that the paradigms are complements.</p><p>The publications enter deeply into the terms knowledge and learning. However they leavethe discussion about what a professional teacher is in a school where the terms knowledge and learning is understood as it is defined in the texts. Only one of the texts gives some answers on the didactic question <em>how</em>. A conclusion that lies near in hand is that the decentralisation of school gives the Nation Agency of Education the possibility to avoid concrete questions that give useful information in teachers' professional life.</p>

<p>Purpose/Aim: The purpose of this essay is to see how the media, through the newspaper, "Vi föräldrar”, produces family and parental roles, and to investigate how the image changed over time.</p><p>Material/Method: The material consists of a number of selected texts from the years 1968, 1988 and 2008. The method used is a discourse analysis based on the three level model by Norman Fairclough. The three levels are the text, the discourse practise and the sociocultural practise. In this study two of the levels, text and sociocultural practise, are used in analysing the texts.</p><p>Main results: Family and parenting in the texts from 1968 can be linked to the structural functionalist theory in which the core family is central and women and men are assigned to specific roles. I have chosen to call the contents of the texts of 1968 a "core family discourse." The feminist approach has influenced the content in the texts from 1988 which I call a “gender discourse”. The individualization of the late modern period has resulted in freedom for the individual without specific gender roles or traditional family frameworks, which are evident in the texts from 2008. I have therefore chosen to refer to the 2008 texts as a "lifestyle discourse".</p>

The sociocultural model of eating disorders suggests that awareness of a thin physical ideal directly affects internalization of that ideal, which in turn, directly affects body dissatisfaction. The current study evaluated the general accuracy of the sociocultural model and examined the potential for ethnicity to protect against eating disorder symptomatology by moderating the relationships between awareness and internalization and between internalization and body dissatisfaction. Spanish (n = 100), Mexican American (n = 100), and Euro-American (n = 100) female participants completed various questionnaires measuring sociocultural attitudes towards appearance and body dissatisfaction. Analysis of covariance with tests of homogeneity of slope and path analysis using maximum likelihood with robust standard errors tested the two relationships by ethnic group. Results supported the sociocultural model: there was strong evidence for the mediational effect of internalization on the relationship between awareness and body dissatisfaction. Furthermore, ethnicity moderated the relationships such that both relationships were significantly stronger for Euro-American women than for Mexican American or Spanish women. Within the Mexican American group level of acculturation also moderated these relationships. Taken together, the results of this study highlight how ethnicity can protect against the development of eating disorder symptoms. Denouncing the thin ideal, minimizing appearance as an indicator of female value, and emphasizing personal traits other than appearance as determinants of worth are important in protecting against the development of body dissatisfaction and more severe eating pathology.

Purpose/Aim: The purpose of this essay is to see how the media, through the newspaper, "Vi föräldrar”, produces family and parental roles, and to investigate how the image changed over time. Material/Method: The material consists of a number of selected texts from the years 1968, 1988 and 2008. The method used is a discourse analysis based on the three level model by Norman Fairclough. The three levels are the text, the discourse practise and the sociocultural practise. In this study two of the levels, text and sociocultural practise, are used in analysing the texts. Main results: Family and parenting in the texts from 1968 can be linked to the structural functionalist theory in which the core family is central and women and men are assigned to specific roles. I have chosen to call the contents of the texts of 1968 a "core family discourse." The feminist approach has influenced the content in the texts from 1988 which I call a “gender discourse”. The individualization of the late modern period has resulted in freedom for the individual without specific gender roles or traditional family frameworks, which are evident in the texts from 2008. I have therefore chosen to refer to the 2008 texts as a "lifestyle discourse".

I dagens skola handlar det om att kunna förmedla kunskaper som eleverna har nytta av i livet och i sitt valda yrke med omvärldens och branschens krav och förväntningar. Som yrkeslärare skapas mycket eget läromedel och syftet med rapporten är att ta reda på hur ett undervisningsmaterial kan se ut som genererar motivation och som integrerar ett sociokulturellt perspektiv. De begrepp som används i studien är sociokulturellt perspektiv, motivation och läromedel. En översiktlig förklaring av begreppen och en litteraturstudie som beskriver olika teoretiska utgångspunkter genomförs i bakgrunden. Metoder som har nyttjats har varit dels litteraturstudier och dels en kvantitativ enkätundersökning. Resultaten av vår undersökning visar på en kombination av elevernas svar och litteraturens olika teorier. Eleverna föredrar träning, mindre grupparbeten och traditionella prov, men vill gärna ha både teoretiska och praktiska presentationer av läraren. Det finns ett behov att variera undervisningen för att tillgodose elevernas behov, vilket också bör vara signifikant med ett läromedel som även bör stimulera sociokulturellt perspektiv. Motivation hos elever har olika innebörd i skolan och på fritiden. I skolan blir betyg en sporre och motivation förknippas med drivkraft och vilja, medan fritidens motivation associeras med glädje. Diskussioner utifrån våra resultat sker om hur ett kursupplägg eller ett läromedel ska kunna bli spännande och stimulerande för att hitta elevens motivation och drivkraft. / Today’s school is about being able to mediate knowledge that students will find useful in life and in their chosen occupation with the demands and expectations from both society and the branch. Since we are occupational teachers, many teaching aids are created by us, and the purpose of this project work is to find out how teaching aids can generate motivation and integrate a sociocultural perspective. The concepts used in this study are sociocultural perspective, motivation and teaching aids. An overall explanation of the concepts and a literature study which describes different theoretical starting points are implemented in the background. The methods used have been partly literature studies and partly a quantative survey study. The results of our study show a combination of students’ answers and different theories from literature. The pupils prefer training, less group work and traditional tests with a deeper meaning, but they would like to have both practical and theoretical presentations from their teachers. There is a need to vary the teaching methods in order to cater for all the students’ needs, which also should be significant for teaching aids that stimulate a sociocultural perspective. Motivation has a different meaning for the students in school and outside of school. In school, grades are an incentive and motivation is associated with drive force and willingness whereas in leisure time, motivation is associated to pleasure. Our results have generated a discussion as to how the course structure or teaching aids can be exciting and stimulating to encourage student motivation and drive force.

ICT and digital artifacts is an important resource in the society, especially in schools. That is why we have chosen to study if and how teachers uses ICT and other digital technology in their education in the history subject. We think that both subjects are important because history is a subject that has to do with the past, the present and the future. We made qualitative interviews with seven teachers from three different schools. We have analyzed if the teachers sees ICT as a burden or a resource in their education and also in which extend they have digital literacy. We have chosen to discuss different authors view on ICT in the education and digital literacy. We also examined the teaching plan Lpo94 to see what it says about media in the history subject. In our analysis we have worked with different perspectives on learning and knowledge. These perspectives are a socio cultural perspective, the cognitive view and the behavioristic view. The results indicate a connection between a socio cultural perspective and a cognitive view on learning and also in which extend ICT is used in the history education.