This thesis explores the strategies compulsory school teachers employ to integrate Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into their teaching practices in Sweden. Given the increasing importance of sustainability in education, this study investigates how ESD is incorporated into the curriculum and the challenges educators face. The research is framed within the Swedish education system context, which mandates ESD inclusion under the national curriculum guidelines. Using qualitative methods, including interviews with teachers and analysis of educational practices, the study identifies key factors that drive and hinder the effective integration of ESD. The findings reveal that while teachers are motivated by a solid commitment to sustainability, they often encounter obstacles such as a lack of resources, insufficient training, and the interdisciplinary nature of ESD, which contrasts with traditional mono-disciplinary teaching methods. The thesis contributes to the theoretical understanding of ESD by highlighting teachers’ resilience and adaptive strategies for overcoming these challenges. It also provides practical recommendations for enhancing ESD integration through improved teacher training, policy support, and curriculum development.

Over the past decade, there has been a noticeable increase in the enrollment of foreign-born children in Swedish schools. While Swedish as a second language has its own curriculum, there appears to be a lack of emphasis on teaching English to new arrivals. Despite English being a compulsory subject in the Swedish education system, there is inconsistency among teachers in their approaches to teaching it to new arrivals. This study specifically focuses on children of Middle Eastern descent, whose native language is Arabic. It investigates whether new arrivals are effectively accommodated in the classroom while learning English as a third language, and if so, what specific accommodations are provided. To achieve the results of this study, interviews with teachers and student questionnaires have been conducted to assess and compare the alignment of teaching methodology between them. As a result, plurilingual teachers, proficient in multiple languages, seem to have a significant advantage in teaching and communicating with new arrivals, particularly if they share the same native language. The objective of this study is to investigate the possible advantages which plurilingual teachers have within the Swedish school system.

This thesis investigates the integration of cybersecurity education in Swedish middle schools, highlighting the need to enhance current educational frameworks to address the increasing cybersecurity threats faced by young students. Employing qualitative methods, interviews were conducted with school principals, assistant principals, and IT teachers across Sweden to gather insights into the challenges of embedding effective cybersecurity practices in school curricula. The findings reveal substantial gaps in the consistency and depth of cybersecurity education, with significant discrepancies in curricular content and teacher training across schools. While some educational institutions have initiated steps toward incorporating cybersecurity topics, there remains a lack of a standardized curriculum that can be uniformly implemented across all schools. The study underscores the urgent need for comprehensive guidelines and resources to support schools in delivering effective cybersecurity education. It suggests that future efforts should focus on developing standardized curricula, enhancing teacher training, and fostering broader stakeholder engagement to ensure that students are equipped with necessary digital safety skills.This research contributes valuable perspectives to the ongoing discourse on digital literacy and cybersecurity, proposing strategic directions for policy and educational development to safeguard future digital citizens.

Blockchain technology has gained ground as a method of independently and securely verifying transaction receipts of educational credentials so they can connect directly to individual digital wallets. Challenges in this transformation include the risk of dilution of value in existing credentials and the risk of duplicating structures. Internationally, several studies and pilots are ongoing. The EU is currently actively working to promote the development of digital micro-credentials with both initiatives and standards recommendations. Nationally in Sweden, government initiatives aim to bring the entire national digital infrastructure together to improve support for lifelong professional learning. Industrial stakeholders, academic education and vocational educational organizations are documented having partly overlapping, partly different needs and requirements. The purpose of this master’s thesis research is to describe the potential use of a blockchain-based ICT system for digital micro-credentials in vocational education, and what would be the desired characteristics of providing such a system from the perspective of stakeholder decision-makers on the governmental, commercial, and educational level. For this, interpretive qualitative research has been conducted. The data was collected through documents review of governmental and policy documents from the EU and Sweden, and individual interviews with seven participants among key stakeholder organizations (vocational institutions, commercial organizations, and government agencies representatives). The collected data was analyzed thematically. The analysis of the collected data was thematically structured into five themes and discussed in the context of the research aim and research question, using the proposed theoretical framework, including structuration theory.  Findings showed that challenges on the macro-level perspective dominated the potential uses and desired characteristics, explicitly the need for a solution that can bridge the gap between industry needs and formal education. The need for a technical solution that can create interoperability between different forms of micro-credentials and credentials was highlighted. A solution with the individual in focus would be a major shift that could improve individuals’ potential to plan careers, enable employers to improve recruitment processes, and strengthen the Swedish government actors in skills and educational planning on the national and regional level. The key to these uses would be the ability to build trust between parties and connect such a technological solution to existing structures such as the European Qualification Framework’s Swedish implementation (SeQF). The research contributes theoretically by adding to the rather limited research on blockchain use for micro-credentials in education, and practically by presenting the context and landscape of the Swedish system of vocational education and training in relation to the potential use of digital micro-credentials.

The increasing integration of technology in education has led to significant changes in the way teaching and learning is conducted. This study aims to investigate the impact of digitalization on schools and the teaching of social studies subjects. The research focuses on identifying changes in learning, teaching, the role of teachers and student engagement as a result of the implementation of digitalization in the classroom. The study also aims to explore the challenges and opportunities that have been created by the increasing use of digitalization in schools and society-oriented education. Data was collected through five interviews with teachers who use digital ways in their teaching of social science subjects, and the results were analyzed qualitatively. The findings indicate that digitalization has positively impacted student learning and engagement, but also highlighted challenges. The study concludes that while digitalization presents challenges, it also creates opportunities for improving teaching and learning and increasing student engagement. The results of this study can be used to guide teachers and schools in the effective integration of digitalization in society-oriented education.

This thesis studies the clash between the hero and the First World War in the works of Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. It explores the impact on their poetry and attitude towards the concept of the hero as it applied to them as people and poets. The study shows that over prolonged contact with the horrors of the First World War, it is evident in both literary sources and their poetry that both Sassoon and Owen changed their attitudes negatively towards both the idea of heroes and heroism, as well as the War as a just and glorious cause.  However, the myth of the hero was still a core belief of their society, and in order to not be branded cowards and discarded along with their warnings, they had to become heroes in the eyes of their society, to openly attack the concept and the war it fueled. This thesis then studies how and why First World War poetry and literature should be utilized within the subject of English in the Swedish School System, as a means to provide a multicultural and critical education.