The present licentiate thesis comprises a review of Swedish and Anglo-Saxon literature on excursions and their history, followed by a study on three one-day excursions and two neighbourhood excursions, conducted by pupils at upper secondary school. The primary purpose of the thesis was to highlight the development of excursion procedures, aiming at increasing the interest of the pupils, improving their inner motivation, but also to develop the learning process. Thus, the work also attempted to identify learning models and excursion methods, furnishing pupils with a positive attitude during excursions and field studies. Article no 1 consists of a survey of Swedish (particularly in Geographical Notices) and Anglo-Saxon literature, describing and discussing how the excursion procedures have been developed, influenced, and designed. Excursions became a practiced teaching method at the beginning of the last century. The urbanization and instigation of a public school are described as incitements for arranging excursions. British as well as Swedish teaching authorities emphasized excursions in school activities in different curricula or school documents. The present study shows that arranging excursions and other activities in the field was in the interests of the teaching authorities and a number of different society instances. Excursion methods and their extent and incorporation into the school activities have been amply discussed in the excursion literature. Qualitative interviews with 50 pupils from five upper secondary schools were conducted after excursions. Observations were carried out during four of these excursions. Article II comprises one-day excursions in geography or biology, conducted by pupils in the social and natural science programs at three upper secondary schools. The methods applied in this study were group interviews and observations during two of the excursions. Two neighbourhood excursions in geography and science, performed by two upper secondary schools, were investigated, and form the foundation for article II. The neighbourhood excursions were examined by observations, 25 individual interviews, and a smaller questionnaire. The interviews generated information about how pupils perceive, experience, and interpret the applied excursion methods. Pupils have in interviews and in their questionnaire answers reported their motivation, which ranged from non-existent to a deep inner motivation. Preparations were identified as a key factor for pupils as well as teachers. The observations yielded knowledge about the focus of pupils, their attitudes and concentration level, and also how they use digital media in the field. Furthermore, the relevance of location, along with pupils’ comprehensions and experiences, created an applicable backdrop for future excursions. Careful selection of excursion locations, where pupils are able to discern correlations, was identified as important to their capability of interpreting their observations, which they afterwards might be able to transform into knowledge, inner motivation, or even flow.

Sammanfattning Föreliggande fenomenografiska studie har som syfte haft att undersöka elevers uppfattningar av fenomenen utbildning och arbete och hur de kopplar det till sin framtid. Studien har genomförts som enskilda intervjuer med sex elever vid gymnasiets Introduktionsprogram individuellt alternativ våren 2013. Efter analysarbetet av intervjuerna har Malows behovs- och motivationsteori kopplats till beskrivningskategorierna. Vid intervjuutsagorna framträder att utbildning uppfattas som något för framtida behov, mot ett yrke där betygen är biljetten in. Vad gäller utbildning i grundskolan kan tre beskrivningskategorierna urskiljas. Betygen uppfattas som det mest centrala, därefter behovs- och motivationsfaktorer som identifierats som relationer till lärare och kamrater samt till inlärningsmiljön- med fokus på hur undervisningen organiseras. Eleverna erfar att utbildningen på Introduktionsprogrammet jämställs med grundskolan men med större fokus på betyg. Arbete uppfattas som ett utbildningsresultat där de personliga behoven tillfredsställs vad gäller självständighet och oberoende genom egen försörjning men också de personliga behoven av social gemenskap och självförverkligande uppfattades som betydelsefulla aspekter av ett arbete. Efter att ha analyserat intervjuerna erfars mig elevernas oerfarenhet att reflektera över sina erfarenheter, vilket är viktigt i ett samhälle där man skall göra egna val och kunna se dess konsekvenser. Nyckelord: Gymnasieelever, introduktionsprogrammet, utbildning, arbete, fenomenografi. / Abstract The purpose of this phenomenografic study has been to examine the thoughts of six pupils in Upper Secondary school, Individual alternative, concerning the phenomenon education, work and their future. Maslow´s theory of needs and motivation was the background of the analysis. The result of this study is that what pupils find most significant in education is the marks. Education is something for the future, and the marks are the tickets to vocational training. Studies in Primary school also focus on the marks. Education in Primary school is also apprehended to Needs and motivation where the relationship to teachers and classmates is important. Also the environment of teaching was in focus. The pupils experience Primary school and Upper Secondary school as being the same but with a larger focus on the marks in Upper Secondary school. Work is apprehended as a result of education where the personal needs such as independence, social community and self-fulfillment are important aspects of one´s work. After my work with the analysis, my thoughts are that the pupils are inexperienced in verbalizing their thoughts. It is important in a society built on individual choice to be aware of the consequences of one´s choices. Keywords: Upper Secondary school pupils, Introduction Program, education, work, phenomenografy.

This essay examines upper secondary school pupils as well as the Swedish National Agency for Educations views on the education in subject of religion. How they describe its purpose, what content the topic should address, how the education should be implemented and what influence the pupils should have over their own studies. This to examine how the views of pupils and the Swedish National Agency of Education correlate and to analyze how it possibly can affect the pupil’s motivation. The survey is conducted by semi-forging tured interviews and text analysis in order to ascertain the pupils and the Swedish National Agency of Educations opinions on the issues. The results are then analyzed by various motivational theories that have played a vital role in the Swedish school and that have been found relevant to the study. The survey shows that the pupils and the Swedish National Agency of Education are relatively unanimous about how they regard studies on the subject of religion but that there are differences. It appears that the education the pupils have receive, despite the unity of these pupils and the Swedish National Agency of Education, not always seem to comply with the requirements of the Agency's governing documents. It also appears that the pupil’s motivation is affected by how the National Agency and the pupils' objectives, goals and beliefs correlate. When those are alignment or when the school takes account of pupils' expectations and their own goals the education seems more adequate to the pupils.

<p>One of our big public health problems in Sweden is that human beings are too inactive in outdoor settings. That is why stress related diseases increase and influence humans both mentally and physical. The physical activity is halved among many children when they start school and the older they become the less they enjoy school. It is also an increasing problem that children and youth in today's society have lack of worthwhile experiences in the nature. The aim of this study was therefore to examine how the experience of outdoor environment had importance for health and learning on upper secondary school pupils. The study is used a questionnaire survey where 192 upper secondary school pupils in nature and farm focused programs, respectively social programs participated. Of the result it emerged that the outside environment was a positive place in order to create health and learning. Although social- and farm focused pupils had different opinions about good outside environments and where they rather learned, the pupils at the social program were less pleased with their outside environment at school, although they already had what they wanted. The pupils at the social program also wanted more outdoor education and more practical education, as the farm focused pupils considered positive for health and learning. Our conclusion is that the pupils’ wishes should be noticed and a more varying education, that include the outdoor environment and experiences in nature, should be introduced in more schools, even in the cities, since the school also is an arena where young people spends a lot of their time. If the school creates an interest for nature it can last for the rest of life.</p>

One of our big public health problems in Sweden is that human beings are too inactive in outdoor settings. That is why stress related diseases increase and influence humans both mentally and physical. The physical activity is halved among many children when they start school and the older they become the less they enjoy school. It is also an increasing problem that children and youth in today's society have lack of worthwhile experiences in the nature. The aim of this study was therefore to examine how the experience of outdoor environment had importance for health and learning on upper secondary school pupils. The study is used a questionnaire survey where 192 upper secondary school pupils in nature and farm focused programs, respectively social programs participated. Of the result it emerged that the outside environment was a positive place in order to create health and learning. Although social- and farm focused pupils had different opinions about good outside environments and where they rather learned, the pupils at the social program were less pleased with their outside environment at school, although they already had what they wanted. The pupils at the social program also wanted more outdoor education and more practical education, as the farm focused pupils considered positive for health and learning. Our conclusion is that the pupils’ wishes should be noticed and a more varying education, that include the outdoor environment and experiences in nature, should be introduced in more schools, even in the cities, since the school also is an arena where young people spends a lot of their time. If the school creates an interest for nature it can last for the rest of life.

The major objective has been to create tools for analyzing the reasoning regarding the school the different actors involved - pupils, teachers, school and politicians show. A subordinate aim was to explore relevance in this connection of eight studies carried out by the author 1979 – 1999 concerning three basic areas: the pedagogical processes at the school level, at the teacher education level and at the level of school change. I conclude that a recurring question is that of the relevance and the sense of meaningfulness experienced by those involved in different educational processes. In one of the eight empirical studies, termed the compulsory-school teacher study (1997), an approach to analyzing what teacher trainees find relevant in their work in schools is presented, involving two basic concepts, those of the event space and the relational space. In considering these concepts in terms of Alfred Schutz' theory of the lifeworld, I rename the relational space the space of contemporaries. A new study is also reported in this thesis – Teachers and schoolpoliticians in the pedagogical process of school change, the LoP-study. In considering the earlier eight studies in conjunction with the LoP-study, I find the studies to have dealt with personal processes and societal processes as well as pedagogical processes in how the parties involved reason in talking about the school. Three different aspects of the processes are distinguished: meta-aspects, connected with the aims a given process has; core aspects, connected with what one concretely does; and approach aspects, pertaining to how the persons involved relate to each other and to the process. In analyzing the LoP- interviews carried out with use of the tools developed – enabling different processes and aspects of these to be analyzed – I find marked individual differences in the patterns of different aspects of the processes involved. The width of the event space and of the space of contemporaries on the part both of the teachers and of the politicians were found to vary considerably. A conclusion drawn is that further development of the tools created would be worthwhile. It also seems possible to apply these tools to other areas, such as those of the scientific community with its research processes and of the political community with its steering processes.