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 this dissertation is to study the vocational and career education in upper secondary school and to answer the question if and how this education contributes to the socialization of the younger generation to the various sectors and positions of working life. The ambition was also to acquire more general knowledge of the mechanisms generating different classroom discourses. The main problem thus deals with how and why an objective reality, in this case the working world, is transformed into various teaching situations and how and why it grows into different classroom discourses. In accordance with the theoretical frame of reference, career education is regarded as a transmission of ideologies and as part of the social reproduction process. By analogy with this approach the training effects have been studied in terms of transmitted opinions and notions in various aspects of education and working life. For a period of one year we observed the instruction in social studies and vocational teaching in four different course programmes of upper secondary school. The empirical studies also include interviews with teachers and students in nursing and metalwork course programmes, in economics, in social sciences and in natural sciences as well as employees in the metalwork and health-care sector. The main aim was to study the notions of education and working life of various interested parties in relation to the notions transmitted in the course programmes. The results show that there are great differences in vocational teaching in the different course programmes, in spite of the fact that the content of this teaching is supposed to be almost identical according to the curriculum. In an attempt to explain the formation of education we have formulated a "content-related steering group theory". In simplified terms this means that the content of education is characterized by certain predominant structures of thought characteristic of both the social field (sector) and the social stratum (level) towards which the education is primarily directed. The predominant structures of thought are brought into the classrooms through the students' individual and historical relations with the world of work. These structures then function as a generating and controlling mechanism for the classroom discourse. The teacher will, more or less unconsciously, adjust the content of his or her teaching to the predominant structures of thought of the selection of students forming his or her class. Our analysis ends in the assumption that the differences in structures of thought between students in various course programmes are reinforced during the time spent in upper secondary school - not so much as a result of the education itself, but more as a result of the different social environments of different student categories to which the education is adapted. / digitalisering@umu

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 study uses focus groups and a questionnaire to examine the information-seeking behaviours of Swedish upper secondary school students. Focus group interviews were conducted among students aged 17-20 at four Swedish upper secondary schools in two different cities. The interviews focused on how the informants themselves experienced their information seeking. In addition, a survey focused on the opinions of upper secondary school teachers regarding the source use of their students. The research questions considered were: What kind of information-seeking behaviour characterizes Swedish upper secondary school students? What kind of information do Swedish upper secondary school students seek when it comes to issues where corporations can be of assistance? How do Swedish upper secondary school students prefer to have information presented? The results of the study provided some valuable insights concerning these questions. The students turned out to use the Internet, and most often Google, in much of their information seeking. However, human contact in the form of face-to-face conversations or presentations was also considered highly important. Furthermore, the information-seeking skills, or information literacy, of secondary school students are not emphasized in their education. The study was performed in cooperation with AstraZeneca in the hope of the results providing the company with valuable information regarding one of their intended target groups.

Jag har i denna studie intervjuat sex olika lärare på tre olika skolor i Stockholmsområdet. Studien handlar om hur teaterlärare skapar en teaterföreställning. Mina frågeställningar är: Hur skapar teater lärare teaterföreställning i skolan? Vilka metoder använder sig teaterlärare av i sin undervisning? Vad har lärare för synpunkter på fördelar utifrån metoder som den använder vid skapande av en teaterföreställning? Ingår det andra ämnen vid skapande av en teaterföreställning i skolan? Vad anser lärare att elever lär sig med teater i skolan? Min avsikt är inte att påvisa vilken metod eller sätt som passar bättre än någon annan, utan att lyfta fram flera tankar om hur man kan arbeta med teaterföreställning i undervisningen. Jag har arbetat med en kvalitativ metod och varje intervju tog en timme att genomföra. Sedan har jag transkriberat ned lärarnas svar och delat in svaren i olika frågeområden och analyserat det utifrån det konstpedagogiska perspektivet enligt Mia Sternudds avhandling. Svaren har jag även analyserat med mål att kunna använda som riktlinjer för att kunna skapa en teaterföreställning liksom kursmål för scenisk gestaltning som lärarna utgick ifrån när denna undersökning gjordes. Med det konstpedagogiska perspektivet som jag har använt mig av i denna undersökning handlar det om att göra en teaterföreställning till publik och att elever utvecklas socialt, kommunikativt och personligen med processen att skapa en teaterföreställning i skolan.  I undersökningen kom jag fram till att alla lärare arbetar med text för att skapa en teaterföreställning i skolan. En del lärare som ingick i undersökningen brukade ibland utgå från improvisation. Alla lärare arbetade med koncentrationsövningar och fantasiövningar och hade utgångspunkten i Stanislavskijtekniken vid skapande av en roll i en teaterföreställning. Elevdemokrati fanns med på alla skolorna vid skapandet av en föreställning, men det var i regel läraren som hade sista ordet. Vissa skolor arbetade ämnesintegrerande och det var mest ett samarbete med svenska eller engelska. Samarbetet med andra ämnen bedömdes av lärarna rent generellt som mycket tidskrävande. Samtliga lärare som ingick i undersökningen menade att arbetet med en teaterföreställning skapar ett gott samarbete mellan eleverna och ett gott arbetsklimat i skolan. Lärarnas uppfattning är att eleverna med teater i skolan lär sig att samarbeta, ta ansvar och respektera varandra, egenskaper som är värdefulla när eleverna senare ska fungera i ett demokratiskt samhälle. / In this study I have done an interview with six different teachers of theater in three different upper secondary schools in the area ofStockholm. The study describes how the teachers work in creating a theatrical performance at the school. The questions in the study were: How do the teachers create a theatrical performance in school? Which viewpoints did the teachers have about the advantage of a certain method? Are other subjects than theater involved in the performance? What do the theatherteachers think of the educational value for the pupils when creating a theatrical performance? The method is qualitative and every interview lasted for at least an hour. Because of the long duration of the interviews I used a tape recorder to register the whole information which I later transcribed in smaller parts. The answers were analyzed from an art pedagogical perspective according to the definition by Mia Sternudd. In this study I found that all teachers worked with a written text when they created a performance. Some teachers in the study sometimes used improvisation. All teachers were working with trainings of concentration and fantasy and the foundation for them all were the techniques of Stanislavskij. Democracy of pupils was present in the creation of a performance, but usually the teacher had the last word to be told. In some of the schools the teachers worked with integration of subjects. In these cases integration usually was with Swedish or English. The cooperation with integration of subjects generally was very time-consuming. All teachers in the study thought that the creation of a theatrical performance in school creates a good cooperation and a good working climate. The teachers thought that the pupils by working with theater in school learned to cooperate, to take responsibility and to respect each other, qualities which are important when the pupils later are going to function as citizens in a democratic society.

In the current situation there is not much written about assessment of laboratory work, and the majority of the working physics teachers are retiring and there are only a few newly qualified physics teachers. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how physics teachers assess laboratory work within upper secondary schools, with Gy2011 in mind. The new grade system, Gy2011, has a larger focus on the laboratory work then the earlier system Lpf 94. Skolverket has in their man-ual with examples of assessment two different sorts of laboratory experiments. The first assess-ment is regarding the planning of a laboratory work and the other about how able the pupil exe-cutes laboratory work. Both kinds of laboratory work have suggestions regarding reports and scoring matrixes. Teachers from three different schools in the southern parts of Sweden, have among other things, been interviewed concerning their opinion regarding assessment of laborato-ry work. The results show similarities between the schools but also differences. The assessment of the laboratory work differs between the schools and also within the schools.

Detta examensarbete är en studie av två nationella rådgivande dokument och sex gymnasieskolors likabehandlingsplaner. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur sex gymnasieskolors likabehandlingsplaner förhåller sig till Skolverkets allmänna råd samt Diskrimineringsombudsmannen (DO), Barn- och elevombudet (BEO) och Skolinspektionens handledning. För att kunna göra detta undersöks hur arbetet med likabehandling beskrivs i Skolverkets allmänna råd, DO, BEO och Skolinspektionens handledning samt gymnasieskolornas likabehandlingsplaner. Metoden vi har använt oss av är kvalitativ textanalys. Vår huvudfrågeställning är följande: Hur förhåller sig de sex gymnasieskolornas likabehandlingsplaner till Skolverkets allmänna råd samt DO, BEO och Skolinspektionens handledning? För att kunna ta reda på detta har vi även följande två frågeställningar: Hur beskrivs arbetet med likabehandling i Skolverkets allmänna råd samt DO, BEO och Skolinspektionens handledning? Hur beskrivs arbetet med likabehandling i de sex gymnasieskolornas likabehandlingsplaner? I denna studie har vi kommit fram till att det skiljer sig åt hur väl likabehandlingsplanerna förhåller sig till de nationella rådgivande dokumenten. Likabehandlingsplanerna för skola 1, skola 2 och skola 5 följer Skolverkets allmänna råd samt DO, BEO och Skolinspektionens handledning till stor del, medan likabehandlingsplanerna för skola 3 och skola 6 inte följer dessa rekommendationer i lika stor utsträckning. Skola 4 uppfyller råden till viss del. Det framgår av vår studie att flera av skolorna har allvarliga brister i sina likabehandlingsplaner.

This essay investigates the pupils, in Swedish upper secondary school in the greater Stockholm area, who choose to study the Russian language as a foreign language. The essay asks; who are these students, and what is motivation behind their language choice? In order to answer these two questions the essay uses both interviews and paper survey. The theoretical background ofth is essay is based on the works and theories of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, and thus the question; who are these students is aimed at the students' social and economical background in lines with Bourdieu's theories. The essay also uses the earlier study of Swedish sociologist Mikael Palme, in which he maps the different schools and programs in the greater Stockholm area, in a socio-economical context based on habitus. The results of the essay are that the students mostly come from relatively wealthy homes and have parents with highereducation. Half of the students are girls and the other boys. Most of the students have a Swedishbackground and as many as 96% of them intend to continue to study after upper secondary school. The most frequent reason, for students choosing to study Russian, is the notion language is exotic, exclusive and interesting. The essay also found that very few of the students had any plans for future studies with any connection to the Russian language

The linguistic relativity hypothesis (LRH), otherwise known as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (SWH), has been passionately debated over the last 60 years. It has undergone a renewed upsurge in scientific, anthropological and social interest. Several attempts have been made to prove or disprove the moderate version of the theory without producing conclusive results. This study analyses the history of the LRH and attempts to clarify its uses and limitations pertaining to ESL discourse in Swedish upper-secondary schools. Pedagogical implications of the study indicate that, if the LRH is correct, there could be a colossal, logistical impact on the national testing of semantic information in English studies which would have to be addressed in order to effectively and fairly assess every student based on their individual, cognitive skills and culturally influenced knowledge of language.

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