1 ABSTRACT The diploma thesis deals with the attitudes of university students, who will become chemistry teachers, to chemistry and their views on various areas related to chemistry. This work follows the author's bachelor thesis, in which the public's opinion to chemistry was ascertained using a questionnaire survey. In the diploma thesis we focused on finding out attitudes of a group of future chemistry teachers through interviews. The theoretical part deals with the role of chemistry in today's world, chemophobia and the topic of attitudes. The practical part is based on interviews with respondents. This part contains basic information about the research - selection and number of respondents, questions used in the interview, the procedure for data collection and data analysis. One of the key findings was that respondents often lack the perspective and vision of chemistry in context. These are important qualities and skills that a chemistry teacher should have. Furthermore, the importance of teachers in the process of forming a relationship/attitude to chemistry was confirmed - teachers with a broader perspective lead students to a positive relationship to chemistry and they are able to enthrall pupils by chemistry. Key words: chemistry, opinion, attitude, chemophobia, interview, chemistry teachers

This narrative ethnography is based on seven years of research collaboration with the Walpole Island First Nation (WIFN). The study focuses on local perceptions of risk as they relate to ecosystem integrity, human health and well-being. Discourse analysis of generic and nuanced community narratives reveals diverse yet complementary situated knowledge that are firmly rooted in Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe) cultural teachings, values and practices. Gerald Ryle and Clifford Geertz's conceptualization of thin and thick description is used to parse out the various components of what I've identified as a community genre of toxic talk. Within this model, thin description refers to observations of the surface metamorphoses of the physical environment through pollution and other anthropogenic changes. Thick description emerging from the analysis of elegies and echoes of loss and discourses of resistance illuminates the discursive tactics employed by community members to resist Western frameworks of risk analysis and re-situate the topic of environmental health within the wider interpretive matrix of structural violence. A proposed Shell refinery expansion project is used as an example of how WIFN actively mobilizes discourses via oral tradition in the struggle for environmental justice. Through the strategic use of toxic talk, the community draws attention to environmental issues while simultaneously laying bare to a wider, non-Native audience the historical scaffolding of Native issues that are part and parcel of contemporary environmental crises and their effective mediation and resolution. The 'discursive movement' from elegies and echoes of loss to discourses of resistance reframes Walpole Island residents from those who are defined by survivorship to those who embody and evoke a spirit of survivance. The dissertation concludes with a semiotic critique of the Western medical terms chemophobia and risk perception. This leads to the advancement of toxic talk as an alternative framework for acquiring a more politicized, historicized and humanized understanding of environmental concerns at Wal pole Island. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Studiens huvudsakliga syfte är att undersöka svenska konsumenters förhållningssätt, kännedom och informationssökning om kemikalier i kosmetiska produkter samt hur utbrett fenomenet kemofobi, den irrationella rädslan för kemikalier är. Framförallt har en kvantitativ ansats tillämpats i studiedesignen. Empirin samlades in med en webbaserad enkät som besvarades av 221 personer. Sociala bakgrundsfaktorer har ställts mot huvudvariablerna för att upptäcka möjliga samband. Respondenternas svar redovisas i resultatet med tabeller och grafer och jämförs sedan med en rad olika tidigare studier inom ämnet. Vårt resultat ger en indikation för förhållningssätten bland kvinnor, personer i medelåldern och högutbildade eftersom detta var den mest övervägande gruppen av våra respondenter. Resultatet indikerar på att det finns både en medelnivå av kemofobi och toxikologisk kunskap hos respondenterna. Det finns en negativ förknippning till begreppet kemikalier och riskmedvetenheten av kosmetiska produkter är inte speciellt utbredd. Sedan framgick även att informationssökningen kring innehållet i kosmetika är komplex då innehållsförteckningen som tillhandahålls till konsumenter är bristfällig i att kommunicera risker på ett lättförståeligt sätt. Därför behöver riskkommunikationen ses över för kosmetiska produkter men även att de ska riskbedömas och märkas likt andra produkter utan något undantag i kemikalieregleringen. Detta är ytterst viktigt för att säkerställa medvetna inköpsval och skydd av hälsa och miljö. / This study’s main purpose is to investigate Swedish consumers’ approaches, knowledge and how they search for information concerning chemicals in cosmetics as well as how widespread the phenomenon chemophobia, the irrational fear of chemicals, is. A mainly quantitative approach has been applied in the design of the study. Empirical data was collected with a web-based survey resulting in 221 respondents. Sociodemographic factors were connected to the main variables with the purpose of discovering possible correlations. The answers from the respondents are presented in the result with tables and graphs and then compared with several different studies on the subject. Our result indicates the views among women, middle-aged and people with higher education due to this being the most prevalent group of our respondents. The result indicates that there is a medium level of both chemophobia and toxicological knowledge among the respondents.There is a negative association with the word chemicals and the risk awareness for cosmetic products are not that widespread. Furthermore, it appeared that the information search concerning the contents of cosmetics are complex because the table of content that is provided to consumers is lacking in communicating risks in an understandable manner. Therefore, the risk communication concerning cosmetics should be evaluated and the products should also undergo the same risk assessments and labelling equal to other consumer products without exceptions in regulation. This is of outmost importance to ensure conscious purchasing behaviour and protection of health and the environment.