published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Education

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2003. Graduate Programme in English. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 217-228). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url%5Fver=Z39.88-2004&res%5Fdat=xri:pqdiss &rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NQ99215

Syftet med föreliggande studie är att undersöka samhällskunskapslärares förståelse av solidaritetsbegreppet i årskurs 4-6 och detta i enlighet med styrdokumenten. Syftet är även att undersöka på vilket sätt dessa lärare synliggör solidaritetsbegreppet i undervisningen. Solidaritet är ett av de demokratiska värden som skolan ska förmedla och främst gäller detta för samhällskunskapsläraren. Studiens teoretiska ansats inspireras av hermeneutiken och livsvärldsfenomenologin. Genom intervjuer med sju verksamma lärare visar resultatet generellt att solidaritet är ett viktigt begrepp men som inte ges lika stort utrymme som innebörden av det. Solidariteten får definitivt en plats i undervisningen men den planeras inte in i lektioner, utan snarare framträder solidariteten ofta som en biprodukt av konflikter eller ordningsproblem. Lärares förståelse för begreppet visar att det är ett mångtydigt begrepp men att förståelsen för det stämmer väl överens med styrdokumentens definition. / The aim of this study is to examine the understanding of elementary teachers in relation to the solidarity concept in the subject of civics. This, in relation to the steering documents. The study also focuses on finding out which ways teachers express solidarity in the civics education. Solidarity is one of the democratic values that is required by the Swedish school to convey to all students, particularly by the civics teacher. The study is inspired by the hermeneutic and the life world phenomenological theory. Through interwievs of seven operative teachers, the result indicates, in general, that they find solidarity as a concept of importance but it is not used as per its concept. Teachers reference solidarity in the classroom, but they do not plan a lesson about it. Solidarity is more a question of order and is often given space when incidents of discord occurs. Teachers comprehension of solidarity indicates that it is a versatile concept but it is consistent with the steering documents.

This study focuses on civics teachers’ opinions and experiences of subject-integratedteaching. The study aims to learn more about teachers’ autonomy and how it affects theirchoice to teach subject-integrated or not. More specifically, the study is concerned withteachers’ way of interpreting the national steering documents and how it affects their choiceof methods, but also which aspects, circumstances, and conditions – in this study calledframework factors - teachers find as either opportunities or obstacles for subject-integration.The findings of this work are based on interviews with five teachers who teach civics at thesame upper secondary school in the north of Sweden.The study shows that teachers have different interpretations of the national steeringdocuments, which results in how and to what extent subject-integration is conducted varies.At the same time subject-integrated teaching seems to be regarded as a teaching methodwhere a lot of planning and preparatory work is required. Moreover, teachers emphasize that astrong consensus between the teachers is necessary for cooperation to function well. Inaddition, teachers must be willing to relinquish some of their autonomy when workingsubject-integrated, which many of them think is a problem. Teachers want a large amount ofautonomy and they do not want anything or anyone to limit it. They want to choose thecontent and methods that they think fit best and at the same time they want to be able toredirect their teaching based on what is happening in the world. All these reasons combinedresult in teachers not teaching subject-integrated to a particularly large extent.

This study examines implementation from national law in to local practice in the district of Kalmar to assure newly arrived immigrants orientation in civics. The study takes its starting point in Lipskys theory about street-level bureaucracy.  Questions that are discussed are about how  the education is understood by refugee’s coordinators, civic communicators and the new immigrates, how the organization has been and what role the demography and economic structures has played for the organization. It is a case study where interviews and enquete has been used. The district of Kalmar has in a future lack of workers why the immigrants are of interest as an asset for the labour market. Education in mother language is though expensive why resources are coordinated by the District association of Kalmar. Norms and values differ between municipalities about if the education is to be in mother language or not. Lack of economic resources makes also long travels for the pupils and that not all can take place in time for the education, for example study tours.

This study has sought to investigate the expressions of content and purpose of the swedish upper secondary school based on three distinct categories. These being Qualification, Socialisation and Subjectification. The questions asked are What expressions do these three categories take as well as What consequences do these expressions have for civics teachers? Critical discourse analysis was leveraged to study the curriculum of 2011 and commentary thereof, as well as the syllabi for the Civics subject and the relevant commentary material thereof. The results show that a great deal of the studied material centers around qualification as an aspect, although the other two are still very much present. In addition to this the presentation of students as individuals in the larger society, as part of these expressions belonging to the categories, overall took on a particularly passive tone, where students were urged to be flexible and adaptable to outside influences rather than become sources of influence themselves. These findings resulted in several questions being raised to civics teachers about how to approach teaching their subject in regards to these particular trends, if they ought to encourage students to the passive mentality, for example.

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Thesis advisor: Laura M. O'Dwyer / Youth civic participation is at alarmingly low levels. In 2014, nearly 80% of eligible 18-29 year-olds did not vote in the midterm election (CIRCLE, 2014). Other forms of civic engagement are also at starkly low levels: less than one in ten 18-29 year-olds report contacting a public official, boycotting a product, or frequently expressing political opinions on the internet (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014). Historically, schools have been tasked with preparing students with the knowledge and skills to be active democratic citizens. However, few studies have examined the role of teachers in fostering students' civic knowledge and skills. This study used data from the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 8th grade civics assessment to analyze the relationships between teacher participation in professional learning, use of interactive instructional practices, and student achievement in civics. Participation in professional learning significantly predicted both interactive instruction and student achievement: a one standard deviation increase in professional learning was associated with a predicted .32 standard deviation increase in interactive instructional practices, and a predicted .045 standard deviation increase in student achievement. There was no significant difference between more traditional and communities of practice based forms of professional development in their relationships with interactive instructional practices and student civic achievement. Interactive instructional practices were also significantly associated with increases in student achievement on NAEP civics, but the effect size was small: a one standard deviation increase in interactive instruction was related to a predicted .03 standard deviation increase in student achievement. Moreover, the relationship between interactive instruction and student achievement was curvilinear; high levels of interactive instruction were associated with decreases in student achievement. The study did not find any evidence that teacher participation in professional learning increased the effectiveness of interactive instructional practices. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation.

This paper investigates the understanding of the concept of justice. This study takes advantage of a phenomenographic research approach while also using questionnaire answers. The purpose of the thesis has been to explore young students understanding and experiences of “justice”. The data for the empirical part of the study has been gathered through questionnaires and the main information for the qualitative part of the study has been extracted from the results of interviewing students. The results show evidence that teachers in the study have not worked explicitly with the concept of justice. The results from the study shows that the primary education of “justice” happens through socialization.