Swedish schools are required by law to conduct systematic quality work and it has a central position in the Swedish educational system. The work each school conduct is scrutinized by the Swedish Schools Inspectorate. The purpose of this study is to examine teachers´ experiences of systematic quality work at the upper secondary school and the advantages and disadvantages they identified when engaging in systematic quality work. The study used a qualitative method based on semi-structured interviews. The analytical framework used was hermeneutics. The main theories used as a foundation were organizational theory and learning organization-perspective. A total of five teachers from two different upper secondary schools partook in the study. Their statements were categorized in accordance to the study´s three questions. The analysis of the results showed that the structuring of development teams among teachers had an impact on the effectiveness of systematic quality work. The teachers also expressed a lack of time dedicated to quality work and a desire for a variated time when engaging with systematic quality work. The teachers perceived their role as a teacher essential when engaged in systematic quality work.

This dissertation asks how far Americans in the twentieth century reconciled the demands of global supremacy with the claims and realities of democracy. As an answer, it offers the first history of the movement for citizen education in world affairs. This movement, loose but coherent, acted on the belief that since the United States was a mass democracy, the creation of an interested, informed public for foreign policy was essential to its peace and security. After World War I, members of the foreign policy elite resolved to teach Americans to lead the world, and they created a network of new institutions to do so. The most important and visible of these institutions was the Foreign Policy Association, a non-profit, non-partisan group founded by New York progressives in 1918 to support Woodrow Wilson in the fight over the Treaty of Versailles. By 1925, it had morphed into the first true foreign policy think tank in the nation, with a research staff creating new, public-facing knowledge and disseminating it to a broadening public. The research staff’s Foreign Policy Reports and Foreign Policy Bulletin gave information to diplomats, scholars, editors, businessmen, lawyers, and teachers, information that was otherwise inaccessible. As democracy was threatened at home and abroad during the Great Depression, the Association became more ambitious, founding branches in twenty cities to circulate foreign diplomats and a new breed of experts in international politics around the country. It pioneered broadcasts over the nascent national radio network, and tapped into a broader movement for adult education. With the encouragement of Franklin Roosevelt, a former member, the Association promoted intervention in World War II, and became a key partner of the State Department in the selling of the United Nations. Many members of the foreign policy elite believed that the rise of the United States to world leadership entailed new responsibilities for its citizens. As the prewar functions of the Association had been rendered obsolete, it resolved after 1947 to promote community education in world affairs, to make world leadership a part of daily life. Under the rallying cry of “World Affairs Are Your Affairs,” the Association partnered with the Ford Foundation to help create dozens of World Affairs Councils, most of them patterned on the success of the Cleveland Council on World Affairs. These Councils became a stage for international politics, bringing the world to cities across America, and those cities to the world. But by its own measurements, let alone the results of surveys or the intuition of officials, this movement to make every citizen a statesman failed. The Association and its subsidiary Councils remained weak, short on cash and beset by rivalries. Increasingly, they took refuge in an ever-smaller, educated, white elite, and, informed by social science, they wrote off ever more of the American electorate as uninterested or incapable when it came to world affairs. Very few Americans, it became clear by the early 1960s, were willing to dedicate themselves to world affairs on the model of citizenship that their leaders hoped, and to those leaders, the public therefore seemed fundamentally apathetic. The infrastructure that the foreign policy elite had spent decades building calcified, even before the traumas of the Vietnam War. A chasm developed between policymakers and the public, one that has proven impossible to bridge since.

Twenty-first century high school students' learning experience in an online setting is no longer limited by a time-constrained schedule, lack of resources, teachers' formalities, and restrictions affecting learning progressions. The list of benefits to the virtual learning experience is vast, however, there are substantial pitfalls and ambiguities that must be resolved. One of the pitfalls for social studies educators is their ability to properly measure whether or not students are gaining prudent civic competences, skills, and dispositions. The mission of social studies education is the acquisition of civic knowledge, but more importantly, the overall development of a lifelong caring, active, and educated citizenry. Yet, online high school social studies instructors are faced with a quandary when attempting to find optimal and indirect techniques toward achieving this end. Through a review of literature, fostering effective discussions in online courses allows students to indirectly learn and practice democratic processes authentically. This current qualitative research study is a discourse analysis that attempts to understand how students' civic identities are constructed and presented through structured, weekly asynchronous discussion forums in five online high school social studies courses in Florida. The examination of students' language-in-use in relation to civic identity construction and/or exhibition is a crucial element for virtual social studies instructors to consider when attempting to understand how young people are civically (and politically) connected to their communities in a digital age; in present times and in the future. This study's four major findings were: (1) students revealed utilitarian and social justice elements within their civic identities; (2) students' showed an eagerness to question and analyze society and the government; (3) the data revealed concrete instances of civic identity exhibition along with civic engagement testimonies; and (4) the interactions that transpired within the discussion forums were a vehicle for civic identity development. The majority of these students did not display an achieved civic identity status due to their lack of an advanced historical and political knowledge base; however, knowledge and skills only comprise a portion of one's civic identity. In addition, results showed that students need to engage in more self-reflection or self-discovery activities, more opportunities to experience an authentic connection with their community through activities like service-learning projects, and more time spent on developing sound 21st century democratic skills. Attention to civic identity construction and enactment as a goal of virtual high school social studies instruction could be a promising target so educators can understand how students see themselves as important members of their communities. Thus, a high school virtual social studies curriculum and course must be empowering; focused on students' self-development while maintaining a rigorous, meaningful, open, and flexible design. Virtual social studies teachers should use numerous pedagogical strategies to empower students to discover and achieve their talents and purposes in life as a tool for accomplishing democratic goals and commitments necessary for our nation's advancement.

This study explores the impact of neoliberal education policies on the discourses of citizenship and citizenship education in an Australian citizenship education project entitled 'Discovering Democracy School Materials.' This project is the largest national curriculum development project in Australia and represents the official discourses of citizenship in Australia. The materials were developed in response to concern about the poor understanding of civics and citizenship in Australia and the lack of quality citizenship education materials and background information for teachers. The scope of the study was managed by focusing on a corpus of twelve text groups, selected from the materials because they related to the environment - an area of citizenship of interest to young people and which allows consideration of recent trends in the practice of citizenship. An approach to critical discourse analysis recommended by Fairclough (1992) was used. This involved a three-step process of identifying and analysing: (i) the discourse evident in the words in the text, (ii) the processes of production, dissemination and consumption of the texts, and (iii) the contextual social and cultural practices that influenced the development of the text. There were six steps in the discourse analysis. The first involved identifying the corpus related to the environment. The second was to identify and describe the discourses of citizenship and citizenship education evident in the text. The third involved interviewing key participants in the processes of text production, dissemination and consumption to ascertain their perceptions of the discourses evident in the texts. The fourth was an analysis of these interviews to interpret the discourses participants acknowledged as being within the text and the discursive practices that operated to establish those discourses. The sixth was an explanation of the impact of neoliberalism on the development of the materials. The results indicate that two discourses of citizenship and citizenship education were dominant within the materials - Legal Status and Public Practice. The same two discourses were evident in the interviews with key participants in the processes of text production, dissemination and consumption. In all cases, the materials lacked any evidence of the citizenship or citizenship education discourses of Democratic Identity, World Citizenship and Democratic Participation, although Democratic Identity was a minor aspect of one of the twelve text groups. A range of discursive practices related to neoliberalism was identified as influential on this pattern of discourses. Perceptions of teacher deficiency were influential in the process of text production as was the power of key individuals and groups such as the national education minister and his department, a government-appointed Civics Education Group, the Curriculum Corporation and, to a much lesser extent, teacher professional associations. Two discursive practices were influenced in text dissemination: the materials were provided free of charge to all schools and extensive professional development was provided. These provided significant inducements to teachers to use the materials. Discursive practices operating in the process of text consumption provided added inducement by showing teachers how to select key components of the materials for local use. However, this concern for local context was undermined by the extreme strength of the presentation of what counts as legitimate citizenship and the lack of opportunity for alternative or resistant readings of the texts. Three aspects of neoliberalism were seen as especially influential in these discursive practices - the strong focus on the development of legitimate knowledge, marketisation, and an emphasis on the need for evaluation. The study concludes with an examination of the implications of the findings to identify recommendations for teachers, teacher educators, materials developers and opportunities for further research.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1990. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 211-218). Also available in print.

<p><p>I denna uppsats görs en diskursanalys av alliansregeringens integrationspolitik avsedd för åren 2008 till 2010. Syfte är att titta på hur integrationspolitiken är organiserad, vilka beskrivningar och föreställningar som kommer till uttryck kring integration och vilka konsekvenser organiseringen kan få i integrationspolitiken. Den teoretiska och metodologiska utgångspunkten är diskursteori där fokus ligger på språket och hur föreställningar om verkligheten organiseras. I studien påvisas hur integrationspolitiken bygger på en föreställning om ett homogent och harmoniskt samhälle. ”Utanförskap” och ”mångfald” upprättas som yttre gränser för samhället och som hot mot ordningen. Beskrivningar av utanförskapet upprättar skillnad bl.a. genom kategoriseringar av ”utrikes födda” och ”inrikes födda”. I uppsatsen visas även hur vägen in i samhället villkoras, styr och medför krav på individer. Diskriminering på arbetsmarknaden framställs i materialet som ett avvikande beteende på individnivå. Studien visar även på hur en gemensam värdegrund organiseras som vägen mot sammanhållning och ordning. Sammantaget skapas i integrationspolitiken skillnad på olika nivåer samtidigt som utplånandet av skillnaden eftersträvas.</p></p>

<p>Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera hur maskulinitet, femininitet och sexualitet framställs i tjej- och killtidningar. Materialet har begränsats till artiklar på temat sex och samlevnad. Uppsatsen innehåller en kort inledning där materialet beskrivs och ungas förhållande till tidningarna diskuteras. Därefter följer teorier och tidigare forskning som är av intresse för uppsatsen. Som metod används valda delar av den kritiska diskursanalysen. Tidningarna har analyserats utifrån vilken publik de riktar sig till, tjejer eller killar. I analysen berörs bland annat tidningens förhållande till läsaren och hur kvinnlig sexualitet beskrivs i killtidningar och tvärt om. Uppsatsen avslutas med några reflektioner om resultatet och det material som utlämnats.</p>

<p>Tio procent av Sveriges befolkning har någon form av funktionsnedsättning. Var tionde person har alltså särskilda behov i sitt resande och är därmed beroende av att hela destinationens miljö är tillgänglig. Tillgänglighet är någonting som Stockholm Stad arbetar med då de har som mål att år 2010 vara världens mest tillgängliga huvudstad. Stockholm är en destination och en destination består av många olika aktörer, både kommersiella och icke kommersiella. Studien syftar därför dels till att undersöka om, och i så fall hur, en god tillgänglighet i Stockholm skulle påverka de enskilda turistiska aktörerna på destinationen. Studien syftar även till att undersöka vad dessa aktörer har för inställning till och motiv för tillgänglighetsanpassningar. Tillgänglighet kan studeras utifrån olika aspekter men denna studie kommer främst att behandla fysisk tillgänglighet utifrån ett etiskt och ekonomiskt perspektiv.</p><p>I denna studie används en kvalitativ metod och ett hermeneutiskt synsätt. För att undersöka tillgänglighetsaspekter i turismbranschen intervjuades respondenter från Stockholm Stad, Stockholm Visitors Board, Sveriges Hotell och Restaurangföretagare, Clarion Hotel Stockholm, Hotell Birger Jarl, Nordic Light Hotel och Scandic Hotels.</p><p>I studien används artiklar som behandlar etik och ansvarsfullt företagande (bland annat Corporate Social Responsibility) samt på vilket sätt tillgänglighet kan vara till godo för turismföretag och samhället. Studien presenterar även tidigare forskning som belyser betydelsen av samverkan på en destination och svårigheter i att separera destinationen och de turistiska aktörerna från varandra. Dessutom presenteras lagar och regler kring tillgänglighetsanpassning för att ge en övergripande bild av vad som lagmässigt krävs av aktörerna.</p><p>Resultatet i undersökningen visar bland annat att turismföretag anser sig ta ett samhällsansvar när de gör tillgänglighetsanpassningar. Företagen vill vara etiska och tillgodose alla kunder, vilket inkluderar personer med funktionsnedsättning. Aktörerna anser samtidigt att ökad tillgänglighet skapar konkurrensfördelar då de får ett bredare kundunderlag samt bättre rykte och image genom sina anpassningar. De vill även vara affärsdrivande, det vill säga att investeringarna måste stå i proportion till kostnaderna. Med andra ord, om investeringar i tillgänglighetsanpassning inte skulle generera tillräckligt stora fördelar skulle företag inte anpassa mer än vad lagen kräver. Den etiska handlingen gällande tillgänglighetsanpassningar sker alltså inte alltid i osjälviskt syfte utan för att skapa ekonomiska fördelar genom gott rykte och bredare kundunderlag.</p><p>Resultatet visar även att turismaktörerna i Stockholm skulle gynnas av att staden blev världens mest tillgängliga huvudstad. Detta skulle resultera i att staden fick fler besökare vilket i sin tur skulle ge fler affärstillfällen för de enskilda turismföretagen.</p> / <p>Ten percent of Sweden’s inhabitants have some kind of disability. That is, every ten person has special needs when it comes to travelling, and therefore is depended on whether the destination is accessible or not. In their goal for year 2010 Stockholm City wants to be the most accessible capital in the whole world.</p><p>The destination involves many different operators, both commercial and non-commercial. This study is a research about how good the accessibility in Stockholm is, and how this would affect the individual tourism operators in Stockholm. Furthermore, this study’s purpose is to find out what the operators think about the accessibility adjustments. Accessibility can be studied from different aspects, but this specific study will first of all treat the accessibility from an ethic and economical perspective.</p><p>Qualitative methods have been used in this study, in order to investigate accessibility within the tourism line. Respondents from Stockholm City, Stockholm Visitors Board, the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Association, Clarion Hotel Stockholm, Hotel Birger Jarl, the Nordic Light Hotel, and Scandic Hotels, have been interviewed.</p><p>In this study articles about ethics and responsible spirits of enterprise are used (for instance Corporate Social Responsibility), as well as in what way accessibility can be good for tourism enterprises and the society. The study also presents earlier research that brings up the signification of co-operation at a destination, plus how it is difficult to separate the destination and the tourism operators. Additionally, laws and rules about accessibility are presented to give an overall picture about what the operators need to do according to the law.</p><p>The results show that the operators believe that they take liability against the society when they do accessibility adjustments. The operators want to be ethic and satisfy all customers, disabled people included. The operators also believe that increased access create competition advantages when they get more customers, plus a better reputation and image. They want to make profits, which means that the investments must be in proportion to the expenses. In other words, if the investments wouldn’t be profitable enough the operators wouldn’t adjust more than the law says. The ethic deed about accessibility adjustments is not always an unselfish cause but a way to make a profit by good reputation and more customers.</p><p>The analysis shows that the operators in Stockholm would be favored if the city became the most accessible capital in the world. This would result in that the city got more visitors, which would generate more business opportunities for the individual tourism operators.</p>

<p>The aim with this study is to evaluate if standardization of sustainable housing is a practical solution to address the objectives/reach the goals of sustainable housing. The point of departure is that eco-labelling of houses is a way to put sustainable housing into practice. The Nordic Swan criteria for small houses and the UK Code for Sustainable Homes are two recently developed schemes for sustainable construction and design. These two labelling systems are chosen as case studies in order to compare and examine the practice of sustainable housing. How can the goals of sustainable housing be met in the form of eco- labelling? What are the benefits and obstacles/limitations for the cases to be effective and sustainable?  What can explain differences between the two cases? And is the function and organisation of the cases best explained by sustainable development ideas or ecological modernization?  It is suggested in the view of path dependency theory that the UK’s and Sweden’s decisions based on their expectations concerning development of the EU flower has made their respective eco-labelling of houses to have different organisational structure. The Code as a sector-specific label has the advantage, compared to the Swan, of being able to change its structure depending on the needs of pressure in the network of government, business and consumers.  The Code has several criteria concerning sustainable living besides criteria concerning environmental construction of the house and can therefore be considered as part of the sustainable development discourse.</p>

<p>Syftet med uppsatsen är att utvidga kunskapen om generella resmotiv hos äldre turister på besök i Stockholm. Detta för att bidra med kunskap som kan förbättra produkterna för och marknadsföringen mot denna målgrupp.</p><p>Äldre turister är en intressant grupp att undersöka då de ofta behandlas utifrån stereotypa uppfattningar och antaganden om likhet. Gruppen är dock på inget sätt homogen. För att förstå gruppen bättre är det nödvändigt att använda sig av undersegment. Undersökningen intresserar sig för om det är fruktbart att göra undersegmenteringar med hjälp av variablerna resvana och livssituation. Variablerna baseras på Pearces teori och modell travel career patterns approach. Från denna modell hämtar undersökningen också de behovsfaktorer som i olika utsträckning är avgörande för varför människor reser. Empirin samlades in genom enkäter och bearbetades i SPSS. Genom att jämföra de förväntade resultaten som teorin pekar på med resultatet från enkäterna vi samlade in kan vi konstatera att modellen inte har varit fruktbar för att indela gruppen äldre turister i undersegment. Vi menar därför att teorin inte går att tillämpa när vi befinner oss inom en och samma livsfasgrupp.</p><p>Undersökningen resulterade även i en rangordning av de behovsfaktorer/resmotiv som de äldre turisterna i studien ansåg viktigast. De högst rankade behovsfaktorerna var omväxling, relation/säkerhet, nostalgi, natur, samt självutveckling kopplad till destinationen.</p>