Värdegrundsuppdraget är ett av skolans huvuduppdrag och syftar till att fostra goda demokratiska medborgare. Elever ska inom samhällskunskapsämnet ges möjlighet att inhämta värden som främjar ett samhälle med demokratiska processer, acceptans för varandras olikheter och inkludering i beslutsfattanden. Läraren har en betydande roll för att utforma ett fungerande värdegrundsarbete och studiens syfte är att bidra med kunskap om hur lärare arbetar med värdegrundsuppdraget i samhällskunskapsämnet. Syftet uppfylls utifrån frågeställningar gällande arbete med värdegrundsuppdraget samt utmaningar och möjligheter med det. Studien riktar sig mot ämnet samhällskunskap i årskurserna 4–6. Det beskrivs utifrån ett lärarperspektiv och tar sin utgångspunkt i ett sociokulturellt perspektiv samt ur en läroplansteori. Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ metod där datainsamlingen skett med semistrukturerade intervjuer med sju verksamma lärare. Den data som samlades in transkriberades och analyserades med en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultatet visade på flera tolkningar av hur ett arbete med värdegrundsuppdraget kan se ut och viktiga faktorer för att det ska kunna möjliggöras. Det framkom också viss problematik med värdegrundsuppdraget som lärare upplevt under sina verksamma år. Dessa svar har satts i relation till tidigare forskning gällande värdegrundsuppdraget och arbetet med det, som går att läsa om i resultatdiskussionen. Lärarnas uppfattning av värdegrundsuppdraget var relativt lika och utgjorde en intressant aspekt av uppdraget med sina utmaningar och möjligheter. Det kan vara viktigt att ta i beaktning vid utformning av ett värdegrundsarbete för att fostra morgondagens demokratiska medborgare. / The Fundamental Values Education is one of the school's main missions and aims to raise good democratic citizens. Within the social studies subject, students must be given the opportunity to obtain values that promote a society with democratic processes, acceptance of each other's differences and inclusion in decision-making. The teacher has a significant role in designing a good value-based work and the purpose of the study is to contribute knowledge about how teachers work with the Fundamental Values Education in the social studies subject. The purpose is fulfilled based on question formulations related to work with the Fundamental Values Education as well as challenges and opportunities with it. The study is aimed at the subject of social studies in grades 4–6. It is described from a teacher's perspective and takes its starting point from a socio-cultural perspective and a curriculum theory. The study has been carried out using a qualitative method where the data collection took place with semi-structured interviews with seven teachers. The data that was collected was tran- scribed and analyzed with a qualitative content analysis. The result showed several interpretations of how work with the Fundamental Values Education can look like and important elements to make it possible. There was also some problem with the Fundamental Values Education that teachers experienced during their working years. These answers have been put in relation to previous research regarding the Fundamental Values Education and the work with it, which can be read about in the results discussion. The teachers' perception of the Fundamental Values Education was relatively similar and constituted an interesting aspect of the assignment with its challenges and opportunities. It can be important to consider when designing a Fundamental Values Education to raise tomorrow's democratic citizens.

This thesis analyses the approach to the concept of family in general Czech educational programme, specific educational programs of selected schools and currently used textbooks for Civics. The analysis is put into the context of current state of knowledge of the topic Czech family. Based on these findings, a teaching concept of the topic family at Lower Secondary Schools is presented. The proposed concept aims to help the children understand their family situation as well as prepare them for future situations while respecting the children's privacy. It combines methods of cooperative teaching, competence learning and unstructured staging. In the proposed concept, children form groups representing simulated families and take roles of given family members. A list of supporting teaching materials is attached in the appendix. These materials can be used to create a portfolio of information about the simulated family. KEY WORDS didactics, family, Lower Secondary School, family problems, Civics

This study is written in the light of the ongoing debate in Sweden about the school's purpose, and the political will to enhance the schools focus on factual and subject knowledge. This study aims to explain how this purpose can be read in today's syllabus for the civics subject for school years 4-6. It also intends to explain how this purpose has developed since 1980. This is done by using an ideal type analysis together with professor Gert Biestas theoretical framework, where he distinguishes three functions of education; qualification, socialisation, and subjectification. Qualification refers to the educational purpose to mediate knowledge in preparation for a future working life, socialisation to integrate the pupils into existing cultural-, social- or political orders and subjectification about promoting the pupils autonomy. The results show that today's syllabus for the civics subject is primarily focussed on the qualification function, while the socialisation- and subjectification functions are less apparent. Further, it shows that the syllabuses for the civics subject have developed since 1980. From a syllabus mediating qualification and socialisation equally, to today's focus on qualification. The analysis also shows that in some cases there are conflicts between the functions. These conflicts have however decreased in the syllabuses since 1980.

This qualitative case study examined how Madison High School's governance model generated youth-adult collaborations around school problems. This seven-month intensive study collected data through numerous site observations, semi-structured one-on-one interviews with 27 adults and students, focus group interview with 11 students, and document collection. This data collection answered the following research questions: To what extent does Madison High School include students and faculty into the policy decision-making, implementation, and review process? If so, how? Why is it done this way? How do faculty, students, administration, and staff perceive its impact on improving the school policy creation and implementation process? Student voice scholars are still investigating the ways in which student leadership around school reform can be facilitated (Dempster & Lizzio, 2007; Fielding, 2004; Mitra, 2005; Mitra & Gross, 2009; O'Donoghue, Kirshner & McLaughlin, 2002; Zeldin, McDaniel, Topitzes, & Calvert, 2000; Zeldin, 2004a). And scholars are interested in investigating how participants enact leadership when it is distributed to them (Hallinger & Heck, 1996; Spillane, 2001, 2004). This study found that not only does the school's governance model include students in the policy making, implementation, and review processes, it distributed leadership across the school and aided in organizational learning by designing its structures and processes around constitutional principles. / Educational Leadership

No description available.

In this qualitative study, the experiences of high school students enrolled in the course Social Studies 2 regarding the European Union (EU) as a subject matter in social studies education were examined. The research questions guiding the study are: In what ways do students describe how the EU has been addressed as a content area in social studies education? And, how do students describe their expectations for teaching about the EU? To answer the research questions, six focus group interviews were conducted, involving a total of 28 students. The data was analysed using a hermeneutic approach. The results indicate that students had a somewhat basic understanding o the European Union, characterized by a focus on its institutions and the four freedoms within the union. Furthermore, the study’s findings reveal that students wish to learn more about the EU to participate in the European Parliament elections, specifically how they can influence the union and how it affects them. Suggested teaching methods include engaging with the EU through study visits, external lecturers, or simulation exercises. / I föreliggande kvalitativa studie undersöktes vilka erfarenheter gymnasieelever som läser kursen Samhällskunskap 2 har om EU som ämnesinnehåll i samhällskunskapsundervisningen. Frågorna som studien utgår från är: På vilka sätt beskriver elever att EU har behandlats som ett undervisningsinnehåll i samhällskunskapsämnet, och, hur beskriver eleverna sina förväntningar på undervisningen om EU kopplat till ett aktivt valdeltagande i valet till Europaparlamentet.? För att erhålla svar på forskningsfrågorna genomfördes sex stycken fokusgruppsintervjuer, totalt 28 elever medverkade i studien. Genom att utgå från en hermeneutisk teori analyserades datamaterialet. Resultatet visar att eleverna hade en översiktlig kunskap om den Europeiska unionen som präglas av ett fokus på dess institutioner och de fyra friheterna. Vidare framkommer det i studiens resultat att eleverna önskar lära sig mer om EU för att kunna delta i valet till Europaparlamentet, då främst hur de kan påverka unionen samt hur den påverkar dem. Förslag på undervisningsmetoder riktar in sig på att komma i kontakt med EU genom studiebesök, externa föreläsare eller simuleringsövningar.

This thesis attempts to answer the following questions: How is democracy threatened today? What are some of the specific issues of domestic and foreign policy which the American people face? Are citizens prepared to make intelligent choices on such matters? How does propaganda complicate the political process? Are the schools doing their part in preparing citizens for self-government? If not, why?

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

This study highlighted the educators understanding of their role, the priorities that they deemed important and the practices they employed to promote in their learners the values and virtues fit for citizens of a democratic society.

Studien handlar om statlig påverkan på skolans läromedel. Här studeras såväl de politiska besluten om, som det konkreta genomförandet av, den svenska statliga förhandsgranskningen av läromedel, från starten 1938 till avskaffandet 1991. De politiska besluten och genomförandet sker på skilda arenor. Med hjälp av teoretiska begrepp från såväl läroplansteori som statsvetenskaplig implemen-teringsteori synliggörs och analyseras de olika arenorna samt relationerna mellan dem. Den politiska debatten studeras genom det offentliga trycket. Studien visar att granskningen infördes i politisk enighet och avskaffades helt utan politisk debatt. De politiska argumenten för granskning har varit att hålla priserna på läroböcker nere samt säkra läromedlens kvalitet. Vad som avsågs med kvalitet har dock varierat mellan olika aktörer och över tid. När det gäller genomförandet av granskningen studeras både Läroboks-/Läromedelsnämndens instruktioner till granskarna, och granskarnas utlåtanden om läromedel i samhällskunskap för gymnasieskolan. Den reella granskningen hade ofta fokus på att söka sakfel i läromedlen. Under 1970-talet fick objektivitetsfrågor genomslag i granskningen. Läroplanen, som betonades på den politiska arenan, användes dock i mindre utsträckning i det reella genomförandet av granskningen. Styrningsresultatet var beroende av aktörerna på realiseringsarenan och deras förståelse, vilja och kunnande. Styrningen kunde dock, i vissa fall, nå ända fram och påverka lärobokstexten. I dessa fall fanns en fungerande styrning från politisk debatt, via lagtext och granskning till en förändrad läromedelstext. / This thesis focuses on the state's influence on Swedish textbooks. From 1938 to 1991 the Swedish state had an official approval scheme for examining books before they could be used as textbooks in Swedish schools. The aim of this thesis is to examine both the political discussion about, and the actual implementation of, the approval scheme in Sweden between 1938-1991. The political decision making and the implementation of the reforms took place in different contexts. With the help of curriculum theory, in combination with concepts of implementation from political science, these two different contexts and the relation between them are analyzed. The study shows that, in the 1930s, there was a political consensus to have an official approval scheme. In the 1990s the approval scheme was repealed without any political debate. When it comes to the implementation of the approval scheme the approval committee's guidelines and the examiners' statements about civic textbooks for upper secondary school are studied. It is found that the reviews often focused on finding factual faults. During the 1970s a focus on objectivity became common in the reviewers' statements. The national curriculum, a product of a political compromise often referred to by the politicians, was, however, less used in the implementation of the approval. The study shows that the implementation of the approval scheme was dependent on the actors understanding, willingness and ability to implement. But the study also shows that in certain cases the approval scheme could result in major changes in the textbooks.