The purpose of this study is to investigate how Mayareligiosity is portrayed and expressed in visual media in the form of series and films. The study also aims to investigate why Mayareligiosity is portrayed and expressed in that way and to discuss what reasons may be behind this. Based on the study´s purpose, the following questions have been formulated:  1.       How is mayareligiosity portrayed in these films and series? 2.       Why is mayareligiosity portrayed in this way?   The empirical material for this candidate's thesis consists of three visual media in the form of two films, The Fountain (2006) and Apocalypto (2006), and a series, Maya and the Three (2021). Based on previous research, background and postcolonial theory, the films, and series’ portrayal of Mayareligiosity is presented, analyzed, and discussed. It was possible to find several similarities between the portrayals in the visual media and there were also some differences. A division that was made was based on from what perspective the Mayareligion was portrayed, from the inside or from the outside. Discussion about how the perspective affects the portrayal and what this means followed. The foundations of how and why Mayareligion is portrayed the way it is can be found in post-colonial theorizing. It is based in a colonial history with power relations between colonizers and colonized and power relations around historiography. It is expressed through orientalism, binarism and subaltern groups. The discussion shows how a film industry built on Christian foundations and in Christian contexts leaves traces in films and their actions, partly in post-colonial perspectives.

Integration is perceived as an important political matter in Sweden. Despite the high priority of integration interventions, people with migrant backgrounds hold a marginalised position and are excluded from Swedish society. On this basis, the aim of this study was to understand how integration is constructed and how people with a migrant background are categorised in Swedish integration interventions. To achieve the aim of this study two texts that regulate integration interventions conducted by the Public Employment Service Agency and Swedish municipalities were examined. The regulating texts were examined by conducting a poststructural discourse analysis according to the analytic tool “What´s the problem represented to be” by Carol Bacchi. The findings of the study have been conceptualised using postcolonial theory, intersectionality, and ideas regarding postraciality which are derived from critical race theory. The study shows that people with a migrant background are categorised and constructed as the Others in relation to what is perceived as Sweden and Swedishness in the examined integration interventions. By colonial and racist discourse, the Swedish cultural identity is constructed as superior, while the Others cultural identities are constructed as inferior. The study also shows that employment is depicted as crucial to integration. Integration is expected to be achieved through the acquiring of knowledge and experience by people with a migrant background. Sweden’s structural racism is at the same time made invisible. The integration interventions can consequently increase exclusion of people with a migrant background by being characterised by colonial and racist ideas, despite their aim to favour inclusion. The study suggests that through awareness of colonial and racist power structures that influence social work, Swedish integration interventions could favour participation in society on equal conditions.

[pt] O legado de Próspero: uma investigação do projeto narrativo de Ruy Duarte de Carvalho parte do estudo da peça de William Shakespeare intitulada A tempestade para verificar, segundo uma perspectiva pós-colonial, a abordagem da colonização nas narrativas do escritor angolano Ruy Duarte de Carvalho. Publicadas após a independência de Angola, nelas a experiência da colonização não se mostra como um processo plenamente findado, visto que suas marcas ecoam no presente. Assim, Próspero e Caliban (personagens da peça shakespeariana considerados, a partir da década de 1950, como respectivos símbolos do colonizador e do colonizado) e a simbologia da tempestade são aqui teoricamente retomados na tentativa de elucidar os novos impasses vivenciados após a descolonização angolana. Para se estabelecer a aproximação entre a peça de William Shakespeare e as narrativas de Ruy Duarte de Carvalho, levou-se em conta o diálogo teórico proposto pelo autor angolano ao nomear sua trilogia como Os Filhos de Próspero (aludindo ao processo de mestiçagem física e cultural advindo da colonização), bem como a recorrência temática da tempestade em sua criação artística. Nesta Tese, além das narrativas que compõem a trilogia Os filhos de Próspero – Os papeis do inglês (2000), As paisagens propícias (2005) e A terceira metade (2009) –, são também analisadas as obras Como se o mundo não tivesse leste (1977), Vou lá visitar pastores (1999) e Desmedida (2006). / [en] Prospers legacy: an investigation Ruy Duarte de Carvalhoss narrative Project analyses, upon a post colonial point of view, William Shakespeares play entitled The Tempest, to verify the colonization approach in the narratives of the Angolan writer Ruy Duarte de Carvalho. Published after the independence of Angola, these works dont show the colonization experience as a fully complete process since its traces reverberate in the present time. Thus, Prospero and Caliban (Shakespearean characters considered after the 1950s as respective symbols of the colonizer and the colonized) and the tempest symbology are theoretically discussed, in this research, to elucidate the new obstacles experienced after the Angolan decolonization. To establish the approach between Shakespeares play and Ruy Duarte de Carvalhoss narratives, the theoretical dialog proposed by the Angolan author naming his trilogy as Os filhos de Próspero (referring to the physical and cultural miscegenation process as a result of the colonization) was considered as well as the tempest thematic recurrence in his artistic creation. In this thesis, besides the narrations that set Os filhos de Próspero – Os papeis do inglês (2000), As paisagens propícias (2005) e A terceira metade (2009) –, Como se o mundo não tivesse leste (1977), Vou lá visitar pastores (1999) e Desmedida (2006) are also analyzed.

Cette étude vise à analyser la question de l’identité culturelle dans un corpus dramatique de seize textes écrits en français et en anglais par des Kenyans à l’occasion du Kenya National Drama Festival (KNDF). Tenant compte de l’histoire coloniale et du contexte post-colonial du Kenya, il s’est agi de relever dans ce corpus les marqueurs de la post-colonialité, à y identifier les thèmes majeurs et les traits constructifs de l’identité culturelle kenyane et à y déterminer les particularités culturelles. Dans une optique comparatiste, l’étude s’appuie sur les théories aussi bien post-coloniales que du théâtre. Les concepts post-coloniaux touchant la question de l’identité à travers la langue, la culture et la représentation sont identifiés et analysés dans le contexte kenyan. Pour cette raison, l’on s’est appuyé sur les travaux d’Edward Saïd, d’Homi K. Bhabha, de Chinua Achebe et de Ngugi wa Thiong’o. L’étude révèle que la population kenyane se trouve face à une multiplicité de choix culturels résultant de l’expérience coloniale, de nouvelles pratiques liées à la globalisation ainsi que des complexités et des défis de la vie quotidienne du monde moderne. Le KNDF s’avère un dispositif de sensibilisation du public aux nouveautés, de dénonciation des maux sociétaux et de promotion de normes culturelles africaines. Il apparaît ici que le recours aux langues européennes n’empêche pas de représenter des réalités culturelles locales. Le Kenya fait ainsi preuve d’une mobilité culturelle qui se manifeste dans la progression du système traditionnel vers une disposition mondialisée. / This study analyszes the representation of cultural identity in sixteen drama texts written by Kenyans in English and in French for the Kenya National Drama Festival (KNDF). Considering the colonial history and the postcolonial context of Kenya, the task involved identifying the postcolonial markers within the texts, identifying major themes and traits constituting a Kenyan cultural identity and determining specific cultural identity. Using a comparative approach, the study draws from both postcolonial and theatre theories. The postcolonial concepts touching on identity through language, culture and representation are identified and analyzed in respect to the Kenyan context. For this reason, the study narrows down to the theoretical works of Edward Saïd, Homi K. Bhabha, Chinua Achebe and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. The study reveals that the Kenyan population is faced with a multiplicity of cultural choices brought about by the colonization experience, the new practices associated with globalization, as well as the complexities and challenges of daily life. The KNDF proves to be an avenue for sensitizing the public on new phenomena, for denouncing societal ills and for promoting African traditional norms. It is apparent that the use of European languages does not hinder the representation of cultural reality of the local society. Kenya therefore attests to cultural mobility seen in the progression from the traditional system towards a more globalized disposition.

In The Song of the Lark (1915), Willa Cather does something extraordinary by presenting a well-rounded and likeable Mexican character. This is quite different from her contemporaries’ stereotypical depictions of minorities. To include immigrants in a modern novel was avant-garde and radical subject matter; and presenting a realistic, likeable Mexican character was unheard of because the colonized and immigrants were largely ignored in American literature, or deliberately overlooked. When they were included, persistent demeaning views and unflattering Mexican stereotypes were the norm. This paper seeks to explain how positively Cather depicts Mexican characters, decades before Civil Rights. Cather includes the plight of Mexicans in her novel and gives voice to those that were silenced and ignored. Even though she was a bestselling author and considered one of the best American writers of the era, she has not been properly credited for how progressive she was in her treatment of minorities. It is well documented that Cather used juxtaposition and absences in her writing to convey meaning; I build on these absences to add in rhetorical silence and connect her use of silence to the academic conversation about speech in post-colonial analyses. By contextualizing her writings within the period, I demonstrate how progressive her novels are. Even though most depictions of minorities at the turn of the century were stereotypical, Cather diverges from the racism, which makes her decades ahead of her contemporaries in including good immigrants and minorities in American literature.

<p>This paper is intending to examine the intercultural aspects of two teaching aids used in Swedish schools today. How does the material take the students prerequisite in consideration? Is every student included in the material in order with the standpoint and laws in the Swedish school system? And if they are not, who is the outsider in this occasion? With intercultural pedagogy lies the idea that everyone is unique and that teachers has an opportunity to develop and make student grow mentally. Intercultural endeavor is to learn to accept our differences and see them as assets instead. The theory’s used in this paper in mostly the postcolonial theory with its dividing between "us" and "the others".</p>

This paper is intending to examine the intercultural aspects of two teaching aids used in Swedish schools today. How does the material take the students prerequisite in consideration? Is every student included in the material in order with the standpoint and laws in the Swedish school system? And if they are not, who is the outsider in this occasion? With intercultural pedagogy lies the idea that everyone is unique and that teachers has an opportunity to develop and make student grow mentally. Intercultural endeavor is to learn to accept our differences and see them as assets instead. The theory’s used in this paper in mostly the postcolonial theory with its dividing between "us" and "the others".

This thesis explores the ontological content of the integration of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in biomedical education, through a critical exploration of “CAM" policy related documents from the World Bank, the World Health Organization and Health Canada, as a means of contextualizing "CAM" in biomedical education. It also interrogates curriculum documents from a project that seeks to standardize “CAM” in biomedical education. This thesis suggests that there are ontological parallels to the colonial era conversion of indigenous medicine evoked in the contemporary 'integration' of CAM in biomedical education.

Doctor Educationis / This study investigates how two groups of African pupils, namely the low and high performers in standard 9 mathematics classes in some high schools in Mangaung, construct meaning of their African cultural, individual African identity and performance in mathematics respectively. The observation underpinning this investigation is that social structural factors have not gained much attention in research as bases for explaining differentiated performance in mathematics, hence this study. To arrive at the findings mentioned below, the study used three quantitative instruments namely Mboya's Self-Description Inventory II (MSDI-II), Rotter's I-E scale and Tuekman's Mathematics Attitude Scale (MAS). Four hundred pupils who constituted the sample that responded to these questionnaires were controlled as to confounding variables like, gender, social class, exposure to mathematics and future aspirations relating to this subject. MSDI-II and Rotter's I-E Scale accessed data relating to signification of African individual identity while MAS and one of MSDI-Il's subscale, Maths Ability were 'triangulated' to access data relating to signification of performance in Mathematics. To triangulate findings on these two variables as well as to allow the sampled pupils' voices to be heard, discourse analysis was conducted on the open interviews with the two groups of low and high performing pupils in their respective schools. This qualitative approach also enabled the study to access information relating to signification of African Cultural Identity. No quantitative instrument was found suitable for this purpose. Although the study is careful not to make strong causal inferences between meaning construction (signification) and performance, the results show that (i) low performers are not sure about whether they are Africans or not since according to them African cultural identity implies an obsolete and primitive way of doing things. They are unable to identify with this. High performers see African Cultural Identity as involving lived experiences which challenge them to transform their despised status as Africans (ii) Low performers are not as positive as high performers about Africanness (individual identity) and (iii) they are also not positively inclined towards mathematics and their own ability to perform well therein, while high performers are very positive as they see doing well in mathematics as an act of struggle that would enable them to improve their social standing and that of other Africans. On the basis of the above the study is able to conclude that low performers construct meaning of the mentioned factors in agreement with the dominant discourses that see Africanness as being primitive, incompetent and unable to adequately comprehend the intricacies of modem day subjects like mathematics. High performers on the other hand tend to contest this negative definitions about what it means to be an African (identity, culture and performance in mathematics). They are thus positioned within counter-hegemonic ideology and discourses in as far as their meaning construction is concerned. Grounded on the above findings and conclusions, the study recommends that efforts should not be spared to enable the low performers (and/or pupils at risk of failing) to adopt positive meaning making strategies of high performers. These strategies may be accompanied by enhanced positive feelings about self and what one is capable of, which may in tum also impact positively on performance in mathematics, in particular. The research further argues that this goal may be achieved through curriculum enrichment, guidance, counselling and teaching, couched in the framework of African Renaissance. Therefore further research needs to be conducted that will elaborate clearly (i) what the implications of African Renaissance are on education, teaching, learning and mathematics curriculum in particular, (ii) what are the most effective means of transferring high performers' strategies of meaning construction to the low performers in the context of African Renaissance and (iii) how to strengthen and further sustain the positive meaning making strategies among high performers. Recommendations relating to curriculum enrichment in the context of Curriculum 2005 and Outcomes Based Counselling are also made as well as suggestions for future relevant research based on the concepts generated in this research.

This thesis focus on the UN-led peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and how the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has undertaken this in its resolutions. The importance to study this subject and statebuilding efforts, such as MINUSMA, is due to that a failed statebuilding may result in potential international consequences. This is the case in Mali where terror- and criminal organizations now roam free in large parts of the country where these organizations may plan their operations, including international terror attacks. Therefore, this study will research how the UNSC has positioned itself regarding the potential explanations to the outcomes of statebuilding, the statebuilder´s dilemma, and dividing structures. To conduct the analysis of the resolutions, a qualitative document analysis has been conducted. For understanding the context in Mali and the aftermath of the resolutions, secondary data analysis has been used. The conclusions for this thesis are that the UNSC has taken a middle way in the context of the statebuilder´s dilemma and dividing structures, but that the UNSC also shows a great loyalty towards the Malian state and not vice versa as the dilemma debates. The objective is to shine a light on the UN peacekeeping missions in an attempt to influence how they are carried out since improvement is needed.