The study shows how seven informants, all studying at a university in northern Sweden to become art teachers, perceive and relate to controversial contemporary art in the context of secondary school art education. The study is based on semi-structured interviews. The study contributes to a nuanced view of these informants opinions and thoughts regarding provocative contemporary art, in relation to the school's democratic values ​​and founding mission. The seven informants' responses were compiled thematically linked to the study's purpose and issues to allow for comparisons and analysis. The analysis of the information that was served was based on a qualitative perspective, which has links to hermeneutics. It appears that some of the informants have strong opinions regarding what kind of controversial contemporary art that should not be dealt with in elementary school art education. It is also suggested that contemporary art is an absent element in art education at Sweden's primary schools.

This thesis investigates how the level of democratic values differs between active members of different civil society organizations. Civil society has been considered a fundamental aspect of democracy and research have highlighted that some organizational characteristics are associated with democratization and sustainable democracy. However, variations in democratic values at the individual level, disparities between members of different civil society organizations, and the connection to democracy have to some extent been overlooked. This study investigates the nuanced relationship between organizational membership and democratic values across eight African countries using data from the World Value SurveyWave 7. This thesis focuses on exploring the disparities in democratic values among members of quotidian civil society organizations (QCSOs) which have been found to significantly contribute to democratization, compared to members of human rights civil society organizations (HRCSOs) where such significance is not observed. The research employs linear regression analysis to uncover subtle yet statistically significant differences. The findings indicate a marginal but noteworthy distinction in democratic values between active members of QCSOs and HRCSOs. This study highlights the importance of recognizing individual level differences in understanding the diverse landscape of civil society and its relation to democracy.

<p>The aim of this thesis is to analyse and describe the way prospective teachers of social science understand democracy and its conditions, and, on the basis of these descriptions, to discuss the actual and possible forms and contents of teaching democracy both in upper secondary school and in teacher training.</p><p>The assumption is that students’ conceptions of democracy are influenced by the society they live in and the education they receive. To contextualize students’ conceptions of democracy the theories of Habermas and Dewey as well as some central concepts of contemporary democratic theory are drawn upon. The study primarily focuses on the content of education in democracy. The teachers’ conceptions of their own subject influence the content of their teaching and thus what their students learn. If teachers are aware of various ways of conceiving democracy, and the critical differences between them, their teaching practices may enable students to experience different aspects of democracy and, as a consequence, reach a fuller understanding of it.</p><p>The empirical data consists of interviews with eight students of political science and eight teacher-students of social sciences. These interviews were carried out before and after they had studied theories of democracy. The study also includes interviews with eight teacher-students who had already finished their theoretical studies in social science and were at the end of their teacher training. In total, 40 interviews were carried out. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. A phenomenographic analysis of the students’ conceptions of democracy was performed, along with a thematic content analysis of their ideas of the conditions of democracy.</p><p>Three main categories of conceptions of democracy were constituted. In the first democracy was viewed as a possibility to influence political decisions through institutionalized forms. In the second category democracy was seen as a feeling of participation in processes of political decision. In the third category democracy was understood as the possibility to take part in all decisions that concern one’s life. The thematic content analysis showed that the students’ reasoning about the conditions of democracy concerned three main themes: the values of democracy, the individual conditions and societal conditions. Several teacher-students regarded it as their duty to maintain the prevalent forms of democracy in Sweden. Students of political science on the other hand, focused more on developing these forms.</p><p>Finally, the possible didactic consequences of these different views for the education in democracy in upper secondary schools and in teacher training are discussed.</p>

The aim of this thesis is to analyse and describe the way prospective teachers of social science understand democracy and its conditions, and, on the basis of these descriptions, to discuss the actual and possible forms and contents of teaching democracy both in upper secondary school and in teacher training. The assumption is that students’ conceptions of democracy are influenced by the society they live in and the education they receive. To contextualize students’ conceptions of democracy the theories of Habermas and Dewey as well as some central concepts of contemporary democratic theory are drawn upon. The study primarily focuses on the content of education in democracy. The teachers’ conceptions of their own subject influence the content of their teaching and thus what their students learn. If teachers are aware of various ways of conceiving democracy, and the critical differences between them, their teaching practices may enable students to experience different aspects of democracy and, as a consequence, reach a fuller understanding of it. The empirical data consists of interviews with eight students of political science and eight teacher-students of social sciences. These interviews were carried out before and after they had studied theories of democracy. The study also includes interviews with eight teacher-students who had already finished their theoretical studies in social science and were at the end of their teacher training. In total, 40 interviews were carried out. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. A phenomenographic analysis of the students’ conceptions of democracy was performed, along with a thematic content analysis of their ideas of the conditions of democracy. Three main categories of conceptions of democracy were constituted. In the first democracy was viewed as a possibility to influence political decisions through institutionalized forms. In the second category democracy was seen as a feeling of participation in processes of political decision. In the third category democracy was understood as the possibility to take part in all decisions that concern one’s life. The thematic content analysis showed that the students’ reasoning about the conditions of democracy concerned three main themes: the values of democracy, the individual conditions and societal conditions. Several teacher-students regarded it as their duty to maintain the prevalent forms of democracy in Sweden. Students of political science on the other hand, focused more on developing these forms. Finally, the possible didactic consequences of these different views for the education in democracy in upper secondary schools and in teacher training are discussed.

This study's interest area loops around how it is possible to understand texts' leverage over human thinking and acting. Focus lies on understanding which forces that form people’s views around men and women's relationships and relations in the public room. From this perspective our interest is to explore how the phenomenon rape is expressed in texts and how we can understand how rape through these texts are to be shaped in individuals' thoughts awareness and. Finally, it is also relevant to create understanding for how rape as a discoursive practice can have effects on individuals and society. The choice of method has fallen on Discursive analysis, we mean that this method well live up to those requirements what we set on a method's ability to generate the understanding we intend to achieve. Our aspiration is hereby not only to establish that the reality is a social construction we also intend to create understanding for how these constructions arises and what its effects are. Furthermore, the analysis is related to theories what concern feminism-, gender - and power relationships.

The aim of this essay is to show how to use William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies in the ESL classroom to teach democratic values. Such values include: respect, empathy and the right to free speech. According to Reader-Response theory, the reader brings expectations and knowledge about the subject matter (in this case democracy and its values) to the texts, which influence his/her interpretation. I have applied two different styles of analyzing a text: a Content-Based Approach and Simpson's Communication Triangle. The Content-Based Approach, in accordance with Reader-Response Theory, builds on students' knowledge and previous experience and focuses on the content to be acquired. The Simpson's Communication Triangle, on the other hand, connects reading, discussing and writing. Both of the approaches are designed to enhance the students' reading responses by providing different forums for sharing, such as discussions and writing (diary entries) from one of the character's perspective. The idea of creating Reader-Response journals is supported by multiple forms of theoretical study, and the assignments explained in this essay have been designed upon this research.

<p>This study's interest area loops around how it is possible to understand texts' leverage over human thinking and acting. Focus lies on understanding which forces that form people’s views around men and women's relationships and relations in the public room. From this perspective our interest is to explore how the phenomenon rape is expressed in texts and how we can understand how rape through these texts are to be shaped in individuals' thoughts awareness and. Finally, it is also relevant to create understanding for how rape as a discoursive practice can have effects on individuals and society. The choice of method has fallen on Discursive analysis, we mean that this method well live up to those requirements what we set on a method's ability to generate the understanding we intend to achieve. Our aspiration is hereby not only to establish that the reality is a social construction we also intend to create understanding for how these constructions arises and what its effects are. Furthermore, the analysis is related to theories what concern feminism-, gender - and power relationships.</p>

Since the beginning of modernity, the use of rhetoric have prevailed; that is, the technique of perverting the language giving concepts different meanings presuming nothing have changed when in fact, it has occurred. The same thing happens with the concept of Constitution, it has been completelymodified its sense from the progress of individual rights moral. In this article the intention is to demonstrate the nature of this change and at the same time claim on the «old constitutionalism» validity and also the rule of law and political will beginning on a critical reading of contemporary constitutionalism and considering its tendency to constitutionalize or materialize the law, ironically risking the same values intended to defend. / Desde inicios de la modernidad se ha venido imponiendo el empleo de la retórica, es decir, la técnica de pervertir el lenguaje dotando a los conceptos de distintos significados para presumir que nada ha cambiado cuando en realidad sí se ha dado el cambio. Esto mismo acontece con el concepto de Constitución, que ha modificado completamente su sentido apartir del avance de la moral de los derechos individuales. Este texto pretende mostrar la naturaleza de este cambio y reivindicar a su vez la vigencia del «viejo constitucionalismo» y el imperio de la ley y la decisión política a partir de una lectura crítica del constitucionalismo contemporáneo y su tendencia a constitucionalizar o materializar el derecho, contribuyendo paradójicamente a poner en riesgo los valores que pretende defender.

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.

The school has a political and democratic mandate to teach and establish basic democratic values that our society is based in the teaching of students. The purpose of this study is to investigate how a number of four teachers interpret the meaning of democratic values. What is their personal inter-pretations which according to previous research proved to be open to interpretation? The aim was to see if there was a noticeable difference in the teachers interpretations towards each other. Another aim of the study was to gain insight on how teachers believe that they conduct their lessons to teach and establish basic democratic values. Are there any links to previous research that says that the teaching of fundamental values are not equal? The study's questions will therefore examine: ・ What do four different teachers consider the meaning of the basic democratic values? ・How do the teachers in the social studies field do systematically for the students to aquire basic democratic values and knowledge? ・ What are the differences in their interpretations of the democratic meaning of values and way of conducting their teaching in this area? To get answers, qualitative methods have been used through interview. As a theoretical approach, Laclau and Mouffes approach of discourse analysis has also been used. The conclusions I reach in the analysis of my material shows that the four teachers had a variety towards each other in their interpretation in the meaning of the basic democratic values. As a conse-quence was the teachings in the fundamental values not equivalent because they dealt with different areas of the values in their respective teaching.