The Malawi primary education system is bifurcated into public primary schools, free primary schools sponsored by the government of Malawi, and private primary schools, primary schools run by private entities as a business. The two primary education branches subscribe to the polar opposite schools of thought on authority: traditional and progressive teaching methods respectively. Both these teaching systems are not compatible with Malawi and its goals in education. Rousseau’s idea of regulated freedom is employed to analyze the issue of authority in Malawian primary schools. To clearly unpack this concept, the paper discusses the approaches to education and the differences between them. Then the history of Malawi’s primary education system from colonial days to the democratic days is exposited to give a tangible background that can easily be relatable as the outcomes emerge. The paper argues that there is a need for controlled and balanced freedom. The paper does not only go against traditional pedagogical methods that portrays teachers’ dominion over the students but boldly assails progressive teaching methods that give unbridled freedom to learners. Traditionalists argue that teachers should carefully sequence the best knowledge from their subject area and deliver it directly to the whole class. Progressives argue teachers should instead facilitate learners’ exploration of their individual interests and the process harnessing curiosity and thinking skills. Consequently, merging the two and making sure that a balance is stricken can help in making the education system vibrant. In its terminus, the paper exposes a need for a change in mindset on how the issue of authority is handled in the schools. The findings of this study are vital to sort out discipline and performance issues in schools apart from promoting good relationships between teachers, students and the society at large. Given its relevance, more research is needed to better understand how freedom and authority need to be balanced for the teaching and learning process to be a success.

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Syftet med denna studie var att genom deltagande observation i en mångkulturell förskola undersöka hur barnen använder varandra som resurs för att utveckla sin flerspråkighet samt vilka strategier pedagogerna använder för att främja barns flerspråkighet. Resultatet visar att barnen inte endast använder varandra som resurs utan även hur de använder kulturella verktyg, artefakter och engelska språket som medierande resurs. Resultatet visar även att pedagogers närvaro och positiva attityd till flerspråkighet blir avgörande för om barnen får möjlighet att använda alla språken och på det viset utveckla sin flerspråkighet.

In this study, we have focused on drama activity in relation to science education by having students participate in a drama activity that focuses on photosynthesis. The purpose of the study is to contribute with knowledge about how teachers can use design in their teaching for students to consolidate knowledge about photosynthesis. To research this, we took inspiration from action research as a research approach. We designed a drama activity based on the theory of Embodied learning where the students got to portray the photosynthesis. This activity was carried out at two schools with a total of 49 students. In this study, we were interested in finding out if the use of drama was successful in terms of developing students’ knowledge about photosynthesis. To identify to what extent the students’ knowledge changed and how their knowledge changed, three identical tests were made. The first test was completed before the drama activity, the second was done after the activity and the third was conducted after a summer break. The three test results were analysed in two ways. The first analysis was deductive and focused on assessment in relation to the understanding of the photosynthesis and requirements inspired from the school curriculum was the tool. The second analysis was thematic and focused on the difference in the answers that the students provided, with the purpose of identifying how the knowledge about photosynthesis changed after they had participated in the drama activity.The results showed that most of the students developed their knowledge of photosynthesis on tests that were close in time to the drama activity, while the smaller number of students showed a progression after a longer time from the drama activity. The results are not surprising and in teaching many activities are used to support students’ learning, not only one single activity. Still, we were interested to find out what kind of effects the drama activity could lead to in terms of stimulating students’ learning and therefore we isolated the teaching situation to only include this activity. We also need to address that the outcomes can depend on how the activity was designed and it is possible that another design could have led to other results.IIIOne conclusion we draw from the results is that drama works differently for different students and that it should not be taken for granted that it automatically leads to better learning for all students. Drama should be seen as the tool and that it is the teacher's use of the tool that determines the student's progression.

The aim of the study is to contribute with knowledge about preschool documentation and assessment practice. The focus lies on preschool teachers’ mutual talk about documentation and assessment and how discourses about documentation and assessment practices are sustained, challenged or recreated.  In the study, the applied theory and method are taken from Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis. The starting point of the study is the way preschool teachers in their speech acts express what they consider to be common sense with regard to documentation and assessment. The data material was constructed by using two focus groups with a total of 10 participant preschool teachers. The teachers’ speech acts were analyzed by applying the analysis concepts of modality and legitimacy.  The result shows that preschool teachers talk about documentation as something regulated by using the curriculum as authority, as well as something benefiting the reputation of preschool and its profession, children’s development as well as the development of preschool. In addition, documentation is mentioned as a tool for working with children’s interest and influence. These are the speech acts that legitimize documentation in preschool. In contrast, there are few speech acts that question preschool documentation practice. To legitimize challenging the current documentation practice, the question whether preschool is like a Big Brother world is asked. Photographs and film emerge as highly important documentation tools for benefiting children’s development, making the organization visible to caregivers, and for pinpointing learning. Children’s participation is legitimized by preschool teachers from various aspects, while children appear to have few possibilities to abstain from documentation. The participant teachers demonstrate both the necessity and the desirability of the assessment concept in preschool documentation and assessment practice. Their talk is of high modality both when referring to the undesirability of assessing the individual child and when admitting that this is something they are obliged to do. This is legitimized by their claim that the assessment is of benefit to the children. Assessing the relation between activities and children’s actions emerges as desirable in preschool teachers’ talk.  In the analysis of how preschool teachers talk about documentation and assessment, five different ways of referring to these processes can be distinguished. They comprise a power structure discourse as well as a learning, a professionalization, a digital and a welfare discourse. One conclusion to be drawn is that preschool teachers contribute to maintaining documentation as a natural part of preschool activities. Challenging preschool documentation and assessment practice occurs to some extent in that ethics discussions, which have not previously been included in preschool documentation and assessment practice, now enable teachers to discuss what their documentation requirement entails for the children.

Denna uppsats tar utgångspunkt i Bosnien och Hercegovina (BiH) och undersöker hur hållbar utveckling undervisas i gymnasieskolor. Inom hållbar utveckling tillämpas även agenda 2030 och de 17 globala målen. Alltfler människor, företag och andra aktörer beaktar sin påverkan på hållbar utveckling genom att se över sin produktion och konsumtion. I skolan undervisas hållbar utveckling för att lära unga att se över sin påverkan på hållbar utveckling och eventuellt förändra ens vardagsrutiner. UNESCO har skapat ett ramverk i syfte att utbilda fler människor i hållbar utveckling. I detta ramverk beskriver UNESCO vilka kunskaper som är relevanta för undervisningen, olika undervisningsmetoder samt prioriteringsområden i undervisningen. Ramverket används i uppsatsen som utgångspunkt för vad lärare bör ha i åtanke och efterfråga i undervisningen när det gäller hållbar utveckling. En kvalitativ undersökningsmetod har tillämpats i form av intervjuer och enkäter. Enkäterna har skickats till samma deltagare som har intervjuats. Syftet med enkäterna var att få mer information om hur mycket kunskap/förståelse deltagarna har om hållbar utveckling. Intervjuerna genomfördes för att samla in mer djupgående svar. Deltagarna är gymnasielärare i olika ämnen i distriktet Sarajevo. Studien visar att i BiH undervisas ämnet hållbar utveckling bara i enstaka ämnen, men inte på en djupare nivå. Utifrån resultatet visar det sig att lärare väljer att inte fokusera på hållbar utveckling mer än att eleverna ska känna till vad det är. Ämnet finns inte heller konkret i deras läroplan eller anger att elever ska ha förståelse för hållbar utveckling.

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