It is stated in the School Act that the Swedish school should work towards providing an education of equal quality. Teachers are confronted with ethical considerations when assessing and grading. The study aims to clarify the opinion of teachers in the later part of lower secondary school and teachers at upper secondary about the knowledge requirements and how their teaching works to achieving an equal assessment in the school. The survey material consists of qualitative semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted with the help of an interview guide, which contained questions to the interviewees. The design of the questions allowed the interviewees to respond descriptively about their own experiences. In total, seven legitimate and active social science teachers were interviewed at various schools in southeastern Sweden. The teachers had to answer questions concerning their interpretative preference and their perception of the knowledge requirements in the subject of social science. The result of the survey shows that there is room for interpretation in the knowledge requirements, which has a negative impact on equal assessment. The result has also been related to a theoretical framework to identify which methods teachers can use to strengthen equality in their assessment. Furthermore, the results have been discussed based on of equality assessment and grading in coherent relevance with previous research

The purpose of the study is to examine how a specific group of English teachers interpret the differences between LPO-94 and LGR-11 which are two separate curriculums in the swedish school system. LGR-11 replaced LPO-94 (in 2011/12) and because of this, I wanted to look into what changes, if any, teachers experienced regarding their methods of teaching as well as how they assess students skills and knowledge. The study also investigates the matter of how teachers perceive the implementation of the new curriculum and how it has affected them in their profession. The study is partly a comparative policy study, regarding the different aspects of how knowledge is defined in the two different curriculums, and partly qualitative, with a number of interviews with English teachers. The teachers interviewed in this study claim that their understanding of the definition of knowledge is shared to a larger extent now and so is their view of the new curriculum which is considered, by most of them, to be more clear and structured than the previous one. This, in turn, gives these six teachers an increased understanding of the policy documents themselves, as well as a feeling that it is easier to track and identify learning progression and also that they have enhanced their assessment abilities. The study shows that the implementation of the new curriculum is perceived as satisfactory by the interviewed teachers who claim the changes have affected their profession in the desired direction and that it has benefited students with regards to both teaching methods and assessment situations.

A major dilemma for music teachers in Sweden is that the educational system since 15 years dictates that local adaptations should be made, since all students shall be assessed equivalently. In this study I have examined what strategies music teachers have in the grading process, and specifically how they do to grade equivalently. Previous research shows that Swedish music teachers have difficulties when it comes to make use of regulatory documents. Working conditions for Swedish music teachers also often differ from other teacher groups (e.g. it is usually only one music teacher at a school) and therefore, and because of the fact that the area is largely unexplored, new knowledge and understanding is needed.The thesis consists of two parts: A web survey (quantitative and qualitative parts) and core questions in the survey (on how to grade equivalently in music). I emanate in my reasoning from a music teacher’s awareness but with an open approach. With socioculture influences and a critical approach I question the prevailing circum- stances. With the qualitative approach, I aim to get close to the material and identify music teachers' strategies for assessment in accordance with the requirements of national equivalence.More than 600 music teachers contributed to the survey, representing around 50% of all final grades that are written each year in Swedish compulsory school music. The outcomes show that during the last decade an ongoing professionalization has taken place among music teachers. The findings also include knowledge about how impor- tant note taking is for equivalence and the problems music teachers have with physi- cal conditions for the teaching (such as group sizes and instrumentation). Also the gut felling, as a cultural tool, is observed in a particular way in the assessment work. Last, the picture of “music teachers as their own curriculum” is suggested to be revised. Since music teachers need to adjust to local conditions, and now have a greater knowledge and experience in the mechanism of grading equivalently, it is suggested that music teachers are forced to be their own curriculum.

Previous research shows that collegial conversations and co-assessment can contribute to increased equivalence in assessment and grading. The purpose of the present study is to investigate how music teachers who are active in upper secondary schools express themselves about their experiences of equal assessment and grading and how they believe that the collegial knowledge among subject teachers in music affects them in their work with equal assessment and grading. To investigate this, a qualitative study has been done with e-mail interviews as a data collection method. Four music teachers aged 27–33 years participated in the study. The results show that all music teachers in one way or another take part in collegiate conversations or joint assessment. There are differences between the teachers about how they can share the thoughts and experiences of other music colleagues. For some of the teachers, there are opportunities for collegial conversations and joint assessment at the school, as well as opportunities for subject meetings in the municipality. For one of the participants in the study, there are no organized meetings for music teachers to meet and talk.

Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva variationen i hur musiklärare tolkar kunskapskrav i sin bedömning. Fokus ligger på hur de bedömer kraven på tajming i enkla melodier. Mitt mål var att undersöka om bedömningarna var likvärdiga, eller om inte vad som skilde bedömningarna åt. Jag vill bidra med information som kan leda till bättre kunskap om lärares bedömning av elevers musikprestationer i högstadiets årskurs 9. Genom en enkätundersökning gjord i verktyget Survey & Report som tillhandahålls av Karlstads universitet samlade jag in det empiriska materialet. Fyrtiosex informanter besvarade detta. Genom att använda en enkät i stället för intervjuer nådde jag ut till fler musiklärare än vad som annars vore möjligt. Därmed gav resultatet möjlighet till en större variation i tolkningar av kunskapskrav och av bedömningen av en specifik elevprestation. För att urskilja och identifiera de olika sätt som musiklärare uppfattar kunskapskraven på och göra en bedömning har jag valt en fenomenografisk ansats för att analysera resultatet. De summativa bedömningarna av elevexemplet har stor spridning. Studiens resultat visar en variation i hur lärare definierar kraven och bedömde den givna prestationen. Sammanfattningsvis har lärarna subjektiva krav på svårighetsgraden av enkla melodier. Vidare skilde sig tolkningarna av det musikaliska begreppet tajming åt. Den största skillnaden var om lärarna definierar tajming endast som en korrekt rytmisk precision enligt genre, eller om de definierar tajming som en prestation som görs i samspel med andra musiker. / The purpose of this study is to describe the variation in how music teachers interpret knowledge requirements in their assessment. Focus is on how they assess the requirements of timing in simple melodies. My aim was to study if the assessments were equivalent, or if not what differ. I want to contribute with information that can lead to better knowledge about teachers´ assessment of students´ music performance for degrees in junior high school.   I used a questionnaire to collect the empirical material. Forty-six informants answered the questionnaire. By using a questionnaire instead of interviews, I reached out to more music teachers then otherwise would be possible. Thus, the result gained a broader view of the variations in interpretations of the knowledge requirements and in assessments. In order to distinguish and identify the different ways in which music teachers perceive the knowledge requirements and make an assessment, I have chosen a phenomenographic approach to analyses the result.  The summative assessments are widely disseminated. The results of the study show a variation in how the teachers defined the requirements and assessed a given performance. In conclusion, the teachers have subjective requirements about the degree of difficulty of a simple melody. Further, they differ in interpretations of the concept timing. The main difference was if they define timing only as a correct rhythmic precision according to genre, or if they define timing as how the performance fitted in to a concerted action with other musicians.