School is an important institution charged with the task of contributing to the economic, cultural and social development of the community, and of nurturing democratic citizens. Countless state-sponsored measures have therefore been initiated in order to affect the quality of schooling. One example is a state-financed school development project, which is the focus of this thesis. The overall purpose of the study was to improve awareness of whether, and if so how, using projects as a strategy for improving school contributes to sustainable changes, as well as what has been both advantageous and disadvantageous to this end. Two projects were studied with a focus on the participant's perceptions of and experiences from this project. A number of headmasters and educators were interviewed on two occasions, once in connection with the final phases of the projects, and then again three years later. The analysis of the empirical data was guided by The Frame Factor Model (Lundgren, 1994, 1999), and by Hoy and Miskel's (2008) organisational model. In summary, the study shows that the ambitions of both of the school projects were greater than the sustainable results. Moreover, it was clear that the conditions placed upon the school organisation by the outside world constituted both promoted and encumbered the results of the school projects. State funds contributed to the improvement of schools, while at the same time, other state regulations delimited what the sustainable changes were. The desirable changes were also affected by processes within the organisation and can be connected with structures, cultures and individuals. Above all, current structures within the organisation need to be changed so that the employees have an in-depth involvement in a project and for a protracted period of time. Changed structures allow for common expertise and values to be improved with regard to venturing into a project. Furthermore, the various skills of the employees, as well as their attitudes toward projects within the organisation, were also significant to the sustainable changes. One suggestion for continued research is to improve the knowledge on how structures can be changed within a school organisation so as to enable the organisation's employees to be engaged in such a way as to make collective learning possible.

De flesta av oss har säkert erfarenhet av hur digitala verktyg kan vara en hjälp på många områden i vardagen. Det går att fastslå att fler och fler funktioner och tjänster i vårt samhälle digitaliseras på olika sätt och i många yrkesgrupper verkar digitala hjälpmedel vara ett självklart inslag. Syftet med detta arbete är att öka kunskapen om vilken syn musik- och instrumentallärare har på användningen av digitala verktyg i undervisningen. För att uppnå detta syfte har jag ställt ett antal frågor till några musiklärare i olika läromiljöer. Resultat visar bland annat att användandet av digitala hjälpmedel styrs till viss del av musikalisk genre, det vill säga om en lärare arbetar med klassisk musik eller med rock- och popmusik. Tydligt i resultatet är också att musiklärarna vill öka både sin kunskap och sitt användande av digitala verktyg. En av mina viktigaste slutsatser är att de lärare som på ett personligt plan använder digitala verktyg utanför skolan också använder dem i sin undervisning. / Most of us have probably experienced how digital tools can help us in many areas of everyday life. The intent of this paper is to increase knowledge concerning the attitudes of music and instrumental teachers' towards the use of digital tools in their pedagogical methodology. To achieve this aim, I have posed a number of questions to a small selection of music teachers, working within different learning environments. The results show that the implementation of computer and digital media in teaching is dependent upon whether the type of music taught is classical or pop/rock. The results furthermore indicate that music teachers are keen to increase both their knowledge and use of digital tools. One of the most important conclusions that I have reached is that there is a strong correlation between the personal and private use of computers and digital tools by teachers, and whether or not they are utilized as teaching aids.

This thesis' main theme is successful principal leadership in secondary schools within the Swedish education system. Successful principal leadership is examined from three perspectives: What are the processes of a successful principal? Do the leadership processes relate to successful academic and social outcomes of schools? What are the prerequisites for successful principal leadership? The Frame Factor Model and the three concepts of prerequisites, processes and outcomes constitute an overarching framework. The prerequisites are categorized as internal prerequisites (the particular characteristics of individual principals) and external prerequisites operating within the Swedish educational environment. The successful principal processes are viewed as pedagogical leadership processes, on one hand as providing prerequisites for teaching and learning and, on the other hand as leading the core processes of teaching and learning. The definitions build on the empirical data, on the Swedish national curriculum and demands for pedagogical leadership, and on international findings on what successful principals do. The outcomes of successful principal leadership are here defined as the academic and the social outcomes of schools. The research undertaken is part of the research project 'Structure, Culture, Leadership - Prerequisites for Successful Schools?' The empirical data for this thesis are gathered in twenty-six Swedish secondary schools whereof five are regarded successful schools based on both academic and social outcomes. The findings, reported on in four articles, derive from interviews and questionnaires to principals and teachers. The principals in the main identify prerequisites of importance that are within their own realm of influence, such as themselves, teachers and school district level. They consider a limited area of responsibility and support from district level specialists as providing possibilities for their success. The principals accept the national governance of schools and principals via the national curriculum. The principals in the five successful schools however take a higher degree of responsibility for setting direction towards national goals, for processes inside schools and for school outcomes than do principals in less successful schools.They as pedagogical leaders attend to a higher degree both to providing prerequisites for teaching and learning and to leading the core processes of teaching and learning than do principals in less successful schools. In schools with a successful implementation of social goals, which shows as successful social outcomes, the principals, according to teachers, overall take responsibility for their national objectives and obligations to a higher degree than principals in schools with a less successful implementation of social goals. The implementation of social goals is of importance not only from an outcome perspective but also from a process perspective. It requires collaborative interpretation which can promote principal-staff professional relations and ultimately student learning. The identified overall differences between principals' leadership processes and processes in the twenty-six schools raise questions around consequences for equivalence in education. / Struktur, kultur, ledarskap- förutsättningar för framgångsrika skolor?

The purpose of my study was to examine how teachers in physical education experience different frame factors impact on their outdoor education and their choice of didactic approach. My study is based on Lundgren´s frame factor theory and Peitersen´s didactic learning model. I have used a qualitative research method to answer my questions. I have been using semi-structured interviews to interview six PE teachers who all teach at high school level. Based on my results we see that the teachers experience teaching hours and class sizes as the frame factors that mainly affect the outdoor education. Teachers often choose to split up the outdoor activities into sequences in order to achieve better learning. Based on my results the report concludes that the teachers experience outdoor education as a major part of physical education. They consider the organizational framework to be strenuous and to be something that requires careful didactic planning. / Syftet med min studie har varit att undersöka hur lärare i idrott och hälsa upplever olika ramfaktorers inverkan på sin friluftsundervisning samt deras val av didaktiskt tillvägagångssätt. Min studie lutar sig mot Lundgrens (1989) ramfaktorsteori samt Peitersens (2001) didaktiska inlärningsmodell. För att besvara mina frågeställningar har en kvalitativ forskningsmetod används. Jag har med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer intervjuat sex idrottslärare som alla jobbar på högstadiet. Utifrån mina resultat ser man att idrottslärarna upplever undervisningstiden och klasstorlekarna som de ramfaktorer som påverkar friluftsundervisningen i störst grad. Lärarna väljer ofta en deluppbyggnadsundervisning när de ska lära ut friluftsliv i skolan. Utifrån mina resultat är uppsatsens slutsats att idrottslärarna upplever friluftsundervisningen som en stor del av ämnet. De anser att de organisatoriska ramarna är påfrestande och kräver en noga didaktisk planering.

This doctoral thesis consists of a thesis for a Licentiate degree (Kristoffersson, 2002. Föräldrainflytande i grundskolan. En studie av nio lokala styrelser med föräldramajoritet i grundskolan. [Parents involvement in compulsory school. A study of nine local boards with parents in majority in compulsory school]) and two articles (Kristoffersson, 2005. Parental involvement: Parents´ new role in Swedish schools; and Kristoffersson, 2007. The paradox of parental influence in Danish schools. A Swedish perspective). In this thesis my interest is particularly governance, management, communication and partnership. The research aimed comprehensively to describe the school boards and discuss the education policy behind the implementation of the boards. An additional aim were to see whose interests favoured in local school boards. I also wanted to study how comparative research in this case can be relevant to Swedish studies of local school boards. I used the frame factor theory, which aids the exploration of the correspondence relations between factors that affect local school boards. Governance and partnership are key concepts applied to the analysis of data. Critical analysis and discussions of these boards from a hermeneutic sign are included, which meant that I tried to understand the boards in their context. I used a case study method. Data were gathered through interviews, observations and analysis of documents (e.g., school board minutes). The results signify that different interests are not adequately balanced on the boards. Communication between the board and the parents not on the board was not satisfactory in many cases and such parents felt excluded from the board’s activity. The principal’s collaboration with the board’s chairperson was an important influence on the board. Evaluation, support and feedback of the board’s activity from the local school authority in the municipality were often neglected. The implementation of the boards related to the transferred welfare policy to more market-oriented political governance. The political governing of the school changed, and was influenced by neo-liberal trends where partnership had become the new prestige word. Parents are today seen as individual consumers in a market, whereas as board members they should make decisions that include all parents. Instead of increased parental influence in the schools, the effect of boards could be increased differences between pupils and between parents. This arose because parents are not a homogenous group. Social, cultural and economic conditions have an influence on parents’ activities. The state implementation of local school boards in Sweden and in many countries is, therefore, complex. This can be seen through the weak interest in the creation of boards, which also can be linked to the top-down character of the reform. This study is an example where global, national and local factors interact.

In the educational literature on peer effects, attention has been brought to the fact that the mechanisms creating peer effects are still to a large extent hidden in obscurity. The hypothesis in this study is that the Frame Factor Theory can be used to explain these mechanisms. At heart of the theory is the concept of “time needed” for students to learn a certain curricula unit. The relations between class-aggregated time needed and the actual time available, steers and hinders the actions possible for the teacher. Further, the theory predicts that the timing and pacing of the teachers’ instruction is governed by a “steering criterion group” (SCG), namely the pupils in the 10th-25th percentile of the aptitude distribution in class. The class composition hereby set the possibilities and limitations for instruction, creating peer effects on individual outcomes. To test if the theory can be applied to the issue of peer effects, the study employs multilevel structural equation modelling (M-SEM) on Swedish TIMSS 2015-data (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study; students N=3761, teachers N=179). Using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in the SEM-framework, latent variables are specified according to the theory, such as “limitations of instruction” from TIMSS survey items. The results indicate a good model fit to data of the measurement model. The SEM-model verify a strong relation between the mean level of the SCG and the latent variable of limitations on instruction, a variable which in turn has a great impact on individual students’ test results. Thus, the analysis indicates a confirmation of the predictions derived from the frame factor theory and reveals that one of the important mechanisms creating peer effects in student outcomes is the effect the class composition has upon the teachers’ instruction in class.

The Swedish school as an institution has during a period of continuous change and control affected the teacher's profession and agency. One of the biggest resources a school has is the teachers. That is why it is important how the teachers themselves and their work are defined. The purpose of this study is to gain knowledge of the teacher's perception of professional practice and autonomy with the help of a questionnaire survey in the form of a mixed method. There are separate factors that have changed the teaching profession and with the help of a framework theory we can clearly see this. The frame factors are used in our work to gain an understanding of how external factors affect the teachers' profession. This is used as a way of structuring and analyzing the empirical data. Through the questionnaire responses, we have gained knowledge of teachers' experiences and descriptions of their professional practice and autonomy. The results have consistently highlighted the factors that affect autonomy and how this in turn affects the teacher's professional practice. The external factors that the results show are that a higher requirement is placed on documentation and student care, which means that subject knowledge is not prioritized. In relation to this, teachers are also critical of new scheduled activities that are outside the teacher's profession where there is an unclear division of responsibilities and insufficient resources.

In this qualitative study, eight school policies against degrading treatment and bullying, which were applied in eight municipalities in six different counties in Sweden, were analyzed to study what interventions the schools used to prevent degrading treatment and bullying and what course of actions the schools took in case such behavior was shown. These policies were analyzed with thematic analysis, which involved finding codes in the qualitative data and developing them into themes within the data. As a result, the study showed that 130 interventions were used in these schools. These interventions were developed into 59 themes, which were categorized according to the frame factor theory, which included four frames: judicial, administrative, physical, and social frames. They were also categorized into five levels, at which they were applied: school-level, classroom-level, individual-level, school-level interventions that were applied by students, and security-level. The first three levels were taken from Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP), and the following two levels were constructed during the study. The results showed that the four frames and the interventions in them intervened more with each other than it was originally discussed in the frame factor theory, as well as with the different levels at which they were used. The results also suggested the necessity of a remodeling of the theory in the light of conclusions based on the data and changes in school as an institution caused by changes in society. Keywords: Middle school policies, thematic analysis, frame factor theory, degrading treatment, bullying.

The aim of this study was to research the visual arts classroom and its impact on the teaching possibilities within. The visual arts subject has been subject to many studies based on curriculum and policy documents. This study chose to focus its research on the physical elements of the classroom, which meant the classrooms construction, materials and furnishing as the focal point. Observations have been made to study these layers in the visual arts classroom in three separate schools in the south of Sweden, which were all public elementary schools. In the three schools there have been four visual arts classrooms observed, and the teachers of these classrooms answered an open question survey around the time of the observations. The material was then analyzed using frame factor theory and Foucault’s power theory (1979). Based on the observations and the survey multiple discoveries were made. There is a power in how the classrooms are furnished, and the funding of the school has a big impact on what the art teachers can do. Most of the art teachers wants to work with three-dimensional materials and assignments, but feel limited due to either space, class size, limited budget, or limited time among others. The primary materials the teachers were working with were therefore paints or pencil crayons on paper. The study has also seen the similarities and differences in the arts classrooms furnishing and has shown some ways that the students try to create their own persona and revolt against the school structure.

This study aims to explore the framework behind teachers’ choice of fiction in their teaching in the subject Swedish. The two research questions examine how teachers discuss their possibilities to choose fiction and how it affects their teaching methods and what they think they need to consider when they select fiction for use in their teaching. Earlier research shows that reading comprehension among students have decreased throughout the years. Furthermore, earlier research discusses the different factors that show why reading fiction is important. The aim is examined through a qualitative thematic analysis where interviews with four teachers in upper secondary school is the material for analysis. Results are analyzed by the help of frame factor theory in order to investigate how the frame affects the teachers’ planning and teaching methods. Results also show that the curriculum and syllabus direct the teachers more than they perceive. The other frame factor that is significant in the teachers’ teaching methods is the students’ ability to read because it directly affects the way teachers approach literature to motivate them.