Traditionally, the teaching of history tends to focus on content, where historical learning is reflected in memorizing important dates, events, and concepts about the past. In recent decades, research has drawn attention to a new way of approaching historical learning through understanding causes and effects as well as making connections between different events and stories about the past. Such an approach to historical learning implies a developed capacity for historical thinking. To shed light on this, this survey aimed to investigate the interest students have in history, how they perceive the purpose of history and how they experience the content and implementation of history teaching in upper secondary school. This study is based on semi-structured focus group interviews with 12 students in upper secondary school. The focus group interviews were based on the didactic questions of what, how, and why to achieve developed and qualified answers. The outcomes of the interviews were further interpreted and analysed according to the six sub-components advocated in the Anglo-Saxon history teaching tradition to categorize students' historical thinking skills. The results revealed that students' interest in history has a major impact on how they perceive the purpose of history and how they experience the content and conduct of history teaching insecondary school. Findings also showed that using historical sources is completely excluded from students' responses. The present study forms a foundation for future studies interested in a more practical history teaching approach. Furthermore, it renders insights into the complexities of teaching history from a student perspective, while at the same time points to some opportunities for development towards the teaching practitioner in creating a good history educational plan.

Previous research has shown there is a lack of studies made about school counselors and their work with secondary school students, especially in a Swedish context. Although the research is limited, there are a few studies who can show that there is a distancing of students towards school counselors and students seeking help, but there also seems to be a lack of direction that makes school counselors work tasks to appear unclear. Previous research shows that there seem to be a few explanatory factors that may impact this behavior of students such as a lack of trust, a fear that confidentiality will be compromised as well as other people's opinions. The purpose of this study was to describe, analyze and find possible connections between secondary students' knowledge and attitudes towards school counselors and counselors' work tasks, and also secondary students' tendency to seek help. The study was carried out by a quantitative questionnaire study with focus on two different schools in two different municipalities. Empirical material was collected through google forms and participants were asked to fill out the survey online. We visited a few schools who were interested in participating in the questionnaire. The reason for this was because we had an idea of an increasing number of participants by visiting schools and informing them about this study and its purpose, and also to be able to answer any questions they might have. The results were analyzed through a univariate and a bivariate analysis and by using the Statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS). The results showed that students had a rather positive attitude towards school counselors, but still tend to not seek help if needed, which can be due to a lack of trust to the counselor.

I det här självständiga arbetet framkommer det att notläsning inte alltid ses som någonting nödvändigt av elgitarrelever på gymnasiet, men det finns vissa tillfällen de värderar det högt. I det här självständiga arbetet undersöks diskursiva uppfattningar och diskursivt innehåll i gymnasieelevers utsagor kring notläsning på elgitarr. Fokusgrupper har använts för att samla in data till analysen. Det teoretiska perspektivet i arbetets analys är diskurspsykologi, vilket används för att tolka hur bakomliggande föreställningar, normer och värderingar formar en diskurs. Att förstå någonting diskursivt innebär att ta hänsyn till att det inom olika kulturella, historiska och andra sammanhang finns olika faktorer som formar vad som anses vara det normativa. Arbetets frågeställningar är ”Hur samtalar gymnasieelever om notläsning på elgitarr?” och ”Hur kan gymnasieelevers förhållande till notläsning på elgitarr förstås diskursivt?”. Resultatet visar på två diskursiva uppfattningar kring notläsning på elgitarr: notläsning och självförverkligande samt notläsning som svårt att lära sig men nyttigt. Resultatet visar att gymnasieelever tycker det är viktigt med notläsning i olika sammanhang. De pedagogiska implikationerna är att anpassa notläsningsundervisning efter elevernas nivå samt att främja motivation och engagemang. / In this study, it is evident that sight reading is not always considered necessary by high school electric guitar students. However, there are certain occasions when they highly appreciate it. This study examines discursive perceptions and discursive content in high school students' statements about reading sheet music on the electric guitar. Focus groups have been used to collect data for the analysis. The theoretical perspective in the analysis of this work is discursive psychology, which is used to interpret how underlying assumptions, norms, and values shape a discourse. Understanding something discursively involves considering that within different cultural, historical, and other contexts, there are various factors shaping what is considered normative. The research questions are "How do high school students discuss reading sheet music on the electric guitar?" and "How can high school students' relationship to reading sheet music on the electric guitar be understood discursively?". The results indicate two discursive perceptions regarding reading sheet music on the electric guitar: sheet music and self-realization, as well as sheet music as difficult to learn but useful. The findings show that high school students find sheet music important in various contexts. The pedagogical implications are to tailor sheet music instruction to the students' level and to promote motivation and engagement.

In today’s educational landscape, digitalization, driven by economic interests, has become increasingly prominent. This development has sparked interest in understanding how high school students’ technical capital and mathematical self-efficacy influence their outcomes. To deepen the understanding of this interplay, this study integrates Selwyn’s Bourdieusian capital theory on technical capital with Bandura’s theories on mathematical self-efficacy. Empirical data were collected through a survey administered to 208 high school students across three schools in Sweden, ensuring anonymity and integrity. Linear regression was employed, controlling for gender, academic program, socioeconomic factors, and completed coursework. The results demonstrate that technical capital significantly predicts mathematical self-efficacy, with a predictive capacity of up to 59.6%. Moreover, tolerance for deviation in the model increased the predictive capacity to 94.2%. No significant differences in predictability were observed based on gender or academic program dependencies. However, gender differences revealed a more linear relationship between technical capital and digital/technical competence among women compared to men. Additionally, both genders displayed equivalent performance in knowledge-based questions. This suggests that men tend to overestimate their digital competence relative to their technical self-efficacy, while women do not exhibit the same tendency toward overconfidence. In conclusion, this study offers insights into how technical capital and self-efficacy in mathematics shape students’ educational outcomes.

In this thesis the focus is on upper secondary school students’ meaning-making in sustainability in science civic education. The aim is to study how meaning is created, if/how natural science is used and how democratic participation is constructed in students’ group discussions. The thesis also aims to create an awareness of the role science has in both the creation of meaning and the construction of democratic participation. The study is based on audio-recorded group discussions arising from two different sustainability tasks. Discursive psychology is used as an analytical framework, through the concepts of interpretative repertoires, ideological dilemmas and subject positions. The students use different interpretative repertoires that draw on different conceptions of the “world” (discourses) in their meaning-making. These different conceptions create ideological dilemmas that recur several times during the discussions and are therefore negotiated in different ways. The students then use strategies where these dilemmas are solved in a relatively simple manner. They construct the sustainability issue they discuss so that their ways to live and act/not act are portrayed as acceptable in the current situation. The students use their knowledge in and about science in their meaning-making. Science is used to make the "world" more understandable and raise questions; to evaluate, decide and act; to give authority to arguments; and to solve societal problems. The students’ science-making process contains various kinds of use of scientific knowledge, for example, clarify the conditions, identify consequences, scrutinize information, compare, assess, evaluate and use scientific methods. The discussions increase the students’ experience of using scientific knowledge and which functions scientific knowledge can have. The students construct democratic participation in various ways: trust in science and technology are expressed and awareness of what is considered as actions that are “good” for the environment; different perspectives are expressed and ideological dilemmas discussed; students use their scientific knowledge in socioscientific reasoning to create a deeper understanding of the issues discussed; scientific knowledge is also used for evaluating actions in relation to sustainability issues. However, the students see themselves having a major responsibility to act “good”, but without power to influence the development of society as a whole. The students have two projects going on during their discussions: to discuss and learn about the sustainability issue and make their own existence acceptable.