The aim of this thesis is to examine employees views on gender equality at a human resource company in Stockholm. Our results are obtained though interviews and observations. Our informants are, to the extent that it is possible, of different ages, job descriptions and statuses within the company. We have focused on employees’ perceptions of the company in regard to its work on topics that effect gender/discrimination in the work place. Through out this thesis we argue that employees at the human resource company use a discourse which is dedicated to topics of equality, however the employees do not practice these values in any noticeable way. Rather they show an ambivalence as to how these questions should be managed. Thus a discrepancy between discourse and practice is constructed within the company. By applying Robert Connell’s theory on hegemonic masculinity in combination with Lisbeth Bekkengen’s analysis of “child orientated masculinity” to our research we argue that a normative masculinity is created at the company, which not only constructs a marginalized masculinity in its wake, but also prohibits gender equality from becoming common practice. Another factor that complicates work on gender equality is that informants choose not to see gender asymmetries as structural, rather they are lifted out of their context and viewed as individual. Keyword: Human Resources, gender, equality, discourse, masculinity, practice, ethnicity

Abstract The main purpose of this thesis is to make the gender perspective of children’s literature visible. I wanted to find out if the books about Pippi Longstocking and Alfons Aberg are suited as basis for a gender discussion among students in the school. By proceed from the books I did a study in a children group in a youth recreation center. The total number of students was 10 aged 6 to 10 years. I chose the books and chapters I found most appropriate as a basis for a gender discussion. I read high for the group and afterwards they got some statement to reflect over. My conclusion is that both Alfons and Pippi are very good models for children because they digress from the current sex role pattern. The books adapt very well as a discussion basis concerning gender. However there was some difficulties to let the children to keep focus on the primary question it self. In this kind of investigation an experienced leader who can guide the conversation is needed. By using different valuation exercises you can make the conversations more stimulating for the children.   Keywords: Alfons Aberg, Pippi Longstocking, children’s book, gender, equality

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to illuminate and compare how teachers and parents are describing the homework. The study will also attempt to answer these issues; How is the purpose of the homework described from teachers and parents? How are the effects of the homework described by teachers and parents? How do teachers and parents describe the responsibility for the implementation of the homework? Methods: Qualitative study, a comparison between teachers and parents description of the homework phenomenon. The material that forms the discussion are fetched from blog forums. Summary of conclusions: The Swedish school system is based on democratic values. This means that the students are supposed to gain equal opportunity for qualified education independent of their socioeconomic backgrounds. Based on this context is the study relevant as the homework reveals that conditions and qualifications differ between students. It also becomes obvious that the homework is a well established method in the Swedish school even though that it no longer is even mentioned in the official curriculum guidance.

The purpose of this examination was to make a qualitative study focusing on children's influence from a gender perspective. The study is based on interviews. We wanted to investigate teachers' perception of children's influence in the preschool. Earlier research on children´s influence and gender has also helped us in the conclusion of this examination. The survey consists of ten interviews with teachers of varied work experience in the preschool. We also chose to interview teachers in other positions, since this is often the case in preschools today. From the result we can see that there are different levels of skill and awareness regarding the topic of children's influence from a gender perspective. Our researches shown that preschools are at different stages in their work on children's interests and that it is not always certain that girls and boys have the same amount of influence during their days at preschool. We concluded that those who claimed to work consciously with equality were more familiar with the subject, and that they had many thoughts about it. Another aspect that proved to be important was the impact of the learning environment to the children´s opportunity to affect their everyday lives. In conclusion, all the teachers said that children's influence is an important part of children's daily life at preschool as it is also a way to teach children democracy, consideration and respect for their environment.

The intercultural approach carries the same values as the democratic concept, which is the fundamental platform of the curriculum, Läroplanen. Keywords such as empathy, openness, democracy, education, critical thinking, human rights, identity, equality and understanding are some of the values that the democratic and the intercultural approach carry. The question is how these values are replicated in the education and the materials that are used in school? This is what this research is going to be focusing on. To answer this question, the research is going to analyze three national tests in English in grade nine. These three tests are the primary source of this study and they are from the years2000, 2005 and 2010. The main focus of this research is to see how the intercultural approach is replicated in the three tests. The range of the national tests is to see if there has been a development in the intercultural approach in the last decade. The conclusion of this research shows that there is a Western norm that permeates throughout the production of the national tests, which contradicts the goals of an intercultural and democratic education. Even though there is an effort to try to correspond the values of the curriculum, there is still a lack of knowledge from the producer’s counterpart. The producers of the National tests have to be aware of the powerful position they posses when making the tests. They have the power to share their ideas about another culture. The stories should promote values that are independent from prejudiced assumptions. Some may argue that the bias that is shared in the national test is hard to see, since we share the same frame of reference as the producers. This makes it harder to reveal prejudiced assumptions about another culture since there are no binary opposites or contrasts to make bias noticeable. But this fact could be avoided if you have the curriculum as your point of departure when producing the tests. The intercultural approach is to acknowledge cultural differences, without generalizing people and cultures. The intercultural approach is based on promoting knowledge about cultural differences, to avoid alienation that develops into prejudice assumptions about different cultural phenomena. The intercultural approach should contribute to establishing and encourage respect for each person´s integrity and belief. The result of this research shows that the National Agency of Education has not managed to fulfil these values, even after more than 3 decades of experience.

Gender mainstreaming is accepted by many national and international agencies and Non-governmental organization, as an effective strategy for promoting gender equality. Many researchers widely agree that essential but can also lead to poverty eradication, human development and general economic growth everywhere but more specifically in Africa.   This just shows the importance at a global level of gender equality and any strategy towards achieving it.     The main aim of this thesis is to assess how gender mainstreaming as a strategy and approach has led to gender equality within the Swedish Cooperative Centre-Viagroforestry  project-Kisumu (SCC-VI). It is based on exploring how gender mainstreaming works on a day-to-day basis in the project area. To collect relevant information, a detailed background review of Swedish Cooperative Centre-Viagroforestry  project was done; field staff were interviewed with the help of a predesigned semi -structured question guides and focused group discussions were conducted with different farmer groups involved in the project.     The interviews and the focused group discussions were later transcribed as part of analysis. The focus group discussions, which were conducted in Luo, were translated to English. The main finding was that as a project, SCC-Vi is committed to mainstreaming gender in its activities, however the staff had limited skills for mainstreaming. Similarly, it was clear that focus was mostly put on numbers/quantitative  aspects as opposed to the qualitative aspects of equality. The conclusion drawn here is that mainstreaming may lead to gender equality, but its success highly depends on how the process is implemented and whether there is adequate knowledge about the structural causes of inequality and skills the staff have to do it. From this research however, it was not possible to show that gender mainstreaming has led to equality.

This study is a sequential multi-methods research effort which examines the issue of equality in Chinese higher education after the recent expansion, and explores how educational equality has been shaped by policies which reflected the shifting value orientations of the government since 1949. Quantitative methods were used to discover the current patterns of educational equality. The dataset is derived from a survey carried out under a project supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Logistic regressions were conducted to discover the relations between students’ social background characteristics and their likelihood of studying in different part of the differentiated higher education system. The findings show that while overall access has increased greatly, advantaged groups have maintained their advantage in gaining entry to higher status universities and attractive disciplines. The study went deeper to explore the changing patterns of educational equality through historical analysis of policy using the lens of culture, since social phenomena are context-based and culture is a deep yet decisive force which has previously been given inadequate attention in relation to this issue. Applying a multidisciplinary approach, an indigenous analytical framework was developed which identified six dimensions of culture relating to educational equality, and Chinese cultural values were then organized along these dimensions. This framework was used to explain the results of the quantitative analysis at a deeper level. It was also used to construct ideal types of elitism and populism as a means of analyzing the historical process of policy change. The study found that policies regarding educational equality swung between these two poles in post 1949 China, due to an internal tension in the Chinese cultural value system which was in turn stimulated or provoked by diverse external influences. Four major modes were identified: politically restrained elitism, politically restrained populism, inclusive elitism, and a tendency toward harmony. This approach represents an original attempt to develop an indigenous framework to interpret educational equality through a cultural lens. The dissertation also seeks to contribute to knowledge and theory development in the comparative research on educational equality more widely, and to provide insights that may inform policy making.

This study is a sequential multi-methods research effort which examines the issue of equality in Chinese higher education after the recent expansion, and explores how educational equality has been shaped by policies which reflected the shifting value orientations of the government since 1949. Quantitative methods were used to discover the current patterns of educational equality. The dataset is derived from a survey carried out under a project supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Logistic regressions were conducted to discover the relations between students’ social background characteristics and their likelihood of studying in different part of the differentiated higher education system. The findings show that while overall access has increased greatly, advantaged groups have maintained their advantage in gaining entry to higher status universities and attractive disciplines. The study went deeper to explore the changing patterns of educational equality through historical analysis of policy using the lens of culture, since social phenomena are context-based and culture is a deep yet decisive force which has previously been given inadequate attention in relation to this issue. Applying a multidisciplinary approach, an indigenous analytical framework was developed which identified six dimensions of culture relating to educational equality, and Chinese cultural values were then organized along these dimensions. This framework was used to explain the results of the quantitative analysis at a deeper level. It was also used to construct ideal types of elitism and populism as a means of analyzing the historical process of policy change. The study found that policies regarding educational equality swung between these two poles in post 1949 China, due to an internal tension in the Chinese cultural value system which was in turn stimulated or provoked by diverse external influences. Four major modes were identified: politically restrained elitism, politically restrained populism, inclusive elitism, and a tendency toward harmony. This approach represents an original attempt to develop an indigenous framework to interpret educational equality through a cultural lens. The dissertation also seeks to contribute to knowledge and theory development in the comparative research on educational equality more widely, and to provide insights that may inform policy making.

The problem of detecting monotonic increasing/decreasing trends in variances from k samples is widely met in many applications, e.g. financial data analysis, medical and environmental studies. However, most of the tests for equality of variances against ordered alternatives rely on the assumption of normality. Such tests are often non-robust to departures from normality, which eventually leads to unreliable conclusions. In this thesis, we propose a combination of a robust Levene-type test and a finite-intersection method, which relaxes the assumption of normality. The new combined procedure yields a more accurate estimate of sizes of the test and provides competitive powers. In addition, we discuss various modifications of the proposed test for unbalanced design cases. We present theoretical justifications of the new test and illustrate its applications by simulations and case studies.

This study examines individual-level citizen participation in the notice and comment component of federal agency rulemaking. It focuses on characteristics of individual participants ascertained through a survey mailed to 400 actual commenters. Survey data is used to evaluate the representativeness of these participants to the general public. Also, the compatible of citizen participation in rulemaking with the democratic ideals of liberty, equality, and fairness is evaluated, along with potential consequences of proposed reforms.