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This thesis aims to clarify how the Single market policy and the Social policy of the European Union has changed since the Treaty of Rome (1957) and what opportunities and/or constraints there might be for integrating gender mainstreaming within the policies.  In order to determine how the policy development affects the prospects of integrating gender mainstreaming, a case study supplemented with the method of content analysis is carried out. Furthermore, the thesis adopts a historical institutionalist perspective. Thereby, policy change is operationalised with the help of Peter Hall ́s theory of the three orders of change. It is therefore assumed that the concept of path dependency will explain how policy changes opens up opportunities for or constrain the integration of gender mainstreaming in the policy-making process.  The main findings show that the Single market policy mostly changed in accordance with the first order of change and that the Social policy mostly changed in accordance with the second order of change. These findings imply that a paradigm shift of the fundamental ideas and objectives of the policies have not occurred since the signing of the Treaty of Rome which complicates future integration of gender mainstreaming in the policies.

The purpose of this study is to examine the integration of gender and environmental policies in Stockholm municipality. The study seeks to address the integration of these policy areas as itbuilds on previous research that have already established that the integration of the two can support the achievement of sustainable development. However, as tensions and synergies between these policies are not that well-explored, this study adds to literature by identifyingtensions and synergies in terms of policy integration between gender and environment. The study seeks to answer to what extent these policies are integrated, what challenges, tensions,and possibilities to find synergies there are. This is done through a single case study and content analysis. The study presents a merging of the two theories policy integration and ecofeminism, which is divided into five themes and numerous codes for the analysis. Five policy documents from the municipality and eight interview transcripts with civil servants is analysed. The study found that there are some aspects of integration between the two already, but to a limited extent. It identifies tensions between gender and environment as well as structural and organisational challenges for integrating these policy areas. Moreover, synergies were identified between these policy areas. Some interesting findings of the data was that it indicated success to integrate these policy areas in some parts of the policy-process, whereas there were limitations to integrate in other parts. Therefore, the study concludes that there needs to be ensuring mechanisms for the integration in the whole policy-process and to take advantage of the synergies that appears. Hence, this study suggests that for future research it would be interesting to investigate other aspects of the policy-process. The study also concludes that the results can be extended to other municipalities or local governments that are facing the same challenges to consider many aspects while working in silos.

The Polish Law and Justice party has initiated domestic policies and regulations that challenge women’s rights. Poland is a member of the European Union where the gender inequality issues have never had such a high priority before and the union is currently operating under the Gender Mainstreaming strategy alongside with additional approaches. The two folded aim of this thesis is to create an understanding on how the Polish politicalauthorities can present backsliding tendencies of women’s rights by studying how thedomestic political institutions frame gender equality policies and Gender Mainstreaming followed by how the Polish political agents can legitimize the framings and implementations to the Polish society through the public discourse. A qualitative discourse analysis will be applied on materials from the EU, Polish politicalprograms and secondary sources such as news articles. The empirical findings suggest that the backsliding is part of a non-linear process where the Polish framing and implementation of policies on gender equality both converge and diverge from the EU. In the latest years, an incremental process of backsliding tendencies has appeared. As for the political discourse, the gender equality policies often end up in the background, overruled by pro-family policies. Also, the inadequate implementations and domestic framings is legitimized by the referencesto the foundational ideas of Polish society, where the EU challenges the traditional familywith “harmful gender ideologies”.

The purpose of this study was to explore how social institutions in South Africa and Zimbabwe respond to the mainstreaming of pregnant learners in formal education. A case study was used as the strategy of inquiry. Utilising a phenomenological, social constructivist and interpretivist lens and guided by a theoretical framework of action science theory, this exploratory qualitative study set out to investigate and compare how various stakeholders in South Africa and Zimbabwe respond to the policy of mainstreaming pregnant learners in schools. Data collection methods took the form of focus group and key participant semi-structured interviews, document analysis and a researcher observation and reflective journal. Two research sites comprised the case study. The sample at each of the identified sites consisted of 12 pregnant and former pregnant learners; 12 mainstream learners; 6 parents/legal guardians; 6 teachers; 6 community representatives on the school governing body. Data analysis consisted of a mix of hermeneutic, content and discourse analysis. Three findings emanated from this study. First, the socio-cultural beliefs, norms, practices and expectations of the community about pregnancy and ideal motherhood were more influential governing variables to educational access and participation of pregnant teenagers than the official school policy. Second, educators at both sites were found to have inadequate capacity to assist pregnant learners with schooling. Third, the South African school was found to provide more access to pregnant learners because of the more liberal and open response to teenage pregnancy. In contrast the conservative tendency to conceal the problem was observed at the Zimbabwean site. This study revealed that institutional policies that do not take into consideration the social, cultural and lived experiences of the relevant stakeholders are difficult to implement. The proposition is that there is usually a split between policy and practice, and that policy can be nothing more than political symbolism. An all-inclusive and consultative approach to policy formulation processes is recommended as an intervention strategy that could be used to counteract the problem. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

Mot bakgrunden av den könsneutrala värnplikten var uppsatsens syfte att identifiera diskurser om gender och jämställdhet inom Försvarsmakten. För att undersöka detta användes en diskursanalys där dagstidningsartiklar och Försvarsmaktens jämställdhetsdokument analyserades utifrån frågeställningarna om hur gender respektive jämställdhet diskuteras och förstås i dessa material. Analysen resulterade i elva identifierade diskurser; sex för gender och fem för jämställdhet. För gender identifierades en binär uppfattning av gender, drivande manlig sexualitet och kvinnliga offer som diskursiva ramar i jämställdhetsdokumenten. I dagstidningarna identifierades diskurser om mäns och kvinnors olika intresse, om maskulint förhållningssätt och manlig sexualitet. I analysen av jämställdhet identifierades en diskurs där kvinnor synliggörs och jämförs mot en osynlig manlig standard samt en diskurs om sexuella trakasserier i jämställdhetsdokumenten. I dagstidningsartiklarna identifierades diskurser om att kvinnor bidrar till försvarets operativa förmåga, att sexuella trakasserier utgör hinder för jämställdhet och att jämn könsfördelning ses som jämställdhet. Diskurserna i jämställdhetsmaterialen och dagstidningarna överlappade varandra till viss del, exempelvis gällande manlig sexualitet och sexuella trakasserier. Utifrån analysen konstaterades att Försvarsmaktens jämställdhetsarbete har ett fokus på sexuella trakasserier. Femininitet associeras till offerskap medan mäns sexualitet formuleras som aggressiv, vilket underbygger förståelsen av sexuella trakasserier inom Försvarsmakten. Den slutsats som dras från uppsatsen är att uppfattningarna om jämställdhet baseras på diskursiva uppfattningar om gender. Likaså baseras uppfattningarna om gender inom organisationen på de diskursiva förståelser som finns om jämställdhet. / In the context of the Swedish conscription being reformulated as gender neutral, this thesis aimed to identify discourses about gender and equality in the Swedish Armed Forces. A discourse analysis was used to identify how gender and gender equality is understood and discussed in newspaper articles as well as in the Swedish Armed Forces’ documents on gender equality. The analysis resulted in six identified discourses on gender. A binary understanding of gender, aggressive male sexuality and female victims were discourses about gender in the gender equality documents, whereas men’s and women’s different interests, masculine attitudes and aggressive male sexuality was discursive perceptions of gender in the newspapers. The analysis resulted in five identified discourses on gender equality. In the gender equality documents a discourse about women being compared to an invisible male standard was identified as well as a discourse about sexual harassment. In the newspapers one discursive notion was that women contribute to the efficiency of the defense; another was that sexual harassment is an obstacle for gender equality and a third discourse regards even gender ratio as gender equality. To some extent, the discourses in the newspapers and the gender equality documents overlapped, for example regarding male sexuality and sexual harassment. The analysis showed a skewed focus on sexual harassment in the Swedish Armed Forces’ gender equality work. Femininity is associated with victim hood while men’s sexuality is articulated as aggressive, which underpins the understanding of sexual harassment. The conclusions that are drawn from this thesis are that perceptions of gender and gender equality are co-constructed, meaning that they mutually depend on and construct each other.

Includes bibliography. / The primary aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes of primary school teachers in ordinary classrooms towards learners with low to medium special educational needs, and to discover under what conditions, if any, they would be willing to accommodate these learners in their classrooms. It was hypothesized that teachers are not willing to accept these students without considerable support. The secondary aim of the study was to explore individual teachers' reservations about mainstreaming and methods by which these concerns could be overcome. A research design and methodology incorporating both a quantitative and a qualitative dimension was used. The sample consisted of 113 teachers drawn from six primary schools in the broader Cape Town area. Two schools were included from each of the three ex-Education Departments. A questionnaire based on the Classroom Integration Inventory (Paul, Turnbull and Cruikshank, 1977) was developed and administered to the teachers. This provided the data for the primary investigation. The data for the secondary investigation was collected by means of semi-structured interviews which were conducted with the respondents who were least willing to accept learners with special educational needs. Contrary to the literature, the quantitative results of this study indicated that primary school teachers generally had positive attitudes towards mainstreaming learners with special educational needs. The qualitative analysis outcomes revealed that class size, a lack of skills, and the additional time and work which would be involved, were the most prominent concerns. Suggestions offered to overcome these reservations included decreased class sizes and in-service training. These findings were similar to those in the literature. This investigation was considered to be important as a policy of progressive mainstreaming is a currently debated proposal for the South African education crisis. The support of the ordinary classroom teachers would be vital for such educational reform to succeed. Although the quantitative results indicated a favourable response to mainstreaming, the data were gathered by means of questionnaires depicting a hypothetical situation, and some teachers may have supplied "politically correct" responses. Thus it was recommended that this finding be supported by further investigation.

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF EDUCATION in the Department of Educational Psychology of the Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand, 2007. / The aim of this investigation was to establish the challenges facing educators in the implementation of inclusive education. From the literature study it emerges that inclusive education constitutes a challenge to the education system in South Africa, in particular to mainstream educators. Successful implementation of inclusive education requires educators to have a positive attitude, be flexible and critical, creative and innovative in their approach to teaching and learning. Educators are expected to have the necessary knowledge, skills, competencies and support to accommodate a wide range of diversity among learners in an inclusive classroom. They must be able to select appropriate teaching strategies to achieve specific outcomes. Effective inclusion will only stay a dream if educators do not have the necessary training, support systems and appropriate resources. For the purpose of the empirical investigation a self-structured questionnaire, to be completed by educators from primary schools, was utilised. The data obtained from the completed questionnaires were analysed and commented on by means of descriptive statistics. In conclusion a summary was presented on the findings of the literature review and empirical investigation and the following are some of the recommendations that were made: > Opportunities for in-service training regarding inclusive education must be made available to mainstream educators. > The Department of Education must provide adequate support to educators concerning all aspects of inclusive education.

It is evident that climate change threatens considerable parts of the population. With effects such as floodings, heatwaves and water scarcity already visible and expected to increase in severity, adapting society is vital. In Sweden, the county administrative boards are dedicated the role to coordinate climate adaptation work and support, guide, and supervise the municipalities. However, the municipalities are responsible for the physical planning process. They thus play an important role in climate adaptation as it is statutory in the comprehensive plan.The aim of this thesis is to analyse how two Swedish municipalities that have significantly experienced the effects of climate change and are particularly vulnerable to them work with climate adaptation of the built environment as well as in the planning phase of new areas. Based oninterviews with officials and analysis of municipal documents, five important themes emerged. They include current work on climate adaptation, unpreparedness, legislation, co-operation, and the importance of the early stage. Both municipalities work with adaptation measures and integrate it into the planning process, to varying degrees. Unpreparedness is a challenge due to the longterm perspective and uncertainties in climate change. Legislation is often a barrier as it is lagging, making it difficult for municipalities to take necessary measures. It is easier to plan for adaptation measures in the planning phase of new areas than in the existing built environment. It is thus of considerable importance to incorporate climate adaptation in the early stage of the planning process.

For least developing countries with large rural population living in severe poverty such as Ethiopia, access to modern and sustainable energy services is a real challenge. Dealing with the lack of modern energy services at local level and the needs for economic development at national level is a major challenge in the policy and decision making process. This particular study takes the case of Ethiopia to investigate the existing challenges and future prospects of mainstreaming sustainable energy access into the country’s development planning process, and the consequences for international development financiers, national policy makers, private actors and local energy planners and experts. The roles and approaches of various developmental agencies are reviewed based on the effectiveness and sustainability of cooperation models with governmental institutions. To this end, this study establishes an understanding of institutional, financial and policy elements related to both state and non-state actors. Accordingly, readiness of the rural energy sector to adopt sector–perspective and national development approaches to mainstream sustainable energy access is investigated. The thesis emphasizes the need for all stakeholders to cooperate and take advantage of local potentials and external opportunities in light of the new momentum for sustainable energy access in the global agenda.