According to Swedish school policy documents, every teacher’s assignment is to individually adapt the education to meet every student’s needs. There are no exact guidelines about how to make these adaptations. The purpose of this study is to investigate how six teachers interpret the policy documents and how they, according to themselves, work to achieve this. This study is built on six interviews with teachers who work with children in the ages from seven to ten. The theoretical perspectives of this study are based on John Dewey’s thoughts regarding every human being having different needs and the importance of meeting those needs. The other perspective is Lev Vygotskij’s zone of proximal development which means that learning is done by being helped by someone who has greater knowledge. The conclusions of this study are that the teachers all think that it is important to adapt the education to every individual. Some of the teachers give their students the same assignments, but give them different amounts of time to finish them. Other teachers expect different results depending on the student’s prerequisites. All of the teachers find it difficult to adapt the education to every student since there are no guidelines about how to do it.

In the light of the declining moral standards in South African society, there is a need for children to be supported and developed on their journey towards responsible adulthood. The school is regarded as one of the most relevant stakeholders in the teaching of values for the moral development of the younger generation in particular and broader society in general. I observed how teachers impart values to leaners through the subject Life Skills that also includes the moral aspect. This study employed a qualitative research method using a case study of four schools and twelve teachers. The four schools were purposefully selected to obtain a deeper understanding of the participants' experiences from different perspectives. The selected schools are from different socio-economic backgrounds. Two schools were selected from rural areas. However, the areas differed in the sense that one was in a traditional village under the authority of a tribal chief while other was on trust land bought by the residents. One school was selected from an informal settlement and one from a semi-urban area. Semi-structured interviews and classroom observations were conducted to gather data. Teachers were interviewed after school and field notes were taken to record data collected from the participants in order to examine how teachers understood and implemented teaching values education in the foundation phase. These values include, amongst others, social justice and equity whereby freedom of choice and access to education are highlighted. The study found that the professional training of life skills teachers and multiculturalism during life skills lessons, i.e. the cultural differences between the teachers and learners as members of a community, need to be addressed. The study also recommends that a relationship of trust between parents and schools should be established to help enable teachers to address the issue of moral regeneration in our society. Classroom observation was conducted during the collection of data. School policy documents were analysed and teachers were interviewed to get a deeper understanding of how they understood values and how they contributed to the development of young citizens. From the observations and interviews, it could be deduced that teachers have different understandings of values education. It was also found that teachers find it difficult to contextualise and reconcile cultural values with the values that they are supposed to teach at school. The recommendations based on the findings of my study include the professional training of Life Skills teachers and the promotion of multiculturalism during Life Skills lessons where the cultural differences between learners and teachers are addressed. The study also recommends that the relationship of trust between teachers, parents and the larger society should be entrenched in order to assist teachers to instil values in young learners. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Early Childhood Education / PhD / Unrestricted

This paper is about teachers ‘attitudes towards their pupils, both today and in the past. It describes various events with Adam, Elsa and Kajsa which I have observed at my preschool. Via a retrospective analysis I have attempted to understand how teachers ‘views of their pupils has changed from the beginning of the century to the present day. One of the questions was: How do preschool teachers pay attention to pupil’s participation? The school curriculum, equality plan and the United Convention on the Right of the Child were used as help documents during the preparation of this paper. In order to answer to the question, I have taken note of the various kinds of literature and theories, such as those of Vygotsky.

Since the events of September 11, 2001, the threat of terrorism has gained ever more political salience, occupying a place at the top of the EU political agenda. In response to the perceived threat, the EU has developed a distinct approach to counter-terrorism, themed around what is called the "fight against terrorism‟. This approach is more than just a set of institutional or public policy responses designed to negate the threat of terrorism; it is also an influential political discourse which plays an important role in the construction of counter-terrorism policy and the legitimisation of counter-terrorism policy responses. This thesis uses critical discourse analysis to study the discursive construction of EU counter-terrorism policy. It uses representative extracts from twenty counter-terrorism documents prepared by/or for the EU institution the European Council, across a ten-year period from November 1999 to December 2009. The analysis identifies several strands of the "fight against terrorism‟ discourse, which it is argued are central to its constitution and that remain consistent across the period analysed. In the post-September 11 period, these strands of the counter-terrorism discourse play an important role in constructing an ubiquitous internal/external "terrorist‟ threat. These include: terrorism as a "criminal act‟; terrorism as an act perpetrated primarily by "non-state actors‟; terrorism as "new‟ and seeking to gain access to and/or use weapons of mass destruction; the threat of terrorism linked to an "open‟ or "globalised‟ geo-strategic environment, thus requiring measures of "control‟ at the EU border; and the threat of terrorism linked to "violent radicalisation‟ or "Islamist terrorism‟, emanating both internally ("home-grown terrorism‟) and externally to the EU. When these different strands are taken together they constitute the "fight against terrorism‟ discourse. It is argued that this discourse helps to construct the identity of the EU, whilst simultaneously the identity of the EU is central to the formulation of counter-terrorism policies. As such, the representations contained within the counter-terrorism discourse and counter-terrorism policy are considered to be mutually or co-constitutive. The main contention of the thesis therefore is that EU identity is constituted through the "fight against terrorism‟ discourse. Critical discourse analysis was chosen as a method through which to investigate EU counter-terrorism policy because it allows us to: map how the "fight against terrorism‟ discourse is constructed; to demonstrate how it provides a language for talking about terrorism; to understand how the discourse defines what is accepted knowledge about (who or what is) terrorism; and to reveal how that knowledge structures the counter-terrorism policy response as a "natural‟ or "common-sense‟ approach to the challenge of terrorism. This approach is novel in the sense that it is attentive to often neglected issues such as identity. In particular, it explores how the "fight against terrorism‟ discourse construct a "European‟ sense of Self in opposition to a "terrorist‟ Other. It investigates the extent to which the "fight against terrorism‟ discourse plays a role in the legitimisation of new security practices; as well as reflecting on the extent to which these practices are contributing to the blurring of the distinction between internal and external security policy. It also considers whether the discourse is reflective of a process of "securitisation‟ of social and political life within Europe.

Social studies, or citizenship education, seems to be a hot topic when it comes to questions regarding the school. Research shows that social studies, as a school subject, is hard to define and at the same time, defined by many. The aim of this study is to examine which aspects of social studies is emphasized in the national curriculum. The focus is primary school. Furthermore, the purpose is also to examine how a selected number of municipalities, in their own policy documents, address these sections in national curriculum. Following questions have been answered with discourse analysis: What relevant discourses regarding social studies can be found in the national curriculum and how is the relationship between them? Which educational purposes are formulated within these discourses? Is it possible to see reflections of these discourses in the municipal steering documents, and if so, how are they expressed? The result shows that discourses surround the word knowledge, and that one aspect of knowledge is dominating. This aspect is even more dominating in the municipalities own steering documents and other aspects are beeing supressed.

<p>The aim of this study is to find out in which way the education about climate in school is taught and how the students experience the world situation today. There are various theories about the greenhouse effect and its origin and these theories should be addressed to ensure that students get a broader understanding of how climate change occurs. This includes the natural phenomena and also the human impact on climate change. Students in school are a source of concern that only human are the cause of global warming, and know little or almost nothing about the natural phenomena of global warming.  I will mention what has emphasized in the national steering documents in the case of environmental education at school.</p><p>I have used a qualitative method, where interviews and document analysis were used as techniques. The interviews took place with five students in ninth grade and with three science teachers in the same school.</p>

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Abstract The purpose of this survey is to examine how educators work with reading- and writing-skills in preschool with six year old children. I want to examine if the new curriculum, Lgr11, has affected the school teachers in their teaching of reading- and writing and if their work has changed through the years. Using a qualitative study, five preschool-teachers, working in preschool for several years, were interviewed to be heard of their thoughts about this topic. The survey shows that preschool-teachers are more familiar with the curriculum of today, in relation to previous curriculums. Much because of that the new one is more addressed to preschool compared with earlier curriculums but also that the teachers in an easier way can see the pupils’ way to knowledge. The preschools in the survey also work more and more similar to grade one. The difference is that the school uses more books and materials and that the preschool emphasis the importance of early childhood education in their business and that preschool teaches more knowledge about drama, music and the children play. A current question is how preschool and grade one can cooperate so that all pupils can develop their reading- and writing-skills as good as possible. / Sammanfattning Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur pedagoger arbetar med läs- och skrivinlärningen i förskoleklass. Jag vill undersöka om den nya läroplanen, Lgr11 (läroplan för grundskolan, förskoleklass och fritidshemmet 2011), påverkat personalen i läs – och skrivundervisningen och om pedagogernas arbete förändrats under årens lopp. Med hjälp av en kvalitativ studie är fem förskollärare som arbetat under många år i förskoleklass intervjuade, för att få höra deras tankar om detta. Undersökningen visar att de intervjuade förskollärarna i förskoleklass är mer insatta i den läroplan vi har idag i förhållande till de läroplaner vi haft tidigare. Mycket därför att den riktar sig mer till förskoleklass i jämförelse med tidigare läroplaner men också för att man kan se de kunskapskrav som eleverna ska nå på ett tydligare sätt än förut. Dessutom arbetar förskoleklasserna i studien alltmer liknande årskurs ett. Enligt de intervjuade lärarna är skillnaden att man i skolan använder sig av mer böcker och material och att förskoleklassen betonar vikten av förskolepedagogiken i sin verksamhet och tycker sig lära ut kunskap mer med hjälp av drama, musik och lek. En fråga som blir aktuell är hur förskoleklass och årskurs ett ska kunna samarbeta för att alla elevers fortsatta läs- och skrivutveckling ska bli så optimal som möjligt.

The aim of this study is to find out in which way the education about climate in school is taught and how the students experience the world situation today. There are various theories about the greenhouse effect and its origin and these theories should be addressed to ensure that students get a broader understanding of how climate change occurs. This includes the natural phenomena and also the human impact on climate change. Students in school are a source of concern that only human are the cause of global warming, and know little or almost nothing about the natural phenomena of global warming.  I will mention what has emphasized in the national steering documents in the case of environmental education at school. I have used a qualitative method, where interviews and document analysis were used as techniques. The interviews took place with five students in ninth grade and with three science teachers in the same school.

Principle of sustainability, as in all areas, is becoming a major issue in urban transportation planning all around the world. Urban transportation political and legal documents are statutory basis of urban transportation plans and projects and developed countries have established urban transportation political and legal documents to ensure that local governments implement plans and projects in line with the sustainability principle. In this thesis, it is intended to analyze the sufficiency of central government&rsquo / s political and legal documents on urban transportation in Turkey in realizing the sustainability of urban transportation plans and projects. For this aim, political and main legal documents of sustainable urban transportation in United States of America (USA) and United Kingdom (UK), which is accepted as one of the leaders in the world about sustainable transportation, are analyzed. Based on this analysis a checklist has been produced, highlighting headings for sustainable urban transportation that should be present in a country&rsquo / s political and legal documents in order to guide and perhaps enforce local governments. Then this checklist has been applied to Turkey to determine strengths and weaknesses of political documents and legislations in Turkey with regards to sustainable urban transportation. A comparative analysis has also been carried out with Turkey, USA and UK under three main headings which are policy documents / guidance papers for local governments, acts and laws / and nation-wide studies. As a result, strengths and weaknesses about political and legal basis of sustainable urban transportation in Turkey have been illustrated and recommendations were made for Turkey to adopt guidance papers and legislations.