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

Den här uppsatsen baseras på en enkätundersökning bland lärare i en kommun i Östergötland, där lärarnas uppfattning, om det fanns plats för passion i vardagspraktiken och om det uppmuntrades och stöttades av skolledningen, undersöktes. Frågeställningarna, om lärarnas uppfattning om de har någon passion, om de får möjlighet att utöva den i sin vardagsprakrik, om de stimuleras eller hindras av styrdokumenten, samt om de upplever att skolledningen tillför inspirerande motivation i en passionerad vardagspraktik, ledde till enkätfrågorna. Detta är en kvantitativ studie i enkätform, inom det empirisk-induktiva fältet, med en kvalitativt inriktad analys då svaren i enkäten är lärares uppfattningar av bl.a. relationer till skolledning och kollegor. Den har sin grund i positivismen, med så objektiva frågeformulering som möjligt samt lärarnas uppfattningar av fenomen och företeelser som svar (Bryman, 2002). Goda exempel av lärares uppfattningar analyserades och sammanfattades utifrån den förståelse som tidigare forskning gett. Aktuell forskning undersöktes och sammanlänkades med de undersökningsresultat som erhållits. Lärarna uppfattar att de får utrymme för sina passioner i vardagspraktiken, att de uppmuntras och stöttas av skolledningen och att deras arbete med passioner är lönemeriterande. Skolledarna möter lärarna i pedagogiska diskussioner, men är mindre benägna att ge tid schemamässigt. Vad gäller styrdokumenten anser lärarna att de inte är något hinder för en passionerad vardagspraktik. Kärnan i undersökningen var ändå om lärarna ansåg att de hade någon passion och det fanns en samstämmighet runt den elevcentrerade passionen: Elevernas lärande och elevernas välmående var i fokus när de skulle ange sin passion i vardagspraktiken. / This essay is based on a survey among teachers in a municipality in Östergötland, where the teachers' opinion, if there was room for passion in everyday practice and if it was encouraged and supported by the school management, was investigated. The issues of teachers' perception if they have passion, if they are given the opportunity to exercise it in the everyday practice, if they are stimulated or hindered by the policies, and whether they interpret the school management adding inspiring motivation in a passionate everyday practice, led to the survey questions.   This is a quantitative survey in the form of a questionnaire, in the empirical-inductive field, with a qualitatively oriented analysis where the answers in the questionnaire are teachers' experiences of, inter alia, relationships with school management and colleagues. It is rooted in positivism, with objective questionnaires, as well as teachers' perceptions of phenomena and phenomena responses (Bryman, 2002).   Good examples of teachers impressions were analyzed and summarized based on the understanding that was given by previous research. Current research was studied and linked with the findings obtained. The teachers perceive they get space for their passions in everyday practice, they are encouraged and supported by the school management and that their work passions are wage meritorious. School leaders meet teachers in educational discussions, but are less likely to give time schedule-wise. As for the policy documents the teachers consider them not to be an obstacle to a passionate everyday practice.   The core of the investigation was still if the teachers perceived that they had any passion, and there was a consensus around the student-centered passion: Students' learning and students' well-being was the focus when their passion in everyday practice was to be mentioned.

The purpose of this study is to describe children’s life issues. What kind ofquestions they have aboutlife, their thoughts about life. Another purpose of this study is to see the differences in how children’s thoughts about life have changed through the years. I have used a book called Barns tankar om livetwritten by Sven G Hartman which I used to make a comparison. This study will alsodiscusswhat the policy documents for Swedish schools say about the subject “life issues” or the questions of life.The method used for this study is a qualitative researchmethod. Eight children got interviewed and the results have been represented in a dialogue together with Hartman (1986) and Hartman (2007) result. For any further research of this study it would be interesting to do a studythat shows whetherSwedish schools follow the policy documents in the case of the “life issues”. To see how much the schools discuss such things.

I studien undersöks individers olika behandling i det svenska skolsystemet utifrån etnisk, kulturell och religiös härkomst. Fokus ligger på skolans styrdokument och den teoretiska utgångspunkten är den universalistiska och mångkulturalistiska perspektiven på hur en individ ska behandlas och vilka fri- och rättigheter den ska kunna åtnjuta. Studien belyser de olika perspetiven och eventuella spänningar dem emellan. Slutsaten är att båda perspektiven finns representerade i styrdokumenten och att spänningar faktiskt existerar. Där till konstateras det att det universalistiska perspektivet alltid har ett övertag gentemot det mångkulturalistiska. Det redogörs vidare för hur riksdag och regering gjort det omöjligt för rektorer att bevilja befrielse från undervisning på etnisk, kulturell och/eller religiös grund. Avslutningsvis förs en diskussion om möjliga orsaker till den problematik som existerar i de svenska skolorna och vad vidare forskning inom området skulle kunna fokusera på för att lösa dessa problem. / The study examines differences in treatment on grounds of ethnic, cultural and/ or religious group affiliation in the Swedish school system. The aim is to highlight these issues from perspectives of universalism and multiculturalism, focusing on the school's policy documents. The study is carried out by highlighting the representation of the perspectives and the tensions that may arise between them. The conclusion is that there are representations of both perspectives and that tensions do exist. In addition, it is concluded that the universalist approach has a clear advantage and that differences in treatment based on the above reasons do not find support in the school’s policy documents. Finally, possible causes for the situation found in the Swedish school system where differences in treatment do exist are discussed.