<p>According to the curriculum the Swedish school system should aim to let the democratic values permeate the school as a whole, and the school should assume each student's individual abilities in teaching. (Lpo -94) Democratic education is what the pragmatist John Dewey strongly encourages in his book <em>Democracy and Education</em>, which is why he stands for the theoretical framework of the concept of democracy in the school context. This study aims to examine whether and if so, the social roles in a classroom can affect students' opportunities for learning. The main research questions asked were:</p><ul><li>How can the social roles affect students' opportunities for learning in a classroom? </li><li>How do students perceive that the social roles in the classroom affect their opportunities for learning? </li></ul><p>This has been investigated by two complementary perspectives.  Partly thru a student perspective to raise the students 'own experiences, and partly from an outside perspective to show how I, as an observer can see that social roles affect students' opportunities for learning. The study encompasses three observation opportunities in a grade three, and six interviews with students from this class. The results of the study showed that social roles have significant impact on individuals' opportunities for learning in the classroom. The study reaches the conclusion that the social roles are not something that is possible to, or even desirable to ignore. However, it is important to be aware that different social roles in a classroom have different conditions. An education that is guided by democratic values will ensure that all pupils in the widest extent possible are given the same opportunities to learn and develop.</p><p> </p>

According to the curriculum the Swedish school system should aim to let the democratic values permeate the school as a whole, and the school should assume each student's individual abilities in teaching. (Lpo -94) Democratic education is what the pragmatist John Dewey strongly encourages in his book Democracy and Education, which is why he stands for the theoretical framework of the concept of democracy in the school context. This study aims to examine whether and if so, the social roles in a classroom can affect students' opportunities for learning. The main research questions asked were: How can the social roles affect students' opportunities for learning in a classroom? How do students perceive that the social roles in the classroom affect their opportunities for learning? This has been investigated by two complementary perspectives.  Partly thru a student perspective to raise the students 'own experiences, and partly from an outside perspective to show how I, as an observer can see that social roles affect students' opportunities for learning. The study encompasses three observation opportunities in a grade three, and six interviews with students from this class. The results of the study showed that social roles have significant impact on individuals' opportunities for learning in the classroom. The study reaches the conclusion that the social roles are not something that is possible to, or even desirable to ignore. However, it is important to be aware that different social roles in a classroom have different conditions. An education that is guided by democratic values will ensure that all pupils in the widest extent possible are given the same opportunities to learn and develop.

The purpose of this study is to explore the social role of librarians at public libraries. Public libraries promote themselves as open democratic arenas where everyone is welcome. This has the effect that all kinds of people visit public libraries, and might result in disconcerting situations involving for example persons suffering from mental illness or intoxicated people. The library staff might then be expected to handle threats or violence, situations that they have not been prepared or trained for. Even less turbulent social situations can be hard to juggle, such as regular library users who are unwilling to end a conversation or people who want to get too personal. This study takes an explorative approach on the social role in public librarianship, investigating the problematic as well as the pleasant social situations in public libraries. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted to collect statements from five librarians at various libraries. As a theoretical framework. Erving Goffman's theories about social interaction has been used to analyse the social role from a individual perspective. The concept ”community of practice" by Etienne Wenger has has been used to study the subject in a collective perspective. The results show that all the interviewed librarians saw themselves as having a social role but they approached it in different ways. Another conclusion is that the librarians in the study have formed a community of practice in the way they cooperate and the way they support and educate each other in connection to the social interactions with the library users.

This paper examines if the wedding rite today can be considered as a rite of consumption rather than a rite of passage, with base in the wedding gown. The method used is a qualitative text and content analysis, this method has been applied to three articles and one book whom discuss the wedding and consumption related to the bride gown. To analyze this material Arnold Van Gennep´s definition of rites of passage is applied. Weddings are in our time strongly influenced by consumption with a strong focus on materiality rather than on religion. The wedding gown can be considered to be one of the most important artefacts today concerning the bride adapting to her new identity and social role.