The aversion to the study of mathematics and the resultant poor performance by students generally cannot be overemphasized and this still poses a great threat to the needed skills in the science, technology and commerce sector in South Africa. This study therefore tends to explore the importance of Mathematics to students and the economy globally by focusing on which contributive psychological factors are responsible for low performance in mathematics among Pre degree students as a case study. In addition also, the teaching and learning strategies used in the classroom that will help curb mathematics anxiety among students will be looked into. Furthermore a test to ascertain if poor teaching methods or pedagogical content knowledge of mathematics’ teachers influence anxiety thereby leading to poor performance in mathematics will be carried out. By utilizing a mixed method approach, an integration of the qualitative and quantitative approaches, the study attempted to provide an insight into the poor performances in Mathematics by Pre-degree students in a Private Institution of higher learning by exploring the following affective domains: 1) Anxiety 2) Motivation (lack of either the Internal & External type) and also considering the teaching strategies adopted on the other hand. The theoretical framework applied to this study was three fold in nature, namely, to investigate the nature of the relationship between mathematics anxiety and mathematics achievement on one side, secondly, to investigate the nature of the relationship between motivational orientation and mathematics achievement on the other side. Finally, it will investigate the relationship between teaching methods and mathematics achievement. The major findings that emanated from this study were as follows: there is a strong impact of the affective factors (anxiety, beliefs, emotions and motivation) on mathematics learning and success rates among Pre-degree students in South Africa. This study shows the importance of affective factors (such as anxiety, negative attitude, lack of motivation) in determining the success and or failure of mathematics learning, with the intention of promoting and encouraging positive traits, attitudes and beliefs in the students. The issue of teaching strategies was however not of a strong impact on success rates in bridging mathematics among the students as their lecturers were commended to be on top of their subject, but only that strategies to teaching mathematics must be dynamic, effective and varied as much as possible to meeting the students diverse learning styles . / Mathematics Education / M. Ed. (Mathematics Education)

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Nature-based Solutions (NBS) are currently considered among the most effective tools available to city administrations and urban planners to tackle the negative effects of climate change.This umbrella concept comprises a large set of different low-impact technical solutions that are inspired/supported, or copied, from nature. NBS are particularly valued as they can help cities foster sustainability and enhance resilience, while providing social benefits and new economic opportunities. NBShave been selected as a priority by the European Commission.Existing literature does not provide a clear, unique definition of NBS nor sufficient empirical support to demonstrate long-term change in communities and affected territories, particularly for participatory actions, as these are often difficult to analyse, measure, and assess. Adapting NBS-based strategies to local contexts is always a challenge – not only in terms of physical interventions, but particularly in terms of creating common understanding and long-term impact. Yet, dissemination activities, exchanges and debates across local and global actors are often considered as ‘collateral’.Starting from these premises, the study investigates the role of communication across local and global networks in NBS projects to explore which elements favour or hinder collaboration and knowledge creation, looking for possible seeds of transformation that might go undetected due to their intangible, non-quantifiable nature.Through a case study and a set of qualitative interviews, the challenges of understanding and adopting NBS will be tackled among the local and the global, revealing the importance of transdisciplinarity and a set of enabling conditions to facilitate transformative learning, and the role of flexible, adaptable participatory approaches to enhance collaborative open innovation. Possible ways forward and challenges towards forms of participatory governance will also be included.The analysis is clustered per themes to investigate the dynamics of dissemination activities, living lab settings and collaboration among international partners, as well as the overall influence of the European dimension; it ends with challenges and opportunities for the future of living labs and collaboration after the closure of the project. Meaningful examples and best practices shared by the2interviewees will guide the analysis. Additional topics and concerns as expressed freely by the participants will be outlined.As outlined in the closing section, reiteration of concepts and multiple opportunities to learn, experience and exchange about NBS are needed at local and global level. To support such collaborative effort, it takes one or more skilled facilitators as well as project frameworks to enable cross-sectoral collaboration and spontaneous inputs, towards innovative, long-lasting strategies to contribute in the global battle against climate change in cities.In the conclusions, through experiences and suggestions from the participants, possible strategies and actions will be reported, inviting for further transdisciplinary research by highlighting how intangible and practical items contribute to nature-based thinking. As to say: “to be inspired by natural processes in all aspects of urban development to create more holistic approaches to sustainable cities'' (Randrup, et al., 2020, p. 2).

The aim of this paper is to document the development of a method for detectionand quantification of Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) in soil using GasChromatography (GC) connected to a Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer (MS) via aninternal standard (CB189). The method developed is performed in conjunction withthe information provided by the Swedish environmental agency (Svenskanaturvårdsverket, SNV) in regards to PCB limits for sensitive land usage. The steps ofthe method and maintenance of the GC/MS are used to create a user manual andan attempt at transformative learning is done in an effort to teach the staff atLjungaLab AB so that at the very least, independent analysis can be run and at best,new methods and application are independently developed for the GC/MS. Anevaluation of the teaching efforts is also done to assess what grade of learning isachieved. / Syftet med denna uppsats är att dokumentera utvecklingen av en metod fördetektion och kvantifiering av polyklorerade bifenyler (PCB) i jord med hjälp avgaskromatografi (GC) ansluten till en masspektrometer (MS) och med användningav en intern standard (CB189). Metoden som utvecklats skapades med hjälp avuppgifter från det svenska naturvårdsverket (SNV) angående PCB-gränser för känsligmarkanvändning. Därefter skapades en användarmanual som beskriver stegen imetoden och även underhåll av GC/MS. Personalen på LjungaLab AB undervisadesi hur man använder och underhåller instrumenten för att, åtminstone, kunna köraoberoende analyser, och i bästa fall, utveckla nya metoder och tillämpningarsjälvständigt. Det sistnämda är ett försök till transformativ lärande. En utvärdering avlärarinsatser sker också för att bedöma vilken grad av lärande som uppnås.

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This study comparatively analyzes the narratives containing six international graduate student mothers’ lived experiences. Stories about intersectional identities and their transformation process through new experiences were reconstructed by the participants as storytellers. These student mothers are enrolled in international master’s programs in Sweden, who are underrepresented population in higher education research. Also, Sweden as a host country and learning setting is an under-researched location for this topic. The findings show that IGSMs (International graduate student mothers) learning and living abroad experiences include various challenges and diverse enablers. Their experiences are shaped by the host country, the institute, and the people around them. They experienced that social and cultural values embedded in the specific learning space affected their experiences, and the participants also felt it through social and cultural differences and transformation in themselves. All participants had a unique intersection of their multiple identities, and they made their strategies to deal with dilemmas and struggles. They learned new perspectives, attitudes, and lessons from interactions with other individuals, culture shock, observing differences, and through their studies and family. This study provides a chance to understand how female learners make sense of the ‘self’ and the world around them and how they transform their perspectives in international higher education settings while they face important phases in their family and academic life.

The study examines how a small-scale formative intervention and concepts from both activity theory and salutogenic perspective can be used to support teachers' transformative agency and school development work. The research questions have focused on capacity for change, sense of coherence (SOC) and the significance of local conditions for change initiatives.  The theoretical and methodological framework in the study stems from third generation activity theory and salutogenic perspective. The study has a qualitative approach and was conducted through a formative intervention with six teachers, in collaboration with a municipal secondary school. Data have been collected through participant observation, reflection logs and semi-structured interviews, and processed through thematic analysis based on the theoretical standpoints. In addition, the studied school and the intervention group have been analysed as two interacting activity systems. The results show that the prevailing conditions of the individual school greatly affect development initiatives and change processes, as well as the teachers' transformative agency. Furthermore, it appears that emotional aspects and intra- and interpersonal factors have a significant impact on the actions of both teachers and school management. The results also suggest that the SOC concept can be incorporated in formative interventions, both as a facilitating instrument and as a secondary stimulus. / I studien undersöks hur en småskalig formativ intervention och koncept från både aktivitetsteori och salutogent perspektiv kan användas för att stödja lärares transformativa agentskap och skolans utvecklingsarbete. Forskningsfrågorna har fokuserat på förändringskapacitet, känsla av sammanhang (KASAM) och de lokala villkorens betydelse för förändringsinitiativ. Studiens teoretiska och metodologiska ramverk utgår från tredje generationens aktivitetsteori och salutogent perspektiv. Undersökningen har en kvalitativ ansats och genomfördes inom ramen för en formativ intervention med sex lärare, i samarbete med en kommunal högstadieskola. Data har samlats in via deltagande observation, reflektionsloggar och semistrukturerade intervjuer, och bearbetats genom tematisk analys utifrån de teoretiska utgångspunkterna. Därtill har den studerade verksamheten och interventionsgruppen analyserats som två interagerande aktivitetssystem. Resultatet visar att den enskilda skolans rådande villkor i hög utsträckning påverkar utvecklingsinitiativ och förändringsprocesser, liksom lärarnas transformativa agentskap. Vidare framgår att emotionella aspekter och intra- och interpersonella faktorer har en betydande inverkan både lärarnas och skolledningens agerande. Resultatet tyder också på att KASAM-konceptet kan inkorporeras i formativa interventioner, både som ett möjliggörande instrument och som sekundär stimulus.

Problematisering: En del av ledarskapets svåraste uppdrag är att bibehålla motivation och prestation bland medarbetare. Medarbetare som presterar genererar en framgångsrik organisation. Motivationen till att fortsätta prestera tenderar att förändras och avta med åldern. En organisation som har omotiverade medarbetare uppnår inte bästa tänkbara resultat och ledare har ett stort ansvar för medarbetarnas förutsättningar att fortsätta prestera och finna motivation i sitt arbete. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att undersöka vilken syn ledare har på äldre medarbetare samt vilken attityd de har till äldre medarbetare. Studien ska även undersöka vilken strategi ledarna tillämpar för att motivera äldre medarbetare till att fortsätta prestera på arbetsplatsen. Metod: Genom att tillämpa en kvalitativ metod i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer har studien kunnat undersöka och analysera vilken syn och attityd ledare har till äldre medarbetare och vilken strategi som är avgörande för att bibehålla motivation och prestation bland äldre medarbetare. Slutsats: Det främsta sambandet som återfinns är synen på äldre medarbetare som föråldrade kunskaper, färdigheter och attityder. De äldre medarbetarna har vidare skickligheter och kunskaper som anses vara ovärderliga för organisationen. Studiens resultat visar att ett transformativt och individanpassat ledarskap har varit framgångsrikt för att motivera äldre medarbetare till att fortsätta prestera. Ledarens attityd till åldern har en påverkan på individen och dess förmåga vilket främst har påverkats vid förändringar, tekniska incitament och den fysiska förmågan. / Problematization: Part of the leadership's hardest mission is to maintain motivation and performance among employees. Employees who perform generate a successful organization. The motivation to continue performing tends to change and wane with age. An organization that has unmotivated employees does not achieve the best possible results, and leaders have a great responsibility for the employees' conditions to continue performing and find motivation in their work. Purpose: The aim of the study is to investigate what view managers have of older employees and what attitude they have towards older employees. The study will also investigate which strategy the leaders apply to motivate older employees to continue performing in the workplace. Method: By applying a qualitative method in the form of semi-structured interviews, the study has been able to investigate and analyze which view and attitude leaders have towards older employees and which strategy is decisive for maintaining motivation and performance among older employees.  Conclusion: The main connection found is the view of older employees as outdated knowledge, skills and attitudes. The older employees also have skills and knowledge that are considered invaluable to the organization. The study's results show that a transformative and individualized leadership has been successful in motivating older employees to continue performing. The leader's attitude to age has an impact on the individual and his ability, which has mainly been affected by changes, technical incentives and physical ability.

Ledarskapsteori är ett viktigt ämne inom forskning, för att göra det möjligt att optimera prestation och trivsel hos medarbetare i organisationer. Det skapar även möjligheter för ledare att anpassa sig efter sina medarbetare och skapa trivsamma och produktiva arbetsplatser.   Denna studie undersöker sambandet mellan ålder och ledarskapspreferenser hos HR-anställda i Sverige. HR-anställda ansågs vara relevanta att studera då de har stor påverkan på hälsan hos alla anställda på en arbetsplats. Studien utfördes i form av en enkät som besvarades av 221 respondenter, där 21 frågor från instrumentet Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, MLQ, besvarades. Frågorna mätte ledarstilarna Transformativt ledarskap, Transaktionellt ledarskap samt Laissez faire-ledarskap. Dessutom togs hänsyn till fyra olika generationsindelningar i studien; Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y och Generation Z. Dessa representerar åldern på den arbetskraft som befinner sig på arbetsmarknaden idag.   Resultatet visade på ett negativt samband mellan ålder och preferens för transformativt ledarskap, vilket indikerar att yngre personer föredrar ledare som är mer transformativa i sitt ledarskap. Det fanns även samband mellan preferens för olika ledarstilar, vilket tyder på att en ökad preferens för en av ledarstilarna indikerar en högre preferens för ytterligare en ledarstil. Studien ställer sig kritisk till generationsindelningar, då det inte fanns några signifikanta skillnader mellan preferenserna hos individer från olika generationer. / Leadership theory is an important subject within research, to create information and knowledge of how leadership preferences can differ between individuals. It also creates an opportunity for leaders to adapt their leadership to different co-workers and create healthy workplaces.   The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between age and leadership preference in HR-employees in Sweden. HR-employees was considered to be relevant since they are accountable for the health of all employees at a workplace. A survey was conduced, where the 221 respondents answered 21 questions from the questionnaire Multifactor Leadership Questionnare, MLQ. The questions measured the leadership types Transformative leadership, Transactional leadership and Laissez-faire leadership. Four generations were also considered; Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y and Generation Z, which represent the age of the workforce in Sweden at the time the study was conducted.   The study found a negative correlation between age and preference for Transformative leadership, which indicated that younger people prefer leaders who are transformative in their leadership. There were also correlations between preferences for different leadership types, where a higher preference for one leadership type also indicated a higher preference for another leadership type. The study is critical to dividing and judging people based on generation, since there were no differences between the preferences in individuals from different generations.

Museums as colonial institutions and agents in nation building have constructed, circulated and reinforced colonialist, patriarchal, heteronormative and cisnormative national narratives. Yet, these institutions can be subverted, resisted and transformed into sites of critical public pedagogy especially when they invite Indigenous artists and curators to intervene critically. They are thus becoming important spaces for Indigenous counter-narratives, self-representation and resistance—and for settler education. My study inquired into Cree artist Kent Monkman’s commissioned touring exhibition Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience which offers a critical response to Canada’s celebration of its sesquicentennial. Narrated by Monkman’s alter ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, the exhibition tells the story of the past 150 years from an Indigenous perspective. Seeking to work on unsettling my “settler within” (Regan, 2010, p. 13) and contribute to understandings of the education needed for transforming Indigenous-settler relations, I visited and studied the exhibition at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta and the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. My study brings together exhibition analysis, to examine how the exhibition’s elements work together to produce meaning and experience, with autoethnography as a means to distance myself from the stance of expert analyst and allow for settler reflexivity and vulnerability. I developed a three-lens framework (narrative, representational and relational/embodied) for exhibition analysis which itself became unsettled. What I experienced is an exhibition that has at its core a holism that brings together head, heart, body and spirit pulled together by the thread of the exhibition’s powerful storytelling. I therefore contend that Monkman and Miss Chief create a decolonizing, truth-telling space which not only invites a questioning of hegemonic narratives but also operates as a potentially unsettling site of experiential learning. As my self-discovery approach illustrates, exhibitions such as Monkman’s can profoundly disrupt the Euro-Western epistemological space of the museum with more holistic, relational, storied public pedagogies. For me, this led to deeply unsettling experiences and new ways of knowing and learning. As for if, to what extent, or how the exhibition will unsettle other visitors, I can only speak of its pedagogical possibilities. My own learning as a settler and adult educator suggests that when museums invite Indigenous intervention, they create important possibilities for unsettling settler histories, identities, relationships, epistemologies and pedagogies. This can inform public pedagogy and adult education discourses in ways that encourage interrogating, unsettling and reorienting Eurocentric theories, methodologies and practices, even those we characterize as critical and transformative. Using the lens of my own unsettling, and engaging in a close reading of Monkman’s exhibition, I expand my understandings of pedagogy and thus my capacities to contribute to understandings of public pedagogical mechanisms, specifically in relation to unsettling exhibition pedagogies and as part of a growing conversation between critical adult education and museum studies. / Graduate