The present licentiate thesis aims to investigate students’ written reflections after reading a Kenyan short story, distant from the students’ previous experiences from a geographical, cultural and societal point of view. The study was carried out at Swedish upper secondary school with 83 16- and 17-year-old students in year one and two at a college preparatory program. After individual reading of the Kenyan short story “Treadmill love” (“Kärlek på löpande band”, Kahora, 2006/2010) the students were instructed to write down “what in the short story they took notice of”). The research questions that guide the study deal with aspects such as what themes can be identified in the students’ written reflections about the short story, what characterizes the interaction between the students and the short story, and what kind of choices connected to the teaching and learning of literature the teachers of these students face? The findings reveal a tendency to use the short story a source of factual information of society and geographical as well as cultural aspects. This may lead to a meta-perspective and suggests a critical literacy. The same students’ reading strategies tend to enhance what they consider as exotic in the text, which contributes to an imagined authenticity. At the same time, the aesthetic aspects are de-emphasized and aesthetic and literary characteristics of the text risk remaining unnoticed, The results also show how some of the students tend to define literary aspects of the text, such as choice of language, form and characters’ actions, with what they describe as “non-western” qualities. In these cases, the students move away from the text, which also tends to strengthen binary oppositions of “us and them”. A pedagogical implication of the study concerns the necessity, when reading world literature, of helping the students develop their ability to shift perspectives and observe their own subjective point of departure from a critical perspective. But equally important is the need of tools for putting focus back on fiction as an aesthetic and fictional piece of work.

The following essay analyzes Marvel blockbuster Black Panther with an intersectional lens, discussing relations of power, oppression and discrimination through the fictive society of Wakanda. The findings present similar factors of intersectionality to that of most western societies, with gender, sexuality, aptitude and tribal affiliations as the main factors of identity. The essay argues for the inclusion of culturally loaded films in the EFL classroom, with the intention of introducing students to intersectionality through a fictive society, in an effort to promote better understanding of relations of power, oppression and discrimination, whilst also including education on different types of language usage

Religious education (RE) is one of eight mandatory courses in upper secondary school in Sweden, due to the curriculum of GY11. It has a broad and extent content in comparison to its limited educational time, giving an indication that RE teachers need to make strategic didactical choices. This study focuses on lifting the RE teachers’ own voices by finding out situations where they describe a need of making didactical choices, what didactical choices they end up doing and what motivates those choices. Based on grounded theory, five qualitative interviews with RE teachers in upper secondary school has been interpreted and extracted as the empirical basis of the presented result. The results connect the situations of choices with the decision basis and didactic choices, where the final didactical choice can be understood from the two other factors. The result also leads on to three aspects of decision basis: the student, the teacher, and the organization of school. Thus, the result should be interacted with contemporary studies, as it only aims to be comprehended as one perspective, opening for and hopefully inspiring to further research.

The purpose is to study, in a pilot survey, the consciousness of climate change among pupils in secondary school and in adult education. These are the research questions: - What consciousness of climate change do the pupils have? - What are the differences in respect of climate change consciousness between men and women, pupils in adult education and in upper secondary school and pupils in pre-university programmes and in vocational programmes? ”Climate Change Consciousness” is constructed as a concept consisting of ecological, social and economic dimension as well as the components knowledge, attitudes and behaviour. A survey on the Likert-scale is conducted with 176 responses. The results indicate a varying degree of consciousness of climate change among pupils. On the ecological dimension the knowledge of the Paris agreement is low, and the pupils in general have a low degree of consciousness of the concepts of ecological footprint and life cycle analysis. However, they have a good understanding of the difference between climate and weather; they have attitudes in favour of renewable energy and they are used to sorting waste. On the social dimension the pupils think that climate change should be a priority in school, while their own community involvement in climate change issues in general is low. On the economic dimension the pupils have good knowledge of organic labels, but are more affected by price than the climate impact in their consumption behaviour. Female pupils have a higher degree of consciousness of climate change compared to male pupils; the pupils in adult education have a higher degree of consciousness compared to pupils in upper secondary school, and the pupils in pre-university programmes have a higher degree of consciousness compared to pupils in vocational programmes. Remaining is to further examine the impact of age for climate change consciousness among pupils in upper secondary school. / Syftet är att, i en pilotstudie, studera medvetenheten om klimatfrågan bland elever i gymnasieskolan och i vuxenutbildningen. Följande forskningsfrågor ställs: - Vilken medvetenhet om klimatfrågan har eleverna? - Vilka skillnader beträffande medvetenheten om klimatfrågan finns mellan män och kvinnor, elever vid vuxenutbildningen och gymnasieskolan samt elever på högskoleförberedande program och yrkesprogram? Medvetenhet om klimatfrågan konstrueras som ett begrepp bestående av ekologisk, social och ekonomisk dimension samt komponenterna kunskap, attityd och beteende. En enkät på Likert-skalan genomförs med 176 svar. Resultaten ger en varierad bild av elevernas medvetenhet om klimatfrågan. På den ekologiska dimensionen är kännedomen om Parisavtalet låg liksom medvetenheten om begreppen ekologiskt fotavtryck och livscykelanalys. Eleverna har däremot en god förståelse för skillnaden mellan klimat och väder; de har en positiv attityd till förnybar energi och är vana att avfallssortera. På den sociala dimensionen tycker eleverna att klimatfrågan ska vara en prioriterad fråga för skolan att undervisa i, medan det egna samhällsengagemanget i klimatfrågan i allmänhet är lågt.  På den ekonomiska dimensionen visar eleverna god kännedom om ekologiska varumärkningar, men påverkas mer av priset än klimatpåverkan i sitt konsumtionsbeteende.  Kvinnor har högre grad av medvetenhet i klimatfrågan än män; elever på vuxenutbildningen har högre grad av medvetenhet jämfört med eleverna i gymnasieskolan, och eleverna på högskoleförberedande program visar högre grad av medvetenhet än elever vid yrkesprogram. Återstående frågor är att undersöka betydelsen av ålder för medvetenhet om klimatfrågan bland eleverna i gymnasieskolan.

Denna studie syftar till att undersöka vilka möjligheter som gymnasium elever får attträna modelleringsförmågan genom läroboksuppgifter. Studien går inte in på ommodellering är möjlig att använda i uppgifterna utan undersöker i stället hur ofta studenten bliruppmanad att använda det. För att göra detta så har ett analytiskt schema tagits fram ochett urval av tre läroboksserier gjorts. Resultaten indikerar att det finns en stor skillnad ihur ofta olika modelleringsdelprocesser ges möjlighet att tränas. Det visar sig att detskiljer sig i hur många övningstillfällen som ges mellan olika svårighetsnivåer: närkomplexiteten i uppgiften ökar så minskar möjligheten. Det visar sig även att det skiljersig mellan olika matematiska områden från att inte alls ge möjlighet till att ha stor del avmöjligheterna. Till sist så visar det sig att modellering sällan uttrycks explicit iuppgifterna. / This study aims to investigate what opportunities textbook exercises in upper secondaryschool offer students to practice their modeling competency. This study does not addressif the student is able to use modeling in a specific task but rather how often the student isprompted to do so. To answer this, an analytical framework is developed and used on asample of three textbook series. The results indicate that there is a large difference in howoften different parts of the modeling process get prompted to train. Further, thefrequency of the opportunities that are given differs between difficulties of the tasks.When the complexity is increasing the number of opportunities decreases. The result alsoshow that the opportunity given differs between the mathematical areas: from noopportunity at all to a large part of the opportunities. Finally, the results show thatmodeling is seldom explicitly mentioned in the tasks.

Introduction. At the beginning of 2020, Covid-19 developed into a global pandemic, how this global pandemic would affect the Swedish upper secondary school no one knew during the first part of the spring term 2020. The upper secondary school went from traditional teaching to distance and distance education for a short period of time. The purpose of this study is to see if and if so how the forced distance learning that arose as a result of Covid-19 has affected teachers' attitudes to and use of digital tools in mathematics teaching in upper secondary school. Background. Digital tools are available in many shapes and designs. The focus is not on platforms that are used to conduct teaching such as Zoom and Teams. The same goes for calculators, as calculators range from simple calculations to advanced graphing calculators. TPACK. We have chosen to use the theoretical framework Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). We chose TPACK because this theory addresses several different parts of learning, of which technology is an important part. This fits well with our purpose because it is about teachers' attitudes and the use of digital aids in mathematics teaching. Method. A survey was created using Google forms containing both questions with multi-answer options mixed with open-ended questions. A coverpage for the survey was emailed together with a link to the survey for principals at a large number of schools spread across the country. Results. 56 mathematics teachers responded to the questionnaire, which was compiled into graphs for the multi-answer alternative questions and by thematization for the open-ended questions. Discussion. Distance learning during Covid-19 has affected both who and what the use of digital tools looks like. However, the view of digital tools is the same as before or more positive than before. / Inledning. Under början av 2020 utvecklades Covid-19 till en globalpandemi. Hur denna globala pandemi skulle påverka den svenska gymnasieskolan visste ingen under första delen av vårterminen 2020. Gymnasieskolan gick från traditionell undervisning till fjärr- och distansundervisning under ett kort tidsspann. Syftet med denna studie är att se om och i så fall hur den påtvingade distansundervisningen som uppstod till följd av Covid-19 har påverkat lärares attityd till och användningen av digitala verktyg inom matematikundervisningen på gymnasiet. Bakgrund. Digitala verktyg finns i många skepnader och utföranden. Fokuseringen ligger inte på plattformar som används för att bedriva undervisningen som till exempel Zoom och Teams. Det samma gäller för miniräknare, eftersom miniräknare finns från enkla för simpla beräkningar till avancerade grafritande miniräknare. TPACK. Vi har valt att använda oss av det teoretiska ramverket Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). Vi valde TPACK eftersom denna teori tar upp flera olika delar av lärandet varav teknologi är en viktig del. Detta passar bra till vårt syfte eftersom det handlar om lärares attityd och användning av digitala hjälpmedel inom matematikundervisningen. Metod. En enkät skapades med hjälp av Google formulär innehållande frågor med flersvarsalternativ samt öppna frågor. Ett försättsblad samt länk till enkäten mejlades ut till rektorer och skolchefer på ett stort antal skolor spridda över hela landet. Resultat. 56 matematiklärare svarade på enkäten vilket samanställdes till grafer för flersvarsalternativfrågorna och genom tematisering för de öppna frågorna. Diskussion. Fjärr- och distansundervisningen under Covid-19 har påverkat både vilka och hur användningen av digitala verktyg ser ut. Däremot är synen på digitala verktyg samma som innan eller positivare än innan.

This study investigates the syntactic complexity of the example texts used as guides forassessment in the national tests of the Swedish upper secondary school courses English 5 andEnglish 6. It is guided by two research questions: (1) Is there a progression of increasedcomplexity between the grades assigned to the example texts, and, if so, is any specificmeasure of syntactic complexity more strongly linked to a higher grade than the rest? (2) Isthere a progression of increased complexity between the two courses, and, if so, how doesthis progression manifest itself? A set of 14 quantitative measures of syntactic complexity asidentified by the L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer (L2SCA) are examined to answer thesequestions. The majority of the differences between the grades and/or courses represented areshown to be statistically insignificant, and the few instances of statistical significance likelyoccurred either due to a small sample size or due to a questionable tendency of L2SCA whendealing with run-on sentences. In the end, syntactic complexity as expressed through the 14measures seems to be a poor indicator of why a text received a certain grade in either of thetwo represented courses.

Den här uppsatsens syfte och målsättning är att undersöka huruvida en låttext, i det här fallet ”Kom igen Lena!” av Håkan Hellström, kan användas i svenskundervisningen på gymnasiet. Genom en intertextuell analys, som bygger på Julia Kristevas och Gerard Génettes begreppsdefinitioner, och med hjälp av Anders Olsson (2002), har Hellströms kopplingar till tidigare verk kartlagts och satts i ett didaktiskt sammanhang. Uppsatsens resultat visar att låttexter kan vara användbara i litteraturundervisningen i Svenska 1 på gymnasiet och att ”Kom igen Lena!” har en didaktisk potential. / The purpose and aim of this essay are to investigate whether a song text, in this case “Kom igen Lena!” by Håkan Hellström, can be used in Swedish teaching in upper secondary school. Through an intertextual analysis, which is based on Julia Kristeva's and Gerard Génette's concept definitions, and with the help of Anders Olsson (2002), Hellström's connections to previous works have been mapped out and put into a didactic context. The results show that song lyrics can be useful in literature teaching in course 1 in Swedish in upper secondary school and that “Kom igen Lena!” has a didactic potential.

This thesis argues that events in the postcolonial novel We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo can be viewed as traumatic based on three different aspects; witnessed trauma, transgenerational trauma and cultural trauma. In addition, the thesis provides pedagogical implications and analysis of the novel’s usefulness in the Swedish EFL classroom. What is argued in this essay is that cultural clashes, mourning of home country and lacking of expressive opportunities affect the protagonist’s identity formation. The protagonist’s experiences from and reflections on her home country versus her new one are the focal point of this essay; to prove that belonging to the diaspora is a traumatic, ongoing, event that affects the individual and collective identity process negatively, depicted in the novel. Lastly, the novel’s potential in the EFL classroom is claimed to contribute with insight, understanding and acceptance towards cultural “others” in the Swedish society.

This paper sets out to analyze The Reluctant Fundamentalist by a narratological application of positioning theory with the aim of highlighting the bias of the main character. The paper argues that using said novel in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom in conjunction with positioning theory could result in an improved understanding of how language is used in different situations for different purposes, which in turn can teach students to critically assess narratives in any medium. This paper also suggests that The Reluctant Fundamentalist could be a beneficial novel to use with the aim of providing students with ethical knowledge and awareness. The findings show that there are several acts of positioning from the main character where his bias against Americans is evident. These instances often consist of the main character contrasting himself and his behavior with Americans where differences of ethical values are expressed. The paper argues that his bias was formed because of an identity crisis, which was constituted of a multitude of factors. Furthermore, the pedagogical implications section suggests some benefits of working with positioning theory and the novel in the EFL classroom, in addition it also discusses some problematic aspects that could be important to be aware of when working with said novel.