No description available.

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, peoples’ everyday lives have been affected, including the teachers and students in Swedish upper-secondary schools while teaching and learning English. Due to this, both parties have had to experience the English classroom in the shape of distance education through computer-mediated communication (CMC). A convenience sampling consisting of four teachers and four students was used to provide statements regarding the participants’ experiences of the virtual classroom, in comparison to the physical classroom. The study also examined how the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing have been affected while teaching and learning English, due to distance education. The main findings consist of teachers claiming to have experienced difficulties regarding testing the English language skills known as reading and listening. In addition, a lack of non-verbal interaction was missed, according to the teachers, resulting among other things in the linguistic phenomenon such as turn-taking, to have taken place. The students on the other hand, have experienced difficulties regarding autonomy while studying English at home during the distance education as well as a different linguistic issue known as overlap in conjunction with a lack of non-verbal interaction and several people speaking simultaneously. The reported effects due to the covid-19 pandemic in conjunction with distance education are discussed along with the consequences of the obtained results and further suggestions regarding the topic.

This study aims at exploring (1) the circumstances under which some Swedish learners of English are likely to participate in conversations in the target language, and (2) how teachers in upper secondary school might increase these students' willingness to communicate (WTC) in English during lessons. Five students retaking the mandatory first course of English in Swedish upper secondary school volunteered for the study. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews, and the transcripts were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The results of the study showed that learners perceive the learning environment to be a ma jor factor affecting their WTC. Moreover, it was concluded that being able to convey a message is important for the students, and that uncertainty about whether or not they will be able to do so strongly affects their WTC. The results also showed that their WTC is strongly connected to their listening comprehension. In light of the reported beliefs and perceptions of the learners, it is suggested that students can be trained for strategies to use when they encounter problems in vocabulary retrieval as well as listening comprehension. Repeating exercises to make the learners feel safe has also been a suggestion.

In the context of Swedish students' difficulties to separate facts from opinions, we wanted to investigate why digital literacy, and especially source credibility, is important and how teachers in civics and the social sciences can teach students these skills. Studies show that upper secondary school students often turn to online sources when searching for information, rather than turning to traditional media. This is not a problem in itself, however, what is worrying is that the increasing spread of disinformation in combination with the lack of methods to verify true information adventures students' formation of opinions. In a society where young people consume more and more digital media this is truly alarming for future citizens and democracy. Therefore, in this literature review based on previous research, we give multiple reasons for why digital literacy, and especially source credibility, is important. But how should civics teachers teach digital literacy? This text also gives the tools by presenting four principles for guidance when planning classes where digital literacy will be taught. Furthermore, we present the idea of digital literacy as an active act and we also talk about the importance of examining each source from more than one perspective. Disciplinary literacy and the necessity of the teacher’s role as a disciplinary expert is also discussed in this paper. We then present and stress the importance of the three types of misinformation and give a few suggestions on how to use them. The next finding in our search for how to teach digital literacy to students is the benefits of working in a group of peers. Our take from this is that, in order to get out of your own “echo chamber”, group work can bring a set of different backgrounds, opinions and knowledge to the table when trying to make sense of everything the internet has to offer, good and bad.

The purpose of the study is to describe and hypothetically explain students' attitudes to the subject of sociology in upper secondary school in Sweden based on students' (a) cultural capital and (b) gender. This is explained with the help of Pierre Bourdieu's capital theory, and also his perspective on gender. The study aims to cover the knowledge gap that exists in the field of teaching sociology in upper secondary school in Sweden with quantitative methods. The study uses a questionnaire to collect data and linear regression to analyze it. This perspective has, to our knowledge, never been done in a nordic context before, although studies on civic and citizenship education exist.    Framing of questions:  How do students' attitudes to the subject of sociology differ between gender categories in upper secondary school? What is the connection between students' cultural capital and their attitude to the subject of sociology in high school?  The sociological implications of this study is that the number of books in the students home tends to affect the attitudes towards the subject. But other aspects of the students' cultural capital, such as parentes education, art and classical music in the home aren’t statistically significant. Another sociological implication is that female students tend to have more positive attitudes towards the sociology subject compared to male students.  The sociology didactic implications of this study indicates that the number of books in the home in combination with gender has a connection with attitudes to the subject. Thus sociology teachers should focus on this. The awareness that a certain part of the cultural capital influences the students' attitudes means that the teacher can work actively to counteract this. For example by encouraging reading early in school, to create an open classroom climate and using various forms of examinations.

En stor fråga i skolans värld är vilken kunskap eleverna ska undervisas på och hur eleverna ska utvecklas. En annan fråga är hur lärare ska bedöma eleverna för att försäkra sig om att ämneskunskap och ämnesförmågor som att tillämpa, analysera och värdera begreppskunskapnår fram till eleverna.Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur skriftliga provfrågor ställs inom ämnet samhällskunskap på gymnasienivå. Vidare vill jag titta på vilka kunskaper kommer till uttryck i skriftligt prov. Studien kombinerar kvantitativ och kvalitativ metoder för att undersöka lärarens uppfattning om vilka kunskapsformer som dominerar i skriftliga prov och uppfattningar om denna typ av prov. Resultatet visar beroende på vilket område/ moment som ska examineras varierar kunskapsformer från faktakunskap, begreppskunskap till förståelse och analysförmågan. Resultatet visar även att fokus på vilka kunskaper ska testas beror på vilken betygsnivå eleven testas på. Vid betyget E-nivå är fokus på att förklara fakta och begrepp medan på C-nivå och A-nivå ligger fokus på att förstå, redogörelse och analyserande frågor.

To achieve the Swedish National Agency for Education’s (2022) aim of developing all-round communicative skills, knowledge of the vast diversity of English may be needed. Therefore, this study analyses the representation of standard and non-standard varieties in four EFL textbooks aimed for the English 5 course in Swedish upper secondary school. The study applies the theory of linguistic variation and includes consideration to sociolinguistics in terms of differences within varieties. The methodological approach is based on qualitative ethnographic content analysis, where textbooks are systematically analysed to determine how standard and non-standard English varieties are showcased. The textbook material consists of Blueprint A Version 1.0 (2002), Blueprint A Version 3.0 (2017), Pick & Mix 1 (2013), and Echo. 5. Main Issues (2013). The results show a vast representation of standard varieties of English, while non-standard varieties constitute a limited representation. The linguistic variation in regard to standard English is instead observed in the use of slang and informal language within standard varieties such as American English and British English. This demonstrates an outcome in the textbooks of favouring standard varieties over non-standard varieties, which entails implications for the teaching profession in terms of a reliance on teachers to introduce language variation through other channels.

Läsförståelse är av vikt för kunskapsinhämtning, men även för att kunna fungera som samhällsmedborgare i Sverige. Studier av läsförståelse är inte ovanligt men de sätter främst fokus på de lägre åldrarna. Denna studie avser i stället att bidra till kunskap om läsförståelse i gymnasieåldern. Utifrån en klass, som i gymnasiegångens inledning genomfört en läsförståelsescreening, är syftet med denna studie att undersöka huruvida lärare – i både svenskämnet och övriga ämnen – tar hänsyn till dess resultat i formandet av undervisningen. Det obligatoriska nationella provet i läsförståelse är dock det som avgör betygsättningen av elevens läsförståelse. Därför vill studien också jämföra screening med nationella provet och finna förklaringar till varför elevernas resultat skulle kan skilja sig åt. Med användning av blandade metoder, av både kvalitativ och kvantitativ karaktär, och med utgångspunkt att läsförståelse är något som skapas i ett sociokulturellt sammanhang, har studien kunnat bekräfta bilden från tidigare forskning att lärare främst tagit hänsyn till screeningresultaten gällande elever med låga resultat. Dock har dessa hjälpt lärare att få en medvetenhet om läsförståelsens betydelse i alla ämnen. Resultaten på screening respektive nationella provet överensstämde till 63% Det framkom att de som lyckats bibehålla samma nivå av läsförståelse på det nationella provet, också är de elever med en motivation, antingen för läsning eller att lyckas i skolan i allmänhet. Tack vare motivationen, skaffade de sig också andra avgörande faktorer för läsförståelse. Studiens slutsats blir därmed att läsförståelseundervisning på gymnasiet behöver ge elever motivation för läsning.

In a multilingual world, it is common for the English classroom in upper secondary schools in Sweden to be filled with more than second language learners. These multilingual students have the potential to bring their language learning strategies (LLS) to the classroom, as well as their language repertoire, which every student could benefit from. The aim of this degree project is therefore to gain a deeper understanding of the language repertoires and language learning strategies of participating students at upper secondary schools in Sweden. To explore this, a qualitative approach was employed to discover participants’ language repertoires and the LLS participants report to use. Interviews were used to collect data about language use, repertoire and reported strategy use. In addition to the interviews, Oxford’s (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) was utilized to find out which strategies participants claimed to use in a broader sense. The results show that participant’s multilingualism is not taken advantage of in school, but it blossoms outside of English class where it is used to retain connections to friends and family. The results also show that participants use cognitive, social and compensation strategies the most, by translating, practicing, and asking others for help.

Swedish curricula and syllabi constitute a richness of different considerations. Withinthis composition of principles, it is distinctly declared that all Swedish schools should counteract any inclination of discrimination and that intolerance must be answered with different measures, including knowledge (Skolverket, 2011b, 1). Scrutinizing ways in which knowledge can be used as an instrument towards these issues is therefore incentivized. On this token, the following essay investigates the potentiality of usingthe novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros in English 7 instruction in upper secondary school, as teaching material for imparting knowledge about different forms of discrimination. To achieve this purpose, the essay first examines the experiences of narrator and protagonist Esperanza Cordero through close reading, to explore how tacit and explicit racial and class-based discrimination shape her identity and inhibit her sense of belonging. Belonging is conceptualized through Benedict Anderson’s notion of imagined communities wherein an individual is viewed as bargaining for belonging towards delimited and delimiting communities. Identity is viewed through a sociological lens as a transformative, negotiable, and revocable phenomenon and as interlinked with asymmetrical power relations. In addition, the essay analyses the findings from the close reading in relation to the syllabus for the course English 7, and the curriculum for upper secondary school. On this basis, the essay maintains that The House on Mango Street is suitable teaching material for the course English 7 at upper secondary school. The results indicate an alignment between the principles stated in the steering documents and the findings of the analyses, illustrating the applicability of The House on Mango Street as teaching material within a Swedish school setting. Furthermore, the results reveal how the novel presents teachers with ample opportunities to mediate how forms of discrimination are intertwined with questions of identity and belonging.