In this essay, Parable of the Sower (1993) by Octavia E. Butler will be analyzed. The analysis investigates how the novel can enable discussions about empathy in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. Empathy and its related notions are examined from an ecofeminist point of view in combination with research that investigates narrative empathy from a cognitive literary theory perspective. This essay does not advocate for specific ways of working with empathy but rather seeks to illustrate in what ways it could be discussed by students and to further encourage the development of their own thoughts on the matter. The findings show that the novel contains multiple aspects that can serve as a basis for discussions about empathy as well as working with climate change and gender perspectives in the EFL classroom.

This study intends to highlight jazz dance in Sweden and its early establishment during the 1960’s and the 1970’s. The questions of issue are, ”How has the tradition of Swedish jazz dance been conveyed?”, ”What are some expectations and perceptions on jazz dance among upper-secondary school students who study dance?” and ”Is there a correlation between the tradition of Swedish jazz dance and upper-secondary school students’ perceptions on the genre?”. The study is a combination of a literature review and a focus group interview. The literature review maps the establishment and development of jazz dance in Sweden. The focus group consists of three upper-secondary school students who study dance. As a result, both the literature review and the focus group advocate for a historiographical perspective in jazz dance education. The students wish to see education in jazz dance techniques as well as jazz history during the practical classes. According to the pioneers, the cultural heritage and history of jazz is essential for the understanding of the artform. Therefore, it is relevant for teachers in jazz dance to educate their students on the theoretical aspects of the genre to connect the physical practices to the heritage.

This study focuses on gender representation and stereotypes in Swedish EFL coursebooks. The aim is to investigate how men and women are described and depicted in texts to examine the occurrence of gender stereotypes and to what degree equal gender representation in images occurs in Swedish EFL coursebooks aimed at the English 5 course in upper secondary school. The theoretical frameworks consist of the concepts of performativity and heteronormativity, which derive from gender and queer theory. The method used is content analysis in combination with a qualitative approach with quantitative elements, and the material consists of three coursebooks: Blueprint A (2007), Progress Gold A (2007) and Pick & Mix 1 (2013). The results show that all three coursebooks confirm gender stereotypes to a great extent and contain unequal gender representation in the images. The coursebooks highlight and refute gender stereotypes to a lower and varying degree. The concept of performativity showcases that the coursebooks maintain the social constructions of what it means to be a woman or a man. Furthermore, through the perspective of heteronormativity, it is evident that men should be masculine, and women should be feminine. The coursebooks manifest that those who do not conform to these social roles are subjected to derogatory treatment, and those who follow the norms hold more power. The implications of the study could be that teachers should use coursebooks with consideration and carefulness to highlight and discuss underlying societal issues connected to gender inequality and gender stereotypes rather than uphold them.

In this small-scale qualitative study we examine PowerPoint presentations using cognitive perspectives (such as the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning, Arousal theory, and Dual Channel processing) to compare teacher experience with a theoretical background. By analyzing collected PowerPoint presentations and interviewing the experienced teachers that created them about their didactic choices, we are able to identify and focus on four aspects of multimedia learning: Pacing, Student Stimuli, Signaling and Redundancy. Although the teachers involved in the study do not reference the cognitive perspective explicitly, we find similarities and differences between the teachers' near-practice experience and the underlying cognitive theories, finding pedagogical value in both their complementary and contradictory natures. From this, we suggest that the principles of cognitive theories from a scientific basis are complemented and tempered by the flexibility of experience.

The purpose of this study is to investigate and discuss upper secondary students’ experiences of participating in a synchronous video mediated digital education form in the course English 6 during spring term 2020, with a specific focus on how it creates possibilities or hindrances in developing the students’ abilities in oral communication. The study is based on eight exploratory semi-structured interviews at an upper secondary school in northern Sweden. Media ecological theory and social presence theory have been used as theoretical lenses in this study. The results show that the students to the greatest part experience hindrances in their oral communication. In the digital education form they are hindered in both their participation, interaction, and ability to discuss in a reflective manner. Furthermore, they experienced that the discussion style became more formal and impersonal due to the strict turn-taking and the lack of non-verbal communication cues. The students were more prepared, and they tended to be more monological in their participation. In addition, a difference in the relationships was experienced, and the teacher became the most important participant, caused by the difficulty of identifying the other students as “real” people on the computer screen.

This ethnographic study is located in the field of literary didactics, covering an intersection of the subjects of Swedish and theatre. It investigates construction of text understanding while its participants work with staging Molière’s The affected ladies (Les précieuses ridicules, 1659). Studies of classroom interaction connected to reading drama text are rare in the Swedish field of literary didactics. The main research interest is the participants’ use of interwoven semiotic resources, including spoken language, body, voice and various artifacts. Based on a general need to understand how Swedish students develop reading skills (related to decreasing results internationally) and a growing research interest in the field for embodied knowledge connected to literacy competencies the study sets out to answer the following questions: How do the participants construct text understanding using semiotic resources with a focus on: a) matching of repertoires b) in-role re-presentation c) negotiations. The first aspect draws on theories used in literary didactics including McCormick’s (1994) literary and general repertoires and Langer’s (1995) envisioning literature. The second aspect draws on aesthetic learning and embodied knowledge  (Molander, 1996; Saar, 2005) and theatre semiotics (Heed, 2002). The third aspect draws on sociocultural theory (Vygotskij, 1978; Säljö, 2014) and sociocultural theory applied in the field of drama and theatre (Davis, Clemson & Ferholt, 2015). Seven upper secondary school students, a teacher of Swedish and a teacher of theatre were observed over a period of seven months, starting with the students’ first encounter with the drama text, lasting to the final performance of a one-hour theatre production. The researcher occasionally became participant in the creative process. Analyzed data include field notes, video and sound recordings. Major findings are that: a) Students continuously match their own repertoires with the repertoires of the drama text by references to popular culture, language and body expressions, thereby gradually constructing new understanding. b) By becoming co-creators of a fictional text in a process of aesthetic learning the students developed several perspectives on the literary text, which is one of the main goals in studies of literature in the subject of Swedish. c) The participants’ negotiations involving a number of semiotic resources showed a development of text understanding on an advanced level. It also showed knowing as something emerging out of social interaction where teachers play an essential role by providing aesthetic as well as traditional scaffolding. A central conclusion is that exploring ways of learning where various semiotic recourses are given focus in the process of shaping a final product, e.g. a theatre show, host potential for students’ development of text understanding. The potential for learning seems to relate to producing knowledge rather than reproducing. Verbal and physical expressions of text understanding form new understanding in an on-going spiral. A contribution of the study to the field is showing the potential of embodied knowledge in literary didactics without a master-servant relationship between school subjects. It is suggested that increased focus on embodied knowledge and aesthetic learning might help students to develop reading skills.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short stories about the character Sherlock Holmes are known by many people, they excited readers when he first released the stories in different magazines, and they still excite readers to this day. This essay aims to explore the social dimensions in Conan Doyle’s first and last Sherlock Holmes story by searching for indications of social status and formality. The theory that is being used is the new historicist approach, where there is a contrast between the literary and the non-literary texts, meaning that the stories may be affected by what happened in the society when the stories were written. The conclusion for the essay is that characters in both stories are in the beginning not of a higher class, rather a middle class, whilst in the last they become less dependent on one another, they do not need to live together anymore but, they choose to keep working together. Lastly, this essay is about the Swedish classroom and gives examples of how a teacher could use these stories in their classrooms.

Studien tar avstamp i praktikens frågor. Svensklärare och elever på gymnasieskolan har intervjuats för att skönja uppfattningar och erfarenheter om bedömningsmatrisers tillämpning i undervisningen. Studiens resultat har diskuterats ur ett OTL-perspektiv. Tre lärare deltog i studien och enskilda semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med samtliga. Sex elever intervjuades i fokusgrupper uppdelade om tre elever i varje.  Resultatet presenteras genom tematisk analys av transkriberade intervjuer.  Studiens resultat visar att lärarna och eleverna delar liknande uppfattningar om och av bedömningsmatrisers tillämpning i undervisning. Bedömningsmatriser ansågs ha både för- och nackdelar som är av betydande roll dels för lärarens yrkesutövning, dels för elevens lärande. Bedömningsmatrisens största utmaning sågs av både lärare och elever som för abstrakt för att eleverna ska förstå skillnaden i kvaliteter mellan de olika nivåerna. Den största möjligheten med matrisanvändning uppfattades vara en tydlig kartläggning av elevens kunskaper. / The study is based on practice questions. Swedish teachers and students in upper secondary school have been interviewed to discern perceptions and experiences about the application of scoring rubrics in teaching. The results of the study have been discussed from an OTL perspective. Three teachers participated in the study and individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with all of them. Six students were interviewed in focus groups divided into three students in each group. The result of the study is presented through thematic analysis of transcribed interviews. The results of the study show that teachers and students share similar views about and of the application of scoring rubrics in teaching. Scoring rubrics were considered to have both advantages and disadvantages that are of significant role for both the teacher's professional practice and for the student's learning. The biggest shortcoming of the scoring rubric was seen by both teachers and students as too abstract for the students to understand the difference in qualities between the different levels. The biggest advantage of the rubric was perceived to be a clear mapping of the student's knowledge.

The aim of this thesis is to examine English language teachers’ choices and uses of literary texts, and more particularly, multicultural forms of literature from an intercultural pedagogical angle. Drawing on a qualitative approach, six English teachers’ experiences were explored using interviews. The interviews were semi-structured which gave the English teachers the opportunity to share their reasonings behind working interculturally with multicultural literature. The English teachers perceived both potentials and problems when dealing with multicultural literature, both of which were analysed through content analysis.   The results revealed that the English teachers made conscious decisions when choosing multicultural literature for their classes. They based their curricula on the different backgrounds and nationalities found in their classroom in order to represent voices outside of the traditional canon and mainstream culture. It was also found that the teachers were positive towards working interculturally with multicultural literature as it aided in promoting social harmony as well as negotiating conflict and new perspectives on foreign cultures and identities. However, it was also found that the English teachers experienced challenges due to several issues, such as not being an expert on a particular culture, silence among students, and censorship issues. The findings from the study indicate that teachers need to be trained on and provided with the necessary pedagogical tools on how to represent different cultures, as well as how to approach sensitive topics on race and culture included in multicultural literature.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur ensemblelärare med kompetens i kompinstrument som keyboard, bas eller elgitarr som saknar utbildning och kunskap i instrumentet sång, arbetar med sångare och text i ensembleundervisningen. Bakgrundslitteraturen redovisar forskning om hur genusaspekter påverkar identiteter, inflytande, sång och texten i ensembleundervisningen. Därefter presenteras forskning på lärares val av material, bedömning och metodik i ensembleundervisningen. Slutligen presenteras tidigare forskning inom sångtexter och låtskrivande i ensembleundervisning. Studien utgår från ett sociokulturellt perspektiv med fokus på lärares och elevers samspel i ensembleundervisningen. Studien utgår från semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem ensemblelärare som arbetar med ensemble på gymnasiet med inriktning på rock- och popensemble. Data från intervjuerna genomgår en tematisk analys. Studiens resultat redovisar ensemblelärarnas förutsättningar som påverkar undervisningen och deras metodik. Vidare presenteras ensemblelärarnas metoder och uppfattningar om arbetet med låttexten i undervisningen. Slutligen redovisas ensemblelärarnas syn på sångtexters funktion och betydelse för kompinstrumentalister. I diskussionen presenteras reflektioner om varför sångarna tenderar till att få en exkluderad ensembleundervisning gentemot kompinstrumentalisterna i ensemblen. Slutligen redovisas hur styrdokumentens otydliga riktlinjer för sångtext kan påverka ensembleundervisningen. / The aim of this study is to investigate how ensemble teachers with instrumental backgrounds work with singers and lyrics in ensemble class. The background literature presents research on how gender affects identities, influence, singing and the lyrics in ensemble class. Following this, research on teachers’ choice of material, assessment, and methodology for ensemble class is presented. Finally, previous research on lyrics and songwriting in ensemble teaching is presented. The study is based on a socio-cultural perspective with a focus on teachers’ and students’ interaction in ensemble class. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with five ensemble teachers who work in aesthetic programs in upper secondary school with expertise in rock and pop ensemble. Data from the interviews are processed in a thematic analysis. The results shed light on ensemble teachers’ conditions that affect their teaching and methodology. Furthermore, the ensemble teachers’ methods and perceptions about working with lyrics in the ensembles are presented. Finally, the ensemble teachers’ views on the function and significance of lyrics for the instrumentalists are presented. The discussion presents reflections on why the singers are misplaced in the ensemble class, as well as reflections on the curriculums' unclear guidelines for the lyrics impact in ensemble class.