Denna litteraturstudies syfte är att undersöka hur läsning av skönlitteratur påverkar elevers läs- och skrivförmågor bland elever på högstadiet genom tidigare forskning. Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka sambandet mellan skönlitterär läsning och elevers eget kreativa skrivande samt vilka faktorer som påverkar högstadieelevers egna kreativa skrivande. Uppsatsen utgår från två frågeställningar om på vilka sätt eleverna kan använda sig av de kunskaper de får av skönlitterär läsning i sitt eget skrivande samt hur deras kunskaper kan utvecklas. Studien har hela tiden utgått ifrån det sociokulturella perspektivet. Utifrån tidigare forskning har resultatet visat att det underlättar elevers eget kreativa skrivande om de även är läsare. Elevers skönlitterära läsning påverkas även av den sociokulturella miljö de växer upp och lever i. / <p>Svenska</p>

This essay examines Dirie’s and Miller’s Desert Flower and its depiction of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and the effect that this violation has had on the narrator. The analysis has been conducted through the critical lens of trauma studies with emphasis on how bearing witness of traumatic events can serve as healing and empowerment in the struggle to end FGM. As the multicultural classroom has grown extensively over the past years, the demand for an intercultural awareness is placed on the schools, where the pupils are to be given the chance to develop an understanding and acceptance of people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. This essay argues that, in spite of the dilemmas that often occur when teaching trauma as a sensitive and controversial issue, Desert Flower can in fact be used in the EFL classroom to engender intercultural awareness as well as offering the pupils a chance to develop self-actualization and social consciousness.

Swedish schools are required by law to conduct systematic quality work and it has a central position in the Swedish educational system. The work each school conduct is scrutinized by the Swedish Schools Inspectorate. The purpose of this study is to examine teachers´ experiences of systematic quality work at the upper secondary school and the advantages and disadvantages they identified when engaging in systematic quality work. The study used a qualitative method based on semi-structured interviews. The analytical framework used was hermeneutics. The main theories used as a foundation were organizational theory and learning organization-perspective. A total of five teachers from two different upper secondary schools partook in the study. Their statements were categorized in accordance to the study´s three questions. The analysis of the results showed that the structuring of development teams among teachers had an impact on the effectiveness of systematic quality work. The teachers also expressed a lack of time dedicated to quality work and a desire for a variated time when engaging with systematic quality work. The teachers perceived their role as a teacher essential when engaged in systematic quality work.

This study aims to investigate how students with dyslexia experience the teaching of social studies in upper secondary school, and how they actively participate on basis of democratic values. The research is based on a qualitative interview study that forms the basis of the empirical material. The term democratic capacity is used as an analytical tool in the study. The results shows that students with dyslexia experience challenges in reading, conceptual understanding and an uncertainty regarding participation in discussions in the subject of social studies. Furthermore, it shows that dyslexics experience anxiety and inferior self-confidence to participate in some areas of the social studies. This results in a lesser degree of democratic capacity.

Previous research shows that truancy in upper secondary school positively correlates to the student’s future level of involvement in society. As such, in order to support an individual’s positive development, it is essential to work with early interventions to increase school attendance. One such preventive initiative is to employ full-time mentors who specifically hold the responsibility to monitor and follow-up student’s absence. This study focuses on full-time mentors working in upper-secondary school, and aims to examine a student’s perspective on the work of the full-time mentors. Collection of material has been done through the execution of eight semi-structured interviews with eight students in an upper secondary school in Stockholm, Sweden. The student’s statements have been interpreted and analyzed from the theoretical standpoint of social constructivism. As such, in this study, the work of the mentor as well as the student’s perception of the mentor’s role, is perceived as part of a social process and consequently dependent on its context. This means that components such as the distribution of power between student and mentor have been relevant to consider, in relation to interventions meant to increase student attendance. The study highlights the importance of using communicative tools, and mutual conversations, as well as building and maintaining well-functioning relationships between students and mentors. The result shows that the way that full-time mentors communicate with students, could be made more explicit, so that routines and expectations leading from that communication is clear to the student. In addition, the study’s result also indicate that full-time mentors could better adapt their way of communicating, in order to avoid an unbalanced power distribution between the full-time mentor and the student. The conclusion of the study is that communicative tools, such as relationship-creating and mutual conversations, when thoughtfully applied, can increase participation in school and as such, reduce absence.

In a world which continuously becomes more globalised, the need to adapt one's language depending on context becomes increasingly important. This is acknowledged in the Swedish syllabus for the upper-secondary school, which emphasises communicative competence and the need to adapt to situation and hearer. This study uses a foundation based on politeness theory, where the act of requesting is considered a threat to the notion of face. The concept of face that is being used is based on the work of Brown and Levinson (1987) and the idea is that everyone has a positive- and negative face where the former is the need for one’s self-image to be respected and the latter is the freedom to act without imposition from others. By role-playing different scenarios, the participants of the study, all students of the English 7 course, were asked to perform requests which varied in imposition and which targeted hearers of different statuses. The results were analysed using a qualitative approach, which leads to the conclusion that half of the six participants adapted their language appropriately to the communicative situation. Those three had managed to show an increase in face-saving acts where the imposition was greater, or the hearer was of a higher status. That only half of the participants managed to do this shows a lack of success in teaching the students the necessary pragmatic skills encoded in the syllabus and more focused studies in this area are recommended to address this issue. Due to the small number of participants, further studies are needed to fully confirm the results presented in this study.

Syftet med studien är att belysa och diskutera svårigheter som elever har med atomens uppbyggnad och egenskaper inom den inledande kemidelen i kursen Naturkunskap 2. Undersökningen genomfördes i två steg. I första steget fick eleverna rita sina atommodeller och berätta om dem innan arbetet med kemi började. Samtidigt fick de berätta om svårigheter de upplevt med atomkonceptet. I steg två intervjuades elever efter genomfört kemiavsnitt i kursen om svårigheterna och hur dessa skulle kunna avhjälpas. Intervjuerna transkriberades och i analysarbetet grupperades svaren efter likheter och mönster. Resultatet visade att samtliga elever i urvalsgruppen behövde arbeta mer med atomens uppbyggnad innan de kunde arbeta vidare med kemin inom Naturkunskap 2 kursen. Bland svårigheterna nämnde eleverna att atomen är abstrakt på grund av sin storlek och för att den inte förekommer i vardagliga sammanhang, vidare används många begrepp inom atomkonceptet som de inte bearbetat tillräckligt. Några elever nämnde även en dålig undervisning på grund av täta lärarbyten i grundskolan som orsak till svårigheterna. Eleverna önskade mer samtal i undervisningen både för att bearbeta begrepp och atomkonceptet och för en mer vardagsnära användning av atomen. / The purpose of the study is to shed light on difficulties that students have with the structure and properties of the atom within the initial chemistry part in the course Science studies 2. The study was conducted in two steps. First the students draw their atomic models and explained what they had drawn. At the same time they told about difficulties they experienced with the concept of the atom. The next part was conducted after completing the chemistry section in the course. Students were interviewed on the difficulties and how they would like to work with the concept of the atom. The interviews were transcribed and in the analysis work the answers were grouped according to similarities and patterns. The result showed that all the students needed to work more with the structure of the atom initially in the course. The students thought that the atom is abstract because of its size and because it is not found in their everyday contexts, many words are used within the atomic concept that the students have not worked with sufficiently. Some students also mentioned a poor teaching because of frequent teacher changes in compulsory school as the cause of the difficulties. The students wanted more conversation in the teaching, both to process concepts and the atomic concept, and for a more everyday use of the atom.

This text has the purpose to study how the view on history as a school subject has changedover time and through three different Swedish upper secondary school curricula. The centralquestions of this study are the following: Has the view on history as a teaching subjectchanged over time? How can history didactic be seen in the curriculum? Is there any trace ofinternational didactic traditions in the curriculum, if so, how does it show? This study hasused a qualitative text analysis as the method to answer the central questions, based inprevious research and theories regarding international didactic traditions as well as historydidactics. The study concludes that the view on history as a school subject has changed overtime, and that both international didactic traditions and history didactics can be seen in thecurricula for history.

This qualitative research study examines the greatest and/or most common problems with the use of textbooks as perceived by teachers in upper secondary school in Sweden. The study employs interviews to gather data and also looks further into the textbooks the interviewed teachers use to gain a greater understanding of the problems presented by the data. The result of the study shows that teacher experience various problems while using textbooks, e.g. insufficient number of some exercises, outdated content, insufficient cultural content and it is also a time-consuming process to adapt the textbook to the curriculum, learner group and learner situation. However, the study also shows that many, if not all, of the problems are not exclusive to the use of textbooks and as such are potential issues regardless of the type of teaching material that is used. Therefore, the problem seems to not be with textbooks themselves but rather a consequence of larger issues within the teaching profession such as time-restrictions, financial issues and problems with the margin of interpretation of the curricula. Further research is required to find a solution as it is clear that for the moment many teachers perceive the textbook partly as a problem. It is thus clear that something needs to change, either how textbooks are defined, the responsibilities of the teachers, and/or the curricula themselves.

The aim of this study is to examine the digital tools that are available for students and teachers to use in an English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom and their perceptions of the inclusion of digital tools. A questionnaire intended to provide the results has been distributed. The questionnaire consists of both open and closed questions. A further analysis of previous research concerning the inclusion of digital tools is also included in this study and is used to compare with the raw data collected. The data retrieved demonstrates that educators mainly use digital tools when teaching. The results also show that students have access to a myriad of online learning platforms which induce motivation. In conclusion, digital tools are appreciated amongst both teachers and students, although the teachers appear to view the inclusion of digital tools in the classroom as more positive than the students.