This is a qualitative interview study aiming to examine the concept of tolerance as it is a core value in the curriculum for the Swedish upper secondary school and high school. The concept of tolerance is linked to the subject of religious studies. A total of six teachers were interviewed regarding their understanding and interpretation of the concept, as well as its place in their teaching. The method of analysis was hermeneutic and the statements made by the teachers were further analyzed in the light of normcritical pedagogy and didactical awareness. The results show a diversified understanding of the concept, manifested in a broad scale of attitudes to it, ranging from negative to positive, though all were based on a reflective approach. This affected the teachers' tendency to include, or focus on, the concept of tolerance in their teaching, varying from active inclusion to exclusion. The discussion focuses on the differences and difficulties associated with acts of tolerance versus attitudes of tolerance. The teachers define religious studies as a subject with heavy focus on interpersonal relations. Acts of tolerance are therefore problematic as they are also acts of power between individuals and groups. This shows the didactical importance of discussing the concept of tolerance, mainly in relation to attitudes and acts, between teachers as well as in the classroom.

This study analyses how abusive treatment is handled in three novels for adolescents, Färglös, Näthat blues, and Fjärde riket, in order to reveal how these novels can be used as a basis for discussions of values in the teaching of Swedish in upper secondaryschool. The three novels were chosen because statistics showed that they were the most frequently borrowed books for young people under the subject heading bullying at a library in southern Sweden. The analysis shows that there are different forms of abusive treatment in the three books. Färglös describes abusive treatment against a social category, where the members of the vulnerable group are forced to protect themselves and each other as a group. Näthat blues is about net bullying, sexual harassment, and gender-related bullying against a specific individual, while Fjärde riket shows how abuse can be used as a strategy to achieve a higher power position. The latter book tells the story from the point of view of both the victim and the perpetrators. The conclusionis that the three novels, in different ways, invite changes of perspective and can function well as a basis for discussions about abuse using fictitious characters.

Syftet med studien är att förstå och beskriva sju elevers och tre lärares erfarenheter av skolan under deras treåriga gymnasietid tillsammans. Målet är att kunna utveckla kunskap om hur gymnasieskolan ska kunna möta behovet hos elever som lämnar grundskolan med ofullständiga betyg. Bakgrunden till studien är den snabba förändring som skett i Sveriges utbildningssystem de senaste decennierna. Från att ha varit en urvalsskola går idag mer än 99 procent av varje årskull vidare till gymnasieskolan i Sverige. Det innebär att gymnasieskolan ställts inför en betydligt svårare uppgift med nya elevgrupper och helt andra krav på det pedagogiska arbetet. Eleverna i den här studien lämnade grundskolan med ofullständiga betyg och sökte själva till en liten undervisningsgrupp på gymnasiets individuella program med inriktning mot restaurang och storkök. Det empiriska materialet består främst av forskningsintervjuer och fältanteckningar från deltagande observationer. Forskningen utgår ifrån en livsvärldsansats och en central utgångspunkt är elevernas och lärarnas erfarenheter av skolan. Resultatet visar att eleverna bär på mycket negativa erfarenheter av grundskolan som genererat en negativ inställning till skolarbete. Att få eleverna mer positivt inställda till skolarbete var en förutsättning för att lärande i kärnämnena skulle ske. Två faktorer framträder tydligt som avgörande för att de här ungdomarna upplevt gymnasietiden som meningsfull. Den första är lärares elevsyn och den relation som uppstår i mötet mellan eleven och läraren. Den andra är huruvida eleverna upplever innehållet som meningsfullt. Skolans innehåll blev meningsfullt när eleverna upplevde att lärandesituationer var på riktigt och när de samtidigt kände att innehållet var anpassat till dem, då släppte plötsligt spärrarna för dem.

Syftet med studien är att få ökad insikt i hur sånglärare med utgångspunkt i kursplanens mål om genrebreddning hanterar genreområdet jazzsång i sångundervisningen på gymnasieskolans estetiska program. Genom att intervjua fyra sångpedagoger verksamma på gymnasiets estetiska program har jag tagit reda på vad som enligt dem kan betecknas som ett genreenligt sound eller genrespecifika egenskaper speciellt viktiga för jazzsång, hur dessa kunskaper kan förmedlas till eleverna samt hur sångpedagoger använder sig av jazzsångens genrespecifika element i sångundervisningen. Studien har som sin teoretiska utgångspunkt ett sociokulturellt perspektiv med fokus på hur pedagoger använder olika redskap för att kommunicera och lära ut. För att få svar på mina frågor har använt mig av en halvstrukturerad intervjuform. Informanterna är alla yrkesaktiva sångpedagoger, två med en mer klassisk inriktning och två med afroinfriktning. Resultatet visar att jazz som genreområde är svårt för pedagogerna att definiera och ingår i undervisningen i den mån pedagogen styr det därhän. Informanterna beskriver hur jazzen inte bara används för att uppfylla målen om genrebredd, utan också som ett redskap för att mediera kunskap om olika sångtekniska moment som inte är genrebundna. Det framgår också att texten och det talade ordet återkommer som redskap i flera olika moment i jazzsångsundervisningen där jazz undervisas utan att vara ett redskap för att mediera något annat än just jazz i sångundervisningen. De intervjuade pedagogerna anser improvisation vara tyngdpunkten i jazzsångens genretypiska element, men att det varierar beroende på lärarens ämnessyn hur mycket eleverna får arbeta med detta moment. / This study will investigate how to attain a fuller and more versatile insight in how vocal teachers, with the syllabus requirements of genre width in mind, communicate the genre of jazz in their singing classes to learners from the upper secondary school, especially students attending the designed aesthetical programme. By interviewing four vocal coaches, all active teachers at different advanced Schools of Music, I have examined not only what, according to their specific knowledge, is to be considered the sound specific to jazz and the specific properties required for singing jazz, but also how this knowledge is imparted to learners. This is followed by how these aforementioned specific elements of jazz are used in a didactic capacity. The theoretical basis of this study, applying a socio-cultural perspective, focuses on how teachers use different tools to communicate and teach. To answer my questions I have worked with a semi-structured interview method. The informants are all professionally active, two with a classical approach towards singing and two with more of a jazz approach, which also includes their former training and education. The result demonstrates that jazz, as a genre, is difficult for the teachers to define, and is taught only when the teacher includes it in the lesson. The informants describe how jazz is used not only to fulfill the objectives of genre width, but also to mediate technical singing elements that are not genre linked. It also indicates that the text and spoken word recur as tools in various facets of learning jazz, especially when the didactic goal is to solely mediate the art of jazz singing. When interviewed, the educators emphasize the opinion that improvisation is the most important typical element in singing jazz, but to what degree students become acquainted with vocal improvisation is dependent upon how the teacher views the subject.

This study investigates teaching of fiction from outside of the Western world. The study was conducted via a discourse analysis of five semi structured interviews with upper secondary school teachers in Swedish language and literature. The aim is to describe how the discourse of fiction from outside of the Western world is depicted by the teachers’ dictums about literature in general and their own teaching of literature. This is done by adapting Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s theoretical conception of signs, floating signifier, moment, articulation, chains of equivalence and subject position along with the pedagogical conceptions inclusion, integration and exclusion. The result shows that the signs “cultures” and “knowledges” were central in the discourse. The signs had the character of floating signifiers, due to the difference in the teachers’ statements. The chains of equivalence showed that fiction from outside of the Western world often was associated with negativity while the European and western fiction often where given a more positive approach. A majority of the teachers’ approach was further characterized by exclusion of fiction from outside the Western world, even though an individual teacher’s approach were characterized by inclusion. Based on the results, we also claim that the discourse concerning fiction from outside of the Western world in the Swedish subject is in a state of change, since the discourse in general was characterized by instability.

This thesis, Space, Curriculum Space and Morality, focuses on the two roles of the school, i.e. developing identities and transmitting knowledge. The latest curriculum reform commissions the teachers to transform the fundamental values of the curriculum to the separate subjects. The principal object of the school subjects is to contribute to the implementation of the curriculum goals, namely to educate and promote democratic citizens. Since the new course syllabi lack guidelines about subject content and method, the intention of this work it is to analyse in what way the teachers’ fill this curriculum space, which subject content the teachers choose in order to connect the curriculum goals to the course syllabi goals and, to the practical teaching of geography as a school subject. The understanding of the teachers’ choice of subject content is the overall aim of this thesis. The thesis can be placed within a curriculum theory tradition that regards education and its content as situated in a field of tension ultimately determined by social and political forces engaged in struggle. Within this tradition, an approach has been developed which examines the educational content of the school subjects as contingent. A curriculum historical analysis – supplemented by a text analysis of textbooks, a number of observations (81) of geography lessons in upper secondary school and the following qualitative interviews with geography teachers – shows that the teachers’ choice of content can be understood and explained by the strong selective traditions which have formed within the subject during 150 years. These selective traditions together form a school subject discourse which implies that the moral dimension is lost as the subject content is characterized by an essentialistic approach. The consequences of the findings can be discussed in relation to what content is excluded in the school geography education. Some examples are a gender perspective, issues regarding equality, ethnicity, solidarity, social justice and sustainable development. The issues that the school geography excludes contain ethical and moral considerations. If these issues were presented, they would relate to the fundamental values and the promotion of democracy, issues given strong prominence in the curriculum.

Vad som inspirerade mig till att skriva denna studie var påve Franciskus besök i Lund och Malmö den 31 oktober 2016 i samband med det gemensamma luthersk-katolska uppmärksammandet av 500 års minnet av reformationen. Syftet med min studie är att undersöka hur reformationen och den katolska kyrkan skildras i sex stycken läroböcker i religionskunskap för gymnasiet och hur skildringarna förhåller sig objektivt i enlighet med skolans läroplan. För analysen av läroböckerna har jag använt mig av en kvalitativ textanalys. Mitt förväntade resultat var att skildringen av reformationen skulle ha en lutherskt präglad syn på konflikten och dess konsekvenser och att jag skulle finna objektivitetsbrister i skildringen av reformationen. Studiens resultat styrker min hypotes då Martin Luther och den lutherska reformationen utgjorde det övervägande utrymmet i alla läroböcker förutom en samt att den katolska reformationen endast skildras i en av de sex läroböckerna. Av de undersökta läroböckerna bedöms endast en som objektiv i förhållande till läroplanen. / What inspired me to write this study was the visit of Pope Franciscus in Lund and Malmö on October 31 2016 in connection with the common Lutheran Catholic attention of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. The purpose of my study is to investigate how the Reformation and the Catholic Church are depicted in six textbooks in religious studies for upper secondary school and how the descriptions relate objectively according to the school curriculum. For the analysis of textbooks, I have used a qualitative text analysis. My expected result was that the depiction of the Reformation would have a Lutheran distinctive view of the conflict and its consequences and that I would find objectivity deficiencies in the depiction of the Reformation. The results of the study reinforce my expectation when Martin Luther and the Lutheran Reformation constituted the predominant space in all textbooks except one, and that the Catholic Reformation is only depicted in one of the six textbooks. Of the studied textbooks, only one is assessed as objective in relation to the school curriculum.

The media landscape has evolved significantly over the last decades. Previously, the extent of media choice was limited to a handful of newspapers and radio- and TV broadcasts. However, with the rise of cable TV and internet access, people are faced with a multitude of choices regarding what media and content they choose to consume. Scholars have argued that these developments may enable people who are not interested in news consumption to avoid news more than previously. Considering this transformation of the media landscape, this paper aspires to shed light on the factors that affect news media choice. More specifically, the aim of this essay is to study upper secondary school students’ news interest, news consumption and their trust in news media.   This essay employs uses and gratifications and Bourdieu’s symbolic and cultural capital theory to analyze the empirical data. This data is based on 6 semi-structured interviews with students in the first or second year in two upper secondary schools.  The analysis demonstrates that parents’ political interest in addition to students’ uses and gratifications are significant to understand news interest and news consumption among upper secondary school students. Furthermore, the analysis highlights that the interviewees with higher cultural capital perceive news media with a higher symbolic capital as more trustworthy, while students with a lower cultural capital trust tabloid media to a greater extent.

The purpose of the essay is to examine and discuss the attitudes presented from different players involved in the development of religious education (RE) for upper secondary school in Sweden, and see if and what solutions are presented for solving these problems. A qualitative content analysis was used in order to investigate the different players, the Swedish schools inspectorate and the different researchers involved in the development of RE,attitudes and criticism towards religious education in Sweden.This study has shown that there are many fundamental issues with religious education in Sweden in such areas as different attitudes from both teachers and students towards RE, teachers competence in RE and towards the goal and criteria in the curriculum “outlooks onlife” (Swedish: Livsåskådningar). However, this essay has also proven that there have been no clear solutions presented by any of the players as to solving the issues of RE in Sweden, leaving a gap between schools, teachers and the other players involved in the development of religious education in Sweden.

This thesis describes and analyses vocational learning in school and workplaces, particularly the vocational learning involved in becoming a construction worker in Sweden. This includes learning the trade in upper secondary school education and a subsequent apprenticeship. An underlying argument is that activities in these contexts enable a diverse vocational learning outcome. However, there are potential tensions and contradictions, especially between production- and education-oriented aspects of the learning activities in these settings. To address these and associated issues, two research questions were posed. First, how do work-based activities enable vocational learning? Second, what forms of learning are enabled in school and work life settings and how are these forms of learning constituted? These questions were addressed using information drawn from observations, interviews and a survey. Analyses of the data, using a theoretical framework based on activity and forms of learning theory, show that the school and workplace settings enable different types of learning that form a joint constructed object. Further, the contexts provide diverse tasks that, with guidance from more experienced persons, can enhance the learning outcomes. So, vocational learning is enabled through tensions in the activity systems that form a learning outcome. In project-based vocational education and training (PBVET) provided in upper secondary school, vocational learning is enabled through basic training and opportunities to learn key techniques. In subsequent apprenticeships, the transformation of basic knowledge into specialized knowledge is enabled through close guidance and by the apprentices performing complex tasks. There are also clear differences in the freedom allowed in the performance of tasks between the PBVET and apprenticeships. The PBVET does not allow students to develop and apply their own solutions, while apprentices are encouraged to discover and implement solutions that enhance the performance of tasks. So, different forms of learning are enabled in the two contexts; the PBVET largely promotes reproductive learning and the apprenticeships largely promote productive learning. Scope for improvement was detected, as the PBVET does not appear to provide knowledge that fully meets criteria in the syllabuses, and the apprenticeship does not fully meet the learners’ educational needs. However, the settings provide complementary vocational learning opportunities. Thus, tensions and contradictions can be identified in the activity systems in the school and workplace settings that collectively form the boundaries of a learning outcome that largely corresponds to what the learners need to know and (hence) become construction workers.