The purpose of this study was to examine the routines of performance related pay systems in two Swedish municipal upper secondary schools. A second purpose was to examine what data was included for evaluation of a co-worker’s performance and how a principal collects data. The purpose was also to examine a principal and teachers´ view of performance related pay systems and if it was possible to note an agreement. Principals have been interviewed and teachers have answered a questionnaire to fulfil the purposes of this study. The study shows that the municipality had a good routine that included individual discussions with co-workers about their salary and had fixed municipal criteria. Data for evaluation were these fixed criteria together with unspoken criteria. Principals collected data verbally. It in-creases the risk of subjective evaluation, which increases insecurity and inefficiency of per-formance related pay systems. The teachers gave an insecure and divided image of perform-ance related pay systems. Increased dialogue and defined criteria for the teachers’ salary are needed to improve the image.

Studiens syfte var att undersöka det pedagogiska mötet ur ett elevperspektiv. Vilka olika typer av möten upplever en elev och hur påverkas hon/han av dessa? Sju intervjuer genomfördes med elever som gick sista året på Omvårdnadsprogrammet. Undersökningen gjordes genom en öppen riktad intervju. Studien var kvalitativ och fem olika teman kunde urskiljas, det var mötet med kompisar, mötet med lärare, mötet med handledare, mötet med patienter och mötet med självet. Under varje tema framkom olika aspekter som haft betydelse för ungdomars lärande och utveckling. Analysen fördjupades med hjälp av Moira von Wright och hennes begrepp för att beskriva det pedagogiska mötet. Kompisar hade stor betydelse för hur ungdomarna upplevde utbildningen. Studien tyder på att ungdomarna insåg att de hade föreställningar om varandra men att dessa förändrades med tiden när de lärde känna varandra närmare. Eleverna upplevde att de flesta lärarna på Omvårdnadsprogrammet hade ett som von Wright beskriver relationellt perspektiv och ingick i en helhet tillsammans med eleven och att de lärde av varandra. Lärarna såg eleven som ett vem och inte ett vad. Handledaren var en viktig person för att den arbetsplatsförlagda delen av utbildningen av lärandet skulle fungera väl. Eleven ville känna att handledaren brydde sig och var intresserad av dennes lärande. I mötet med patienter fick ungdomarna stor erfarenhet av människor med olika behov. De träffade människor som befann sig i olika livssituationer som gav dem en ökad förståelse för de svårigheter människor kan råka ut för. De utvecklade den reflexiva processen och i mötet utvecklades också förmågan att bemöta människor i och med att de lärde av patientens reaktioner. Ungdomarna upplevde att de även utvecklade den egna personligheten. De hade lärt känna sig själva och sina egna reaktioner och blivit öppnare som personer och vågade vara sig själva. I och med mötet med människor med svåra sjukdomar och handikapp hade deras insikt mognat och de hade också fått en annan livssyn. Seen or unseen? Upper secondary school students experience of pedagogical meetings. The aim of my study was to investigate the pedagogical meeting at an upper secondary school from a student perspective. What different kinds of meetings do students experience and how are the students influenced by them? Seven students from the third year at the Nursing Care Programme have been interviewed. Five qualitative categories or themes have been discerned, namely the meeting with friends, the meeting with teachers, the meeting with instructors, the meeting with patients and the meeting with themselves. In every category I have discovered important aspects of learning and development on behalf of the students. My analysis has been inspired by Moira von Wright`s conception of a pedagogical meeting. Friends were important for the students` educational experience in general. The results show that the teenagers tend to better understand the minds of each other and gradually change within themselves as they learn to know one another more. The students thought that most of the teachers at the Nursing Care Programme participated entirely in the social, pedagogical and mutual development of the students over time, which von Wright describes as the relationship of equals. The teachers tend to look upon the students as a who instead of a what. The instructor was an important person for the education at the working place. The students wanted the instructor to take care of them and be interested in their learning potential. In the meeting with patients, the students learned a lot about different people and their behaviour. They meet people who find themselves in different stages of life and come to understand the hardships and trouble that are sometimes linked to a human life experience. In doing so, the students developed a reflexive process which allows them to be more open to other people, by meeting them beyond the reaction of the moment, and, indeed, to dare being themselves. By meeting a large number of patients with diseases and various forms of handicap, the students learned more about themselves in the relative and shivering time span of life that awaits us all, and new thoughts keep growing as they gradually understand and tend to look upon life in a new and different way.

This thesis examines the activities within the Swedish steering system concerning upper secondary school. Sweden has a long history of shared responsibility between the state level of government and the municipalities, dating back to federal decisions concerning the establishment of a compulsory school system. By the early 1990s two parallel changes were taking place within the Swedish educational sector, one concerning the steering system which evolved towards deregulation and decentralization, and the other an extension of the compulsory school. A consequence of the latter change was that in practice upper secondary education became mandatory. The political aim was to realize the vision of “one school for all”. In this study the political vision and the larger question of how to turn it into reality (the differentiation question) is used to show how activities at national as well as the local level of the steering system are formed.

I den här uppsatsen undersöker jag musikelever på gymnasiets estetiska program i Västerås, och vilken effekt undervisningen har på deras musikpreferenser. Resultaten baseras på två enkäter, en till elever och en till lärare. Undersökningen visar att eleverna till största delen är positiva till den musik de möter i skolan, men bara en mindre del av dem lyssnar på den musiken privat. / In this essay, I examine the effect of education regarding musical preferences expressed by students of music at upper secondary school in Västerås. The results are based on two questionnaires, one for the pupils, and one for the teachers of the school. The investigation indicates, that the pupils are largely positive towards the music presented in school, but only a lesser part of them actually listen to it privately.

This study is grounded in an interest in the Swedish Upper Secondary Schools’ role as an educator of democratic citizens, with a specific interest in the moral and cognitive development of Upper Secondary School students. Development in these two areas is treated as results of citizenship education. The purpose of the study is to examine moral and cognitive development of students in Upper Secondary School to see if there are any structural differences to be found between the Upper Secondary School programs that are vocationally oriented and the programs that are preparing for further studies on higher levels – since these differences have been both theoretically and empirically implied. The study is based on an enhanced version of Lawrence Kohlberg’s stages of moral development (with teachers’ evaluations of students’ capacity as a reference point of the students’ actual level of moral development) as well as on Kieran Egan’s theory of development through the use of cognitive tools (as seen in five different “shapes of understanding”). There is also a specific interest in how the teachers’ evaluations of the students’ development in the two areas mentioned coincide. The study has been carried out in the shape of an electronic questionnaire sent to Upper Secondary School teachers in Stockholm. The results showed that there were great differences between the evaluations made by teachers working in vocationally oriented programs and by teachers working in programs preparing for further studies on higher levels. Generally, teachers working in programs preparing for further studies on higher levels estimated that their students had a capacity greater than average, whileteachers working in vocationally oriented programs estimated that their students had a capacity below average. Teachers working in “theoretical” programs to a larger extent estimated that their students had a use of cognitive tools which was to be expected from their age, while teachers working in vocationally oriented programs to a larger extent estimated that their students had a use of cognitive tools which could be expected from students not yet fully capable of reading and writing. The results also showed that the groups of students who were said to use cognitive toolsexpected from their age at the same time were estimated to have a relatively low level of capacity.

One of our big public health problems in Sweden is that human beings are too inactive in outdoor settings. That is why stress related diseases increase and influence humans both mentally and physical. The physical activity is halved among many children when they start school and the older they become the less they enjoy school. It is also an increasing problem that children and youth in today's society have lack of worthwhile experiences in the nature. The aim of this study was therefore to examine how the experience of outdoor environment had importance for health and learning on upper secondary school pupils. The study is used a questionnaire survey where 192 upper secondary school pupils in nature and farm focused programs, respectively social programs participated. Of the result it emerged that the outside environment was a positive place in order to create health and learning. Although social- and farm focused pupils had different opinions about good outside environments and where they rather learned, the pupils at the social program were less pleased with their outside environment at school, although they already had what they wanted. The pupils at the social program also wanted more outdoor education and more practical education, as the farm focused pupils considered positive for health and learning. Our conclusion is that the pupils’ wishes should be noticed and a more varying education, that include the outdoor environment and experiences in nature, should be introduced in more schools, even in the cities, since the school also is an arena where young people spends a lot of their time. If the school creates an interest for nature it can last for the rest of life.

In this article intercultural education is discussed, cases from the Danish upper secondary school are analyzed, and some requirements for further development are proposed. First definitions of the concepts communication, communicative action, intercultural communication and intercultural education are given. Starting from these definitions it is argued that intercultural communication as well as intercultural education is possible. Then two cases are analyzed. Finally – in the Discussion – it is underlined that the students’ metareflection on the context dependence of the knowledge construction process is a pivotal precondition for successful intercultural education.

Denna studie genomfördes på gymnasieskolans estetiska program under tiden gymnasiereformen, Gy 2011, tog form. Syftet med denna uppsats är att lyfta fram, medvetandegöra, synliggöra och beskriva en grupp teaterlärares grundläggande ställningstaganden om gymnasieskolans teaterundervisning. Två huvudteman interagerar. 1: Hur upplever gruppen teaterlärare balansen mellan konstnärliga och pedagogiska intentioner i teaterundervisningen? 2: Hur hanterar gruppen teaterlärare balansen mellan lärares initiativ och stimulans och elevernas möjligheter till självständigt skapande?  Med en kvalitativ metod genomfördes reflekterande gruppsamtal med sju teaterlärare. Influerad av aktionsforskning deltog författaren i samtalen. Resultaten visar att gruppen teaterlärare eftersträvar interaktion mellan konstnärliga och pedagogiska aspekter i teaterundervisningen och att detta bidrar till att påverka teaterlärarnas didaktiska ställningstaganden. Teatern framställs som performativ, vilket beskriver de aspekter av teaterarbetet som, i en kommunikativ process och med en genomtänkt gestaltning, vänder sig till en publik. En grundläggande inställning till lärarrollen är att stimulera elevernas skapande och hjälpa fram deras egna uttryck genom att balansera graden av läraraktivt deltagande och medskapande. En kombination av stark eller svag stimulans från läraren och av stort eller litet utrymme för elevens autonomi ger flera möjliga lärarroller. Sammanfattning av resultaten visar att teaterlärarna eftersträvar att röra sig fritt och medvetet mellan dessa roller, och att deras växlande av roller tydligt kommuniceras till såväl elever som kollegor. / This study was carried out in the upper secondary school arts program while the reform, Gy 2011, took shape.  The purpose of this thesis is to highlight, raise an awareness of, visualize and describe a group of theatre teachers’ basic stances on upper secondary school theatre education. Two main themes interact. 1: How does the group of theatre teachers perceive the balance between artistic and pedagogical intentions in theatre education? 2: How does the group of theatre teachers manage the balance between teachers’ initiative and stimulus and students' opportunities to independent creation? With a qualitative method, reflective conversationswere carried out with seven theatre teachers. The author, who was influenced by action research, participated in the conversations. The findings reveal that the theatre teachers strive for interaction between artistic and pedagogical aspects in theatre education and that this interaction contributes to influence the theatre teachers’ didactic positions. Theatre is presented as performative, which describes the aspects of theatre work that, in a communicative process and with a deliberate design, addresses an audience. A basic approach to the role of the teacher is to stimulate students' creativity and boost their self-expression by balancing the degree of teacher active participation and co-creation. A combination of strong or weak stimulus from the teacher and of small or large space for student autonomy enables several possible teacher roles. In summary, the findings shows that theatre teachers strive to move freely and deliberately between these roles, and that their altering between roles is clearly communicated to both students and colleagues.

Over-investors – a study of advanced language pupils in the upper secondary school.  The thesis examines the advanced study of Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) from a sociological point of view, inspired by Bourdieu.  Founded in official statistics and a specially designed survey its main findings can be said to be that it is mainly pupils with a high amount of acquired educational capital from higher social backgrounds who avail themselves of this opportunity, predominantly girls. The amount of inherited language and transnational capital in the family seems to be of particular importance for the pupils’ choice of advanced language studies. French, German and Spanish are the predominant languages of study. Advanced courses in MFL are almost exclusively taught at elite schools, rich in symbolic capital. / Överinvesterarna - en studie av avancerade språkelever i gymnasieskolan. Studien fokuserar det avancerade studiet av moderna språk från en sociologisk utgångspunkt inspirerad av Bourdieu. Den baseras på offentlig statistik och en särskilt framtagen enkätstudie. Dess huvudsakliga fynd kan sammanfattningsvis sägas vara att det är framförallt elever med en myckenhet av egenförvärvat utbildningskapital från de högre sociala grupperna som satsar på avancerade språkstudier, framförallt flickor. Mängden ärvt språk- och transnationellt kapital i familjen tycks vara särskilt viktigt för elevers val att investera i avancerade språkstudier. Franska, tyska och spanska är de mest frekvent studerade språken. Avancerade språkstudier ges nästan uteslutande vid elitskolor som innehar en myckenhet av symboliskt kapital. / Språken, skolan, samhället 1960-2010

This essay focuses on studying senior high school students’ usage of and attitudes towards American and British English. It also investigates what influences for the students’ use of English and attitudes towards the two varieties can be found in school and outside of school, and how that affects the students’ own variety of English. The study has been carried out using a questionnaire as method and the results have been analyzed through theoretical perspectives. The results show that American English is the favored variety of the two, both in usage, attitudes and influences outside of school. However, a majority of the students states that they use a mixed variety consisting of both American English and British English. The results show that this is also the most commonly variety actually used by the students. A mixed variety is what a large part of the students express is being taught in school as well. This shows that the teaching of English in Swedish schools today follow the directions in the policy documents set up by the National Agency of Education stating that communicative skills are desirable. A mixed variety is accepted and there are no restrictions concerning variety used.