The purpose of my investigation is to see if and, if so, how teachers for the younger ages work with local history as a resource in history teaching. And if the teachers believe that the use of local history gives a greater historical awareness and makes it easier to remember the knowledge when the teaching becomes closer to the students compared to the more nationally adapted textbook.The focus is on the concepts of historical awareness, time perspective and place identity.The method I used is semi-structured interviews with teachers. I even took part in their planning, how they carried out the teaching and assessed it, based on the teachers' own stories. I have also analyzed the curriculum for the history subject and the textbook used as a basis.The results of the work are linked to previous research results and strengthen the previous theories that concrete teaching where the students are more involved and can relate to their local environment strengthens their awareness of history and gives a greater interest in their own history and in their home village.The survey is important when teachers plan their teaching in the subject of history and can give inspiration to how the teaching can be carried out to increase students' knowledge and commitment to the subject in both a national and a local context.

This is a qualitative study aiming to find out how and why teachers work with art, music and movement in the English subject in the early years. In this study we have conducted a background study of previous research and as a starting point and as a point for reference we have relied on education policy documents like The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and the Swedish curriculum for the English school subject. Our research has consisted of interviews with six teachers and ten observation occasions in a total of three different primary schools. Our result show that there seems to be a consensus in both theory and praxis when it comes to integrating art, music and movement in learning and teaching of English in the early school years. The use of methods including art, music and movement in early language learning seems to promote the language development for all students but especially for young learners that require extra support for their language development.

In spite of a monolingual norm in foreign language teaching during the last decades studies throughout the world show that teachers’ target language use varies significantly. This study sets out to examine to what extent the target language (TL) is used with young language learners and how this use correlates to teachers’ beliefs about foreign language teaching and first language (L1) inclusion. Moreover the paper discusses functions for L1 use and strategies used by teachers to support comprehension in the TL. Lesson observations and qualitative interviews were performed with four Swedish primary school class teachers. Despite the prevailing idea of exclusive TL use three of the four teachers do not subscribe to this approach and find L1 inclusion necessary. An emerging theme is the impact of teachers’ beliefs and how these are shaped by personal experience and/or education. L1 is legitimized in order to support comprehension and prevent pupils’ frustration. To varying degrees the L1 is used, mostly to facilitate learning but also for classroom management. The data suggests that teachers are well aware of their language use although they lack awareness and professional language to describe and be articulate about strategies they employ. / Trots att det under de senaste decennierna varit norm att inom språkundervisningen uteslutande använda målspråket i klassrummet, visar studier från hela världen att lärares målspråksanvändning varierar avsevärt. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka i vilken utsträckning målspråket används med yngre språkelever och hur denna överensstämmer med lärarnas föreställningar om språkundervisning och användning av förstaspråket. Dessutom diskuteras funktioner för förstaspråksanvändning och strategier som lärare använder för att underlätta förståelse på målspråket. Lektionsobservationer och kvalitativa intervjuer genomfördes med fyra svenska klasslärare i grundskolans tidigare år. Trots den rådande rekommendationen att undvika användning av förstaspråket och uteslutande använda målspråket, ansluter sig tre av fyra lärare inte till denna didaktiska modell, utan finner det nödvändigt att inkludera förstaspråket i undervisningen. Ett tema som framträder är påverkan av lärares uppfattningar och hur dessa har formats av personliga erfarenheter och/eller utbildning. Förstaspråksanvändning motiveras för att stötta förståelse och undvika frustration hos eleverna. Förstaspråket används i olika utsträckning, framförallt för att underlätta inlärning men också för att leda arbetet i klassrummet. Resultaten tyder på att lärare är väl medvetna om sin språkanvändning, men att de delvis saknar insikt om och ett professionellt språk för att beskriva och formulera sig kring de strategier de använder.