The thesis explores the role of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in the drafting and formulation of the universal human rights in 1948 as well as its contribution at the Vienna Conference, when the universality of the human rights was reaffirmed after the Cold War. Using concept analysis on the reports published by UNESCO for the drafting of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the Vienna Declaration deepens the understanding of the influence of the organization within the United Nations (UN) system at these points in time. By applying an intersectional approach to the concept of “cultural dialogue”, the theoretical tool of “intersectional dialogue” is created in order to analyze and understand the process that occurred in the UN Commission when delegates from all over the world met to draft and discuss the universality of human rights. The conceptual framework of “universality” by Langlois is used in analyzing the parallel process of UNESCO in order to understand the universality of the human rights through local interpretations and particular values. The thesis held by Langlois, that the universality of human rights enables a global platform for oppressed and marginalized people to share their local stories based on particular values within a human rights discourse, is contested in the analysis.

Den här uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka vad ett feministiskt poststrukturalistiskt subjektsteoretiskt angreppssätt kan ge för kunskap om barns subjekt- och könsskapande i förskolan. Detta teoretiskt/metodologiska perspektiv innebär i den här uppsatsen att kön ses som något som görs inom språk och diskurser i vardagliga lokala pedagogiska processer och att jag, både som pedagog och forskare, deltar som medskapande i dessa. I undersökningen analyseras samtalet mellan mig och fem barn under en aktivitet som jag leder och som handlar om bokstavssymboler och bokstavsljud. Barnen var i åldrarna fem till sex år och samtalet är inspelat med mp3-spelare. Genom diskursanalys och dekonstruktion gör jag olika läsningar av tre sekvenser från ljudinspelningen. Jag skriver fram ett antal verksamma diskurser: Vuxen/barn-diskursen, rolig pojke-diskursen, fina flickan-diskursen, bokstavs-diskursen, utvecklings-diskursen, tävlings- och samarbetsdiskurserna samt den kompensatoriska genus-diskursen. Dessa diskurser som jag identifierar/skapar bildar sammantaget diskursiva kedjor som sätter gränser för vad som är möjligt att göra och bli, som kön och subjekt, i den här situationen. I mina läsningar blir alla vi som deltar, både barnen och jag, aktiva i att skapa könad subjektivitet. Särskilt intressant ur mitt perspektiv som blivande förskollärare är hur jag, i egenskap av pedagog och vuxen, omedvetet och trots mina ambitioner att göra annorlunda, deltar i att skapa stereotypa könssubjekt. Den roliga och tävlingsinriktade pojken och den fina samarbetande flickan positioneras via den makt jag ges i samtalet.

Counselling is one of the most commonly utilized tools in the work place. The purpose of this paper is to explore how four employers utilize early counselling sessions related to absences due to illness. A qualitative research method has been used and four human resource managers have been interviewed. The research questions have been divided into three categories: the counselling structure, the counselling model and the counselling dilemmas. The interviews have been transcribed and processed through these three categories. The results show that most employers are positive regarding conducting initial counselling sessions related to work absences. The experience of the session can vary depending on one’s role in the counselling session. Counselling sessions related to short term work absences are impacted by labour legislation, changes in the workplace, the company culture, and the amount of power held by the person who conducts the counselling session. One of the conclusions of this study is that it is difficult to combine initial counselling sessions regarding work absences with career counselling 

The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a natural part of many people's everyday life today. At the same time the risk of digital divides are highlighted by several community agencies in society. One of the risk groups mentioned here are elderly people, risking of falling behind and also to be left out the whole democratic process, because of lack of access to or knowledge of computers and the Internet. The aim of this study is to highlight elderly people's experiences of computers and IT and their participation and involvement in the IT society of today. The study is inspired by the ethnographic method and has a perspective of Social constructionism in which age can be understood as a social created category. The empirical material is based on six interviews with elderly people taking a computer course for beginners, as well as participant observations carried out during the computer course. It appears in the result, that a feeling of being forced is connected to keeping up with the technological development in our society, which can be stressful and frustrating. At the same time the informants feels that it is important to “keep up” with the society, and a curiosity is expressed towards technology. Informants learn computers in an active way. Meaningfulness in learning the computer is seen in everyday life as to maintain contact with grandchildren, search for information and to manage on your own. At the time, an underlying view of themselves and others exist, where the age is given importance in that it is harder to learn when you are old, or that older teachers are preferred since they have more understanding. In contrast to this it is expressed that good teachers will not depend on age, and those in the informants surroundings that supports them are usually young.

Sedan 1970-talet har villkoren i arbetslivet förändrats till den grad att det finns fog för att tala om ”en industriell revolution”. Det svenska näringslivet har blivit alltmer internationaliserat och beroende av en global marknad. Som en följd av det har kraven på organisationer, fackföreningar, myndigheter och välfärdsstaten att anpassa sig ökat. Därmed förändras också förutsättningarna på arbetsmarknaden och i arbetslivet. Det nya arbetsliv som växer fram är betydligt mer oförutsägbart, skiftat och tävlingsinriktat än tidigare. Denna bok handlar om detta nya arbetsliv och de psykiska och sociala konsekvenserna det för med sig. Boken redogör för och diskuterar nya och flexibla organisationsformer och deras styrinstrument, de förändrade kraven på kunskaper och lärande i arbetslivet, den förändrade relationen mellan arbete och övrigt liv samt de nya förutsättningarna för stress och hälsa. Boken går inte bara igenom aktuella företeelser i samhället och arbetslivet, den redogör även för relevanta kunskaper, begrepp och teorier inom samhällsteori, organisation, socialisation, kognition och stress. Trots den breda utblicken ges en samlad bild av det nya arbetslivet som alltmer oreglerat, heterogent och individualiserat.

Författarna är alla forskare inom området och boken bygger delvis på erfarenheterna från ett omfattande forskningsprogram om nya arbetsvillkor. Gränslöst arbete är tänkt att använda som kurslitteratur på universitet och högskolor inom såväl psykologi, pedagogik och sociologi som företagsekonomi. Boken kan även läsas av alla som är intresserade, och kanske drabbade, av villkoren i det nya arbetslivet.

Veiled unveilings

This study is focusing of the Swedish public library as an institution for general education during the period of 1910 to 1990. The aim is to enhance the knowledge of the construction of the Swedish citizen during the organized modernity.  What were the functions of the educational efforts characterizing public library, what procedures, technologies and techniques were in use´, how did they govern and what was the inherent impact of the citizen? With inspiration from the work of Michel Foucault the library discourse have been examined from a genealogical perspective illuminating discursive and non-discursive apparatuses, technologies and relations of power within the public library practices. The public library activities were organized hierarchic, giving the national library the overall responsibility for strategic activities, thus governing regional and local libraries to form localities, book collections, methods for studies considered appropriate for people. The local libraries´ responsibility was to offer the citizens appropriate books and methods for general studies. Bio-power technologies and disciplinary techniques, such as panoptical, expert strategies and central governing are in use. Limited selections, exclusions, rating based on hierarchical principles, governing on distance, self-regulation are the most important and common not only within the field of public library but in society as a whole.  Thus, forming an active and accountable citizen that is capable of making choices, recurrently willing to reconstruct herself by studies and consumption of books. The conclusion is that this citizen, consuming knowledge and high culture, corresponds well to the requirements of the modern society.

Gymnasieelevers hälsa har under de senaste åren varit ett centralt diskussionsämne. Ungdomar upplever att skolan är en av de största stressfaktorerna i deras liv (SOU 2006:77). Ett växande program är individuella gymnasieprogrammet (IV) där 11 % av eleverna som slutar grundskolan går eftersom de inte har tillförskaffat sig en behörighet till ett nationellt program. Syftet med studien är att undersöka IV elevers stresstålighet i relation till skolans ansvar att tillhandahålla ett gott skolklimat. Frågeformuläret "Känsla av sammanhang" (KASAM) som mäter individens förmåga att bemöta olika stressorer som uppkommer i livet användes. Studien omfattades av 23 elever som går första året på IV i en kommunal gymnasieskola i Mellansverige. Resultatet visade att elever på IV har genomsnittligt låg KASAM. Antonovsky (1991) menar att individer med låg KASAM ser både yttre och inre stress uteslutande från den negativa sidan. Författarnas förförståelse var att eleverna skulle ha låg KASAM och resultatet motsvarar författarnas förväntningar.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka några elevers uppfattning av sin studiegång på det individuella programmet (IV). Samt belysa i vilken utsträckning utbildningen individanpassas. En kvalitativ forskningsmetod användes. Sju elever intervjuades som går sitt första år på det individuella programmet. Undersökningen belyser hur eleverna trivs på IV och vad de tycker om sin utbildning. En annan aspekt var att ta reda på hur eleverna tänker kring sin egen insats beträffande utbildningen. Resultatet visar att eleverna trivs och de har mål med sin utbildning. Samtidigt har eleverna åsikter om förbättringar när det gäller klassrumssituationen, lärare och individuella samtal. Undersökningen visar att elevens påverkan av sin studiegång är begränsad. Vår slutsats är att eleverna inte får den individuella utbildning de har rätt till.

The study is a comparative, text analytical and humanistic approach to the inquiry into the reform movements in education from the 1890'ies to the middle of the 1930'ies in two countries, Germany and the United States of America. The study also utilizes some newer concepts, as Foucault's concepts of 'discourse' and 'regime of truth'.

The comparison is doublesided; it deals with both progressive or reform practice and progressive or reform theory in the two countries. Both practice and theory is (as always) embedded in a specific social and political context. The primary aim is the understanding and mapping of the reform practice and the reform theory, but a second aim is to understand them with account taken to the background of their different contextual conditions. The study will show, that there are some differences between German and American reform practices, but it will also show that the practices in the two countries are much more alike than the theories. It will be shown that the theories are more dependent of the specific historical and cultural traditions, more dependent of a national consensus and a national political basis than is practice. The whole reform movement can, from a social point of view, be understood as the educational answer to the fact of a new industrial era - from an educational point of view it can be understood as an exhange of one curriculum theory for another.

The empirical research material, representing reform practice, consists of about a dozen or more rather long discussions of reform schools in each country. In USA these reports and descriptions come from educational researchers visiting schools and in Germany from teachers. The empirical material, representing reform theory consists of philosophical and theoretical issues and discussions among the professors of philosophy and education in each country. A starting-point for the analyses of reform practice is some curriculum principles, expressing the new educational faith in students' freedom, in manual work, and in the need for communication and community life in schools. A starting-point for the inquiry into reform theory is its background of philosohical and ideological views of society and individual, views, that are important features of the theory. During this early reform period several educational sciences were established in both countries. A main interest in this part is first the study of the very kind of sciences which were emerging in USA and Germany, second the differences between them, and third their consequences for the relation between school policy, theory and practice.

This study explores the role of education as means of creation and maintenance of religious hegemony in Iran and Turkey. In the context of this study, state-sponsored systems of mass education aim to socialize generations of children into accepting the ideology and values of the dominant groups as the normal state of affairs. Hegemony, thus, is advanced not solely by excluding oppositional forces but by moral leadership throughout the total ideological and socio-political structure.

Reviewing the notion of education in Islam and the role of the Quran and Sunna and other sources of knowledge in Islam, the study focuses on the impact of Shari'a in forming the theories of state and education in Islam. Representing two different schools of Muslim thought, Iran and Turkey have different interpretations of the state and its role in education which determines the degree of involvement and extent of authority of the political and religious leaders over education. Unity of Islam and the state in the Iranian theocratic system provides an ideologically-laden education which is rooted in one principle: training a new generation of pious, “ideologically committed Muslims”. However, the endeavors of the Turkish secular state have been focused on establishing a mass popularized secular education in order to produce nationalist citizens.

The Iranian revolution of 1979 contributed extensively to the awakening of the religious revival, calling for a shift from a Western model of social order to the one deeply rooted in Islamic beliefs and values. The close link between education and ideology in Iran is apparent from the goals set for educating the young, most of them openly political: acceptance of God's absolute authority manifested through the authority of ulama; support for the political, economic, and cultural unity of all Islamic global community (umma) and for oppressed peoples (mustaz’afin); rejection of every form of oppression, suffering, and domination. The four ideological pillars of the Islamic Republic, inseparability of religion and politics, Islamic revival, cultural revolution, and creation of a committed Muslim, have had a direct impact on Iranian education.

The “Unity of Education Act” in the Republic of Turkey placed all educational activities under strict government control by introducing a state monopoly on education. Kemalism is based on an emphasis on national and republican principles and secularism in which religion has no place and is left out of the scope of formal education. Hence, the transmission of religious knowledge from one generation to another was only possible through informal channels such as family, the small community or underground activities of religious orders. Islam, however, gradually penetrated the public life in Turkey and challenged the secularism. The goal of the Turkish national education as to unite the entire nation through a national consciousness, to think along scientific lines, and intellectually as well as worldly, leaves no place for Islamic religious education. In spite of the government's emphasis on a secular and nationalist system, Islam remains as a force, particularly in its capacity to utilize new elements required for a modern society.

Although Islam has not yet challenged the supremacy of secular education in Turkey, it expanded its influence both in formal and informal education, content and structure.

The survey aims to highlight how an individual in a rehabilitation process can benefit from career guidance. Research questions have been raised as part of career guidance at the current stress rehabilitation, the needs of career guidance available, and what function career guidance can play in vocational stress rehabilitation work. For the research one qualitative research method was choosen with the research questions as a base. The result of the open interview questions revealed that there were no career guidance available in form of any person employed in the stress rehabilitation, but that it was preferred. Elements of career guidance was limited by Employment Service and the results showed that there is a need for career guidance and that guidance can play a role in vocational stress rehabilitation . The assumption that career guidance was not represented in the chosen stress rehabilitation activities, the existence of such needs and that vocational career guidance can play a role turned out to be true.

This study focuses on the perceptions of occupations among girls and boys from a cultural geographical perspective. A questionnaire was given to children in fifth grade. They were asked to write their preferred occupation as grown-ups and to give an explanation to the selected occupation. They also considered possible future careers by selecting from a list of pre-set occupations. The survey was carried out in Gimo, a small industrial community, and Uppsala, a town with an old university. The most popular occupations among the children can be grouped in four larger categories: animal related, artist related, professional sportsmen and chef/baker. The majority of the children chose their preferred occupation because it seems enjoyable, but some valued making money or taking care of people or animals. The result shows both differences and similarities in children's career choices depending on their place of residence. There are, however, large discrepancies when comparing gender. The differences are more significant when comparing boys and girls than when comparing location.

This paper, which is the summary of my thesis, is about democratic education and ‘life competence learning’, which includes varied efforts to develop students’ social and emotional competencies. In one of the studies included in my thesis, I have followed lessons wherein teachers’ intentions are directed to strengthen the young children’s self-confidence as well as conflict solving capacities. By using different educational materials teachers want to reduce bullying and create a democratic order in class. In the lessons each student is supposed to let their voice be heard, and the issues discussed are about preventing and revealing peer conflicts. It is clear that children see these exercises from a different point of departure than adults: children have difficulties to define what problems are relevant to discuss in this ‘public’ classroom. To choose acceptable and not too private matters is the challenging task, not the conflict solving in itself. The ‘friend application’ where each child is supposed to formulate what is making them a good peer, is not only means to better self-confidence. This can also be stigmatizing: when some appear not enough ‘social competent’ to deliver statements about their own qualities, they are being ‘helped’ by the others. Unfortunately adults disregard how children see these matters. By using theories about intersubjectivity, I have tried to shred light upon the possibilities to get to know another’s perspective on the common issues. This study concludes that the children’s experiences about what is at stake are not considered. This can explain why children also are trying to turn the lessons to something they apprehend and find challenging. When this is tolerated by the adult and the children find a topic to share insights and wonderings about, more of them are participating in a mutual exploratory speech. But often the possibility to know the other is shaded by the expectation on the predefined right answer.

Den första januari 1998 infördes enligt ett riksdagsbeslut förskoleklassen i hela landet. Det innebar i praktiken att förskolans verksamhet för sexåringarna flyttades in i skolan och blev en egen skolform, en frivillig verksamhet i den obligatoriska skolan. Vid inrättandet av förskoleklassen var en intention att ge sexåringarna en likvärdig grund inför skolstarten samt att föra in förskolepedagogiken i skolan. Syftet med vårt arbete är ta reda på var förskoleklassen befinner sig i förhållande till förskolans tradition respektive skolans tradition. Vi vill också lyfta fram förskoleklassens relation till att den inte är obligatorisk, vilket grundskolan är. För detta har vi tagit två teoretiska redskap till hjälp. Det ena är ramfaktorteorin med vilken skolans respektive förskolans traditioner ses som formande och styrda via olika ramar. Det andra handlar om att förstå de olika traditionerna utifrån ett tänkande om olika arenor: formulerings-, transformerings- och realiseringsarenan. Vid insamling av data valdes den kvalitativa metoden med intervjun och observationen som redskap. Vi valde att besöka skolor i tre olika kommuner, där vi intervjuade en rektor och en förskollärare/lärare på varje skola och gjorde observationer av den pedagogiska miljön. Den slutsats vi kan dra av undersökningen är att organiserandet av förskoleklassverksamheten kan se väldigt olika ut. I vårt resultat kommer vi fram till att förskoleklassen är "skolifierad". Det vill säga att det är skolans tradition som dominerar på realiseringsarenan även om formuleringsarenan genom Läroplanen mer gynnar förskolans tradition. Förskoleklassens placering på skolan verkar inte ha någon större betydelse för en integrering. Det tycks snarare bero på kommunikationen mellan de olika arenorna. På de skolor där kommunikationen är tydlig mellan skolchef och förskollärare/lärare arbetar personalen aktivt med att integrera förskoleklassen i skolans verksamhet. Placeringen av förskoleklassen och utformningen av tilldelade lokaler tycks ha betydelse för hur verksamheten i förskoleklassen organiseras. Vår tolkning är att det finns materiella ramfaktorer som styr organiserandet i förskoleklass, exempelvis lokaler och tillgång till material. I slutändan upplever vi att det är skolchefers, förskollärares/lärares förhållningssätt som är den starkast styrande ramfaktorn som fastställer vilken av verksamhetstraditionerna som kommer att dominera.

In two studies efforts to enhance children’s possibilities to participate and to improve the school as a social meeting place are followed. The first focuses on a three year project, aimed to work out new forms for pupils (grades 6-9) to participate in the school organization. The second study follows younger children (grades 1-5) in specific lessons where social dilemmas are discussed and solved, which can be characterized as social and emotional learning.

Both studies concern the school’s option to handle the child fostering to individual actors, their independence and  ability to take part through ’self-expression’, and at the same time instill the society’s ‘common value system’. By following pedagogical interventions by participant observations and interviews, it appears that there is little interest to let the children get involved out of their own questions and problem definitions. In the participation project it appears that children often are rather strictly directed by adults, and they are not so often let to use their critical and reflective thinking. In the second study each exercise is scrutinized for what it affords the children. Also these results show that the underlying intentions are not to create pedagogical conditions that support communication that involves the children’s own perspectives and interests, in an ‘exploratory’ speech in learning about one’s self, about the other and the world. The children’s resistance to perform properly can be seen as a way to recapture some of their autonomy to break the ‘ritualized' communication. In both studies children’s use of a field of free action is restricted.

The interventions are analyzed through the concept of intersubjectivity and of child perspective. I conclude that the basis for why and how these efforts are done can be seen in a cultural childhood narrative: they are in certain aspects seen as ‘not yets’ despite the late modern emphasis on competence and  responsibility.

The study which has been made is a qualitative observational study where play forms and participation of adults were observed in two preschools. The word play is defined in the study with an “as-if” –nature based on Knutsdotters definition which differs play and activities from each other. The observed play form has been analyzed according to the concept of imitation and imagination play. To get a complete base of the study a few children on some occasions drew what they played or would like to play.

Through photographs of these drawings and how the children described and explained what they drew a connection could be made with the children’s play forms. The children take in what adults and other children do and use it in their play forms, which this study clearly shows. Through the social cultural perspective that has been used in this study we can see that learning often occurs through interaction with communication. That children who interact with adults through communication learns how the surrounding world functions, how thinking patterns and actions works.

It would appear, however, to be a series of complex problems around the adults’ participation in play. In one of the preschools the adults’ were playing with the children but in the second preschool the adults ‘were too busy with activities so the children would play on their own without adult interruption between them.

Through this study it has also been revealed that there are different kinds of distractions that interferes with children’s play and that there generally is a lack of respect for children’s play, an example of this is the continued interference from the preschools staff. Examples of interferences that interrupt children’s play at the preschools are diaper changes, gatherings, lunch, snack breaks and other daily activities and routines.

This research aims to examine career counselling by e-mail. E-mail from a specific case has been examined. The research contained two parts; the aim of the first one was to consider the character of the incoming e-mail. The main focus of this research has been on the second part, where eight incoming and eight outgoing e-mails have been interpreted with a focus on communication skills. Our research is abductive, using qualitative data analysis. Amongst our conclusions are that the examined e-mail are mainly of information character and a smaller part of counselling character. The communication skills used in traditional career counselling are used even in this context, where the main part is found in the e-mail of counselling character.  

The problem focused in the thesis has its ground in the crossroads between a manifold school-time and shared as well as individual rhythms of pupils. The thesis builds on a theoretical assumption that cultural structures in time are of meaning for an understanding of ourselves and of others, and works as a frame for contemporary values and constraints, especially in school. The aim is to understand and create a thick description of the phenomenon time as a condition for positioning, as young high school pupils see and deal with it. The contexts for their descriptions are three specific schools, challenging traditional ways of studying in time by offer independency, one by distance education, one by mobility between independency and timed lessons, and one by an independent project in an otherwise ordinary timetable.

The empirical material is mainly based on interviews, letters and drawings, collected from thirty pupils, ten from each school. The study is conducted and analysed in means of an abductive methodology, and use senzitising concepts to withdraw units of meaning, relating the descriptions of pupils to theoretical assumptions.

Time as a condition for positioning is a way of balancing between structure and individual acts. Time in school is created and dealt with in the crossroads between feelings of freedom to, of being in control of and/or close to, and their opposites, feelings of freedom from, or being controlled by and/or on distance. Dreams of spontaneity, closeness and intensity give way to certain temporal dilemmas in a school-time with contradictory values. The rhythms outlined by some of the pupils support the dreams described, as well as they underline the pupils’ need for temporal frames that see and confirm their performances here and now, as well as in the future. Time as an analytical filter reveals a meaning of time as enclosing lines and circles, present moments and stretched lives, school-time and other times.

The study is about long-term sick, immigrant women’s experiences of the vocational rehabilitation that they have received and whether they feel it has been important, valuable and strengthening and if so in what way. The study was conducted with a qualitative method and consists of five semi-structured interviews with women aged 45-52 years, who were born in the Middle East and have lived in Sweden for more than 20 years. Common to all informants is that they have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia. The study shows that the women currently are in such bad condition that they are likely to be in a greater need for medical rehabilitation than vocational rehabilitation. They feel that multiprofessional rehabilitation programmes and counselling have been the rehabilitation efforts that have helped them most.

The new working life has become increasingly complex and demands filled. New proficiency has grown in pace with social change and social individuation (Allvin, 2006). Individuals are expected to be ‘their own agents’ and constantly strive to remain employable and 'employability' has become a policy concept that is widely used in the political debate about education and work (Berglund & Fejes, 2009). As a future career counselor, it is pertinent to understand what it means to be employable in order to best ensure the individual's needs. Based on this reasoning, the purpose of the study is to get a better understanding of the phenomenon on the basis of employability of young adults' experiences of being employable. With a qualitative approach and semi-structured interviews, we interviewed five young working women between 25 and 29. The result shows that employability, beyond education, is also about the individual's social and cognitive abilities. The conclusion is that individuals today are aware of the new knowledge requirements of working life and that they have developed abilities, skills and characteristics that are related to social demands.

In recent years, there have been reports about increased

religious discrimination in schools. As a way of

acknowledging the importance of religion and faith

communities in the public sphere and to propose a solution to

the exclusion of religious citizens, the political philosopher

Ju¨rgen Habermas suggests an act of translation for which

both secular and religious citizens are mutually responsible.

What gets lost in Habermas’s translation, this paper argues, is

the condition that makes translation both necessary and

(im)possible. Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s notion of the

mysterious untranslatable and the task of the translator, the

paper approaches translation as an ethical process involving

risk, asymmetry and uncertainty. Not knowing where this risk

will lead, the paper takes the ethical ambivalence at play in

Jacques Derrida’s notion of the untranslatable and explores

this in relation to religious difference in education. It argues

that the untranslatable needs to be acknowledged in terms of a

respect for difference and a limit to narration, if students with

religious convictions are not to be further violated in schools.

Rooted in philosophy of education, the overall purpose of this dissertation is to renegotiate the relationship between education, religion, and democracy by placing the religious subject at the centre of this renegotiation. While education is the main focus, the study draws its energy from the fact that tensions around religious beliefs and practices seem to touch upon the very heart of liberal democracy. The study reads the tensions religious pluralism seems to be causing in contemporary education through a post-structural approach to difference and subjectivity.

The purpose is accomplished in three movements. The first aims to show why the renegotiation is needed by examining how the relationship between education, democracy, and religion is currently being addressed in cosmopolitan education and deliberative education. The second movement introduces a model of democracy, radical democracy, that sees the process of defining the subject as a political process. It is argued that this model offers possibilities for seeing religion and the religious subject as part of the struggle for democracy. The third movement aims to develop how the relationship between education, democracy, and religion might change if we bring them together in a conversation whose conditions are not ‘owned’ by any one of them.

To create this conversation, Hannah Arendt, Jacques Derrida, Søren Kierkegaard, and Emmanuel Levinas are brought together around three themes – love, freedom, and dialogue – referred to as ‘windows.’ The windows offer three examples in which religious subjectivity is made manifest but they also create a shift in perspective that invites other ways of seeing the tensions between religion and democracy. The aim of the study is to discuss how education might change when religion and democracy become questions for it through the perspectives offered in the windows and what this implies for the particular religious subject.

The study explored the lifeworld of being a partner to a person with Alzheimer’s disease. Lived experience and existential conditions were focused. The study has an existential phenomenological hermeneutic perspective. The theoretical underpinnings consist of thinking of lifeworld by means of four life existentials: lived space, lived body, lived time and lived relations. Data collection was done by Max van Manens reflective dialog interview with ten respondents, five women and five men at age between 40 and 64, living with a partner who had had their diagnosis the last year or longer. Data analyses took place listening and re-listening the recorded interviews, transcribing, reading and re-reading the texts. The analysis evolved through hermeneutic, phenomenological reflection described by van Manen. The result of the study was categorized and the analysis was done in four parts following the four life existentials. The result showed that lived time is different than before since the future has to stand back in favour of here and now in order to be able to cope with everyday life. The lived space changed to secure the partner and everyday roles changed in the family. The lived body needed to rest and longed for closeness. The lived relation changed when the need of closeness and distance changed. The existential conditions changed radically and a new way of living was found in new strategies in a changed and interlaced lifeworld.

Health education conversations. Communicative strategies in consultations between district nurse and patient. In recent years, the importance of the patient's point of view and patient participation in health education has been emphasised in policy texts and legislation. These changing policies raise questions as to how life-style messages are communicated in clinical practice. This theses explores the process of advice-giving in consultations between district nurse and patient. To provide an in-depth analysis of advice giving conversations, four cases were studied with complementary techniques. The material consists of video-taped consultations, interviews and stimulated recall with patients and district nurses. The qualitative analysis focuses on the communicative strategies used by the parties in conversations about life style issues. Both district nurse and patient uses a range of direct and indirect strategies to give and respond to advice, as well as to facilitate the interaction. They both define and introduce topics. The district nurse supports patient initiatives, provides information, presents arguments and persuades the patient. The patient presents information, arguments and uses subtle strategies to accept or reject advice. As an overarching strategy, the district nurse draws on everyday experiences presented by the patient, which she re-formulates into pieces of advice. Finally, the patterns of communicative strategies, and the differing goals of the two parties, are discussed in relation to the dilemmas of patient integrity and professional tasks involved in health education.

The categorisation of people into two kinds of subjects, men and women, as well as the notion that gender is natural and lifelong, are predominant ideas in contemporary society. When gender categories are challenged, new questions about gender arise. This is particularly evident for close relatives of transsexuals, who are subject to dominant discourses of gender, health and close relationships, at the same time as they have their relationship to maintain. The aim of this thesis is to explore how relatives handle, and make sense of their experience, when someone close is transsexual.

This interview study of 15 close relatives to transsexuals, explores how the relatives understand and ascribe meaning to the transrelationprocess. The purpose of the interviews was to identify how close relatives relate to discourses of gender and identity, positioning themselves as relatives and gendered subjects in relation to the transsexual person. The study also addresses the narrative process itself.

The analysis points to a “relatives-dilemma”, in which the close relatives relate to the transsexual in a way that is acceptable for the relationship, at the same time as dealing with the cultural images of gender, health and kinship, as understood by themselves and others. The analysis identifies three different conditions for the relatives’ sense-making process: the complete gender, health as an imperative, and reciprocity of consideration and care.

The metamorphosis of gender of a close relative can be regarded as a catastrophe, a breakthrough development, or both. The manner in which this is dealt with seems to depend on whether the transsexual relative is a female-to-male transsexual or a male-to-female transsexual, as well as on particularities in their relations to each other, and the relative’s own gender in relation to the transsexual. The common denominator found in the study was the relatives’ need for the construction of continuity of gender, and thus the construction of normality.

Several researchers have emphasized that the labour market is being restructured and characterized by more frequently occurring organizational changes. In this sense, it has also been maintained that employability is a gradually more important asset for individuals in contemporary working life. It has been argued that the modern way of job security should be seen in the light of employability, the so called employability security, where security comes from the feeling of being able to get a new job rather than from the feeling of maintaining the current employment position.

Employability is defined as an individual’s perception of his or her possibilities of getting new employment. Feeling employable thus reflects the perception of having great possibilities to get a new job, if necessary. In earlier research employability has been described as a concept depending on individual assets as well as contextual prerequisites. For instance, Fugate, Kinicki and Ashforth (2004) argued that employability is comprised of three distinct dimensions, one motivational component, one component reflecting adaptability and a third component formed by the human and social capital. Berntson, Sverke and Marklund (in press), on the other hand, argued that employability also shall be seen in the light of the context of the individual. Thus, national economic situation as well as local labour markets are important predictors of an individual’s employability.

Although the concept of employability has been argued to be dependent on individual assets, few or no studies have been made to investigate if employability is something else than a dispositional characteristic such as efficacy beliefs. It is important to know if employability shall be viewed as a dispositional factor or if it shall be seen as something apart from dispositional traits when it comes to reinforcing employability. The first aim of the present study is to investigate if employability is a concept distinct from self-efficacy. It is however also of importance to investigate if employability gives rise to efficacy beliefs or if it is feelings of efficacy that influence the levels of employability. A second aim, therefore, is to investigate if self-efficacy affects employability or the other way around.

Questionnaire data is being used comprising white-collar workers in a Swedish organization. The results of the initial confirmatory factor analysis (on Wave 1 data) indicate that employability is distinct from self-efficacy. Longitudinal data are being collected with the specific aim of performing a cross-lagged analysis. However, the cross-sectional data imply that the two concepts are positively correlated, indicating that individuals experiencing high levels of self-efficacy also report higher levels of employability.

Syftet med den här studien var att undersöka vilka motiv som funnits till engelskämnets existens och funktion i två statliga utredningar. Som empiri tjänade SOU 1948:27, 1946 års skolkommissions betänkande med förslag till riktlinjer för det svenska skolväsendets utveckling och SOU 1992:94, Skola för bildning, på vilka en kvalitativ textanalys med hermeneutisk tolkning genomfördes. Studien tog sina teoretiska utgångspunkter och analysverktyg i Anthony Giddens teori om moderniteten, Ulf P. Lundgrens teori om läroplanskoder och tre forskardiskurser om kultur i språkundervisningen. Resultatet visade att engelskämnets existens inte var given för individen i SOU 1948:27, däremot för samhället då få samhällsresurser ansågs behövas för att ge individen relativt god färdighet jämfört med de andra stora kulturspråken, främst tyska. I SOU 1992:94 var engelskämnets existens självklar för både individen och samhället till följd av modernitetens framväxt och globaliseringen. Resultatet visade vidare att engelskämnets funktion speglade sin tid, vilket innebar att läsningen var den mest prioriterade färdigheten i SOU 1948:27. I SOU 1992:94 var däremot till följd av modernitetens framväxt och teknologiseringen, kommunikationen mellan individer den högst prioriterade färdigheten. Studien skall ses som ett inslag i debatten som ständigt behöver föras, vilka kunskaper som skall reproduceras och vilka färdigheter som bör uppmärksammas.

This survey describes the types of toy libraries found throughout the world. The descriptive study is based on a questionnaire and information material from 37 countries and on personal visits to some countries. The survey shows that there are more than 4,500 toy libraries in the world in 31 countries on all continents. Four major types of toy libraries emerge: (a) community-oriented toy libraries; (b) lekotek for children with special needs and their families; (c) toy libraries as a cultural, social, and recreational center; and (d) toy lending libraries. Twenty-one countries have adopted the ``lekotek'' concept. The lekotek provides services for young children with special needs and their families. The original lekotek concept assumes a model of early intervention where the needs of the child and the family are central. Assessment and intervention are carried out in collaboration with the parents. Individualized Family Service Plans (IFSPs) fit well into the frame of the lekotek concept. Examples of how programs at lekoteks service families of young children with disabilities are given.

The object of this essay is to describe some student’s changeover from the individual programme in college to the national program. A qualitative method has been used, four students between the ages of 16-19 has been interviewed. Our interest for this subject was developed during a practice period at a college, where some students, unlike the belief of the school board, at the individual programme continued to the national programme. The common factors for the students to get further in their studies have been their inner motivation as well as having academic goals.

In research as well as psychotherapy and psychoanalysis there is a long tradition of supervision. Both types of supervision involve acquiring a new professional identity. The aim of the article is to describe and discuss similarities and differences related to the different aims of the two training programmes. One starting point is that the frames for the training as a doctoral student has recently been changed in Sweden. When a doctoral student is accepted to a doctoral programme, the university department has a responsibility for that the students they accept have a financially secure situation, according to certain criteria. This has involved a sometimes radical change in the frames of the doctoral programs and the importance of the supervision as one of the most important parts has become evident. It could therefore be of interest to compare the conditions for supervision in relation to research training with the conditions for supervision in another field such as in a psychotherapy training program. Maybe the two training programmes could learn from each other. The article is based on litterature and on experiences of my own from both areas of work.

The main purpose of this study was to examine a set of independent group variables (group size, gender composition, and supervisory style) in group supervision, and their interrelation with supervisees’ and supervisors’ view on group interactions, group climate, and attained skill. The study also examined changes over time in supervisees’ and supervisors’ ratings. Results from hierarchical regression analysis indicate that the group variables measured in this study are interrelated to perceived psychotherapeutic knowledge and skills attainment, group interaction, and group climate. The participants experienced a positive change over time with regard to attainment of knowledge and skills, group interaction, and group climate. Supervisors were more likely to experience a positive change whereas supervisees, and especially supervisees on the basic level, tended to present more stable ratings over time. These data underline the utility and importance of studying group supervision in psychotherapy from a small group perspective.

I denna artikel beskrivs vad som väckte vårt intresse för att på ett mer systematiskt sätt utforska grupphandledning som en specifik form för lärande. Som kliniker får man sällan en bild av vad som ligger bakom de forskningsfrågor som ställs. I allmänhet redovisas teoretisk bakgrund, frågeställningar, metoder och resultat som mer eller mindre givna. I verkligheten är det dock sällan så, särskilt inte när det gäller kliniknära forskning, som drivs av en önskan om en fördjupad förståelse, ofta personligt förankrad, av problemområden som gett upphov till specifika frågor.

This study is about counselling and the counsellor´s work within the organisation SFI (Swedish for immigrants). The aim with the study is to investigate what role counselling have within SFI and how the counsellor´s work could look like within the SFI organization. Interwievs have been used as a qualitative method. The result shows that the counsellor plays an important part within the SFI organization. The counsellor´s work is mainly to give a private guidance, inform and cooperate with other local authorities. I draw the conclusion that the counsellor´s themselves are pleased and happy with their work;they work with a direct counselling in a mulitcultural environment who ca be called mulitcultural counselling and their work are mainly governed by the local authorotoes and students requirements to be selfsupplying.

Denna undersökning syftar till att belysa vägledares och elevers tankar om möjligheter, begränsningar och etiska dilemman med vägledning via Internet. Arbetets mål har varit att försöka få fram svar som kan vara till nytta för den utveckling som webbaserad vägledning står inför. Den kvalitativa metoden har använts där enskilda intervjuer och en gruppdiskussion har genomförts. De forskningsfrågor som undersökningen vilar på har kunnat besvaras med hjälp av de svar informanterna gav. Här kunde man se att ämnet är relativt nytt och obeprövat. Det framgår tydligt att förutsättningarna för kommunikationen via nätet ser helt annorlunda ut jämfört med traditionell vägledning vilket ställer nya krav på kommunikatörerna. Slutsatserna som kan dras är att vägledningen via webben ses som ett komplement till traditionell vägledning. Alla är dock överens om att tekniken kan ge nya möjligheter och främja vägledningens utveckling och kanske kommer denna arbetsmetod vara alle mans vardag om några år.

The topic of this study is representations of young people judged as having social problems. More specifically, it is about representations held by social pedagogues in training and at work. A total of 19 people have been interviewed. Also, a study of the daily press contributes to an understanding of extant representations. The articles have been selected from two Swedish newspapers, Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet. Given that the study is focused on representations in the sense of formations of meaning and configurations of experience, a qualitative approach was implied. Through analyses and interpretations of news articles and interviews, it was possible to identify some more profound representations of youth with social problems. There are indications that these conceptions can be looked upon as social representations. Sometimes one can distinguish certain relations to ideas from previous epochs. Partly inspired by the work of others, I term these social representations: the young as an object for rescue, the unspoiled child, the dynamic adolescent, the injured young person and the evil young person. The representation of the evil young person was only observable in a few cases in the newspaper study. All terms should be looked upon as images and not as descriptions of living people. Also, these representations should not be seen as exclusive categories into which individuals can be sorted. The prospective social pedagogues in different stages of their education as well as the professionals showed interesting variations regarding their views on youth with social problems. The concept socially shared perspective has proven to be fruitful for understanding these variations, which can be understood in relation to three prerequisites. The first concerns the accessibility of a repertoire of representations for the prospective as well as professional social pedagogues during different stages of their education and professional life. The second prerequisite deals with their personal experiences achieved during practice and work. The third prerequisite concerns specific problems they have encountered during the various stages.