Värdefull litteratur : Fyra gymnasielärare om samhällsuppdragets etik i förhållande till litteraturen i klassrummet

The ethical aspects of the Swedish Curriculum for the non-compulsory school system, Lpf94, will form the basis of the research in this essay. The ethical aspects constitute fundamental values and goals as well as common tasks that must be carried out by every teacher. Since the school debate focuses a lot on this perspective, which is often mentioned together with the words problematic and contradictory, it will consequently also be the focus of this essay. Here these features are treated in relation to literature in all its forms used by teachers in class, which also represents a part of the school debate. Together ethics and literature form a perspective that lacks research. The goal is to investigate the ethical awareness of teachers in relation to the literature, and find out which ethical decisions are made by teachers and in what ways the ethical aspects of the curriculum is fulfilled. A qualitative method has been used in order to gain results: four upper secondary school teachers/senior high school teachers have been interviewed. The results are presented in interview transcripts which have been analyzed and interpreted in the light of recent studies and research and pedagogical-didactical literature. Accordingly I have been able to draw the conclusions that the ethical features in teaching is not explicit and that there seldom seems to be any conscious ethical reflections in relation to the literature. The ethical aspects are rather invisible and unconscious. However, it is clear that the interviews raise the awareness of the ethical perspective and thus emphasize the growing and developing function of the dialogue. Finally the results have been interpreted from the point of view of the ethical tasks of the teacher in order to make the ethics visible.I detta examensarbete ligger fokus på de etiska aspekterna av samhällsuppdraget i förhållande till den litteratur som lärare använder sig av i klassrumsundervisningen. Eftersom en stor del av skoldebatten handlar om samhällsuppdraget och dess värdegrund utgör också detta perspektiv utgångspunkten för denna undersökning. Målet är att undersöka vilka etiska avvägningar lärare gör i valet av litteratur och på vilket sätt samhällsuppdragets etik blir synlig i lärares arbete. Därmed framkommer också till viss del i vilken omfattning värdegrundsarbetet sker. Genom en kvalitativ undersökningsmetod i form av samtal har fyra gymnasielärare intervjuats. Erhållna resultat har presenterats i form av intervjutranskript som analyserats och tolkats med hjälp av aktuell forskning och pedagogisk-didaktisk litteratur. De slutsatser som kan dras utifrån resultaten är att etiken i lärarnas arbete inte är explicit och att det oftast inte finns en medveten etisk reflektion utifrån litteraturen. Etiken är snarare osynlig och tämligen omedveten. Dock medvetandegörs den under samtalen vilket framhåller dialogens betydelse för utveckling. Vidare framkommer att etiken aldrig är ett mål i sig, utan fungerar mer som medel för att nå andra mål i klassrummet. Slutligen, för att synliggöra etiken, har resultaten tolkats utifrån de etiska krav i samhällsuppdraget som ställs på lärare.

Narration in Swedish pre- and primary school : a recourse for language development and multilingualism

Increased immigration in Europe and worldwide has led to more pre- and primary school students being educated through the medium of a second language, and there is considerable research, much of it coming from Australia, to suggest that in order to cope with this situation, children will need to begin to acquire, from their earliest years in pre-school, a variety of knowledge-based language skills that will be sufficient to carry them through the subject-based education they will encounter in their subsequent schooling. This is particularly important for L2-students who are less likely to meet academic language outside the school. In this paper, based on transcripts of oral interactions in the classroom, it is argued that conversational and story-telling skills, oral and written, provide a rich environment for the development of academic school language, while at the same time promoting and making good use of the cultural diversity that is increasingly a feature of pre-primary and primary classrooms.

Healthcare providers balancing norms and practice : challenges and opportunities in providing contraceptive counselling to young people in Uganda - a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Pregnancies among young women force girls to compromise education, resulting in low educational attainment with subsequent poverty and vulnerability. A pronounced focus is needed on contraceptive use, pregnancy, and unsafe abortion among young women. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore healthcare providers' (HCPs) perceptions and practices regarding contraceptive counselling to young people. DESIGN: We conducted 27 in-depth interviews with doctors and midwives working in seven health facilities in central Uganda. Interviews were open-ended and allowed the participant to speak freely on certain topics. We used a topic guide to cover areas topics of interest focusing on post-abortion care (PAC) but also covering contraceptive counselling. Transcripts were transcribed verbatim and data were analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: The main theme, HCPs' ambivalence to providing contraceptive counselling to sexually active young people is based on two sub-themes describing the challenges of contraceptive counselling: A) HCPs echo the societal norms regarding sexual practice among young people, while at the same time our findings B) highlights the opportunities resulting from providers pragmatic approach to contraceptive counselling to young women. Providers expressed a self-identified lack of skill, limited resources, and inadequate support from the health system to successfully provide appropriate services to young people. They felt frustrated with the consultations, especially when meeting young women seeking PAC. CONCLUSIONS: Despite existing policies for young people's sexual and reproductive health in Uganda, HCPs are not sufficiently equipped to provide adequate contraceptive counselling to young people. Instead, HCPs are left in between the negative influence of social norms and their pragmatic approach to address the needs of young people, especially those seeking PAC. We argue that a clear policy supported by a clear strategy with practical guidelines should be implemented alongside in-service training including value clarification and attitude transformation to equip providers to be able to better cater to young people seeking sexual and reproductive health advice.