| 1. |
- Olande, Oduor
(författare)
-
Students' narratives from graphical artefacts : Exploring the use of mathematics tools and forms of expression in students' graphicacy
- 2013
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The research concerns presented in this dissertation addresses aspects of students’ interaction with commonly occurring graphical artefacts in teaching and learning environments. In particular, focus is on how the students make sense of these artefacts in relation to subject specific tools and forms of expression.The dissertation comprises of four studies guided by a semiotics cultural- historical perspective to cognition. The first study which is largely quantitative, analyses the percentage scores from students’ responses to selected items from OECD PISA surveys for items containing graphical elements. The second and the third studies in keeping with a more sociocultural perspective to learning as point of departure, examine the students’ collaborative interaction around tasks containing graphical elements. The fourth study explores the nature of students’ solutions from the Swedish national test in mathematics based on a tools and forms of expression sensitive empirically derived construct of Identification contra Critical-analytical approach to graphicacy.The main outcomes of these studies can be summarised as follows: first there is justification for re-examining the predominant characterisation of students’ interaction with graphical artefacts. Secondly, while it is not uncommon for students to take a more visual-perceptive and intuitive approach to graphicacy, results from task items interactions indicate that a Critical-analytical approach seems to be more reliable and capable of yielding desirable outcomes. The outcomes of these studies call for vigilance on the type of tasks used in relation to graphicacy and how these can be used to foster students’ Critical-analytical disposition.
|
|
| 2. |
- Dodoo, Ambrose
(författare)
-
Life cycle primary energy use and carbon emission of residential buildings
- 2011
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this thesis, the primary energy use and carbon emissions of residential buildings are studied using a system analysis methodology with a life cycle perspective. The analysis includes production, operation, retrofitting and end-of-life phases and encompasses the entire natural resource chain. The analysis focuses, in particular, on to the choice of building frame material; the energy savings potential of building thermal mass; the choice of energy supply systems and their interactions with different energy-efficiency measures, including ventilation heat recovery systems; and the effectiveness of current energy-efficiency standards to reduce energy use in buildings. The results show that a wood-frame building has a lower primary energy balance than a concrete-frame alternative. This result is primarily due to the lower production primary energy use and greater bioenergy recovery benefits of wood-frame buildings. Hour-by-hour dynamic modeling of building mass configuration shows that the energy savings due to the benefit of thermal mass are minimal within the Nordic climate but varies with climatic location and the energy efficiency of the building. A concrete-frame building has slightly lower space heating demand than a wood-frame alternative, because of the benefit of thermal mass. However, the production and end-of-life advantages of using wood framing materials outweigh the energy saving benefits of thermal mass with concrete framing materials.A system-wide analysis of the implications of different building energy-efficiency standards indicates that improved standards greatly reduce final energy use for heating. Nevertheless, a passive house standard building with electric heating may not perform better than a conventional building with district heating, from a primary energy perspective. Wood-frame passive house buildings with energy-efficient heat supply systems reduce life cycle primary energy use.An important complementary strategy to reduce primary energy use in the building sector is energy efficiency improvement of existing buildings, as the rate of addition of new buildings to the building stock is low. Different energy efficiency retrofit measures for buildings are studied, focusing on the energy demand and supply sides, as well as their interactions. The results show that significantly greater life cycle primary energy reduction is achieved when an electric resistance heated building is retrofitted than when a district heated building is retrofitted. For district heated buildings, the primary energy savings of energy efficiency measures depend on the characteristics of the heat production system and the type of energy efficiency measures. Ventilation heat recovery (VHR) systems provide low primary energy savings where district heating is based largely on combined heat and power (CHP) production. VHR systems can produce substantial final energy reduction, but the primary energy benefit largely depends on the type of heat supply system, the amount of electricity used for VHR and the airtightness of buildings.Wood-framed buildings have substantially lower life cycle carbon emissions than concrete-framed buildings, even if the carbon benefit of post-use concrete management is included. The carbon sequestered by crushed concrete leads to a significant decrease in CO2 emission. However, CO2 emissions from fossil fuels used to crush the concrete significantly reduce the carbon benefits obtained from the increased carbonation due to crushing. Overall, the effect of carbonation of post-use concrete is small. The post-use energy recovery of wood and the recycling of reinforcing steel both provide higher carbon benefits than post-use carbonation.In summary, wood buildings with CHP-based district heating are an effective means of reducing primary energy use and carbon emission in the built environment.
|
|
| 3. |
- Eliassi, Barzoo, 1978-
(författare)
-
A stranger in my homeland : The politics of belonging among young people with Kurdish backgrounds in Sweden
- 2010
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation examines how young people with Kurdish backgrounds form their identity in Sweden with regards to processes of inclusion and exclusion. It also sheds light on the ways these young people deal with ethnic discrimination and racism. Further, the study outlines the importance of these social processes for the discipline of social work and the ways social workers can work with disadvantaged and marginalized groups and endorse their struggle for social justice and full equal citizenship beyond racist and discriminatory practices. The empirical analysis is built on interviews with 28 young men and women with Kurdish backgrounds in Sweden. Postcolonial theory, belonging and identity formation constitute the central conceptual framework of this study. The young people referred to different sites in which they experienced ethnic discrimination and stigmatization. These experiences involved the labor market, mass media, housing segregation, legal system and school system. The interviewees also referred to the roles of ‘ordinary’ Swedes in obstructing their participation in the Swedish society through exclusionary discourses relating to Swedish identity. The interviewees’ life situation in Sweden, sense of ethnic discrimination as well as disputes over identity making with other young people with Middle-Eastern background are among the most important reasons for fostering strong Kurdish nationalist sentiments, issues that are related to the ways they can exercise their citizenship rights in Sweden and how they deal with exclusionary practices in their everyday life. The study shows that the interviewees respond to and resist ethnic discrimination in a variety of ways including interpersonal debates and discussions, changing their names to Swedish names, strengthening differences between the self and the other, violence, silence and deliberately ignoring racism. They also challenged and spoke out against the gendered racism that they were subjected to in their daily lives due to the paternalist discourse of ”honor-killing”. The research participants had been denied an equal place within the boundary of Swedishness partly due to a racist postcolonial discourse that valued whiteness highly. Paradoxically, some interviewees reproduced the same discourse through choosing to use it against black people, Africans, newly-arrived Kurdish immigrants (”imports”), ”Gypsies” and Islam in order to claim a modern Kurdish identity as near to whiteness as possible. This indicates the multiple dimensions of racism. Those who are subjected to racism and ethnic discrimination can be discriminatory and reproduce the racist discourse. Despite unequal power relations, both dominant and minoritized subjects are all marked by the postcolonial condition in structuring subjectivities, belonging and identification.
|
|
| 4. |
- Perselli, Ann-Katrin, 1958-
(författare)
-
Från datasal till en-till-en : En studie av lärares erfarenheter av digitala resurser i undervisningen
- 2014
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this thesis a study upper secondary school teachers’ experiences from using digital resources is presented. The study was carried out in two upper secondary schools where the students had each recently been given their own laptop, a so-called one-to-one computer. The purpose of the study was to describe and analyse the teachers’ experiences of using digital resources in teaching. Four teachers, three men and one woman, from two upper secondary schools in a Swedish municipality, participated in the study. Empirical material was collected during autumn 2010 and spring 2012. The methods used in the collection were interviews and participatory observations, so-called go-along observations. The study’s theoretical approach has its foundation in phenomenological philosophy. In the result care, time and teachers’ lived experiences of didactic work emerge as important for the utilisation of digital resources in teaching. In the teaching, the teachers’ experiences and knowledge of their subjects, teaching, digital resources, and life experiences and knowledge seemed to interact. This interaction between experiences and knowledge is described in the study as lived experiences of didactic work. The study shows that teachers dealt with the new digital technology and designed learning environments for the students with the starting point of their lived experiences of didactic work and assumptions about the students’ interest for digital resources. The teachers’ care with relationship building and creation of trust and confidence was shown to have importance for how, and to what extent, digital resources could be used in teaching. Both similarities and differences in the teachers’ experiences of, and knowledge about, how teaching is carried out with one-to-one computers emerged in the study. Two of the teachers were more experienced users of digital resources in comparison with the two others. The teachers’ experiences of digital resources are often related to their own interest in these, but their experiences are also related to the lack of time for learning to use digital resources as pedagogical tools.
|
|
| 5. |
- Poudel, Bishnu Chandra, 1976-
(författare)
-
Carbon Balance Implications of Forest Biomass Production Potential
- 2014
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Forests in boreal and temperate forest-ecosystems have importance for carbonbalance since they sequester large amount of atmospheric carbon by uptake ofcarbon-dioxide during photosynthesis, and transfer and store carbon in the forestecosystem. Forest material can be used for bio-fuel purposes and substitute fossilfuels, and supply wood products, which can replace carbon-and-energy-intensivematerials. Therefore it is vital to consider the role of forests regarding today´s aimto mitigate climate change. This thesis assess (i) how climate change affects futureforest carbon balance, (ii) the importance of different strategies for forestmanagement systems, and biomass production for the carbon balance, (iii) how theuse of forest production affect the total carbon balance in a lifecycle perspective,and (iv) how the Swedish carbon balance is affected from the standpoint of boththe actual use of forest raw material within Sweden and what Swedish forestryexports. The analysis was made mainly in a long-term perspective (60-300 years) toillustrate the importance of temporal and also the spatial perspective, as theanalysis includes stand level, landscape level, and national level.In this thesis, forestry was considered a system. All activities, from forestregeneration to end use of forest products, were entities of this system. In theevaluation, made from a systems perspective, we used life-cycle analysis toestimate carbon stock in different system flows. Different forest managementsystems and forest production were integrated in the analyses. Different forestmanagement scenarios were designed for the Swedish forest management incombination with the effect of future climate change; (i) intensive forest practiceaiming at increased growth, (ii) increased forest set-aside areas, changes in forestmanagement systems for biomass production, and (iii) how the use of forestproducts affect the total carbon balance (construction material, bioenergy and otherdomestic use).The results showed that future climate changes and intensive forest managementwith increased production could increase the biomass production and the potentialuse of forest raw material. This has a positive effect on carbon stock change in theforest biomass, litter production and below ground carbon stock and help reducingcarbon-dioxide emissions. Increased forest set-aside areas can increase the shorttermcarbon stock in forest ecosystems, but will reduce the total long-term carbonbalance. The net carbon balance for clear-cut forestry did not differ significantlyfrom continuous-cover forestry, but was rather a question of level of growth. Mostimportant, in the long term, was according to our analysis, how forest raw materialis used. Present Swedish forestry and use of forest raw material, both withinSweden and abroad, reduce carbon-dioxide emissions and mitigate climate change.The positive effect for the total carbon balance and climate benefit mostly takeplace abroad, due to the Swedish high level of export of wood products and thehigher substitution effects achieved outside Swedish borders. One strategy is toincrease production, harvest and use Swedish forest raw material to replace morecarbon intensive material, which can contribute to significant emission reduction.Carbon-dioxide mitigation, as a result of present Swedish forestry, was shown tobe almost of the same level as the total yearly emission of greenhouse gases. Thetotal carbon benefit would increase if the biomass production and felling increasedand if Swedish wood products replaced carbon intensive materials.This thesis shows also that, by changing forest management, increase thegrowth and the use of forest raw material and export of forest material we cancontribute to even larger climate benefits. In a long-term perspective, thesubstitution effects and replacement of carbon-and energy-intensive materials areof greater significance than carbon storage effects in forests. A more productionoriented forestry needs to make balances and increase the prerequisite forbiological diversity, improve recreation possibilities, and protect sensitive landareas and watersheds.Climate benefits, from Swedish forestry, are highly dependent on policydecision-making and how that can steer the direction for the Swedish forestry.
|
|
