A gap exists in the literature regarding the needs, concerns, and overall experiences of Arab American parents of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (Al Khatib, 2017; Goforth, 2011; Haboush, 2007). This study explored the experiences of five Arab American mothers of children with ASD. A qualitative interview approach, utilizing in-depth interviews, was used in order to investigate Arab American parents’ experiences of caring for children with ASD, their cultural beliefs and understandings of their children’s ASD, and their concerns and needs regarding their children. Six themes emerged from the interview data, which offered insight into Arab American parents’ unique experiences of caring for a child with ASD, including (1) parents’ journeys toward the acceptance of the diagnosis of ASD, (2) beliefs about the cause of autism, (3) concerns, (4) needs, (5) coping techniques, and (6) unanticipated positive effects. Findings of this study and aspects related to Arab cultural beliefs with the ASD diagnostic process are discussed in detail, as well as implications of the findings for the field of special education and recommendation for future research.

Syftet med studien är att beskriva tre fiollärares förhållningssätt till musikteori i undervisningen. Detta görs med forskningsfrågorna: Hur definierar fiollärarna begreppet musikteori? Vilka musikteoretiska element erfar fiollärarna att de integrerar i undervisningen?Hur erfar lärarna att de arbetar med musikteori i fiolundervisningen?och Vilka svårigheter förknippar lärarna med fenomenet musikteori i fiolundervisning? Studiens kunskapsteoretiska utgångspunkt är interpretativism och den vetenskapsfilosofiska utgångspunkten fenomenologi. För att uppnå syfte och svara på frågeställningar har semistrukturerade intervjuer gjorts med tre fiollärare. I resultatet beskrivs deras förhållningssätt till musikteori i undervisningen kategoriserade i fyra teman: Fiollärarnas definition av begreppet musikteori, Att arbeta med musikteori i fiolundervisning, Val av musikteoretiskt lektionsinnehåll och Svårigheter med musikteori i fiolundervisningen. I resultatet framkommer många skillnader och olikheter i de intervjuade lärarnas utsagor, men alla berör ämnet notläsning och betonar vikten av att koppla musikteoriundervisning till spel på fiolen. I studiens avslutande kapitel diskuteras resultatet i förhållande till tidigare litteratur och forskning samt till studiens vetenskapsfilosofiska perspektiv fenomenologi. / The purpose of the present study is to describe three violin teachers approach to music theory in teaching. The study has three research questions: How does the violin teachers define the term music theory? What kind of music theory elements do violin teachers experience that they integrate into their teaching? In what way do the teachers experience that they work with music theory in violin education?and What are the music teachers experiences of the phenomenon music theory in violin education?The theoretical foundation of the study is interpretativism and the philosophical perspective is phenomenology. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the three violin teachers. In the result, their approach to music theory in violin teaching is categorized into four themes: The violin teachers definitions of music theory, To work with music theory in violin teaching,  choice of music theoretical lesson contentand Difficulties with integrating music theory in violin teaching. The results reveals that there is differences between the teachers' approaches. However, all the teachers reported that they emphasize note acquisition  and the importance of combining music theory with playing the violin. Finally, the results are discussed in relation to previous literature and research, as well as to phenomenological perspectives.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur instrumentallärare i kulturskolan uppfattar och tolkar begreppet förväntningar. I bakgrundskapitlet tas tidigare forskning och litteratur som berör området förväntningar upp.  Som metod användes enskilda semistrukturerade fenomenografiska intervjuer med fem informanter. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt är fenomenografi.  Resultatet visar att begreppet förväntningar uppfattas på olika sätt men att det också finns likheter mellan informanternas synsätt. Förmågan att anpassa förväntningarna efter elevens ambition och mål är något som samtliga informanter beskriver. Eftersom uppfattningarna är formade utifrån informanternas levda erfarenhet finns det även variationer i deras sätt att beskriva förväntningarnas påverkan. Erfarenhet ses av informanterna som en viktig del i att lära sig att ha rimliga förväntningar på eleverna. Studien visar även att förmågan att anpassa förväntningarna efter situationen är viktigt för att undanröja hinder i undervisningen. Att inspirera eleverna att själva ta kontrollen över sin utveckling ses också som viktigt och kan påverkas av lärarnas förväntningar enligt informanterna. Avslutningsvis diskuteras delar av resultatet i förhållande till tidigare forskning och litteratur inom området förväntningar. / The purpose of this study is to through the lens of phenomenography explore how instrumental teachers in the Swedish music school perceive the concept of expectations. The background chapter describes previous research and literature in the field of expectations. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were used as the method of analysis and five informants were interviewed. Phenomenography was applied as both the theoretical foundation and analytical tool. The result reveals that the concept of expectations is perceived differently, however with certain similarities as well. The ability to adapt the expectations to the student's ambitions and goals turned out to be pertained by all informants. The informants have different ways of describing the impact of expectations, since they are formed based on the informed experience of the informant. According to the informants, experience is seen as an important and part of learning in terms of having reasonable expectations for the students. Furthermore, the study shows that the ability to adapt expectations to the situation is important in eliminating obstacles in teaching. Inspiring students to take control of their development themselves is also seen as paramount. This can be influenced by the teachers' expectations, according to the informants. In conclusion, key-findings are discussed in relation to previous research and psychological literature on expectations.

The chief aim of this study is to investigate the impact of context on written peer response. A second aim is to explore students’ attitudes towards peer response. The investigation has taken place at an upper secondary school in the south-east of Sweden, involving 20 students in grade 2 and 3 in the course Swedish C. The investigation is based on the students’ comments on their peers’ speech drafts and six qualitative interviews. The material embraces 211 comments, all of which are analysed by use of methods from SFL. The theoretical frame is founded on Grice’s (1975) principle of communication and Brown & Levinson’s (1987) principle of politeness. The investigation shows, among other things, that in the choice between giving effective response (according to the principle of communication), or giving response that maintain the social balance (according to the principle of politeness), the students in general choose the latter. This is reflected in the results of the linguistic analysis and confirmed in the six interviews.

The use of social media and its accessibility through smartphones is becoming a more and more researched topic in the field of ICT. In relation to this, the current study attempts to shed light on the general use of social media, Facebook in particular, by youth in Danish context and pays attention to how the accessibility to this media through smartphones affects the interaction between individuals when being together. The research finishes with three conceptual models which goal is to provide future design implications of the studied ICTs in a way that closer meets the user needs and requirements. The models are – one related to Facebook, one general application, and one related to supporting many-to-many communication. The study is of interpretative nature, based on qualitative research approach with a main method for data collection being qualitative semi-structured interviews. There were 8 interviews performed – 3 with students at a secondary school in Odense, Denmark, and the rest with students at the university in the same town. In this way an understanding of the use patterns and issues experienced by the different age groups was attempted. Furthermore, the study contributes with findings to certain discrepancies identified in the current literature, such as the need for context-aware devices, type of friends on Facebook and others. Finally, due to the limited source for data collection, the thesis does not claim for generalizability, but it should be viewed as a small contribution to the studies related to Facebook, particularly applicable within a Danish context.

Abstract Title: Coach, vän eller både och? – en kvalitativ studie om coachning inom arbetslivet Authors: Jonas Näslund & David Öhrling Tutors: Ulla Moberg & Larsåke Larsson Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to examine how coaching in working life serves, aiming to find what influences the interaction between coach and client. To seek to answer the purpose we raised a number of research questions which discussed, among other the coach's intentions and the parties' relationship. Theories This thesis is based on a number of different theories, where the Leader-member Exchange Theory is considered the main theory. LMX is used when studying the relationship between a manager and an employee. Other theories used in this thesis are for example the Social exchange theory and one-on-one-coaching. Method The methods used in this thesis are semi-structured interviews, observations and recordings of coaching sessions. The interviews were conducted before and after three different coaching sessions. The participants were one coach and three clients, who all work at Tele Coaching, a company which offers manager and employee coaching. The recordings were transcribed and analyzed using a content analysis. Results The result shows that there is a difficult balance between the coach’s role as an expert and as a colleague and friend. How well the coach manages to handle this balance is crucial for the outcome of the coaching session. A strong relationship between coach and client can affect the coach’s possibilities to communicate a message to the client. The coach may withhold feedback, which he or she normally wouldn’t, in fear of damaging the relationship. Another risk is that the client doesn’t see the coach as an authoritarian. To prevent these risks we suggest that an external coach should be used when possible. Keywords Coaching, Leader-member Exchange theory, Qualitative interviews, Relationship, Coach, Client, Positioning, Communication.

Vehicles searching for on-street parking create environmental and economic externalities through increasing network traffic flow and congestion, heightening pollutant emission levels, creating additional noise, giving rise to time delays for through vehicles, and leading to potential safety hazards caused by vehicles manoeuvring into or out of on-street spaces. Despite extensive negative impacts on individual drivers and on society, parking search is an under-researched area, particularly in more recent years and within the UK. Furthermore, current statistical modelling techniques applied to parking search time have not utilised a more comprehensive analysis in which hierarchically structured data on multiple levels could be addressed. The aim of this thesis, therefore, is to investigate and compare the factors that influence drivers urban on-street parking search time and its policy implications. A mixed methods approach was applied that comprised qualitative interviews conducted with local government authority Council Officers and a quantitative revealed preference on-street parking survey (sample size, 1,002 observations) undertaken in four cities in the East Midlands region of the UK in order to obtain individual driver-level socio-economic and other parking related factors that may influence parking search time. Statistically significant variables for each of the cities were identified by employing separate linear regression models. A multilevel mixed-effects model in which drivers (Level 1) are nested within streets (Level 2) was then applied to the pooled dataset. Significant factors in the multilevel (street level) model were identified as: time of arrival at a parking place (for which every time period after the 07:00-07:59 reference case indicated increased search time); parking habit; parking tariff; the number of parking places previously visited (on the same trip); trip time from origin to parking place; area type; trip purpose; weather; vehicle type; and walking time from a parking place to a destination. Comparison of the factors that influence parking search time revealed important differences in statistically significant variables and coefficient values between the single-level and multilevel regression modelling approaches. Policy recommendations based upon the findings of the parking survey, modelling analysis, and further interviews conducted with local authority Council Officers, focus around time of arrival at a parking place, area type, parking charges and the potential technological advances that, if implemented, could have a considerable effect on parking search times within urban areas. Robust data collection and subsequent monitoring of parking search activity within each city should be undertaken in order to provide an evidence base which would support the introduction of future policy measures to reduce parking search activity.

A popular school of thought in the study of publishing, exemplified by the influential Long Tail theory, suggests that the economic advantages of e-books will lead to a boom in self-publishing. However, this position focuses on economic factors at the expense of other potential influences. This thesis applied Azjen's (1991) Theory of Planned Behaviour to explore which factors have the most influence on authors' decision to self-publish e-books, and, conversely, which factors influence others' decision not to. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 11 authors in the Ottawa area who have self-published or who are considering doing so in the near future. We discovered that there is significant resistance to e-books as a format for self-publishing, and that normative factors such as a lack of prestige and different promotional requirements were particularly influential. While e-books were seen to reduce economic risk, they were believed to be a less prestigious format, and so to represent an elevated risk to what Bourdieu called symbolic-capital. Some authors were also resistant because they felt unable to promote e-books in the way they are expected to. However, most said they would be willing to abandon their resistance if they perceived sufficient demand from their audience. These results open up paths for future study, including more focused examinations of the resistance factors that emerged; more longitudinal studies to see how authors' opinions change over time, particularly those of the non-adopters; and a further examination of the digital skills developed by adopters.

Syftet med studien är att få insikt i hur musiklärare i kulturskoal erfar ämnesintegrerade projekt samt hur inkluderingsarbete kan främjas av sådana projekt. För att kunna uppnå detta syfte utgår studien från följande forskningsfrågor: Vilka erfarenheter har musiklärare av ämnesintegrerade projekt i kulturskolan? Och i vilken utsträckning upplevs ämnesintegrerade projekt kunna påverka inkluderingsarbete i kulturskolan? Studiens kunskapsteoretiska utgångspunkt är interpretativism och den vetenskapsfilosofiska utgångspunkten fenomenologi. För att uppnå syfte och svara på frågeställningarna har semistrukturerade intervjuer gjorts med tre musiklärare som arbetar på varsin musik- eller kulturskola i Sverige. Resultatet presenteras i två övergripande teman. Teman är Resurser för och motivation till kreativt arbete samt social interaktion. I resultatet framkommer många likheter i de intervjuade musiklärarnas utsagor vilka till stor del handlar om en positiv inställning till utförandet av ämnesintegrerade projekt och främjandet av inkluderingsarbete i musik- och kulturskolan. Möjligheten och motivationen till att vilja utföra projekt skiljer sig däremot åt mellan musiklärarna vilka bland annat påverkas av tillgång till resurser och samarbete mellan kollegor. / The purpose of this study is to get a view of how music teachers in the Swedish music schools experience projects where different art subjects are integrated with each other and to see if these projects can facilitate that more people get included in these schools. In order to achieve this purpose, the study is based on the following research questions: In what ways does music teachers experience subject integrated projects in the Swedish music schools?, In what way can subject integrated projects facilitate that more people get included in the Swedish music schools according to music teachers? The theoretical foundation of the study is interpretivism and the philosophical perspective is phenomenology. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with three music teachers whom where all working in one music school each. The result is presented in two overall themes. Resources and motivation for creative work is the first theme. The second theme is Social interaction. The result reveal that the experience the music teachers describes when it comes to subject integrated projects and the work with including more people to the music schools are quite similar too each other. The experience is however different within the teachers answes when it comes to the possibility and the motivation to participate or lead a subject integrated project. The result reveal that possibilities and motivation is affected by resources and the cooperation in between colleges.

Utifrån ett hermeneutiskt perspektiv har föreliggande studie som syfte att studera några instrumentallärare inom kulturskolan angående kreativitet i instrumentalundervisning. I bakgrundskapitlet tas litteratur och forskning som berör området kreativitet upp. Sju informanter intervjuades med semistrukturerad kvalitativ intervju som metod. Tolkningar av transkriptionerna gjordes utifrån ett hermeneutiskt perspektiv. Resultatet visar att det fanns gemensamma uppfattningar om kreativitet. Kreativitet uppfattades av lärarna som att bryta sig ur etablerade tankemönster, skapande och att skapa nya idéer. Förutsättningar för kreativitet uppfattades vara trygga miljöer och att läraren är trygg i sin lärarroll. Elever ansågs vara kreativa men att det är läraren som lockar fram deras kreativitet. Vissa förutsättningar för elevers kreativitet var nyfikenhet, intresse och motivation. Resultatet visar att lärarnas egen utbildning har varit en källa till hur de uppfattar kreativitet. De viktigaste faktorerna var deras egna lärare och att få spela med andra vilket i sin tur har påverkat hur lärarna undervisar sina egna elever. / From a hermeneutic perspective, the present study aims to examine how cultural school teachers perceive creativity and how these perceptions have grown. The background chapter presents literature and research that concerns the area of ​​creativity. Seven informants were interviewed with semi-structured qualitative interviews. Interpretations of the transcriptions were made by applying the hermeneutic circle. The result shows common views of creativity. Creativity was perceived as breaking out of established thought patterns, creation and creating new ideas. Prerequisites for creativity were perceived to be safe environments and that the teacher is comfortable in his or her teaching profession. The view was that all pupils are creative, but the teacher needs to attract creativity. Some prerequisites for students were curiosity, interest and motivation. The result shows that the teachers' own education has been a source of how they perceive creativity. The most important factors were their teachers and to play music in ensembles with others. In turn this have influenced how teachers teach their students today.