The aim of this thesis was to investigate how teachers in school and in leisure time center look at informal and formal learning. Informal learning is often associated with leisure-time while formal learning is generally linked to school. My questions also deal with the teachers’ view of each other’s activities from a learning perspective and visibility of informal learning. I have made an empirical study with qualitative, semi-structured interviews with three class teachers and three leisure teachers. The results of the study show that the informal learning in leisure time center is generally not perceived as learning. Concepts such as knowledge, learning, and teachers are associated with the school and formal learning. The study also shows that it is necessary for teachers to visualize informal learning.

This doctoral study investigates the nature and role of leisure reading in the lives of avid immigrant readers. Guided by hermeneutic phenomenology and conducted by means of surveys and in-depth interviews, it uses a sample of Russian-speaking immigrants in Toronto, Canada, as a case study. The overarching research problem is divided into three research questions (RQ): RQ1: Who are the readers? RQ2: What are the main characteristics of reading behavior and habits of participants after immigration? RQ3: What role does leisure reading play in participants’ lives in immigration? Answering RQ1, the study paints demographic and socio-cultural portraits of participants; recreates a variety of contexts shaping their reading; and unfolds their reader histories. In response to RQ2, it traces immediate post-immigration fluctuations in reading behavior; records the most peculiar reading contents; explores participants’ self-perceptions as readers; outlines the major areas of post-immigration changes in leisure reading; and presents the analysis of acculturation stress in the area of leisure reading. It is concluded that leisure reading can be a more sensitive indicator of acculturation than more utilitarian measures, because it can open a window to the cultural and psychological intricacies of acculturation. Finally, RQ3 generates a theoretical discussion of the concept of ‘the role of reading’ and determines the study focus on immigration-specific, emotional and instrumental, roles. Leisure reading is found important in coping with the culture shock; sharing the experience of others and assessing personal immigration paths; re-evaluating the history of the fatherland and gaining a new perspective on the national heritage; stabilizing identity; learning about the new country; improving English-language proficiency; and compensating for the deficiencies of a transitional period. In addition, leisure reading emerges as a powerful force cementing ethnic and transnational reading communities. The study expands the selected acculturation models and theories; introduces clarity to the concepts of the role and appeal of reading; highlights the dual and self-reinforcing function of reading as a measure and a determinant of acculturation. Finally, it presents a systematic examination of the ethnic readership that has escaped the attention of reading researchers in the largest immigrant-receiving countries, Canada and the United States.

The study presented here concerns how parents and children in a small Swedish town deal with the processes of child-rearing and socialization. Changes in family life and child care since the 1950s and especially the adjustment to women's work outside family, day-care, school and leisure are described and analyzed. Data was collected mainly through qualitative interviews with mothers, fathers and the 12-13-year old child in 31 families. Some additional data from archives concerning local family policy and support has also been used. The results illuminate important changes in the conditions of family life and childcare since the 1950s. Foundation is more clearly emotions, not material conditions. Motherhood and fatherhood have become relativly symmetrical. Domestic life is characterized on the one hand by a relatively flat hierarchy between parents and children and an emotional emphasis on nearness and intimacy, and on the other hand by demands on the children to take care of themselves, at least to some extent, as neither of the parents can or want to serve the family on a full-time basis. Another major change is in the way the families relate to other child- rearing agents (i.e. daycare/preschool, school and organized leisure activities). They have in varying ways adapted to and made use of that these can impart other qualities to the child than those of the family. However, the relations are by no means uncomplicated. It appears that school dovetails rather badly with both the parents' demands and the prerequisites for contemporary family life whereas daycare and leisure activities are fairly or quite compatible. The conceptions of children and parenthood which appear in the study are about individualism, the primacy of emotions and a relative equality between the sexes and generations. In the conceptions of child-rearing the emphasis is on security, stimulation and versatility. The child should be treated with respect, both for what it is and what it can become, i.e. account is taken of its own nature as well as its prospects for the future. The parent should be sensitive, supportive and also (more or less) active or driving. This was interpreted as the families' pedagogical discourse, comprising with some variation both the middle-class and working-class families in the subject group. / digitalisering@umu

Recreational running is an activity increasing in popularity (Running USA, 2012). The current study sought to gain an ‘insiders’ perspective into the ‘lived experiences’ and social world of distance running so to explore the meaning, value and significance of the activity to the lives of ‘highly committed’ runners in Toronto (Canada). Ethnography of running club participants was used to inform the research. Findings suggest that commitment to distance running was effective for fulfilling a number of human ‘needs’, including for health, fitness, acceptance, belonging, self-esteem, autonomy, competence, relatedness and perhaps self-actualization as proposed by Maslow (1954) and Deci and Ryan (2000). Running was further conceptualized as a “serious leisure” (Stebbins, 1982) which helps explain the process of adaptively incorporating physical activity into one’s life and committing long-term. This research highlights some oft ignored psychological and social benefits of physical activity adherence which may contribute to improved overall health and well-being.

Recreational running is an activity increasing in popularity (Running USA, 2012). The current study sought to gain an ‘insiders’ perspective into the ‘lived experiences’ and social world of distance running so to explore the meaning, value and significance of the activity to the lives of ‘highly committed’ runners in Toronto (Canada). Ethnography of running club participants was used to inform the research. Findings suggest that commitment to distance running was effective for fulfilling a number of human ‘needs’, including for health, fitness, acceptance, belonging, self-esteem, autonomy, competence, relatedness and perhaps self-actualization as proposed by Maslow (1954) and Deci and Ryan (2000). Running was further conceptualized as a “serious leisure” (Stebbins, 1982) which helps explain the process of adaptively incorporating physical activity into one’s life and committing long-term. This research highlights some oft ignored psychological and social benefits of physical activity adherence which may contribute to improved overall health and well-being.

The aim of this study was to shed light on how journalists describe the child’s world and what gender labels are used in their descriptions. We wanted to get a better understanding of what happens when gender is constructed. In order to study how gender is constructed, we chose to examine how the children’s magazine Kamratposten describes children’s spare time. We chose Kamratposten because it turns to both girls and boys. In order to analyze the paper, we chose to do a discourse analysis, and used Norman Fairclough’s and Ylva Brune’s analytical models. When we analyzed the texts we studied previous research and theories about children, gender and media. We analyzed how Kamratposten constructs girls and boys spare time. We made a qualitative content analysis of 20 articles and found that the 1700s views on gender still exist. Thus Kamratposten ascribes girls and boys different gender roles, different behavior and activities in the articles studied. Girls seem to still be positioned in the private surroundings of the home, while boys are positioned in the public sphere. Another difference noted between the genders is the construction of a serious passive and productive girl, and a playful active mostly non-productive boy.

Rooted in a critical dialogue that endeavours to theorize experience in contrast to the colonial impetus, this dissertation explores the lived experience of Appalachian Trail thru-hikers. As a result of this disposition, the purpose of this dissertation is to expose the dynamics associated with colonized experiences and empirically research the lived experience of thru-hikers from an ecophenomenological perspective. The subsequent approach views the activities of the lived human body as the process through which the world comes into being. Building on Merleau-Pontian phenomenology, ecophenomenology provides the foundation of the experiential self, and thus underlies the representation of the trail environment as a sensuous field of human activity where one is merged with one's socio-ecological surroundings. Explication of empirical materials from 27 participant interviews resulted in a wide range of thru-hiking experiences representing the operative essence of Appalachian Trail thru-hiking. The operative essence was identified across 4 broad dimensions: Perseity, Sojourning, Kinship, and Wild Imbrication. Each dimension comprised a dialectic which emerged from interview excerpts both congruent with and in contrast to wilderness ideology. Further exploration of wilderness ideals resulted in thru-hikers negotiating tensions related to ideological wilderness meanings and their own actual thru-hiking experiences. This negotiation allowed a broader conception of wilderness to be illustrated as a continuum of meaningful experiences. In addition, ecoliteracy emerged as an experientially driven learning process whereby thru-hikers negotiate alternative meanings of wilderness with ideological meanings. The implications for experiential and wilderness related research along with management concerns are discussed.

This doctoral study investigates the nature and role of leisure reading in the lives of avid immigrant readers. Guided by hermeneutic phenomenology and conducted by means of surveys and in-depth interviews, it uses a sample of Russian-speaking immigrants in Toronto, Canada, as a case study. The overarching research problem is divided into three research questions (RQ): RQ1: Who are the readers? RQ2: What are the main characteristics of reading behavior and habits of participants after immigration? RQ3: What role does leisure reading play in participants’ lives in immigration? Answering RQ1, the study paints demographic and socio-cultural portraits of participants; recreates a variety of contexts shaping their reading; and unfolds their reader histories. In response to RQ2, it traces immediate post-immigration fluctuations in reading behavior; records the most peculiar reading contents; explores participants’ self-perceptions as readers; outlines the major areas of post-immigration changes in leisure reading; and presents the analysis of acculturation stress in the area of leisure reading. It is concluded that leisure reading can be a more sensitive indicator of acculturation than more utilitarian measures, because it can open a window to the cultural and psychological intricacies of acculturation. Finally, RQ3 generates a theoretical discussion of the concept of ‘the role of reading’ and determines the study focus on immigration-specific, emotional and instrumental, roles. Leisure reading is found important in coping with the culture shock; sharing the experience of others and assessing personal immigration paths; re-evaluating the history of the fatherland and gaining a new perspective on the national heritage; stabilizing identity; learning about the new country; improving English-language proficiency; and compensating for the deficiencies of a transitional period. In addition, leisure reading emerges as a powerful force cementing ethnic and transnational reading communities. The study expands the selected acculturation models and theories; introduces clarity to the concepts of the role and appeal of reading; highlights the dual and self-reinforcing function of reading as a measure and a determinant of acculturation. Finally, it presents a systematic examination of the ethnic readership that has escaped the attention of reading researchers in the largest immigrant-receiving countries, Canada and the United States.

Syftet med min studie har varit att undersöka om fritidshemmet kan utgöra en matematisk lärandemiljö. Jag har studerat vilka aktiviteter som kan eller skulle kunna bidra till att barn utvecklar grundläggande matematiska kunskaper. Dessutom har jag försökt identifiera hinder för fritidshemmet som matematisk lärandemiljö. För att undersöka detta har jag använt mig av deltagande observation som metod samt intervjuer. Datamaterialet har samlats in på två fritidshem i två olika kommuner. Jag har inte haft för avsikt att jämföra dessa fritidshem utan de har båda bidragit till att ge en fördjupad bild av fritidshemmet som matematisk lärandemiljö. Jag har intervjuat en pedagog på varje fritidshem. Studiens resultat visar att fritidshemmet erbjuder ett stort antal matematiska lärtillfällen både i informella och formella aktiviteter. Resultatet visar även på hinder för att matematisk utveckling ska ske på fritidshemmet, bland dessa märks stora barngrupper, bristande planeringstid och bristfälliga lokaler.

This is an autoethnographic account of my 1000km journey across The Camino Via de la Plata, framed within transpersonal theory. From my personal account of a peak experience on The Way, this spiritual inquiry attempts to connect myself and the reader to insights into transformation and living through embodied writing while contributing to the exploration of personal flourishing and growth in leisure studies. This process involved moving into and through Romanyshyn’s (2007) six orphic moments found in re-search processes with soul in mind. I then unfold my journey along the Camino and deepen this inquiry by engaging literature that help to explore spiritual aspects of my journey on the Camino. Leisure inquiry frames this transpersonal peak experience in a number of ways: it is an act of empowerment (Arai, 1997), focal practice (Arai & Pedlar, 2000), resistance (Shaw, 2001, 2007), and an experience of liminality (Cody, 2012) with transformation occurring at the flux of it all.