The purpose of this thesis is to study how the Swedish welfare state formulated a question of shorter work hours, 1919—2002. During the 1900s, several official reports were published in order to produce knowledge about this issue and construct a manageable inquiry about shorter work hours. The aim of this thesis is to examine what were formulated as problems and solutions and which arguments and beliefs emerged from these formulations. Official state reports are regarded as instruments of knowledge production by the state. This intelligence was required to justify the possibility and desirability of the reform that shaped the question of shorter work hours in the welfare state.   The aim of the official reports was to create knowledge, which determined the value of working time reduction. Leisure as welfare meant that the state interpreted the citizens’ needs and formulated working-time reduction as either a possible or impossible reform. Working hours have never been justified as a reform that simply gives more leisure and less time for work. The reform was instead considered possible and desirable because it was interpreted as helping to reproduce the labour force or capitalism as a whole. It was thought impossible and undesirable when considered to be a threat to this reproduction.   However, there were two major reformulations of the question of shorter work. In the middle of the selected period, the matter moved from the sphere of production to a consumption sphere, meaning that the issue became less conflicted. The state’s responsibility to push the reform was deemphasized. Another reformulation is when flexibility was formulated as a solution, and thus made regulation of working time undesirable and unnecessary. This study shows how the conception of a question of shorter work hours was a process requiring formulations and reformulations and how these expressions fundamentally changed over time, although the basic premises remained.

Syftet med uppsatsen Utomhuspedagogik som en arena för praktisk kunskap äratt undersöka fritidshemslärarnas uppfattning om på vilket sätt utomhuspedagogik bidrar till barns lärande. Resultatet avundersökningen visar att utomhuspedagogik kan vara ett lärande komplement till inomhusundervisning och ett sätt för fritidshemslärarna att komplettera skolan. Undervisningen utomhus bidrar till att öka elevernas lärande, sociala utveckling och hälsa. Jaghar i uppsatsen använt mig av semistrukturerade intervjuer med praktiserande fritidshemslärare. Jag har analyserat intervjuerna genom filosofen John Deweys syn på praktisk kunskap där handling, teori och reflektion binds samman. / The purpose with this thesis is to investigate how leisure-time teachers perceive outdoor teaching and how it contributes to the learning process amongst primary school students. The findings indicate that outdoor teaching can be a useful complement to traditional classroom teaching and it also enables leisure-time teachers to be involved in the educational process. Outdoor teaching has been proven to have a positive effect on student’s cognitive learning, social development and general health. In my thesis I have used semi-structured interviews with practicing leisure-time teachers. The thesis uses John Deweys views on practical knowledge to analyze the interviews.

This essay begins with an anecdote about a child in school who in my opinion displayed introverted behavior. This child seemed to prefer playing on its own rather than with friends. These children often become less visible due to their extrovert peers who have a greater tendency to actively seek attention from adults. The purpose of this essay is to get a wider understanding about these introvert children. What are their needs and how can we best support them in school?  In this essay I have tried to see my own actions in relation to the school’s rules and regulations concerning introvert children. I have also studied literature, how playing can support extrovert children, what a teacher can do to help and support and what the norm in today’s society is. To reflect and learn I have read books on this topic and my aim is to gain a better understanding and deeper knowledge. / Den här essän börjar med en berättelse som handlar om ett av de barn i skolan och fritidshemmet som av mig som pedagog upplevs som tyst och inåtvänt. Ett barn som verkar föredra ensamlek framför lek med klasskamrater. Ofta hamnar dessa barn i skymundan i förmån till de mer extroverta och utåtagerande barnen som aktivt söker kontakt med oss vuxna. Syftet med denna essä är att få en större förståelse för varför de tysta barnen är tysta och inåtvända. Vilka behov har de och vilket förhållningssätt bör jag som pedagog ha gentemot dem? Jag har granskat mitt agerande i berättelsen utifrån skolans och fritidshemmets styrdokument samt litteratur som tar upp blyghet, lekens betydelse, pedagogens betydelse för de tysta barnen, dagens samhällsideal och ämnet praktisk kunskap. Jag har även använt skönlitteratur för att reflektera över mitt agerande för att på så sätt få en djupare förståelse för vad jag kunde gjort annorlunda.

In 1926 the Kruger National Park in South Africa became the first national park in Africa to accept visitors. Since that date there has been a propaganda campaign to convince people outside of the administration of the importance of the national park project and the value of the wildlife inside the parks. As a large tract of land in a land-hungry region of the country, the Kruger Park required both political and public support to ensure its survival. This attempt to communicate with the public is the subject of my thesis. The idea of the national park, and the natural world that it contained, altered dramatically since 1926. At times the message was tightly managed, and at others that control was loosened. As various interests intervened and encroached, new discourses developed and struggled for influence. Contained within the messages around the park and its wildlife were ulterior strands and ideologies that impacted in various ways on the idea of the national park. Nationalism, race, gender, class and status all became constituent parts of a heterogeneous construction. My thesis interrogates those strands within the discourse on the Kruger National Park. In 1967 the Manyeleti game reserve, on the western borders of the Kruger Park, became the first segregated game reserve for the exclusive use of black South Africans. Through this parallel project African visitors, who had been generally ignored in the Kruger Park setting, became the focus of propaganda efforts intended for a black audience. Race, gender, and class merged with the environmental messages in this unique setting to create new directions in conservationist rhetoric. My thesis sets these diverse messages communicated at Manyeleti alongside those transmitted through and about the Kruger Park.

I det här arbetet kommer vi att belysa fritidshemslärarens yrkesroll och fritidshemmets utveckling från 1990-talet fram tills i dag. Vi kommer använda forskning av bland andra Finn Calander och Ann Pihlgren vilka har undersökt och diskuterat fritidshemmets utveckling genom 1900-talet. Teoretiska utgångspunkter för arbetet är socialkonstruktivismen och det sociokulturella perspektivet. Genom dessa teorier har vi försökt beskriva hur fritidshemmet och fritidshemslärarnas arbete har utvecklats och förändrats och vad som har styrt denna utveckling. Vidare kommer vi att diskutera vad fritidshemslärarnas lärarlegitimation har för betydelse i deras arbete. Lärarlegitimationen har lett till en viss förvirring kring frågan om fritidshemslärarnas uppdrag, både på högskolorna där de nya fritidshemslärarna utbildas och bland de fritidshemslärare som redan är ute i arbetet. Vi kommer att koppla vårt resonemang till Lgr 11 och Lpo 94 för att se hur riktlinjer och vägledning för fritidshemslärarna formuleras i styrdokumenten och hur de överensstämmer med fritidshemslärarnas praktik. Av de fyra informanter som intervjuats i arbetet var två fritidshemslärare nyutexaminerade och två med flera års yrkeserfarenhet. Två av skolorna där vi genomfört intervjuer har varit de skolor där vi haft vår verksamhetsförlagda utbildning (VFU) medan de övriga två valdes på grund av sitt intresse att medverka och sitt geografiska läge. Informanterna har berättat om vilka skolor de tidigare har arbetet på och vilka skillnader i arbetet de har sett under sin tid inom yrket. De intervjuade informanterna beskriver att de inte känner sig bekväma i den arbetsroll de har och upplever sig mer som extra lärare snarare än som fritidshemslärare.

This study examined the relationships and differences amongst selected physical education and psychological characteristics of boys before and after secondary school transfer. The purpose of the study was to determine the significance of boys' attitudes to physical education, motor performance and physical education self-esteem (self-perceptions of performance in physical education) at the age of school transfer, and establish the role of physical education before and during adjustment to secondary school. Independent samples of Primary schoolboys (n = 50) and secondary schoolboys(n = 107) formed a cross-sectional study, whilst twenty-five primary school transferees formed a small-scale longitudinal study. Pupils' attitudes towards physical education, motor performance and physical education self-esteem (PESE) were assessed during the last term at primary school and on two occasions (December and June) during the first year at secondary school. In addition, global self-esteem and anxiety were measured at each stage, and a self-report school transfer questionnaire was administered at the end of the transfer year. From these sources, low self-esteem, high anxiety and negative attitudes to secondary school were used as indicators of poor school adjustment. Differences amongst the psychological variables across transfer revealed that the move to secondary school appeared to be a positive experience for most boys. However, those boys identified as poorly adjusted to secondary school were less sure of themselves, more anxious, and recorded lower global and physical education self-esteem. Correlational analysis and discriminant analysis of low, average, and high motor performers (actual and perceived) revealed that poor motor performance was not consistently associated with low global self-esteem, high anxiety, or poor school adjustment. In contrast, low physical education selfesteem was associated with negative psychological characteristics and all the indicators of poor secondary school adjustment. Findings also suggested that physical education self-esteem may serve (1) as a mediating variable between actual motor performance and global self-esteem, and (2) as a mediating variable between physical education experiences and school adjustment. On the basis of the results, a preliminary model of secondary school adjustment incorporating physical education is presented for discussion and empirical test. Also in light of the study's findings, the National Curriculum for England and Wales is analysed to consider the extent to which physical education experiences are likely to assist children's motor and psychological development before transfer and during secondary school adjustment.

In my experience it is hard to define what learning in leisure centers means, and that the definition seems to differentiate between principals and leisure-time pedagogues. In this inquiry, I therefore ask myself the following questions: How does a principal and leisure-time pedagogue define learning in leisure centers, in relation to current regulatory documents? And how does a principal and a leisure-time pedagogue translate these regulatory documents to their operation regarding learning in leisure centers? My inquiry is based on qualitative methods as semi-structured interviews and open observations. The premises I use to analyze my results is visible learning, situated learning and policy. The result indicate a shared view of what learning in the leisure center means, but the translation from definition to operation is not coherent with what the principal and leisure-time pedagogue says. The conclusion is that the process in which the regulatory documents develops, affects the issue to understand its content and the establishment of the documents in their operation. / Enligt min erfarenhet är det svårt att definiera vad lärande i fritidshem innebär, och att definitionen kan skilja sig mellan rektorer och fritidspedagoger. Därför har jag i denna undersökning ställt mig frågorna: Hur definierar rektor och fritidspedagog lärande i fritidshemmet, i förhållande till rådande styrdokument? Och hur översätter rektor och fritidspedagog styrdokumenten till verksamheten gällande lärande i fritidshem? Undersökningen baseras på kvalitativa metoder så som semi-strukturerade intervjuer och öppen observation. Utgångspunkterna i min analys av resultatet är synligt lärande, praktikbaserat lärande och policy. Resultatet visar på en samsyn av vad lärande i fritidshemmet innebär, men att det inte översätts till verksamheten på det sätt rektorn och fritidspedagogen säger. Slutsatsen är att den process där styrdokumenten tas fram, påverkar svårigheten att förstå dess innehåll och att implementera innehållet i verksamheten.

published_or_final_version / Community Medicine / Master / Master of Public Health

Military computer games continue to evoke a uniquely contradictory public, intellectual, and critical response. Whilst denigrated as child’s play, they are played by millions of adults; whilst dismissed as simplistic, they are used in education, therapy, and military training; and whilst classed as meaningless, they arouse fears over media effects and the propagandist influence of their representations of combat. They remain the object of intense suspicion, and as part of a new and growing mass medium, they are blamed for everything from obesity to falling literacy standards, and from murder to Abu Ghraib. Much of the suspicion surrounding military computer games has been caused by the development of the military-entertainment complex - the relationship between the computer game industry and the U.S. military which has seen the production of dual-use games, co-produced by the military and the computer game industry and released for both military training and commercial sale. This relationship has placed military computer games at the centre of an intensely politicized debate in which they have become characterized as a mass medium which functions under the control of the military and political establishment and which promotes the militaristic ideals of the neoconservative Bush administration. This thesis serves as a fundamental reevaluation of such preconceptions and prejudices, and in particular, a complete reevaluation of the understanding of the relationship between computer games and American militarism. Its analysis focuses on three main areas: firstly, the content of military computer games; secondly, the determinants which affect the production and representation of war in computer games; and thirdly, the contribution of the representation of war in computer games to the misunderstandings and misconceptions concerning warfare which, in turn, have supported American militaristic beliefs.

Research suggests that the promotion of a student’s social development and connectedness can help reduce problematic behavior in schools. Connectedness, in this context, refers to an individual’s feeling of ‘belonging’ in a school as a valued and effective member. Connectedness can also apply to feelings on one’s self-image, family, and friends. The purpose of this study was to examine connectedness among Hong Kong primary school students in Years 5 and 6. The relationships among connectedness and time spent in leisure activities by students are also explored. Demographic data was collected from 421 students who responded to questionnaires concerning their time spent in leisure activities. The students also completed a Chinese version of the Hemingway Measure of Adolescent Connectedness. The subscales demonstrated satisfactory reliability and convergent validity. Findings from the study showed that in general girls are more emotionally connected to school than boys, especially to their teachers, whereas boys showed more connectedness to neighborhood. Data on boys revealed a positive correlation between connectedness to major social groups (parents, teachers and friends) and time spent on sports; but a negative correlation between connectedness to parents and teachers and time spent on computer games. Girls tended to show a more positive attitude about ‘present self’ when more time was spent on sports, but a negative connection with parents and teachers if more time was spent on computer games or extra-curricular activities. Implications for future research and implementation of guidance programmes in primary schools are discussed. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education