<p>Since the mid 60’s, Germany has seen dropping fertility rates and yet next to nothinghas been done to combat this trend until the current regime led by Angela Merkel andher minister of family affairs, Ursula von der Leyen initiated a number ofcomprehensive reforms of Germany’s family policies.Family policy in Germany is being reformed in three ways. First of all parents arenow eligible to receive substantial financial support in order to compensate the loss ofincome associated with a pregnancy and or parental leave. Second, the all but nonexistentpublic child care services are being vastly expanded with the goal of beingable to offer child care service for every child age 0-3. Thirdly the tradition of schoolsending classes midday is being reformed with the aim of letting kids stay in schoolmuch longer thus enabling parents to work full-time as opposed to part-time in orderto be able to take care of kids returning from school.The hopes for these ambitious reforms are tremendous. Germany hopes to improve itslow fertility as well as free up labour force potential that has previously been hinderedto participate in the labour market by child rearing efforts. Thus far Germany’s effortsare seemingly successful and promises great change for the future.</p>

The overall issue addressed in this thesis is the challanges to the Swedish welfare state. This topic has been the subject of several different interpretations in the academic as well as political debate in Sweden over the last decade. The first of two questions raised in this thesis is therefore what the main challenges to the Swedish welfare state are. It is concluded that the main challenges are the challanges to the representative democracy that originate in measures to meet the economic challenges to the Swedish welfare state by making it more efficient and rational. The main challenges to the Swedish welfare state are, therefore, a mix of interrelated economic and democratic challenges. A specific factor is tested for its possible impact on these challenges and that factor is third sector provision of welfare services. The second of the two research questions is therefore in what way and to what extent the third sector can influence how the identified challenges affect the welfare state. Childcare is selected as an example of a welfare service where there are a considerable proportion of third sector providers, primarily parent and worker cooperatives. The diversity, level of participation and service quality of different types of childcare is analysed with regard to how they affect the here presented challenges to the welfare state. It is concluded from this analysis that there are democratic benefits in the third sector provision of childcare that can act complementary to the challenged representative democracy. It is also concluded, however, that not all Swedish childcare can be provided by the third sector and that its democratic benefits therefore also should be produced by other types of childcare by imitating the third sectors active participation, small scale and independence. This study shows that Sweden is rapidly moving towards a greater diversity in its delivery of welfare service and that there are no policies or institutions for facilitating a more diverse service provision. An additional conclusion is for this reason that the outcome of the economic and democratic challenges varies with the direction of this diversification, which tells us that such policies and institutions are desirable. The Swedish welfare state will be getting a more diverse provision of welfare services regardless if there is any readiness for it or not and the results from this thesis show that the third sector is the non-public type of welfare provider that best facilitate the values and morals of the welfare state.

Since the mid 60’s, Germany has seen dropping fertility rates and yet next to nothinghas been done to combat this trend until the current regime led by Angela Merkel andher minister of family affairs, Ursula von der Leyen initiated a number ofcomprehensive reforms of Germany’s family policies.Family policy in Germany is being reformed in three ways. First of all parents arenow eligible to receive substantial financial support in order to compensate the loss ofincome associated with a pregnancy and or parental leave. Second, the all but nonexistentpublic child care services are being vastly expanded with the goal of beingable to offer child care service for every child age 0-3. Thirdly the tradition of schoolsending classes midday is being reformed with the aim of letting kids stay in schoolmuch longer thus enabling parents to work full-time as opposed to part-time in orderto be able to take care of kids returning from school.The hopes for these ambitious reforms are tremendous. Germany hopes to improve itslow fertility as well as free up labour force potential that has previously been hinderedto participate in the labour market by child rearing efforts. Thus far Germany’s effortsare seemingly successful and promises great change for the future.

This research examines how childcare policy in Ontario, Canada assists and constrains low-income urban women’s strategies of provisioning for their children. Childcare policy refers to the range of programs that assist families in reconciling paid work and parenthood. In Ontario, Canada, these programs include childcare fee subsidies, tax deductions, parental leave policies, child benefits/allowances and a program regulating live-in caregivers. Provisioning is used to capture an array of daily work-related activities (e.g. paid, unpaid and caring labour) that mothers perform to ensure their children’s survival and well-being. The qualitative study, based on individual semi-structured interviews with 20 low-income mothers living in an urban community, found that women carry out various activities in provisioning for their children. Some of these are familiar and visible activities such as providing domestic caring labour, engaging in the labour market, and undertaking volunteer work in the community. Others are less visible tasks such as sustaining their health and that of their children, making claims/asserting their rights, and ensuring safety. Low-income urban mothers provision under numerous constraints. A continuous shortage of money and childcare issues are at the core of these constraints. The study also found that the mothers encounter a variety of barriers in the community, such as a limited availability of social and community services and a high level of violence/criminal activity in their neighbourhoods. Issues related to poor health, an inadequate diet, or the necessity of caring for children with special needs further constrain women’s lives. Limited English language skills, racial barriers, and the struggles of adapting to a new country add to the multi-dimensional barriers facing low-income urban mothers. The research indicates that mothers use a variety of strategies to counter these barriers; however, these strategies cost women in terms of their time as well as their physical, mental and emotional energy. Childcare policy assists to a certain extent by providing some support to low-income mothers. Enhancements to the existing policies have potential benefits; however, they are like patches on a leaky bucket. Ultimately, the bucket needs to be replaced with a new way of envisioning family responsibilities, work and childcare.

This research examines how childcare policy in Ontario, Canada assists and constrains low-income urban women’s strategies of provisioning for their children. Childcare policy refers to the range of programs that assist families in reconciling paid work and parenthood. In Ontario, Canada, these programs include childcare fee subsidies, tax deductions, parental leave policies, child benefits/allowances and a program regulating live-in caregivers. Provisioning is used to capture an array of daily work-related activities (e.g. paid, unpaid and caring labour) that mothers perform to ensure their children’s survival and well-being. The qualitative study, based on individual semi-structured interviews with 20 low-income mothers living in an urban community, found that women carry out various activities in provisioning for their children. Some of these are familiar and visible activities such as providing domestic caring labour, engaging in the labour market, and undertaking volunteer work in the community. Others are less visible tasks such as sustaining their health and that of their children, making claims/asserting their rights, and ensuring safety. Low-income urban mothers provision under numerous constraints. A continuous shortage of money and childcare issues are at the core of these constraints. The study also found that the mothers encounter a variety of barriers in the community, such as a limited availability of social and community services and a high level of violence/criminal activity in their neighbourhoods. Issues related to poor health, an inadequate diet, or the necessity of caring for children with special needs further constrain women’s lives. Limited English language skills, racial barriers, and the struggles of adapting to a new country add to the multi-dimensional barriers facing low-income urban mothers. The research indicates that mothers use a variety of strategies to counter these barriers; however, these strategies cost women in terms of their time as well as their physical, mental and emotional energy. Childcare policy assists to a certain extent by providing some support to low-income mothers. Enhancements to the existing policies have potential benefits; however, they are like patches on a leaky bucket. Ultimately, the bucket needs to be replaced with a new way of envisioning family responsibilities, work and childcare.

This essay is about the development process I have undergone during my experience-based preschool teacher education. I write about my internal process, about how I as a childcare worker go from assertiveness and believing in myself into fighting doubts, thoughts and feelings as a preschool teacher. The purpose with this essay is to make the difficulties with managing new knowledge and practicing it in real life visible, and at the same time overcome your uncertainty in a new professional role. The essay is based on two stories from my professional life where I, in the first one portray my actions and behavior as a childcare worker and in the second one as a preschool teacher. Based on my stories I try to answer questions as what does the individual learning process look like when going from one professional role to another in the same profession? What impact does theoretical knowledge have on practical knowledge? I have used reflection and writing as methods for my paper. I have reflected through dialogues together with fellow students and colleagues, but I have also reflected in my thoughts by having an internal dialogue. I base my essay on phenomenology and hermeneutic theory which both are experience based and evolve from interpretations and understandings of phenomena that arise in one`s mind. To be able to visualize my thinking the reflection has been an important part of my writing and also for being able to take different perspectives and examine myself critically. In this essay I discuss different kinds of knowledge and I base it on Aristotle´s three forms of knowledge. I begin my paper with describing my non doubting period and by using scientific theories I try to deepen my knowledge about why I go from being confident to having doubts.  The core of the story is the part about my doubting period where I discuss the importance of theoretical knowledge. I reflect upon and highlight different dilemmas in which a person`s knowledge is invisible and I discuss whether a uniform would make any difference to what knowledge you possess in the eyes of a beholder. / Den här essän handlar om min utvecklingsprocess jag har genomgått under min erfarenhetsbaserade förskollärarutbildning. Jag skriver om min inre process, om hur jag som barnskötare går från självsäkerhet och att tro på mig själv till att kämpa med tvivel, tankar och känslor som förskollärare. Syftet med denna essä är att synliggöra svårigheterna med att förvalta vetenskaplig kunskap och praktisera den i verkligheten, och samtidigt övervinna sin osäkerhet i en ny yrkesroll. Essän bygger på två berättelser utifrån min verksamhet där jag i den första delen gestaltar mitt handlande och agerande som barnskötare och i den andra delen som blivande förskollärare. Utifrån mina berättelser försöker jag att svara på frågor som, hur kan den individuella lärprocessen se ut när man går från en yrkesroll till en annan inom samma verksamhet? Vilken betydelse har teoretisk kunskap för det praktiska kunnandet?    Jag har använt mig av reflektion och skrivande som metod. Tillsammans med klasskamrater och kollegor har jag reflekterat genom dialog, men jag har också haft en inre dialog då jag har reflekterat i tankarna. I min essä utgår jag från teorier som fenomenologi och hermeneutik vilka utgår från erfarenheten och som bygger på tolkningar och förståelse av fenomen som uppstår i ens medvetande. Reflektionen har varit en viktig del i mitt arbete för att synliggöra mina tankegångar och för att kunna inta olika perspektiv och granska mig själv kritiskt. I essän diskuterar jag olika sorters kunskap och utgår ifrån Aristoteles tre kunskapsformer. Jag börjar med att beskriva min icke tvivlande period och med hjälp av teorier försöker jag fördjupa min kunskap genom att bli medveten om varför jag går från självsäkerhet till att börja tvivla. I den tvivlande perioden finns essäns kärna, där jag ingående diskuterar vikten av kunskap. Jag reflekterar över och belyser olika dilemman då kunskapen inte syns, och funderar över om en uniform har någon avgörande betydelse för vilken kunskap man besitter, i en betraktares ögon.

The early marriage as a patriarchal cultural fact is not a retrospective solved up, ended issue but a problem lasting with all its tragedy. The early marriage which is the subject of this study is a form of actualisation of child abuse within the family, in the prison of privacy. This abuse may only be expressed within the repertoire of femaleness. Regarding this language, which is functionalized with destiny, fortune, luck, sin, immoral, the comprehension of what it means to be child-bride, how the patriarchy institutionalize the early marriage which we may call as legitimate child abuse was tried. If marriage occurs between persons either one of them or both of them is under 18 is called early marriage.Although child marriages are no legitimacy in the sense of jurisprudence, child marriage is still occurring as a cultural practice. This study based on some presumption such as everybody who is under the age of 18 is accepted as a child. Marriage is an important issue for feminism. Although there are different feminst perspectives, all of them are critical towards marriage. For instance / according to radical feminists&rsquo / theoreticians&rsquo / marriage is a systematic way of oppressing women hence being a child likely to intensified adverse consequences of marriage. The main concerns of this study how their child status affects their marriage experiences. In this frame work early marriaged studied based on a field research conducted on 19 women in Van province .In order to get diversity in Van, four districts were chosen. The scopes that women&rsquo / s marriage experiences are questioned are the following women&rsquo / s domestic labor, women participating in social life, violence against women, sexuality, motherhood and childcare. In order to get more insight about the issue 8 representatives of non governmental organizations and 10 public officials who interested in women issue are met.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether parents of children who attend childcare centers have different attitudes and behaviors toward shaping their child's eating habits than parents of children who stay at home, and whether these attitudes and behaviors affect their child's dietary intake and weight. Fifty parents of 3- to 5-year-old children who attended childcare centers and fifty parents of 3- to 5-year-old children who stayed at home in Central Texas participated in the study. Parents completed questionnaires designed to measure the factors they considered when choosing food for their child, and their perceived influence on, satisfaction with, responsibility for, and control over their child's eating habits. After receiving training and measuring utensils, parents completed 3-day dietary records for their child. A researcher recorded the children's food intake when they were at the childcare center. Children's height and weight were measured, and body mass index was plotted on the CDC BMIfor- age growth charts (2000). Twelve percent of childcare children were obese compared to 2 percent of stay-at-home children (p<0.05). Children in childcare consumed more energy, vegetables, fat, saturated fat, and sweetened beverages than stay-at-home children (p<0.05), mostly due to consumption at the center. Both groups met requirements for all food groups and nutrients except grains, vegetables, and vitamin E. Their diets were too high in fat, contributing 32 percent of total energy. There was no evidence that parents of children in childcare felt less responsible for, less influential on, more satisfied with, or exerted less control over their child's diet than stay-at-home parents. Parents of childcare children believed that they and the childcare center shared responsibility for their child's nutrition. They felt that time was a more important factor in choosing food for their child than did stay-at-home parents. Parents who perceived lack of time to be an obstacle had children who consumed less energy, iron, and fat during the evening hours. Parents of overweight children felt more influential on and were more satisfied with their child's diets than parents of normal weight children. No other parental attitudes were predictive of children's food intake or weight status. / text

Syftet med denna uppsats var att undersöka hur barnavårdsutredande socialsekreterare förhåller sig till mamma- och papparoller i utredningsförfarandet. Vi ville studera detta ur ett genusperspektiv för att se om socialsekreterare tolkar egenskaper och föräldraförmågor olika beroende på om de innehas av en man eller en kvinna. Vi valde att göra en vinjettstudie med en kvalitativ ansats. Det deltog sex socialsekreterare i studien, vilka fick resonera kring föräldraförmågor i enskilda intervjuer. Den fiktiva fallbeskrivningen utgick från en orosanmälan kring en tvåårig flicka. Flickan har två föräldrar med olika egenskaper som finns beskrivna i vinjetterna. Dessa beskrivningar var likadana i vinjetterna, men i en av vinjetterna hade mamman de egenskaper som pappan hade i den andra vinjetten, och vice versa. Tre av socialsekreterarna utgick alltså från en vinjett där pappan hade vissa egenskaper som mamman sedan hade i den vinjett som de övriga tre socialsekreterarna utgick ifrån. Detta gjorde att vi kunde jämföra hur socialsekreterarna förhölls sig till föräldrarna, och kunde urskilja när det fanns skillnader och likheter i förhållningssätten utifrån könet på föräldern. Empirin analyserades sedan utifrån ett genus- och socialkonstruktivistiskt perspektiv med hjälp av begreppen genussystemet, perfomativitet, schabloner och teorier om kön, genus och jämställdhet i relation till synen på föräldraskap samt tidigare forskning. Resultatet visade att socialsekreterarna i vissa aspekter tolkade egenskaper och föräldraförmåga på olika sätt beroende på om det handlade om mamman eller pappan. Slutsatsen är att det behövs fler möjligheter för socialsekreterare att reflektera över de underliggande värderingar och föreställningar som finns kring mammor och pappor i samhället. Diskussionen skulle behöva lyftas tydligare och på gruppnivå för att synliggöra de skillnader som socialsekreterare annars riskerar att göra mellan mammor och pappor i barnavårdsutredningar. / The purpose of this study was to explore how childcare investigators view mother and father roles when investigating family relations. We sought out to study the matter from a gender perspective to see if social workers view parenting capabilities differently depending on the parent’s sex. We chose to do a qualitative vignette study. Six social workers took part in the study and we had them discussing parenting capabilities in individual interviews. The fictitious case was about a concern report regarding a two-year-old girl. The young girl has two parents with different features. In one set of the vignettes the mother had the same features as the father had in the other set and vice versa. This means that three of the participating social workers were lead to believe that the father had certain features that were the same as those of the mother according the information that was given to the remaining three social workers. This made it possible for us to compare how social workers view the parents and we could identify differences and similarities in their views depending on the parent’s sex. The results were analysed from a gender and social constructivist perspective with the help of the concepts gender system, performativity, templates and theories about sex, gender and equality and previous research. The findings revealed that social workers do view parenting capabilities differently in certain aspects depending on whether the concerns were about a mother or a father. The conclusion of this study is that there is a need for further opportunities for social workers to discuss the society’s underlying values and ideas of motherhood and fatherhood. This discourse would have to be presented clearly and openly among social workers to prevent discriminating mothers or fathers in childcare investigations.

In many European countries and countries of the world civic education is given special consideration – in the documents of European Council, United Nations, UNESCO and European Union democratic civic achievement dimension is considered highly significant. An important event for the civic education confirms this: European Council declared 2005 the year of civic achievement. Meanwhile, the changing society of Lithuania under the conditions of the democracy that is building up, still lacks citizens able to evaluate, freely express themselves, pursue independent, substantive decisions and find them – therefore, in our country civic education gets more and more consideration. However, there are just a few researches that analyze civic maturity of the students; and I couldn’t find researches that had been carried out on the civic achievement of the students in the childcare institutions not only in the Lithuanian, but also in the foreign literature. Therefore, I chose the expression of the civic achievement in life of the students in the childcare institutions as the object of my research; and, in order to estimate the civic achievement (i.e. civic attitudes, knowledge, values and participation) of the teenagers in the childcare institutions, I analyzed scientific literature and documents that regulate civic education, and displayed peculiarities of civic education of the teenagers in the childcare institutions. Besides, I carried out a research in order to analyze civic... [to full text]