Literature on lifelong learning indicates that major life transitions lead to significant learning. However, compared to learning in paid jobs, learning in and through household work has received little attention, given the unpaid nature and the private sphere where the learning occurs. The current study examined the changes and the learning involved in three aspects of household work: food work, childcare/parenting, and emotion work among recent Chinese immigrants in Canada. This study draws on data from a Canadian Survey on Work and Lifelong Learning (WALL), 20 individual interviews, a focus group, and a discussion group with new Chinese professional immigrants in the Greater Toronto Area. The results indicate that food work and childcare increased dramatically after immigration due to a sudden decline of economic resources and the lack of social support network for childcare. Emotion work intensified due to the challenges in paid jobs and the absence of extended families in the new homeland. To adapt to the changes in their social and economic situations, and to integrate into the Canadian society, Chinese immigrants learned new beliefs and practices about food and childrearing, developed new knowledge and skills in cooking and grocery shopping, in childcare and disciplining, in solving conflicts with children and spouses, and in transnational kin maintenance. In addition, the Chinese immigrants also developed new views about family, paid and unpaid work, meaning of life, and new gender and ethnic identities. However, these dramatic changes did not shatter the gendered division of household work. Both the qualitative and the quantitative data suggest that women not only do more but also different types of household tasks. As a result, it is not surprising that both the content and the ways of learning associated with household work varied by gender, class, and ethnicity. By exploring learning involved in the four dimensions of household work: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual, this dissertation demonstrates that learning is both lifelong and lifewide. By making household work visible, this research helps make visible the value of the unpaid work and the learning involved in it.

The "work first" philosophy of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act sent millions of people into the labor force, many for the first time. The result was a dramatic increase in the number of workers whose earnings failed to pull them and their families out of poverty. Assistance in the form of childcare, transportation, medical coverage, and the Earned Income Tax Credit is beginning to receive attention as support mechanisms for people who do not earn adequate wages and receive little benefits from their employers. This study examines the effectiveness of Georgia's approach to providing work support programs to its working poor citizens. No single entity is responsible for making work supports accessible. Thus, services often go underutilized because those who might qualify are not aware of their potential eligibility. Further, there is no state level strategy for ensuring that wage advancement is considered by agencies providing work support services. Using client administrative wage data from the Georgia Department of Labor and qualitative interviews from program staff, the state's structure for assisting the working poor is examined.

The purpose of this study was to predict the family resources that influence positive family-to-work spillover for women who are engaged in parent, partner, and paid employee roles. While much research examines the construct of work-family conflict, little examines the positive benefits for women participating in multiple roles. A conceptual framework for the study was obtained from Voydanoffs (2002) work applying ecological systems theory to the work-family interface. Several factors were hypothesized to predict positive family-to-work spillover for multiple role women, including: spousal support; perceived fairness in the division of housework and childcare; relative share of childcare and housework; and paid assistance with housework.<p>Data for this study was collected in a survey designed for a larger assessment of work, family, gender, and health in the Saskatoon area. The current study utilized data collected from women who met the following criteria: 1) spoke fluent English; 2) fell between the ages of 25 - 54 years; 3) were employed full-time or part-time; and 4) were the parent of at least one child under the age of 20 years. The dependent variable was a measure of positive family-to-work spillover. Independent variables included: spousal support; perceived fairness of the division of childcare; perceived fairness of the division of housework; relative of share of housework for respondents compared to ones partner; and paid assistance with housework. Control variables included income, presence of preschool children, number of children, educational attainment, and hours of paid employment. A sequential multiple regression was performed to predict positive family-to-work spillover from the independent variables. The final regression model predicting positive family-to-work spillover included three independent variables: 1) spousal support; 2) the perception of division of childcare as unfair to ones partner; and 3) relative share of housework for the respondent. Implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.

Le niveau de préparation scolaire des enfants est un prédicteur important de la réussite scolaire ultérieure. Les études ont montré que la fréquentation d’un milieu de garde extra-familial avant l’entrée en maternelle influence le niveau de préparation scolaire des enfants. L’objectif de cette étude est d’examiner quels parcours de garde sont associés à une meilleure préparation scolaire autant sur le plan cognitif que socio-émotionnel. Le second objectif est d’examiner si les différents parcours de garde contribuent différemment à la préparation scolaire selon les caractéristiques socio-familiales de l’enfant. Cinq cent soixante-douze enfants ont été recrutés à partir du registre des naissances du Québec et ont été suivis de l’âge de 5 mois jusqu’à leur entrée en maternelle. Trois parcours de garde ont été considérés: la garde continue en milieu familial (F-F), la garde en milieu familial durant la petite enfance suivie de la garde en installation durant l’âge préscolaire (F-I) et la garde continue en installation (I-I). Le niveau de préparation scolaire des enfants ayant suivi un de ces parcours de garde a été comparé à celui des enfants n’ayant jamais fréquenté de façon régulière un service de garde. La dimension cognitive de la préparation scolaire a été évaluée à l’aide du test du Lollipop et la dimension socio-émotionnelle à l’aide du Questionnaire des comportements sociaux. Les résultats indiquent qu’un parcours de garde favorise la dimension cognitive de la préparation scolaire de tous les enfants, sans nuire à la dimension socio-émotionnelle : le parcours F-I. On observe en outre un effet modérateur de la scolarité maternelle : lorsque les mères ont fait des études universitaires, la préparation scolaire de leurs enfants sur les deux dimensions de la préparation scolaire est aussi élevée pour ceux qui n’ont jamais fréquenté de service de garde sur une base régulière que pour ceux qui ont suivi le parcours de garde F-I. La présente étude confirme la contribution positive des milieux de garde au développement cognitif des enfants de milieux défavorisés. De plus, les résultats de cette étude précisent quel parcours de garde est associé à la meilleure préparation scolaire des enfants. Le parcours de garde F-I pourrait contribuer à réduire l’écart entre ceux qui sont prêts à entrer à l’école et ceux qui ne le sont pas et favoriser le succès scolaire pour tous les enfants, réduisant du coup les inégalités sociales. / School readiness is an important predictor of future academic success. Studies have shown that childcare before kindergarten entry influences academic readiness of children. The objective of this study is to examine which sequences of childcare type are associated with better cognitive and socio-emotional school readiness. The second objective is to examine whether the different sequences of childcare type contribute differently to the school readiness as function of social and family characteristics. 572 children from Quebec were randomly selected from the birth’s register and were followed from 5 months of age until they entered kindergarten. Three sequences of childcare type were considered: continuous home-based care (F-F), home-based care in infancy and center care during preschool period (F-I) and continuous center care (I-I). School readiness of children following one of these sequences of childcare type was compared to those of children who have never used a regular type of care. Cognitive school readiness was assessed with the Lollipop test and socio-emotional school readiness was assessed with the Social Behavior Questionnaire. The sequence of childcare type that promotes the best cognitive school readiness without compromising the socio-emotional dimension is the F-I sequence. Conversely, when the mother had a high level of education (university), children who have stayed at home are as well prepared to enter school as the ones that had followed the F-I sequence of care. Findings of this study confirm the positive contribution of childcare on cognitive development of disadvantaged children. In addition, results of this study specify which sequence of care promotes optimal child development. Attending F-I sequence could reduce the gap between those who are ready to enter school and those who are not and thus ensure that all children start school with the same chance of success. In this way, it would be possible to reduce social inequalities.

The dissertation studies how 16 Swedish middle-class parents understand and form their parenthood in everyday life. The focus is set on how they involve themselves in their children’s care and education, and how parental identities are negotiated in relation to cultural norms on parenthood. The analysis is based on qualitative methods, in particular interviews and participant observation with video camera in eight families. The study, which is inspired by poststructuralist perspectives on identity formation, shows that the informants position themselves in relation to a norm on involved parenthood, which is negotiated differently depending on social context and gender. The dissertation includes four empirical studies. The first focuses on the subjectivities and dilemmas that are created by parents’ strategies to manage time and childcare. The strategies render everyday life more effective, but the parents also want to be child-centered, which forces them to balance between positions as involved and uninvolved parents. The second study examines how the fathers negotiate their involvement in household work, childcare and time with children. To great extent, they follow the discourse on gender-equal and involved fatherhood, but they at times resist it through drawing on notions of child-centeredness, kinship, and a gendered division of labor. The third study focuses on how parents and teachers negotiate children’s education and rearing. Study four shows how the parents position themselves as involved parents in relation to their children’s homework. In conclusion, the dissertation shows that the parents idealize time spent with the children, but that in everyday life it is hard to get this time. Instead, much time is spent for the child, that is, doing household work and childcare. In both cases, time is child-centered, but time with the child is by the parents seen as “more” involved time. / Avhandlingen studerar hur 16 svenska medelklassföräldrar förstår och utformar sitt föräldraskap i vardagen. Särskilt fokuseras på hur de engagerar sig i sina barns omsorg och skolgång, samt hur föräldraidentiteter förhandlas i relation till kulturella normer kring föräldraskap. Analyserna är baserade på kvalitativa metoder, med intervjuer och deltagande observation med videokamera i åtta familjer. Studien, som är inspirerad av poststrukturalistiska perspektiv på identitet, visar att informanterna positionerar sig i relation till en norm om engagerat föräldraskap. Denna förhandlas dock i relation till kön och social kontext. Avhandlingen omfattar fyra delstudier. Den första fokuserar på de subjektiviteter och dilemman som skapas av föräldrarnas strategier för att hantera tid och barnomsorg. Strategierna effektiviserar vardagen, men föräldrarna vill samtidigt vara barncentrerade, vilket gör att de måste balansera mellan positioner som engagerade och icke-engagerade föräldrar. Den andra delstudien undersöker hur männen förhandlar sitt engagemang i hushållsarbete, barnomsorg och tid med barnen. De följer till stora delar den samhälleliga diskursen om jämställt och engagerat faderskap, men omdefinierar den genom att dra på föreställningar om barncentrering, släktskap och könsarbetsdelning. I den tredje studien undersöks hur föräldrar och lärare förhandlar om barns utbildning och fostran. Delstudie fyra visar hur föräldrarna positionerar sig som engagerade föräldrar i förhållande till sina barns läxor. Avhandlingen visar sammanfattningsvis att föräldrarna idealiserar tid som spenderas med barnen, men att det i vardagslivet är svårt att få denna tid. Istället ägnas mycket tid för barnet, det vill säga hushållsarbete och barnomsorg. I båda handlar det om barncentrering, men föräldrarna uppfattar tid med barnet som ”mer” engagerad tid.

The shifting topography of contemporary Japanese society is engendering a significant reorientation of men’s family relations. However, exactly how Japanese men are adapting to these broad-based trends, including parent-child relations, demographics, marriage norms, care provision, residential choices, and gender roles, as well as in the decline of Confucian worldviews, remains relatively obscure. In this dissertation, I explore men’s everyday practices underpinning their family relations as husbands, fathers, sons-in-law, and grandfathers. I conducted ethnographic fieldwork in the summers of 2013 and 2014 in Hyogo, through narrative interviews and participant-observation. I find husbands’ view of their wives transitioning from having a culturally prescribed duty to perform domestic matters to simply having responsibility for domestic matters. This opens up space for negotiation within married couples, with my informants providing what I refer to as additional help, which offers new insight into charting the evolution of hegemonic masculinity. I evidence relatedness founded on exchange as an approach to understand relations across the extended family, which importantly involves additional help, financial resources, and intimacy. I underscore how men selectively seek intimacy in some family relations, notably as fathers and grandfathers. Provision of additional help and seeking of intimacy lead to men’s (re)construction of masculinities differing across family relations, with an important reason for men to select their practices so as to craft their family relations is to address their sense of well-being. Further, the pattern of men’s family relations reveals the emergence of substantially novel sons-in-law relations, as compared to that found in ie patriarchal norms. This evidence suggests a fundamental shift from a vertically-dominated set of family relations, as in the ie household, to a more horizontal, fluid set of relations across the extended family.

Considéré depuis des siècles comme un sujet dénué de réflexion et d’autonomie, l’enfant comorien reste soumis à une protection spécifique communautaire. Celle-ci est complétée par une protection étatique inspirée des instruments juridiques relatifs aux droits fondamentaux de l’enfant qui la renforcent d’une manière constante. L’enfant comorien grandit dans une société multiculturelle, marquée par la pauvreté. La protection dont il bénéficie s’appuie à la fois sur les traditions éducatives propres aux Comores, et sur la modernité, représentée par les apports juridiques liés à la colonisation et à la ratification de textes internationaux. Notre thèse se propose d’analyser les droits de l’enfant comorien dans un contexte complexe, caractérisé par la pluralité des sources juridiques. De ce fait, nous avons choisi deux angles d’approche : d’une part, nous avons essayé d’analyser les droits de l’enfant en fonction de l’organisation de la société comorienne et des balises de la protection de l’enfant sur le plan de la juristique, de l’histoire du droit, de l’anthropologie, de la sociologie et de l’ethnologie. Ceci nous a également permis de réfléchir à la protection de l’enfant tout en tenant compte des deux systèmes (formel et informel). D’autre part, nous avons tenté d’analyser l’application de la CIDE dans une société multiculturelle dominée par l’oralité. Ont également été analysés les textes internes et internationaux, les acteurs de la protection de l’enfance et leurs failles. Cette étude prétend amener l’Etat et la société civile à réfléchir à un modèle optimal de protection qui mettrait en conformité le droit positif avec les conventions dûment ratifiées, tout en tenant compte des réalités du pays . Une telle hypothèse nous a conduite à proposer un réaménagement du droit positif en matière de droit de l’enfant afin de parvenir à une réforme tant législative que judiciaire et en conformité avec le droit international. / Regarded for centuries as a subject devoid of any reflection, Comorian children are protected by a specific type of community protection. This is complemented by protection from the state which, inspired by the legal instruments relating to fundamental rights of the child, reinforces this community protection in a consistent manner. Comorian children grow up in a multicultural society, marked by poverty. The protection offered to these children is based on both the Comoros’ own educational traditions, and on modernity, represented by legal contributions related to settlement and ratification of international agreements. Our thesis analyzes the rights of Comorian children in a complex environment, characterized by a plurality of legal sources. Therefore, we chose two angles of approach. Firstly, we analyzed children’s rights based on the organization of the Comorian society and the markers of child protection in terms of legal sociology, history, law, anthropology, sociology, and ethnology. This also allowed us to reflect on the protection of children taking into account both formal and informal systems. Secondly, we analyzed the implementation of the CRC in a multicultural society dominated by the spoken word. We also analyzed domestic and international texts; actor’s involved in child protection, and their flaws. This study aims to have the state and civil society reflect on an optimal model for protecting children that would comply with ratified conventions, all while taking into account the realities of the country. This hypothesis led us to propose a reform of the law regarding children’s rights to achieve both legislative and judicial reform, all in accordance with international law.

The thesis is focused on the current possibilities of day care for children under three years and a deeper analysis of educational programmes supporting the development of children aged between two and three years in the capital city of Prague. The theoretical part summarizes the child care options in this age group, in terms of past and current offers in the Czech Republic, and covers the system of early intervention in selected European countries. With regard to the research objective, the work focuses on the child's needs, specific developmental areas and related educational programs that promote the development of the child's personality. For research, qualitative and quantitative methods are used - the methods of observation and questionnaires. The research is an analysis of the availability of interactive programmes for children, but also the potential of teachers to participate in the preparation, implementation and content of the programmes with regard to their experience and knowledge gained in working with young children. The research shows quite a wide selection of Czech and foreign programmes that aim to provide incentives for children to develop their abilities, skills and interests and enable the first steps toward socialization and adaptation to the new environment. The content of...

Harmonization of the professional and personal lives of employees Abstract The content of this thesis is the harmonization of professional and family life from a legal perspective. Especially with regard to the family life of the individual. This is a topic that both women and men related to. This is a current issue, as it resonates with the whole society and influences its development and growth. Appropriate balance of these two areas can lead to a happier life of the individual, higher work performance and an increase in birth rates. The aim was to comprehensively and structurally compile the area of harmonization of professional and personal life, to point out possible problems or discrepancies in legislation in this area. This is done by describing the legal regulation of individual institutes and by providing proposals de lege ferenda. I proceeded from the basic hypothesis that this is an area where gender inequality is still visible and that the process of development in this area is still not complete. The work is divided into five chapters. The first chapter deals with the basic legal regulations governing the harmonization of personal and professional life from an international and national perspective. The second chapter is devoted to the basic institutes of this area, their definition, their pros...

CHOCHOLOUSOVA, S. The right of child, who is placed under institucional care, to be in contact with one of its imprisoned parents. Prague: Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague, 2013. 140 s. Diploma thesis. This diploma thesis is focused on the children of imprisoned parents in the Czech Republic. It deals with the right of the child to have contact with a parent in prison, the actual realization of this contact and its support in Czech and international legal frameworks. In the center of attention is due to the imprisonment of parents and separated families. There are problems with severing emotional attachments between the separated child. Growing up in childcare institutions, without their biological parent, has implications for their upbringing. Thanks to theoretic knowledge and conclusions the theoretical part is drawn up and implemented by quantitative questionnaire surveys of all childcare institutions in the Czech Republic. Their purpose is to find out whether the child's right to contact with imprisoned parents is carried out, what type of contact is most often implemented, and what obstacles prevent most of the contact. On the basis of quantitative and partly qualitative data, this is assessing the current problem of "Children of imprisoned parents" and in conclusion, there are...