This research focuses on an awareness raising programme for primary school children in relation to domestic abuse. This area of research was considered to be of value due to the prevalence of DA and the impact that witnessing domestic abuse has been shown to have on children. Findings from the 2008/2009 British Crime Survey (Coleman, Osborne, Kaiza & Roe, 2010) show that more than one in four women (28%) and around one in six men (16%) have experienced domestic abuse since they were 16. Considerable research exists which suggests that witnessing domestic abuse can have a profound impact on a child’s life, development and psychological well being (Dodd, 2009). This research evaluates a pilot of a six week programme aimed at increasing awareness of domestic abuse in primary schools. There currently exists a gap in knowledge about the effectiveness of small-scale classroom based domestic abuse awareness raising programmes delivered in primary schools. Previous research has focused on larger scale projects often involving external agencies (Home Office, 2005) and work in secondary schools (Bell and Stanley, 2006).The programme was co-delivered by the TEP and school staff to Year Five pupils in three primary schools within a local authority. Staff and pupil views were obtained through focus groups with pupils and semi-structured interviews with teaching staff. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data in order to answer questions about the programmes strengths and weaknesses; views about the involvement of a Trainee Educational Psychologist (TEP); and pupils' understanding of domestic abuse. The findings suggest that staff and pupils thought the programme was valuable and improved children's knowledge of aspects of domestic abuse. The findings are discussed with reference to best practice and issues to consider in relation to the wider implementation and evaluation of the programme.

The ways in which gender violence in schools (GVS) relate to teaching and learning processes and the extent to which aspects of gender safety in school (GSS) create an empowering, protective learning environment form this study’s central topics of investigation. Using a multiple qualitative case study of two primary schools in Kirinyaga County, Kenya, this dissertation explores the elements of gender safety and gender violence that exist within each school and relate to student learning. The following qualitative methods were used over seven months in 2015: participant observation, individual teacher interviews, individual art-based student interviews and member-check interviews with teachers and students. GSS is promoted within the national policy framework and through teacher and student actions but is prevented from flourishing by a prioritization of discipline, authority, and examinations that reinforce traditional hierarchies, power discrepancies and competition. These practices define a school culture that enables GVS to continue and undermine efforts to promote GSS. Findings show that efforts to eradicate GVS cannot be designed in isolation from broader teaching and learning processes. Ensuring school safety and equality requires collaboration between education and child protection systems and reflection on current and historical power structures that shape school cultures. Efforts to eradicate GVS should build on existing opportunities for enhancing GSS and thus learning for girls and boys and address the systemic constraints that limit teachers’ ability to promote protection and equality for their students.

The study was a descriptive survey designed to find out educators’ perceptions of learners’ performance in selected public primary schools in Mthunzini circuit in Empangeni district. Subjects for the study were one hundred and seventy (170) educators randomly drawn from primary schools. Views were sampled through 5 Likert-type questionnaire.This was to address the three research questions formulated to guide the study. Data were analysed using chi-square and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) resulting in descriptive data. The findings of the study revealed that teachers’ qualifications, experience and level of specialization do influence learners’ performance. The study also revealed that inadequate teaching and learning materials (T/LMs) and other study materials, educator and learner absenteeism and lateness and inability to complete the content of the teaching syllabus and other school related factors contribute to poor academic performance of learners. Outside school related factors include provision of basic needs and lack of parental involvement due to a number of learners who are from single household families. They lack monitoring mechanisms of their children’s school work as intensity of examinations and supervision. Recommendations made from the study were that, the appointment of educators in primary schools should be strictly aligned with their field of specialization. The Department of Basic Education should supply primary schools with adequate teaching and learning materials as well as other study materials to help enhance teaching and learning to raise the academic standards of learners. Likewise the supervision and monitoring in the Department of Basic Education should be strengthened. Subject and circuit supervisors should be more regular in the schools to help motivate educators and learners to work more efficiently and effectively. Regular sensitization should be organized in the circuit to inform parents about the value of education to children, the community and the nation as a whole to encourage parental involvement.

It is not the intent of this study to deal with the legal term, juvenile delinquency, but to deal with maladjusted behaviors as symptomatic of frustrations or tensions who need help. The purpose of this study is to survey the needs of children, their difficulties, the attempts that have been made to meet these needs, and to solve these difficulties.

This systematic literature review is aimed to investigate what previous research showed regarding use of phonics instruction in children's early reading development. Due to the fact that international studies such as PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy  Study) showed that children´s reading ability in Sweden is getting lower and lower with each year. Every fifth student's ability to read is too low according to a Swedish report “This is how we solve the reading crisis in primary school”. To find out what the scientific research shows, the following research question was chosen: What effects does phonics instruction approach have on students' early literacy in the early years of primary school?Initially this study presents governments documents and their perspective on reading. Moreover, this study presentes PIRLS results that show that children's reading ability is getting lower with each year. Furthermore, this study presents definitions of two reading instruction methods Phonics and Whole language, phonological awareness and phoneme awareness. This study also shows research that analyzes how phonics methods affect students' early reading. Based on thematic analysis in this study scientific evidence has presented that teaching early reading by using phonics methods benefits all the student's reading skills, especially students who have developed decoding difficulties. The most central in phonics approach is to learn the alphabet and its function, that language sounds (phonemes) are represented by letters or combination of letters (graphemes). According to phonics, students need to be able to decode to be good readers. This literature review also presents results  that show how balanced teaching with elements of both phonics and whole-language approach is very beneficial in students' early literacy and how teachers competence in teaching early reading using phonics methods is important in students' early reading development.   Keywords: phonics, primary school, phonological awareness

This pilot study examines the problem, "Has adult input into children's library services, resulted in services that children perceive as not relevant to their own recreational and information needs?". In examining this problem a questionnaire survey was conducted of a specific population of children, parents and teachers. In addition to the questionnaire survey, structured record sheets were used to record children's use of the public library serving the specific population, and children's services actually provided by the local library. The population consisted of middle and upper primary school children, from Holt Primary School, Canberra, and their parents and teachers. The study indicated discrepancies in what children perceived as important library services for children and what parents and teachers perceived as important. Discrepancies were also found between what children wanted and what was actually provided by the local library service for children.

This survey study examines the type and frequency of books borrowed by students according to age, sex and reading ability. It seeks to redress the sparsity of information available on the types and style of books borrowed by children. This survey study is based on data gathered over 14 weeks at Wanniassa Hills Primary School. Weekly library borrowings were recorded for Years 2. 3/4 and 5/6. A sample of 90 children, 30 from each year level was selected and individual borrowings were coded for analysis according to the type of book borrowed. The SAS System was used to tabulate the data and conclusions were drawn from the results thus obtained. The survey study revealed that females borrow more books generally than males. A general pattern of book borrowing is evident. Females tend to progress more quickly man males through this pattern of borrowing. Males tend to prefer Non- Fiction books, progressing to Choose Your Own Adventure books and Fantasy Game books. Recommendations are based on these findings and other outcomes of the survey study. This survey study has implications for classroom practice, libraries, basic readers and further study.

Uppsatsen bygger på den vandringsdagbok som skrevs under 1952-1954 av 24 nyutexaminerade småskollärarinnor från Norrköpings småskoleseminarium. De hade enats om att skriva brev i dagboksform omfattande tre sidor brevtext och sedan låta boken cirkulera runt till samtliga författare. Boken skulle i första hand spegla deras arbete som lärarinnor och viktiga delar av deras privatliv. För några år sedan skänktes böckerna, 23 av 25, till Arbetets museum i Norrköping. Jag har tagit del av breven som omfattar lärarinnornas första arbetsår och försökt analysera deras arbete, privatliv, föreningsliv och deras hemligheter som det speglas i vandringsdagboken. De flesta anställdes bara på korta vikariat. En tredjedel förlovade eller gifte sig under det första året och några födde barn. Umgänget bestod av nya kolleger och av kontakt med gamla vänner från seminarietiden. De intresserade sig mycket litet för aktuella politiska, kulturella eller sociala problem. Vissa frågor, privata eller i skolan, behandlas inte i brevtexterna. / My essay is a result of an investigation of letters written in a diary between 1952 and 1954 by 24 primary school teachers who had just finished their final exam in the College of Education in Norrköping, Sweden during the summer of 1952. They had promised each other to write letters of three pages in a diary and to let the book circulate between all the participators. The letters should include the experience of their work as schoolteachers but also important parts of their private lives. The books, 23 of 25 in all, were donated to the Arbetets museum in Norrköping a few years ago. I have read the letters and made an effort to analyse their educational work, their private lives, their community activities and their secrets as found in the texts of the diary. The teachers were employed for some months or for one or two terms. One third of them was engaged or married during the first year and a few gave birth to children. Their intimate friends consisted of schoolteachers but they also kept contact with their old acquaintances from the College of Education. They took little interest in the political, cultural or social problems during the period I have studied. Certain questions of private nature were not discussed in the diary letters.

Sammandrag Syftet med den här rapporten är att visa hur lärare vid en skola i Sverige och en i Kenya tänker och arbetar med läs-och skrivinlärning samt beskriva hur de upplever att utomliggande faktorer kan påverka undervisningen. För att genomföra studien har en kombination av kvalitativa intervjuer och ostrukturerade observationer använts. Intervjuerna har utförts på fyra pedagoger, två svenska och två kenyanska som undervisar mot förskolan till årskurs tre. Observationerna har utförts på samma skolor och vid sex tillfällen, tre på vardera skola. I resultatet kan man ta del av kontraster och likheter mellan den svenska och kenyanska skolan. Olika förutsättningar och metoder speglar undervisningen. Trots dessa olikheter anser samtliga lärare att eleverna når målen med avseende på läsande och skrivande. / Abstract The purpose of this report was to compare how two schools, one Swedish and one Kenyan, are training for reading and writing and try to find environmental factors that might have an impact on the learning. The choice of method in the report is a combination of qualitative interviews and unstructured observations. The interviews have been conducted on four teachers, two Swedish and two Kenyan who teach children in the ages of 5-9 years. Observations were performed in the same schools on six occasions, three at each school. The report compares similarities and differences between the Swedish and Kenyan school. The different condition in the countries reflects the way they teach and even if there are different ways of teaching they end up with the same results, knowledge of reading and writing.

The agency or personal involvement of the principal within a school is perceived as being of vital importance to the success of innovations. Leadership is necessary, not only to manage the escalating changes in academia, but more importantly to inspire, protect and encourage educators. One of the current trends in education is the move towards self-management which is a decentralization of power control from the state to the school. Selfmanagement implies choice and this enables the principal to validate the opinions and ideas of everyone who is involved in the process of school governance. The success or failure of an innovation usually depends on the support of the stakeholders. Change can be stressful, and unless the principal is part of the process, the implementation may not be successful. The context of this study is an independent primary school which has recently undergone many changes, most of which appear to have been initiated and managed by the principal. Independent schools have more autonomy than public schools as they are usually self-funded. The principal is accountable not only to the Board of Governors, but also to the parent body which generally has high expectations of the school. This study investigates the impact of the principal’s agency on the development of a multi-media centre at the school. The extent of his involvement within the school and his leadership style was first established and then the implementation of a new innovation, that of the media centre, was explored. Case study methodology based on semi-structured interviews with selected participants from within the school was employed. These participants represented different perspectives on the principal’s leadership and management of the media centre. In addition, documents and photographs were analysed for triangulation purposes. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.