Syftet med denna studie var att utifrån ett genusperspektiv undersöka hur två HVB-hem för ensamkommande flyktingbarn arbetar med jämställdhetsfrågor. Detta undersöktes genom fyra halvstrukturerade intervjuer med personal på HVB-hem för ensamkommande flickor och pojkar mellan 14-17 år. En kvinna och en man på respektive boende intervjuades. Intervjuerna spelades in och det transkriberade materialet analyserades utifrån socialkonstruktivistisk teori samt utifrån ett genusperspektiv. Resultatet av undersökningen visar hur stereotypa föreställningar kring kön konstruerades i det sociala arbetet med ensamkommande barn. Studien visar på ett behov av ökad utbildning kring genus hos personalen. Den visar även på att boendena behöver anpassas för att uppfylla de specifika behov som gruppen ensamkommande flyktingbarn har, inte minst vad gäller jämställdhet och genus. / The aim of the study was to investigate from a gender perspective how two HVB-accommodations for unaccompanied refugee children were working with equality. The research was made by four semi structured interviews with employees at HVB-accommodations for unaccompanied girls and boys between the ages of 14 to 17. From each home there were one female and one male selected for the interviews. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. The material was analyzed using social constructivist theory and gender perspectives. The result indicates how stereotypical ideas’ regarding gender was constructed in the social work with the unaccompanied children. Hence, the study demonstrates a need of increased education for the employees together with a need for the accommodations to adjust in order to fulfill the specific needs which unaccompanied children have not least as regarding equality and gender.

The public sector in Sweden has in recent decades undergone a large change due to market and liberalism impact. This change has meant that marketing communication and its concepts have been adopted by administrative authorities. In this thesis, we used governmentality, social constructivism and an interpretive perspective to examine the staff at the County Administrative Board in Kalmar County and their experiences and opinions of the concepts ”customer” and ”trademark”. The study was designed as a case study with qualitative interviews. The study showed that the experiences can be divided into three categories: those that are positive, those who are worried and see risks as well as those who believe the concepts are just empty words. We also discovered that there was a discrepancy between the management's view of the market influenced communication, which was positive and more liberal, and the rest of the staff which emphasized the traditional bureaucratic rhetoric.

The purpose with this study is to examine and analyze the eldercare staffs conceptions and perceptions about the construction of ethnicity and aging, in Swedish eldercare, to illustrate the process of othering. The authors interviewed eight people who work in the eldercare by using a vignette. We have analyzed our result from the interviews through several theories and earlier research pertinent to the subject. The study has shown that eldercare staff through their conceptions and perceptions unconscious been conducive to make and recompose constructions of ethnicity and elder. The constructions of ethnicity and elder can be conductive to processes of othering.

A strong partnership between a school and the surrounding community leads to school success. Schools can be more successful with community involvement and engagement than if functioning in isolation. Community engagement leads to greater academic achievement of students. Utilizing qualitative case study methods, this study focused on the perspective of school and community partners on building relationships. The purpose of this study was to describe and explain selected participants' perspectives on how a school builds partnerships with the community. I studied the relationship between an elementary school and community partners that have been in existence for at least three years to better understand each participant's view of the partnership. The social constructivism theoretical framework was used to better understand how effective partnerships are built and maintained. As the researcher, my goal was to study the diverse significance the participants had established for their contribution in school and community partnerships based on their subjective experiences. Specifically, with this study I attempted to answer these questions: 1) What are the characteristics of a collaborative relationship between a school and the surrounding community that are essential in order to build partnerships that meet the goals of each participant involved? 2) What are the roles of the school leader, support staff, and community members in building relationships between the school and the community? I also aimed at determining how the school's leadership directly relates to and affects the partnership building process between the school and the community partners. Three major themes emerged as a result of the data gathered. Building a solid infrastructure emerged as the foundation of strong partnership between the school and the community. Adhering to mandated policy, focusing on student centered goals, and working within systems were vital elements of building a solid infrastructure. Defining clear roles also emerged as instrumental. The roles of the principal, school staff, and community were clearly defined. Demonstrating collaborative character traits emerged as a third theme that was necessary to build a positive relationship. The meaning that the community partners and school staff have put on building relationships became apparent. Fostering authentic community engagement in communities that leads to expected outcomes for all stakeholders involved is most productive when schools and community members work together.

This investigation examined first-grade teachers' literacy beliefs and practices and its relationship with their students' conceptions about reading and writing. For the first part of the study a sample of 76 first-grade teachers, from two school districts in Puerto Rico, completed the Literacy Orientation Survey (LOS). The combined score of the LOS was calculated and used to categorize teachers according to their literacy beliefs and practices as constructivist, eclectic, or traditional. After matching by years of experience and educational level, a stratified random sample of six teachers, two from each literacy viewpoint (traditional, eclectic, and constructivist), and 48 first-grade students was selected to participate in the second part of the study. A simple random sample of eight students (four low-achieving readers and four high-achieving readers) was selected from the classrooms of each of the six teachers, who represented the three differing literacy beliefs. Individual interviews were conducted with the students, using Wing's (1989) interview protocol, in order to assess their conceptions of reading and writing. The results of this study regarding the nature of teachers' literacy beliefs indicated that most teachers appear to hold traditional literacy beliefs and practices, whereas a very small number of the participant teachers seem to hold literacy beliefs and practices categorized as constructivist. A statistical significant association was found between teachers' literacy viewpoint and students' conceptions about reading and writing. First-grade students whose teachers held a constructivist literacy viewpoint seemed to have more holistic conceptions of literacy, whereas students whose teachers held a traditional or an eclectic literacy viewpoint seemed to have more skills or test-based conceptions of reading and writing. Results indicate that first-grade students' ideas regarding the purposes and nature of reading and writing appear to be compatible with their teachers' literacy beliefs and practices. No significant relationship was found between students' conceptions of reading and writing and their reading ability. Implications for literacy teaching, learning, and further research are discussed.

Syftet med uppsatsen Hur pedagogernas beröring av barn kan påverka barnens könsroller - en studie om beteendemönster på fritidshemmet är att undersöka om det finns en skillnad på hur de observerade pedagogerna i min undersökning rör vid flickor och pojkar. Resultatet av undersökningen är att de observerade pedagogerna gav flickorna dubbelt så mycket positiv beröring, samtidigt som de gav pojkarna tretton gånger så mycket negativ beröring. Sett till tidigare forskning i området betyder det att pedagogerna bemöter flickor och pojkar olika utefter kön och riskerar att vara medskapare till att befästa stereotypa könsroller. Jag har i uppsatsen använt mig av metoden observation och analyserar dessa observationer med ett socialkonstruktivistiskt och genusteoretiskt synsätt. / The purpose of the bachelor thesis How the pedagogues way of touching children may affect the childrens' gender roles - a study about behavioural patterns in the recreational center of school, is to examine if there is a difference in how the observed pedagogues in my study touch girls and boys. The result of the survey is that the observed pedagogues gave the girls twice as much positive touch, while giving the the boys thirteen times as much negative touch. Considering previous research in the area this means that the pedagogues meet girls and boys differently and run the risk of assisting in establishing gender role stereotypes. I have in my bachelor thesis used the method of observation and analyze these observations with a social constructivist and gender theoretical approach.

The following essay describes a study made in Sweden in the autumn of 2010 at Södertörn University. The main purpose with this study is to find out and describe how people´s own understanding of being multilingual has influenced them. The objective behind this is to create a wider understanding for the phenomena. Therefore, the phenomenological perspective is used to describe the subjective reflection of a phenomena, in this case multilingualism. A qualitative method is being used for data gathering, implying conversational interviews with six multilingual people born in the 1970s and 1980s. The results show that the people interviewed mostly use their mother tongue in conversations with their parents and relatives today. Their multilingualism has not been particularly acknowledged in school, where Swedish has been the language of instruction. Some of the interviewees expressed a feeling of not knowing any of their languages perfectly. The results also show that the interviewees have a positive attitude towards their multilingualism on the whole and see several advantages with it. The results do nevertheless not show any pattern of differences between the people born in the seventies and the ones born in the eighties.

Abstract   Author: Robert Andersson & Oskar Karlsjö Title:“My first thought is a girl that cuts herself” – A qualitative study about professionals in human service organizations description of self-injurious behavior. Supervisor: Ann Ottengrim Assessor: Rickard Ulmestig   The purpose of this study has been to understand how professionals in human service organizations (HSO) describe self-injuries behaviour, how they describe the individuals that self-harm and if the professionals describe any possible differences in how men and women self-harm as well as how professional’s knowledge concerning self-injurious behaviour is contructed. The study answers three questions; - What kind of actions do professionals in HSO describe as being self-injurious behaviour? - How is knowledge constructed by professionals in HSO concerning self-injurious behaviour? - How are people who engage in self-injurious behaviour being described? - How do professionals in human service organizations describe potential differences between men and women´s self-injurious behaviour?   Qualitative interviews have been chosen as the method in this study to gather empirical data and the social constructionism theory has been implemented to analyse the empirical data. The result of this study shows that self-injurious behaviour is a complex and at the same time a dynamic phenomenon. There are a lot of different actions that are being describes as being self-injurious behaviour. An individual that cuts its own body tissue or an individual that often gets involved in psychical fights are examples of acts that are being described as having a self-injurious behaviour. The informants also described that their knowledge and what they define as self-injurious behaviour has changed over time in the field which indicates that self-injurious behaviour is a dynamic category. According to our results it doesn’t seem to exist a stereotype of whom and why someone engages in self-harm. But men tend to self-harm in a more severe way than women.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Boendestöd är en framgångsfaktor i arbetet med att stötta utsatta grupper med att klara ett eget boende inte minst för missbrukare. Det här är en jämförande studie baserad på intervjuer med sex boendestödjare som arbetar med missbrukare och sex boendestödjare som arbetar med psykiskt funktionshindrade. Syftet är att undersöka boendestödjarnas uppfattningar om sitt arbete och deras upplevelser av vad arbetet innehåller. Varför är det vanligt med olika organisationer för missbruk och psykiskt funktionshinder? Vad är det som rättfärdigar indelningen i de två grupperna och vad blir konsekvenserna för brukarna och för de professionella som arbetar med boendestöd för grupperna? Resultatet är analyserat med tidigare forskning kring boende och stöd, forskning om professioner framväxt och teorier om socialkonstruktivism. Resultatet visar att kategoriseringen kan ha med vilket fokus boendestödet får och att boendestöd för missbrukare inriktas mot att missbrukaren skall klara sitt eget boende utan att vräkas. Dessutom finns det ett indirekt tvång inbyggt i boendestödet för missbrukare vilket inte återfinns i arbetet med de psykiskt funktionshindrade. Avslutningsvis är det möjligt att peka på att indelningen medför betydande konsekvenser för missbrukarna i jämförelse med övriga psykiskt funktionshindrade även om grunden för beslutet kring kategoriseringen är osäker. / Daily life support is a key success factor in efforts to support vulnerable groups in managing their own living and this is certainly true for addicts. This is a comparative study based on interviews with six daily supporters who work with addicts and six daily supporters who are working with mentally disabled clients. The purpose is to examine their experiences and their perceptions of what the work contains. What justifies the separation of the two groups and what are the consequences for the clients and for the professionals who work with daily life support for the two groups? The result is analyzed with earlier research in the area of daily life support, research concerning the development of professions and theories of social constructivism. The result shows that the categorization may has to do with the focus of the work with living support and that the daily living support for addicts often is directed towards the addicts ability to manage their own accommodation without risking the tenants to be evicted. In addition, the categorization implicates for addicts in terms of the existence of an indirect constraint embedded in the work of daily life support for addicts which is not found in the work of the mentally ill clients. Finally, it is possible to point to a significant difference in terms of consequences for the addicts in relation to the mentally ill group even if the base for the decision of categorization may be uncertain.