Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 88-92).

The arguments for advancing the interests of other animals are overwhelming. Human's exploitation of other animals is deeply intertwined with the modern crisis. The reality for the nonhuman animals we consume is a blind spot in our children's education. Not only are they withheld certain information, but they are also lied to. This thesis explores a reflective approach to animal rights activism targeting children and parents in a try to intervene in the social construction of speciesism. This was done through the design activity of making provotypes, situated in the urban space. While this approach did not lead to the desired commitment, it resulted in some valuable insights on how parents think about consumption of other animals and how they talk, or not talk, about it with their children. It also opened up for ideas on how to proceed this exploration of how to cultivate children's empathy for other animals instead of teaching them to be speciesist. / <p>Examensarbetet är utfört vid Institutionen för teknik och naturvetenskap (ITN) vid Tekniska fakulteten, Linköpings universitet</p>

My research takes a social work perspective to investigate the concept of the child with ‘additional needs'. This concept arose out of the Labour Government's programme ‘Every Child Matters' (HM Government, 2003) which proposed that children's needs for support should be picked up at an earlier point by an integrated Children's Services consisting of social care, health and education. This would stop them from ‘falling through the net' of services. A focus on ‘additional needs' should mean that children in distress are helped at an early stage before problems became critical, improving the ‘well-being' of children and their families. The research has traced the cases of twelve children with ‘additional needs' through their contacts with Children's Services, using an interactionist methodology to interrogate the meaning-making between respondents. Further, following Hacking (2004), a Foucauldian approach to discourse allowed me investigate the discourses which shape formal diagnosis and categorization. Focusing on the ways that the child is positioned and perceived has allowed me to address the question of whose ‘need' is prioritized when the child enters the professional gaze. In doing so it has examined the role of formal and informal labels in constructing the child, the emotional content that goes into creating the ‘meaning-labels' of the child, and the ways that failures in knowing about the child affect the ways that a child becomes pictured. It concludes that in the shifting practices that make up Children's Services, the child with additional needs can become lost in the complex interaction between adult needs and emotions. The informal ‘meaning-labels' which arise out of this complexity often identify the child as carrying a ‘spoiled identity'. This can be carried through into practice with the child, including the processes of formal diagnosis and categorization. Adult emotions need to be managed better if children are to get fitting and timely help to allow them to thrive.

Nigerian families are overrepresented in child protection interventions in Greater London, drawing attention to cultural differences in childrearing practices. This research investigates the experiences of first-generation Nigerian immigrant parents regarding their management of childrearing issues, which are contextualised within a British child welfare polity and normative cultural milieu. The tension between Nigerian parents' childrearing worldviews and those attributed as ‘British' constitutes the central theme of this thesis. The study employs Bhaskar's (1998) critical realism as an epistemological and methodological paradigm, complemented by the use of Honneth's (1995) recognition theory as the principal substantive framework from which the findings are discussed. Qualitative data were collected from Nigerian parents living in Greater London through an internet blog, semi-structured interviews with 25 individuals, and two focus groups with four participants each. Template analysis was used to code and identify themes within the data. The project gives rise to a series of findings. The first is that most participants in the study wished to uphold certain childrearing practices from their backgrounds. Biographical accounts of their own upbringing in Nigeria revealed a picture of caregiving for children occurring within communal and codependent family relationships, which emphasised expectations of obedience and respectful behaviour from children. Participants' accounts of the physical chastisement of children present this discipline measure as both reasonable and not-so-reasonable. The problematic status of the physical chastisement of children in a British context is the focus of the second key finding of the study. Participants communicated a collective view that Nigerian parents were commonly understood within British society as harsh and controlling, a view attributed to social workers in particular, and other child safeguarding professionals (teachers, child protection police, health professionals) and traditional media producers in general. The defence or disavowal of physical chastisement appears to have become the focus both of immigrant identity practices and the host country's conditions of belonging and inclusion. A third finding was that parents were fearful in their dealings with child safeguarding professionals. Such fears were identified as linked to prior immigration experiences, xenophobia/racism within public discourses and activities, as well as ineffectual social work practices. Participants communicated the view that their values, knowledge, and experiences were not given proper consideration during child safeguarding interactions/interventions and that the challenges posed to the parent-child relationship by immigration were not acknowledged. Social workers and associated professionals were perceived as practicing in ways that could be described as not ‘culturally competent' (Bernard and Gupta, 2008, p.476). Participants experienced social workers as overly prescriptive and threatening. They viewed contact with social services with intense suspicion. A fourth finding was the respect expressed by participants for the British government's efforts to uphold the rights of children. An invitation to participants to share their strategies for managing tensions between Nigerian and British parenting values provided insights to how active/passive influences contribute to everyday strategies of parenting in a context of immigration. Drawing on recognition theory, the thesis offers a way of understanding these findings that recognises and makes sense of the dignity, resilience, fears, and aspirations conveyed by the research participants. The thesis argues for an approach that capitalises on shared values and acknowledges the strengths of Nigerian immigrants' parenting styles while promoting acceptable alternatives to practices that might have attracted child intervention. Recognition theory is offered to social work practice as a starting point for a strengths based approach to integration and wellbeing, suggesting that socio-political participation in the British child welfare polity would lead to an improvement in the confidence and wellbeing of these parents and their children. This conclusion has implications for British social work professionals and other authorities involved in child welfare policy and practice.

Teisinis švietimas, kuris skatintų pozityvią tėvystę, pirmiausia turėtų būti neatsiejamas nuo vaiko teisių apsaugos. Šiuo metu didžioji dalis visuomenės pateisina smurto panaudojimą kaip auklėjimo priemonę, pagrindinė to priežastis - žinių trūkumas ir bausmės už smurtavimą išvengiamumas (Žmogaus teisių stebėjimo institutas, 2009). Todėl vis labiau plėtojama vaiko teisių kontrolė, apsauga, skatinama atsižvelgti į vaiko teises, jas žinoti ir nepažeidinėti. Požiūris į vaiką yra esminis, veiksnys tiesiogiai susijęs su suaugusiųjų elgesiu su vaiku, jo poreikių patenkinimu, nes tik suaugusiųjų dėka yra įgyvendinamos vaiko teisės (Kairienė, 2007). Tačiau tam reikia žinoti svarbiausius teisinius šaltinius, apsaugančius vaiką: Lietuvos Respublikos Konstitucija, Lietuvos Respublikos vaiko teisių apsaugos pagrindų įstatymas, Vaiko teisių konvencija. Todėl teisinis švietimas, ypač vaiko teisių klausimais, gali būti traktuojama kaip pozityvios tėvystės prielaida. Jei tėvai būtų labiau informuoti apie teisinius dalykus, pozityvi tėvystė būtų daug sparčiau plėtojama ir įgyvendinama, nes tai užkirstų kelią smurtui prieš vaikus ir nepriežiūrai, taip pat nekiltų tiek daug klausimų, nesusipratimų susidūrus su teisiniais niuansais. Išsamiau tyrinėjant tema išryškėja tokie pagrindiniai probleminiai klausimai: Kodėl teisinis švietimas reikšmingas pozityviai tėvystei? Kaip skatinti tėvus domėtis, žinoti ir užtikrinti savo vaiko teises, pareigas šeimoje, mokykloje ir kitoje socialinėje aplinkoje... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Legal education, which should promote positive parenthood, ought not to be isolated from the protection of the rights of the child. At present the majority of the society justifies corporal punishment as a means of upbringing. The cause of this phenomenon is both the lack of understanding and the fact that parents are rarely punished for using corporal punishment. (The Institute of Supervision of Human Rights, 2009). Therefore, the rights of the child control, protection is being expanded, the society is encouraged to pay attention to the child’s rights, to be aware of them and not to violate them. The approach to the child is an essential factor which is directly linked with the way adults treat the child, the fulfillment of their needs, since the child’s needs are fulfilled only with the help of adults (Kairiene, 2007). In order to understand the fact one must know the most important legal documents defending the rights of the child: The Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, the Law of the Protection of the Child’s rights of the Republic of Lithuania, Convention on the Rights of the Child. That is why juristic education, on the rights of the child in particular, should be treated as the assumption for positive parenthood. If parents were better informed about legal topics, positive parenthood would be implemented much faster since that would prevent child abuse and neglect as well as misunderstandings related to legal matter. If we have a closer look at the subject... [to full text]