Thesis (B.A.)--Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses.

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This study is based on how ”the dark story” about The Swedish Welfare system during 1900-1950’s is presented in a selection of history textbooks which are adapted for upper secondary school. What I am referring to with ”the dark story” is the sterilizations, the oppression notice against minority groups, the ideal of being well-behaved and the injustice within social classes and gender. I have limited the study to examine history textbooks which are adapted for the current course ”History 1b” and the previous course ”History A”. According to earlier reasearch ”the dark story” about Sweden’s history started to be problematized during 1990’s with the result that the history has started to be impaired in textbooks during 2000’s. Earlier, Sweden’s history in textbooks has been presented as neutral, which has illustrated that no dark or hidden history about Sweden has been written.          The aim in this study is to examine what history is being emphasized in the textbooks and analyze how it is presented as an educational content. To be able to do that I have used a qualitative content analysis focused on examining the textbooks by Niklas Ammert’s analysis model about how textbooks present history. In this study I found out that ”the dark story” is presented in all examined textbooks, but in different ways with different examples. I also found out that the history is thematised depending what history the textbook has emphasized and how it is presented by the authors. Some of the authors have problematized several examples by different perspectives and some of them present one short example. This result shows that ”the dark story” within The Swedish Welfare system is presented different as an educational content.

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The purpose of this study was to examine social workers’ perspectives on the risk factors that are associated with cases of removal of infants. A quantitative survey design was utilized, using self-administered questionnaires that were distributed electronically to social workers located in San Bernardino County. The sample consisted of 94 participants, and the majority of the participants were White, non-Hispanic females. The study found that social workers identified substance abuse, the lack of infant’s physical safety in the home along with the age of the infant, and the lack of parents’ readiness to take part of the safety plan as highest risk factors for the removal of infants. Lastly, a surprising finding in this study was that a child’s ethnicity was indicated as a risk factor that increases the possibility of infant removal. It is recommended that social workers continue to receive trainings and other educational opportunities to enhance the social workers’ knowledge, values, and practice skills, to ensure the safety and well-being of all children.

The primary purpose of this study was to examine differences in the attributions teachers make toward students in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. The study utilized vignettes and asked teachers to attribute the responsibility for declines in behavior and academic performance to one of five sources (the student, the parents, the teacher, the court system, or the student's friends). The study further asked teachers to identify the extent to which the changes were due to the student's internal traits and external factors, the likelihood of changes in behavior and academic performance with and without intervention, the teachers' beliefs about their ability to impact change, the amount of time the teachers reported being willing to spend with the students outside of class, and the likelihood of the student pursuing post-secondary education. Teachers were also asked to identify to whom they would first refer the student in the vignette for outside assistance due to declines in behavior and academic performance and then provide all referrals they would make. A total of 224 certified 6th -12th grade teachers in the state of Iowa completed the vignette survey between January 2014 and April 2014. Results indicated that teachers made different attributions toward students on the basis of their involvement in either the child welfare or juvenile justice system. Specifically, teachers attributed the reason for behavioral and academic declines to different sources for students in the child welfare system, the juvenile justice system, and the control condition. Teachers were more likely to attribute academic and behavioral declines to internal factors for students in the juvenile justice system and external factors for students in the child welfare system. Teachers reported students in the juvenile justice system as least likely to change without intervention. The majority of teachers across the three conditions indicated their first referral would be to mental health services within the school. Teachers did not differ in the total number of referrals made, the amount of time until making the referral, the amount of time they would be willing to spend with the student outside of class time in order to impact change, their feelings of efficacy to impact change, and the likelihood of the student obtaining post-secondary education. Finally, limitations of the study are presented, suggestions for future research are discussed, and the implications of this study for teachers and school psychologists are discussed.

Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2010-12-09 18:03:40.27 / This was a qualitative research study involving Aboriginal offenders at a Federal institution in the Ontario Region. The purpose of this study was to illuminate the Aboriginal offenders perspectives on their experiences that led to their incarceration. The major research questions guiding this study include: 1. What experiences do Aboriginal offenders feel contributed to their incarceration? 2. What do Aboriginal offenders feel could have prevented their incarceration? 3. How do Aboriginal offenders describe their experiences with the Residential School and child welfare systems? 4. What are the Aboriginal offenders' perspectives on their experiences with CSCs healing and intervention programs? One of the goals of this study was to provide information to CSC to improve the reintegration programs and help Aboriginal offenders become law abiding citizens. The data was collected from individual interviews, which was analyzed in detail to develop themes. The analyses sought for stories that captured the depth of the experiences that led to the Aboriginal offenders incarcerations. This study provided the personal perspective of the offenders as to how the Residential School and child welfare system have impacted their lives, and offers some insight into the over-representation of Aboriginal offenders in the prison system. This study also demonstrated how the socio-economic situation of these Aboriginal offenders played a role in their path towards prison. It is important to capture the voices of the Aboriginal offenders experiences towards incarceration. Their stories offer ways to help other Aboriginal people. We must have Aboriginal community members involved in the lives of Aboriginal youth to prevent them from getting into trouble, and find alternative positives outlets and activities. We must instill and provide hope and inspiration so that our youth have something to look forward to in their lives. I know this is happening to varying degrees in our Aboriginal communities; however, we need to keep working towards this goal. In addition, CSC might consider allocating more resources and financial assistance to Aboriginal communities, who are dealing with their people involved within the prison system. / Master

This thesis seeks to explore how key decision-makers within the Portuguese civil service formulate decisions regarding policies orientated at children with disabilities. It breaks the issue down by focusing on three main perspectives - the decisionmaker, the policy framework and children with disabilities. The decision-maker was analysed in the context her/his professional identity. By combining social identity theory (self-categorisation) and identity theory (role-identification) and interview data, this thesis found that the basis for decision-making was the way in which the term "children with disabilities" was identified and conceptualised by the decisionmaker, as well as the associated approaches, rules and guidelines at both the national and international level. It found a variable balance of influences between the concepts of parenting and families, the norms of the Portuguese welfare system and the emergent international thinking regarding children with disabilities. Through the use of a multi-method approach which incorporated interviews, vignettes and documentary analysis this thesis captured the approaches of each decision-maker. This thesis found that children with disabilities were predominantly viewed as dependants. The familialist structure of the Portuguese welfare state introduces the notion of a "disabled family", whereby the family carries the responsibility of addressing the challenges associated with children's disability and state support is directed at the family. In addition, this thesis found that "normalisation" was the predominant approach to disability, regardless of intended approach of each decision-maker. This study concluded that a combination of rehabilitative and integrative policy impulses in a context of limited and incomplete information and guidelines from international organisations have influenced this approach.

Despite of a well-established welfare state in Sweden, socio-economic and residential segregation is increasing rapidly. This has for instance been related to the neo-liberalisation of the welfare state and housing system. One institutional tool for reducing systematic inequality is the housing allowance, which specifically targets low-income households with children as well as young households without children. However, recent studies show how these groups are becoming ever more excluded, despite of the financial aid. The aim of this thesis is thus to contribute with a situated understanding of the practical accomplishment of Swedish socio-economic marginalisation in relation to housing allowance and the welfare state. This is achieved by examining naturally occurring accounts socio-economic marginalisation in 366 audio recorded phone calls to the Swedish Social Insurance Agency about housing allowance, out of which I specifically focus on accounts made by single mothers. In order to make sense of the data, I apply and introduce an ethno-intersectional approach. This entails the synthesis of the applied ethnomethodological methods Conversation Analysis, Discursive Psychology and Membership Categorisation Analysis with intersectionality as one analytical device. The results demonstrate how single-mothers intersect financial troubles, single-motherhood and ill health while expressing situated marginalisation as part of doing legitimacy work. The study also sheds light on how the application of welfare policies could partake in the systematic (re)production of structural inequalities. At large, the introduction of the ethno-intersectional approach is grounded on the theoretical interest of encouraging further action-oriented and situated explorations of the ways in which categories of inequality such as class, ethnicity and gender operate in conjunction and contribute to the generation, reinforcement or alteration of structural intersections of socio-economic marginalisation and privilege.

This thesis focuses on the welfare system of women during maternity and parental leave, primarily for specific benefits, which are in maternity and parenthood provided. System of state social support to women subject to conditions childbirth, child benefits and parental pay. For the childbirth, the work highlights specific situations that may arise in life. They are taking a child into permanent parental care, surrogate motherhood and the death of a child. For child benefits is given consideration above its level and subsequently at the parental pay instance of fraudulent conduct involving the unauthorized receipt of benefits or readers are informed on the progress of the amendment to the law on state social support. Sickness insurance system is provided benefit maternity pay, for example, which analysed the possible claim women on maternity benefits in specific situations (pregnant student, pregnant person exercising custodial sentence, etc.). For each benefit is each explained the general conditions for entitlement to, and also its amount. Although the work is devoted mainly to women, and a separate section of this paper deals with the men and their opportunities to take the place of women and care for the child. Of course it mentioned welfare system in this period. Even though the work is mainly...