The aim with this thesis is to highlight components regarding small children’s reading environment in preschool and see how these affect their meeting with literature. The study is based on J. A. Appleyard’s theory on man’s development as a reader. He states that we take on different roles when we develop as humans. The role: “the reader as a player” has been especially useful, since it served as a source of knowledge about small children’s development as readers. Aidan Chambers’ model “The reading circle” is originally meant for school but this study suggests it is possible to apply it for pre-school also. The study has a qualitative approach and contains a combination of methods, conducted with an adult perspective although interviews with children are included. The purpose of combining methods is to bring about a comprehensive picture where Chambers’ model has served as the framework. The result shows that all teachers want to read for the children and that they regard reading as important. However their personal aims and thoughts regarding reading environment were not realized in their work due to lack of time for planning and reflection. As a rule the pre-school children visited the public library every month. During these visits the library took on a passive role. Neither the pre-school nor the library took any initiative to develop the visits to something more than just loaning and returning books. The study also revealed that the children, to a very high extent, chose their own literature to read. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to investigate how diversity takes shape in children’s picture books published in Sweden. Twelve picture books, which touch the aspect of diversity in the categories of gender, ages, culture, nation, ethnicities, language, class, sexuality and functional disorder, were chosen from the Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs catalogue for youth and children’s books 2006. They have been analysed with the conception of ikonotext and with the theory of Pierre Macherey’s image in the mirror, of how literature reflects the reality of society. To facilitate the answering of our major question on how diversity takes shape in picture books, we have divided it into two different aspects, one concerning the diversity of the characters and the other the diversity of the environment and context in which the story takes place. Our analysis shows a wide range of ages with many old single ladies. Most children are young girls, and among all the characters the females are more of initiators than the male characters. Most of the adult male characters are single fathers. The aspects of ethnicities are usually connected with different nations and cultures, and rarely described as problematic. The environment enhances different cultures and conflict of class by showing different socio-economic structures such as way of living. We have come to the conclusion that children’s picture books in Sweden show a wide range of societies, characters and environments in most of the categories concerning diversity, except sexuality, language and functional disorder. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this master’s thesis is to examine how elderly people are depicted in a selection of literature for children up to 10 years. The subjects examined are: lifestyle, roles and attributes. The books were collected from the databases ELSA and a local library, Borås stadsbibliotek. The books are analysed after a tool made by the authors. It was created from knowledge of similar studies and the holistic way of looking at ageing that is used in the academic study of gerontology. It means that both psychosocial and physiological factors are considered. The study showed varied forms of lifestyle for the elderly people, although most of them were living alone. Physiological incapability’s was rarely described, whereas psychological condition was more frequent described. The most common role for the elderly was either as substitutes for parents or neighbours to the child. The illustrations of the elderly often showed grey hair, a bent posture and traditional clothing. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this Master's thesis is to examine if stereotype gender patterns are showing, and how they are showing, in the picture books that have the highest number of loan in Sweden’s three biggest cities. It is also a purpose to show if these gender patterns can be compared to the outlook on gender in the curriculum. The method used is a qualitative text analysis. 13 picture books are analyzed on the basis of Yvonne Hirdman’s theories on gender and Maria Nikolajeva’s theories on children’s literature. It is the descriptions of characters that are target for the analysis. There are four types of character description: looks, actions, relationships and inner description. These are then set in relation to gender theories. The result of the study shows that stereotype gender patterns is still present in these kinds of books but there is also a visible change. Many of the books have at least one character that is not all stereotype. Often it is the looks that are traditionally male/female. Actions are not that stereotype and a tendency towards more sensitive boys are seen. Maybe because there still is a higher number of boys than girls in the picture books. The outlook on gender is not the same as in the curriculum but there seems to be a change towards it. This change can be something that library users and librarians are aware of, but it can also be an unconscious change that is connected to the society’s outlook on gender. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to examine how gender is described in some of the most popular children’s picture books in year 2007 and 2008. The theory used is based on Berger’s and Luckmann’s theory about Social construction, Bjerrum Nielsen’s and Rudberg’s theory about Gender socialization, Gens’ theory How girls becomes women and boys becomes men and Hirdman’s theory about Gender contracts. The method used is an analysis of ideal types. The direction of the method is partly hermeneutical. The ideal types used in this thesis are based upon Max Weber’s ideal types. I have constructed three ideal types which I use in this thesis. These three are: traditional behavior, varying behavior and contrasting behavior. In ten picture books, I have picked some characters from each book, both children characters and adult characters, and put them into one of the ideal type groups. I will describe the method of selections of books and characters later in the thesis. The result shows that everyone of the children characters’ behavior in the books are in contrast to the traditional gender structures in the society. The adult characters, though, have a more even distribution to the three ideal types groups. This result is a contrast to the result of several science papers on this subject through the years. According to this result, it seems like the writers of children´s picture books over the last years have become more conscious of the traditional gender system and is therefore more willing to give the characters contrasting behavior due to the traditional gender roles. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this study is to examine views of picture books for children that reviewers in Swedish daily press express in their reviews in 2009 and 2010. The following questions were posed in the study: Are picture book reviews based on pedagogical criteria and/or aesthetic/literary criteria? Are picture books reviewed from an adult perspective and/or from a child perspective? Which elements of positive and negative criticism are to be found in picture book reviews? This qualitative study is based on 45 reviews of picture books in Swedish daily press. The theoretical approach is developed from four ways of looking at children literature that professor Maria Nikolajeva has compiled. The method used is idea analysis, which is a form of text-analysis. The results show that most of the reviews mainly were based on aesthetic/literary criteria, but many of them there were also based on pedagogical criteria. A common pedagogical criterion was if the book showed a desirable view or not. The results also show that there were both an adult perspective and a child perspective in the reviews. Positive and negative criticism indicated that a good picture book has an important message, provide a desirable view, and maintain high aesthetic/literary quality. In addition, it suits all ages, or is adapted to children.

BakgrundI den teoretiska bakgrunden presenteras matematik ur olika perspektiv för att ge enövergripande bild av ämnet. I första avsnittet granskar vi hur styrdokument samt kursplaner definierar matematiken i verksamheten för förskola och skola samt relevant forskning. Slutligen följer en redogörelse för det teoretiska ramverk - fenomenografi, vilket studien är inspirerad av.SyfteSyftet med vår undersökning är att synliggöra ett antal verksamma pedagogers beskrivningar ifall och hur de använder bilderboken som ett verktyg för att stimulera barn till ett matematiskt lärande.MetodI vår studie har vi valt att använda oss av en kvalitativ metod för att nå fram till ett resultat som har relevans för vårt syfte. Fenomenografi har använts som ansats och som verktyg, för att samla in datamaterial har intervju använts. Sammanlagt har sex pedagoger, verksamma i två skilda förskolor, medverkat i studien.ResultatI resultatavsnittet redogörs essensen av vad som framkommit vid intervjuerna. I enlighet med fenomenografi består resultatet av beskrivningskategorier, i detta fall tre stycken med relevans mot syftet; användandet av bilderböcker, tillvägagångssätt för ett matematiskt lärande och vårt pedagogiska perspektiv. Kategorierna är horisontellt ordnade utan inbördes ordning, vilket ger olika perspektiv på syftesfrågan där både skillnader och likheter mellan pedagogersutsagor beskrivs. / Program: Lärarutbildningen

<p>Syftet med vår studie var att undersöka om, hur samt när förskollärare och lärare i förskolan, förskoleklass och skolår ett använder sig av barnböcker och högläsning i det pedagogiska arbetet med barn, samt deras medvetna tanke bakom bokval. Vi var även nyfikna på vilka yttre förutsättningar (miljön) det finns för att skapa läslust och läsro. Resultaten förväntades ge klarhet i hur sambandet mellan barnbokens ställning och dess användande såg ut. Resultaten visade att förskollärare och lärare värderar barnbokens roll i verksamheten högt och många visade på en medvetenhet om de förtjänster användandet av den för med sig. Detta återspeglades dock inte helt i den dagliga verksamheten, där barnlitteraturen främst erhöll en funktionell roll. Barnens egna bokaktiviteter var vanligare på förskolan än i förskoleklass och skolår ett. Vi fick veta att det i förskolan finns en avsedd plats i lugn och ro där barnen kan sitta och läsa, medan barnen i förskoleklass och skolår ett sitter i klassrummet och läser, på sina stolar, på golvet eller i en eventuell soffa. En förklaring till detta kan vara att de inte har tillgång till fler rum och kan då heller inte dela upp gruppen i mindre grupper.</p><p>The purpose of this study was to investigate if, how and when teachers in preschool and school use literature and reading aloud in their work with children from a pedagogical point of view, and their conscious thought behind the choice of these books. We were also interested in the conditions to create a comfortable reading environment. We were expecting some clarification of the connection between the position and use of children’s literature. The results showed that teachers in preschool and school value children’s books and show awareness regarding its profits. This, on the other side, was not reflected in the daily activities, where children’s literature mainly had a functional role. The book activities were more common in preschool than in school. We also found out that the children in preschool more often had the access to calm environments where they could sit and read. In the school however, the children did not have the same opportunity, they often sat in the classroom in their benches, on the floor or possibly in a couch during reading. An explanation to this can be the lack of extra rooms to split up the class up into smaller groups</p>

<p>Mitt syfte är att, inom förskolan, undersöka vad pedagoger och barn tar med sig efter att ha läst en bok. Jag har valt att använda mig av sagor i olika genrer för att de ska kunna relatera till sagor av olika karaktär.</p><p>Jag har använt mig av kvalitativa intervjuer i en fallstudie med en komparativ ansats där jag har valt att jämföra barn och pedagogers upplevelser av böcker. För pedagogerna använde jag mig av en gruppdiskussion medan barnens intervjuer var enskilda.</p><p>Resultatet visar att pedagogerna anser att sagorna kan vara våldsamma men samtidigt en kunskapskälla. Berättelserna kan hjälpa barnen att bearbeta händelser och kan innebära att barnen identifierar sig med huvudpersonen. Det fanns både likheter och skillnader mellan pedagogernas och barnens svar.</p>

<p>Syftet med uppsatsen är att granska Tove Janssons bilderböcker Hur gick det sen? Boken om Mymlan, Mumintrollet och lilla My (1952), Vem ska trösta knyttet?(1960) och Den farliga resan (1977) utifrån ett livsåskådningsperspektiv. Jag vill med detta påvisa att böckerna har flera bottnar och att man kan se och läsa dem som annat än bara bilderböcker för barn. Jag anser också att alla de tre böckerna är sammanlänkande tematiskt,som variationer på samma tema – livsvandringen, själens inre resa. Men böckerna kan också sammanlänkas tematiskt och metodiskt beträffande skräcktema, frihetslängtan, eller, som i mitt fall, ur ett livsåskådningsperspektiv. Jag hävdar också att man i bilderböckerna kan utläsa en utveckling från det trygga familjelivet som utspelar sig i Hur gick det sen? till individualitet i den sista boken Den farliga resan. Jag vill understryka att jag i min uppsats avhållit mig från att dra allt för många paralleller till Tove Janssons liv. Min analys utgår i första hand från text och bild och jag gör därmed inte anspråk på att vara biografisk.</p>