abstract: Parent involvement is a concept that is used to describe the ways schools attempt to connect with parents for the educational benefit and support of students. Schools engage in strategies and invest in programs to increase parents’ involvement at and with the school, employ personnel to support parents, and develop workshops aimed at supporting parents’ understanding of academic content as well as to develop partnerships between parents and teachers. The purpose of this study was to investigate how parents viewed themselves as partners with their children’s teachers and what they believed their roles were in their children’s education. This qualitative study was conducted through interviews with parents who were recommended by school staff as having above-average or below-average involvement. Ten parents in a low-income public school in the southwestern United States were selected for an initial interview, and four of those ten were chosen as focal parents for additional rounds of interviews. All three rounds of interviews took place over a four month period in the spring. The interviews were used to document and analyze how parents viewed themselves and the roles they have in their children’s schooling. The findings from this study illustrate the similarities in behavior, attitude, and self-view between parents recommended by school staff as having above-average and below-average involvement. Additionally, this analysis describes how effective partnerships between home and school (including current teachers, former teachers, and school support staff) can help support parents as lifelong advocates for their children. When parents are intentionally made to feel vital as partners in their children’s schooling, their confidence in their ability to support their children’s education is strengthened. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Administration and Supervision 2017

Introduction: There has been a continuous development of new technologies in healthcare that are derived from national quality registries. However, this innovation needs to be translated into the workflow of healthcare delivery, to enable children with long-term conditions to get the best support possible to manage their health during everyday life. Since children living with long-term conditions experience different interference levels in their lives, healthcare professionals need to assess the impact of care on children’s day-to-day lives, as a complement to biomedical assessments. Aim: The overall aim of this thesis was to explore and describe the use of instruments about health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in outpatient care for children with long-term conditions on the basis of a national quality registry system. Methods: The research was conducted by using comparative, cross-sectional and explorative designs and data collection was performed by using different methods. The questionnaire DISABKIDS Chronic Generic Measure -37 was used as well as semi-structured interviews and video-recordings from consultations. Altogether, 156 children (8–18 years) and nine healthcare professionals participated in the studies. Children with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) (n 131) answered the questionnaire DISABKIDS and children with rheumatic diseases, kidney diseases and T1D (n 25) were interviewed after their consultation at the outpatient clinic after the web-DISABKIDS had been used. In total, nine healthcare professionals used the HRQOL instrument as an assessment tool during the encounters which was video-recorded (n 21). Quantitative deductive content analysis was used to describe content in different HRQOL instruments. Statistical inference was used to analyse results from DISABKIDS and qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the interviews and video-recordings. Results: The findings showed that based on a biopsychosocial perspective, both generic and disease-specific instruments should be used to gain a comprehensive evaluation of the child’s HRQOL. The DISABKIDS instrument is applicable when describing different aspects of health concerning children with T1D. When DISABKIDS was used in the encounters, children expressed positive experiences about sharing their results with the healthcare professional. It was discovered that different approaches led to different outcomes for the child when the healthcare professionals were using DISABKIDS during the encounter. When an instructing approach is used, the child’s ability to learn more about their health and how to improve their health is limited. When an inviting or engaging approach is used by the professional, the child may become more involved during the conversations. Conclusions: It could be argued that instruments of HRQOL could be used as a complement to biomedical variables, to promote a biopsychosocial perspective on the child’s health. According to the children in this thesis, feedback on their results after answering to web-DISABKIDS is important, which implies that healthcare professionals need to prioritize time for discussions about results from HRQOL instruments in the encounters. If healthcare professionals involve the child in the discussion of the results of the HRQOL, misinterpreted answers could be corrected during the conversation. Concurrently, this claims that healthcare professionals invite and engage the child.

The purpose of this case study is to understand how children participation cancontribute to the organizations development through the Västermodel. TheVästermodel is a tool which four municipalities use to involve children in purpose toachieve a development. The method of use in this study has been semi structuredqualitative interviews and document analysis. The data has been collected from oneorganization that used the Västermodel during two years. The result shows that theVästermodel is orientated towards evaluation and that the children have a low degreeof participation. Despite this, the result show that the Västermodel has contributed toimprovements of the service and a higher degree of customer orientation. Theorganizations ability to work with continuous improvements also seems to havematured between the two years. The conclusion in this study is that the studiedapplication of the Västermodel can contribute to an organizational and a servicedevelopment, primarily through evaluation of existing services and how theorganization delivers that service. It could therefore be a first step towards a higherdegree of children involvement. The organizations need to take actions to analyze theimprovements that have been made to be able to show the value of childreninvolvement. / Denna fallstudie har syftat till att förstå hur barns delaktighet kan bidra tillsocialtjänstens verksamhetsutveckling genom Västermodellen. Västermodellen är ettarbetssätt som fyra kommuner använt för att involvera barn i syfte att åstadkomma enverksamhetsutveckling. Datainhämtningen har skett i form av kvalitativa intervjuer samtinhämtande av skriftliga dokument vilka har kvantifierats, datainhämtningen har ägtrum inom en organisation som använt sig utav Västermodellen under två års tid.Resultatet visar på att Västermodellen är utvärderingsorienterad där barnen utifrånbeskriven teori har en låg grad av involvering. Trots detta visar resultatet på attorganisationen med stöd av Västermodellen bidragit med förbättringsåtgärder och enökad kundorientering. Även organisationens förmåga att arbeta med ständigaförbättringar verkar ha mognat mellan de två åren. Slutsatserna i denna studie är blandannat att Västermodellen i den studerade tillämpningen visar på en förmåga att bidratill en verksamhetsutveckling, främst gällande befintliga tjänster och hur den tjänstenges. Västermodellen kan därmed utgöra ett första steg mot ökad barninvolvering,organisationen behöver dock vidta åtgärder för att analysera de förbättringsåtgärdersom genomförs för att visa på värdet av att involvera barnen.