This work is about leisure educators' views on educational quality in large groups of children. School centers will contribute to children's development and learning through meaningful leisure and leisure educators' contribution with a high educational quality. There are a lot of discussions and writings about growing groups of children. How are the leisure education and its quality affected by increasing children's groups? It sparked my interest and therefore I wanted to examine this more closely how it might look in the leisure activities. The aim of this work was to examine leisure educators' perspective on how the educational quality is affected by large groups of children and what is considered of leisure educators' as a high educational quality. To answer my purpose five interviews was made with leisure educators' in different parts of Sweden and also by studying the theoretical foundations and literature for school centers and leisure education. The results of the interviews reveal, among other things, that leisure educators' feel that the large groups of children affects the quality of teaching at many levels. And that the group of children complicates the implementation of the commission and the activities of leisure educators' try to pursue. In the theoretical part it’s about the school center and its activities, and the leisure education the leisure educators are working with.

This study utilized an ethnographic methodology to examine and describe the various aspects and processes occurring in a children's group as the members created their own puppets and accompanying puppet plays. Individual and interactive behavior patterns were isolated and analyzed as a means of gaining an in depth understanding of the puppetry process. The puppetry process, in turn, was viewed in terms of information it provided regarding the individual members and the group process. The facilitative and non-facilitative aspects of the procedure were delineated. The adult leader met with a group of six boys, in grades four and five, for 12 one-hour sessions in which they made puppets and then created puppet plays around issues that they had articulated as problems. The group sessions were videotaped and transcribed. The transcriptions were coded in an effort to extensively analyze the puppetry process and the group process, and the ways in which the two processes interacted. An independent observer/rater was utilized in order to provide some validity for the researcher's reported results. The puppet-making task appeared to offer an opportunity for individuals to begin to come together in a common, but individual task. Characteristic styles and individual personality dynamics were evidenced. General response to the task was enthusiastic, with varying degrees of satisfaction expressed regarding their finished products. The play-creating and performing process met with less success than the puppet-making. While the group members appeared to be generally amenable to contributing ideas for the puppet plays, the process met with far more resistance in the cooperative task of putting their ideas into a finished product. The group discussion and interaction that occurred around these tasks provided a vehicle by which to view levels of interpersonal skills and the group's overall stage of development. The puppets the children created appeared to act as metaphors in expressing the group members' views of themselves and in enabling the symbolic representation of some of their central concerns. The plays they created paralleled the process that actually took place in the group. The subject matter and content of the puppets and plays provided information and evidence as to how each member approached and solved problems. The discrepancies in the ways in which the researcher and the independent observer/rater viewed the positive and negative social/emotional interactions of the group members, coupled with the small number of subjects included in this study preclude generalizing to other groups of children at this time. Further studies, with additional groups of children, utilizing parametric statistics are called for before any such generalizations can be made.

Syftet med min studie var att synliggöra hur pedagogerna formar en god läromiljö i stora barngrupper. Jag ville få en klarhet i hur pedagogerna förhåller sig till, och upplever arbetet med att tillgodose barns utveckling och lärande. Jag genomförde fem kvalitativa intervjuer med förskollärare i en liten kommun, där jag riktade mig mot förskolor som hade en barngrupp med mer än 15 barn. Resultatet av min studie visade att informanternas svårigheter var att hinna med arbetet både mot läroplansmålen men också att hinna tillgodose varje barns behov i stora barngrupper och att barn påverkas olika; behoven skiljer sig från barn till barn. Informanternas arbetssätt utgår från barngruppens sammansättning, och barns olika behov. Samtliga informanter som var med i studien var eniga om att barngrupperna är för stora idag. Deras önskan var att ha max 15 barn i gruppen. För att på ett bra sett tillgodose alla barns behov och att barnen skall bli sedda, var informanternas strategi att dela in barnen i små grupper när möjligheten fanns. Samtliga informanter tryckte på att tryggheten var viktig att jobba med i deras verksamhet. Svårigheten var att hinna se alla barnen, då fokus hamnade på själva gruppen och att få ihop dagen med alla vardagliga rutiner som skall göras. / The aim of my study was to find out how pedagogical views affect their work in large children groups. Furthermore, I wanted to know how the pedagogues organize a good learning environment to provide for children´s development and learning. I conducted five qualitative interviews with preschool teachers in a small municipality, where I aimed for preschools that had a children group with more than 15 children. The results of my study showed that the difficulties of informants were to work with both the learning objectives, and also to meet the needs of every child in large children's groups and that children are affected differently; the needs differ from child to child. The informants' approaches are based on the composition of the children's group, and the different needs of children. All informants who participated in the study agreed that the children's groups are too big today. Their wish was to have a maximum of 15 children in the group. In order to properly accommodate the needs of all children and the children to be seen, the informants' strategy was to divide the children into small groups when the opportunity was available. All informants stressed that safety was important to work in their business. The difficulty was to see every child, as the focus was on the group itself and getting the day together with all the everyday routines needing to be done.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka pedagogers definition av inkludering och faktorer som påverkar deras arbete i att skapa förutsättningar för alla barns behov. Genom kvalitativa intervjuer analyserades datamaterialet med tematisk analys utifrån kompensatoriska, kritiska och dilemmaperspektiv. Resultaten visar att inkludering innefattar barns rättigheter, diskriminering, demokratiska värderingar och barns hemmiljö. Lek spelar en central roll och det betonas att alla barn bör inkluderas och få känna sig delaktiga. Definitionen av inkludering beskrivs som utmanande och inkludering i leken involverar att ge barn möjligheter att uttrycka sig och känna sig värderade. Utmaningarna innefattar att hantera barns uppfattning av inkludering och att möta individuella behov inom en stor gruppmiljö. Pedagogerna betonade behovet av att vara närvarande, skapa inkluderande språkmiljöer och använda olika strategier. Sammanfattningsvis strävar pedagogerna efter att skapa en inkludering där alla barn kan delta och utvecklas utifrån sina individuella behov och villkor. / The purpose of the study is to examine educators' definition of inclusion and factors that influence their work in creating conditions for all children's needs. Through qualitative interviews, the data was analyzed with thematic analysis based on compensatory, critical and dilemma perspectives. The results show that inclusion includes children's rights, discrimination, democratic values and children's home environment. Play plays a central role and it is emphasized that all children should be included and allowed to feel involved. The definition of inclusion is described as challenging and inclusion in play involves giving children opportunities to express themselves and feel valued. The challenges include managing children's perception of inclusion and meeting individual needs within a large group environment. The educators emphasized the need to be present, create inclusive language environments and use different strategies. In summary, the educators strive to create an inclusion where all children can participate and develop based on their individual needs and conditions.