In recent years substantial investment has been made to replace or refurbish state schools in England and Wales and, although research has unsuccessfully sought to prove its contribution, the discipline of Design continues to be identified as a facilitator of educational transformation. Results to date, however, are mixed and there is an evident failing at the design briefing stage to understand how children interact with their educational settings and, notably, an avoidance of direct challenge to the primary school classroom and its practice. In response, this thesis asks how the social and cultural study of children’s relationships with their physical school can suggest a meaningful approach to primary school architecture and furniture design. A model of well-being is developed to clarify misused terminology and to present a realistic expectation of design in which the contradictory goals of inclusion and the development of the individual are appraised. Sitting within a diverse grounded methodology, the concept of belonging is then explored as a basis for evaluating the contribution of different aspects of the physical school to children’s well-being. The primary school environments studied were found to limit the possibilities of a child’s well-being. School architecture through to classroom wall displays were complicit in restricting physical and social expression in favour of school organisation and, furthermore, the central child-teacher relationship was found to be unnecessarily devalued by behavioural concerns derived from the setting. By ethically interpreting the rich variety of children’s voices, priorities for what is coined here as child-teacher centred design are established and a clear relationship between architecture and furniture is offered. The thesis recommends that architecture continues to perform a protective classroom role to support objectives of inclusion whilst school furniture supports more affective, individualistic goals through less prescriptive and more varied settings for learning.

The purpose of this study was to investigate and deepen the understanding of how children's family structure interacts with trust in teachers and whether a possible connection can be explained by family relationships. We also examined whether the child's trust in teachers can be affected by the child's financial situation. The interest is based on a previous study conducted by us which showed a connection between family structure, relationship and trust. The study was conducted quantitatively by analyzing secondary data using logistic regression analysis. The results of the study showed that there may be a connection between the variables examined because children living with two parents had higher odds of trusting their teachers than children of single parents. The conclusions that could be drawn based on the results and their relation to previous research and theories were that parents may distribute their resources differently to children, depending on the family constellation, which may affect the attachment. The connection, in turn, seemed to affect the relationship between parents and children, which thus seemed to mediate with low trust in teachers, similar to family structure in the form of divorced parents. This was further discussed by mentioning that this cannot be seen as a causal link as other factors may have contributed to this impact. / Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka och fördjupa förståelsen kring hur barns familjestruktur samverkar med tillit till lärare samt huruvida ett eventuellt samband kan förklaras av familjerelationer. Vi ville även undersöka om tilliten till lärare kan bli påverkat av barnets ekonomiska situation. Intresset grundades i tidigare studier genomförda av författarna vilka visade på att det kunde finnas ett samband mellan familjestruktur, relation och tillit. Studien genomfördes kvantitativt genom att analysera sekundärdatat med hjälp av en logistisk regressionsanalys. Studiens resultat visade på att det fanns ett samband mellan de undersökta variablerna då barn som bor med två föräldrar hade högre odds att lita på lärare än barn till självstående föräldrar, oavsett om det gällde mödrar eller fäder. Slutsatserna som kunde dras utifrån studien och dess relation till tidigare forskning och teorier var att föräldrar kunde fördela sina resurser olika på barn, beroende på familjestruktur, vilket kunde påverka anknytningen. Anknytningen tycktes i sin tur påverka relationen mellan föräldrar och barn vilket således tycktes mediera med lågt förtroende för lärare. Detta diskuterades vidare genom att nämna att detta inte kan ses som ett orsakssamband eftersom andra faktorer kan ha bidragit till detta samband.

The purpose of the essay is to investigate, through a literature review, how children are affected in an environment with dogs in social work and in what way. The overview study focuses on two main questions: What is the dog's influence on the child's well-being? And in what ways and in what contexts can the dog be a tool in working with children in social work? To gather empirical evidence, the authors performed a review study in which seven articles were retrieved using the databases OneSearch, Social Services Abstracts and Academic Search Premier. Furthermore, the seven articles have been analyzed based on a qualitative content analysis where three themes were designed: dog-assisted interventions, the dog as a resource and emotional well-being. In the theoretical frame of reference, attachment theory is used to understand the emotional relationship between children and dogs. The theory claims that attachment patterns in childhood affect future relationships and development. In addition, the attachment between children and parents is compared to the relationship between humans and dogs. SOC (sense of context) is also used and is an important theoretical term in social work. SOC is about seeing life as meaningful and coherent. The results of the studies show that animal-assisted interventions, especially with dogs, have positive effects on children in social work. These effects include increased well-being, increased engagement, better self-control and improved relationships. Dogs are said to function as secure attachment figures and can create meaningful and calming interactions. Finally, the authors suggest that animal-assisted interventions can be a valuable complement in social work with children and emphasize the need for continued research in the field. / Syftet med uppsatsen är att genom en litteraturöversikt undersöka hur barn påverkas i en miljö med hundar inom socialt arbete och på vilket sätt. Översikten fokuserar på två huvudfrågor: Vad är hundens påverkan på barnets välbefinnande? Och på vilka sätt och i vilka sammanhang kan hunden vara ett hjälpmedel i arbete med barn inom socialt arbete? För att samla empiri utförde författarna en översiktsstudie där sju artiklar inhämtades med hjälp av databaserna OneSearch, Social Services Abstracts och Academic Search Premier. Vidare har de sju artiklarna analyserats utifrån en kvalitativ innehållsanalys där tre teman utformades: hundassisterade insatser, hunden som resurs samt emotionellt välbefinnande. I den teoretiska referensramen används anknytningsteorin för att förstå den känslomässiga relationen mellan människa och hund. Utöver anknytningsteorin används även KASAM (känsla av sammanhang) och är en viktig teoretisk term inom socialt arbete. KASAM handlar om att se livet som meningsfullt och sammanhängande. Resultaten från studierna visar att djurassisterade insatser, särskilt med hundar, har positiva effekter på barn inom socialt arbete. Dessa effekter inkluderar ökat välmående, ökat engagemang, bättre självkontroll och förbättrade relationer. Hundar uppges fungera som trygg anknytningsperson och kan skapa meningsfulla och lugnande interaktioner. Slutligen föreslår författarna att djurassisterade insatser kan vara ett värdefullt komplement inom socialt arbete med barn och betonar behovet av fortsatt forskning inom området.

This diploma thesis deals with sufficiently good parenthood from the perspective of social workers in the department of social and legal protection of children in the Czech Republic and Norway. The theoretical part deals with good parenting, social and legal protection of children and its institutions in the context of both countries, and with national and international legislative bases important for understanding the differences in the perception of respondents of both countries at this level. The research part focuses on the differences in the perception of sufficiently good parenthood by the respondents of the Czech Republic and Norway. Differences in respondents' views on individual areas of parenthood and in the concept of family law relationships from the perspective of the best interests of the child were mapped in a mixed study that combined quantitative and qualitative methodology. The quantitative data obtained in the first research study were processed by categorical data analysis, descriptive and correlation analysis. To solve the second research study, content analysis was used for qualitative data. The research offers a view only on the comparison of respondents' perceptions. The results of the first research study cannot be applied to the entire population of social workers in...

This dissertation explores children’s (6-8 years old) perspectives and experiences of well-being in two different cultural contexts: in a Tibetan day-school (India) and in a German day-school (Germany). Ethnographic research was conducted with participants of a second-grade class (mixed gender) for six months at each site, 3-4 days a week in 2012. Participant observation was complemented by interviews with the children as well as with the staff of the school, documented by fieldnotes and sound recordings. Data was collected in line with postmodern grounded theory methodology and preliminary analysis accompanied the process of the fieldwork. The thesis explores the children’s views and social practices related to well-being which prove to be different in both cultures: the Tibetan children emphasized being skilful as a basic condition for well-being, while friendship with peers was most important at the German school. At both sites, the children would establish these conditions for well-being through competitions. Furthermore, the children’s different views and the social practices are considered against the backdrop of two ‘transcultural’ indicators of well-being: self-confidence and resilience. These indicators were not selected randomly but chosen inductively during fieldwork, as the difference in self-confidence and resilience between the children’s groups at each site was noticeable. The thesis demonstrates how these differences in self-confidence and resilience are likely to have been related to a) the children’s particular views and social practices linked to well-being b) the manner in which childhood is constructed within the children’s societies and c) particular basic beliefs and worldviews prevalent within the children’s societies. The results emphasize the usefulness of researching well-being cross-culturally and suggest that (socio-culturally specific) self- and worldviews significantly influence children’s well-being.