This thesis explores how young children perform their social identities in relation to social class, gender and ethnicity in primary school. In doing so, this study contributes to a growing body of literature that recognises the complexity and intersecting nature of children’s social identities, and views children as actively performing their social identities within discursively shaped contexts. The study operationalizes intersectionality as a sensitising concept for understanding the particular ways in which social class, gender and ethnicity are performed differently in different contexts, and for conceptualising the categories of social class, gender and ethnicity as constitutive of and irreducible to each other. An eight-month long ethnography was conducted in an urban Scottish primary school with young children (aged five to seven). Data were generated mainly from participant observation in the classroom, lunch hall, playground and other spaces of the school, interviews with children and staff, and from gathering a range of texts and documents (e.g. legislation and school displays). The findings of the study show that social class, gender and ethnicity intersect in the complex ways in which children perform their social identities. Particular identities are foregrounded in specific moments and situations (Valentine, 2007), yet the performing of social identities is not reducible to either social class or gender or ethnicity alone. In addition, age, sexuality and interpersonal relationships (e.g. dynamics of ‘best friends’, conflicts between dyadic and triadic groups, family relationships) all intersect within children’s social identities in particular moments. Thus, social identities need to be understood as deeply contextual, relational, and mutually constitutive. Emotions play a significant role for how social identities are invested with meanings and values and produce complex dynamics of belonging and being different. The study highlights the importance of the educational setting, the policy and legislation context and wider social inequalities for shaping the discourses within which children perform their social identities. Tensions and ambiguities – e.g. between ‘diversity’ and ‘inequality’ – in the relevant policies and legislations fail to address the different underlying dimensions of social justice in relation to social class, gender and ethnicity, and these tensions are reflected in staff’s discourses and practices, resulting in the foregrounding of certain aspects of diversity and the silencing of others. This study also highlights how through performing social identities in certain ways, wider social inequalities become manifest. Children are aware of and contribute to powerful discourses of social stereotypes and inequalities. Children also engage in the ‘politics of belonging’ (Yuval-Davis, 2011) by constructing dynamics of ‘us’ and ‘them’, engaging in processes of ‘othering’, and drawing boundaries around certain forms of belonging. The findings of this study emphasise the need for both a reflective practice in educational settings, as well as for policies and legislations to acknowledge and address the complex, intersecting nature of children’s social identities and the multiple dimensions of social justice.

The aim of this qualitative study was to examine how preschool teachers in contemporary Sweden think and talk about intercultural education in the current context in which Sweden is rapidly becoming a more culturally diverse country. Specifically, the study applied an intersectional framework to examine how teacher’s work and talk around cultural issues and how children’s books can contribute to the broader pedagogical project of developing intercultural education in preschool. The research questions guiding this research were: How do teachers in ethnically diverse preschools work with and talk about children’s books in their daily interactions with children? How do teachers in ethnically homogenous preschools work with and talk about children’s books in their daily interactions with children? Teachers from two preschools - differing in terms of the ethnic make-up of their child population - were asked to read a pair of children’s books whose storylines had obvious links to issues related to cultural diversity. The teachers were then asked to discuss the books in focus groups. Transcripts of the focus groups were then subjected to a thematic analysis from an intersectional perspective. These analyses revealed that teachers in both preschools considered children’s age and their relative intellectual and emotional competencies to be significant barriers for using culturally sensitive children’s book to promote an intercultural education in preschool. Furthermore, the teachers oriented to other social categories, such as gender and family, in their analyses of the children’s books. These findings raise questions about if and how preschool teachers choose to engage with cultural issues in their preschools.

The purpose of the thesis is to exam how preschools inspired of Reggio Emilia philosophy is practicing the involvement of children’s interest in project work. The aim of this study is to contribute with new knowledge in which way children’s interest is made use of and how children can get involved within the boundaries of project work. The study has its starting point by following issues: - Which methods are used by the teacher to enable children’s interest in project work?- To what extend are children given influence and participation in project work?- Which of the children’s communicative resources and expressions such as gestures, looks and speech are the ones who get the most space to influence a project work? This is a case study where the information has been produced, processed and analyzed by a qualitative method. To collect data, semi-structured interviews with teachers have been combined with observations. The study links with Basil Bernstein's (2000) theory of power and control as well as Fanny Davidsson (2018) and Harry Shier's (2001) perspective on influence and participation. The results of the study show a complex picture in which different factors interact and give children more or less influence. The study shows that the most prominent methods the teachers use to be able to work based on children's interest are through observing, listening and reflection. Furthermore, the result shows that the structure of the activity, the teachers attitude and their child perspective are important for the grade of children's influence and participation in the project work. The children's ability to express themselves verbally and stay within the framework of the project work also proves to be of importance for the grade of children's influence and participation.

The aim of this study is to investigate how children express spatial autonomy in their preschool. Observations were made of one-to-three-year old children in free play in the preschool and in a nearby forest setting. The study is framed by Corsaro’s theory of peer culture and interpretive reproduction. It is a childhood sociological perspective that stresses the importance of children’s agency, children’s own contribution to their development. The results show three main strategies that children use to show spatial autonomy. The first is that children create places together, spatial autonomy evolve in interaction with peers. The second strategy is that they use high places to get a new perspective and gain a feeling of being on top of the world. The third strategy is how children make use of small spaces to withdraw. The expression of spatial autonomy is also a way for the children to gain control.

Purpose: The main purpose of this thesis is to identify and analyse what influence fashion companies in their design and communication of children clothes according to traditional gender roles. The purpose is also to identify if there is a conflict between political correctness and profitability in reference to gender and children’s clothes. The aim was also to find how customers of children’s clothes can influence the fashion companies with their behaviour.Method: The empirical research and data collection was done from both a qualitative and quantitative approach. In depth interviews were done with Lindex, KappAhl and Polarn o. Pyret on the Swedish market, together with observations of the fashion stores assortments and their advertising of children’s clothes and finally a consumer survey was conducted on Facebook. Conclusion: Multiple factors were concluded influences on the fashion companies design and communication of gender specific clothing for children. The interpretation on the meaning of gender specific clothing was found to be an important factor as well as the lack or presence of an official standpoint. Political correctness was found harder to achieve in larger companies leading to the conclusion that profitability and political correctness is only achievable up to a certain size. Consumers were found to influence the fashion companies by sharing attitudes on social media and with friends and acquaintances, among other things. The importance of direct experience and personal interest in forming attitudes was confirmed. Mothers with children under the age of 6 were the consumer group with the strongest attitudes. / Program: Magisterutbildning i Fashion Management

This thesis examines the publisher Thomas Nelson’s contribution to the juvenile publishing field in Britain in the period between 1850-1918, and studies Nelson’s development into a specialised publisher of books for children in the same period. The thesis examines the ways in which the children’s book and the juvenile publishing field developed through negotiating the demands of religious and secular education, arguing that it was through the children’s list that Nelson transitioned into a modern educational publisher. The thesis challenges assumptions that the history of children’s books is one from reading for instruction to reading solely for pleasure, thus also expanding our understanding of the types of books which were published in the “Golden Age” of children’s books. Finally, in uncovering the influence of the Nelson firm, the thesis reassesses the role of Scottish companies in British juvenile publishing. The research builds on three types of data: first and foremost information comes from the “Papers of Thomas Nelson & Sons”, a collection of the firm’s business and editorial papers. To allow comparisons with the larger publishing field and with specific publishers, data were also gathered from contemporary trade, professional, government and literary publications. Finally, the material form of selected Nelson children’s books is analysed. In chapter one, the impact that Nelson’s origin as a publisher with evangelical sympathies had on text selection and editorial methods is analysed. The reasons for the adventure tale’s dominant position on the Nelson list is the focus of chapter two, which analyses the editorial treatment of this genre and the diverse opportunities this genre afforded Nelson. Chapter three analyses the development of Nelson series, particularly the implications such diversification schemes had for the demarcations between juvenile and popular fiction. Chapter four examines the educational gift book and its relationship with Nelson’s schoolbooks, and the ways in which the conservatism and innovation of the early twentieth-century print market affected the composition of the children’s book list. The thesis concludes with a comparison of Nelson books from either end of the period studied, and uses the 1921 Newbolt Report on “The Teaching of English” to reflect on Nelson’s position in the publishing field.

Over the past 30 years, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) groups have called for children’s books to include LGBTQ characters and themes to help children understand our multifaceted social world. Few LGBTQ characters have appeared in children’s literature. This qualitative study analyzes the text and images of 29 children’s books published between 1972 and 2013 that have any LGBTQ characters. Books featuring lesbian and gay characters often presented them as conforming to heteronormative standards to find fulfillment. The majority of books with gender-deviant characters focused on boys harassed by other characters for their conventionally feminine behaviors. Surprisingly few books in this inclusive sample depicted any non-white characters. This study concludes by offering recommendations for how authors of children’s books could approach this genre without reinforcing other long-standing inequalities tied to gender, race, class, and sexuality.

Derrière son esthétique naïve, la littérature portugaise pour enfants feint son intention de persuader le sujet lisant d’accepter les valeurs qu’elle véhicule. Le système axiologique des publications récentes nous montre qu’il est possible d’évoquer, à travers une approche simple et ludique, les thématiques triviales, mais également les sujets socialement plus complexes. Notre étude examine comment les livres « socio-réalistes » récents adaptent leur projet idéologique aux particularités d’une littérature succincte. Comprendre la poétique persuasive de la forme exige l’analyse de plusieurs éléments de transmission de valeurs, dès les premiers arguments du paratexte jusqu’à l’étude de l’organisation et des caractéristiques du récit. La poétique persuasive du fond se fait à travers une approche socio-philosophique. L’exercice consiste, d’abord, à repérer les différents principes culturels imprimés par le texte, pour développer ensuite une réflexion sur leur contribution à la formation des représentations mentales du lecteur. Ainsi, pour chaque valeur, explicitement ou implicitement repérée dans le texte, nous analysons son importance en amont de la rhétorique sociale du pathos, ethos et logos. La tripartition aristotélicienne nous sert également à expliquer l’influence de l’extratextuel dans la légitimation de la valeur du et dans le récit pour enfants. / With its naïve aesthetics, children’s literature in Portugal seeks to hide its intentions of persuading the reader to accept the values it imparts. The axiological system of the most recent published works proves it possible to evoke both trivial and more socially complex themes by means of an approach that is simple and playful. In this study, we start by analyzing how present-day “socio-realistic” books adapt their ideological agenda to the specificities of children’s short fiction. In order to understand the poetics of form, it is necessary to analyse a number of aspects regarding the transmission of values, from the first plot points in paratext to the study of story organisation and characteristics. The poetics of persuasion is carried out with a socio-philosophical approach. This exercise involves initially locating the various cultural principles instilled in the text and subsequently examining their role in the formation of the reader’s mental representations. Thus, for each and every value explicitly or implicitly identified in the text, we analyse its importance in relation to the social rhetoric of pathos, ethos and logos. Likewise, Aristotle’s tripartite division assists us in explaining the influence of the extra-textual elements in the legitimization of values in and of children’s stories.

The aim of this research was to examine the perceptions of principals, literacy co-ordinators and teachers on the implementation of Children’s Literacy Success Strategy (CLaSS) as a literacy and professional development strategy and their insights for future literacy innovation. CLaSS is a whole-school and sector approach to literacy for the early years of schooling. Introduced in 1998 to Catholic primary schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne, schools implementing CLaSS were supported by a professional development model throughout the implementation. CLaSS introduced to many schools a two-hour daily literacy block, data-driven instruction and the incorporation of professional learning teams within the professional development model. Eleven participants from two Catholic primary schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne formed a case study for this research. The participants’ perceptions were captured qualitatively and viewed interpretively based on a phenomenological approach. The research had significant findings. Participants endorsed the literacy strategy and the professional development model as an effective approach. In particular, the findings identified that the professional learning teams played a key role in developing and maintaining a culture of learning within the literacy team. This culture of learning assisted in improving learning outcomes for their students. While there was an endorsement of CLaSS, the findings also showed that there were some significant issues raised by participants. This included issues in professional development and student achievement in the areas of comprehension and writing. The findings indicated that professional understanding and student improvement in these areas were not as developed as those for decoding words in reading. Participants also indicated that assessment of student writing was limited by the absence of sector-wide assessment of different genres and, therefore, they were not confident in measuring student improvement in writing. The findings also identified some areas of difficulty within the professional development model, such as catering for individual learning styles and the addition of new team members to the literacy team. The findings indicated that for future literacy innovation, participants would prefer an approach that encompassed literacy and teacher development across the whole school. Based on the participants’ responses, the research also provided recommendations and suggestions for further research in literacy. The recommendations included examining ways in which oral language and new literacies could have more prominence in the literacy block and providing a sector approach to assessment and specific professional development on comprehension and writing. The recommendations also suggested further research could be conducted as to ascertain the extent to which teachers require further professional development in comprehension and writing, how oral language is developed in other schools, and whether leadership has been the significant factor in sustaining the success of the literacy strategy.

Prayer is a central element of all religions (Coleman, 1999; Engebretson, 1999). Alongside the sense of the theological importance of prayer there has been increased recognition of the psychological function and personal benefit of prayer for adults (Pargament, 1997). This thesis reports on research that investigated the theological and psychological perceptions of prayer held by children, shown through their understanding of the meaning and function of prayer. This thesis contributes to the research field of children’s spirituality. As there is little existing research literature on children and prayer, the findings of this study provide valuable new understanding and propose new aspects of theory with implication for professionals involved in the education and the welfare of children. The research reported in this thesis represents the first Australian research on children’s perception of the meaning and function of prayer. The choice of participants reflects the diverse philosophical and religious traditions found in the Australian, multifaith society. Semi-structured interviews were video-recorded with 60 participants from primary school Year Five (10-12 years). Five male and five female participants were selected from each of six different schools in the Melbourne metropolitan area. These were: the Catholic, Independent (Christian), Christian (Parent-Controlled or Community School), Jewish, Islamic and the Government schools. Students completed a drawing exercise and a written sentence completion exercise as part of the interview, and the three sources of data were analysed qualitatively using the method of Grounded Theory. The data was interpreted in the light of a detailed literature review on the nature and function of prayer as part of children’s spirituality. The review also examined relevant sections of the literature of religious education and literature on contemporary Australian life. This study has provided Australian data on the meaning and function of prayer for children as part of children’s spirituality. Considerable agreement has been observed through the data, between children educated in a variety of school systems which embraced different philosophical and faith traditions. In the multicultural Australian community said to be secularized, prayer for these children has been shown as a valued aspect of life. The personal experiences of prayer for many were seen to be associated with the community of faith to which the participants belonged, and for others, prayer was learnt eclectically and practised in a private individualistic manner. All participants indicated that they had prayed and all contributed ideas about prayer through the interviews. All participants perceived prayer to function as an aid in life. Prayer was used by participants at significant moments in their life, and the words or thoughts in prayer helped to clarify and articulate deep feelings. Eight elements of theory (in accord with the literature on Grounded Theory ) have been generated through this research which are presented as recommendations for professionals engaged in religious education and student welfare.