English title: Parents’ expectations of municipal school of music and of arts. Thesis in Music Education by Jonathan Lilliedahl. Part of the work for the master´s degree. Studies from School of Music, University of Örebro, 2007. Available from School of Music, Örebro University, SE-701 82 Örebro, Sweden. Original in Swedish. Keywords: parents’ expectations, municipal school of music and of arts, music education, childrens’ development, creative activity, parental influence, municipal activity. The essay concerns parents’ expectations within municipal school of music and of arts. The main aim is to elucidate and understand parents’ expectations of the school and purposes about their childrens activity, and then, discuss the results towards the concept and the didactic of the school. The method has been Grounded Theory. The results are grounded on qualitative interviews with twelve parents from different municipalities and the empirical material has been encoded into categories of various kinds. The results, which have been encoded for a several times and on different levels, indicate that parents have different purposes to each other, but also that each parent has different purposes in various contexts. A joint comprehensive aim and expectation is that the school and their teachers should enable an all-embracing development. Underlying, there are musical targets and objectives towards music as means. The parents take both individual- and group perspectives. The results can also illustrate that parents in many cases adapt their expectations to the existing structure of the school and that many of the parents are satisfied as long as everything works. Many of the parents consider that a municipal school should be responsible for a broad education of arts, characterized by democracy and availability. As a conclusion it may be said, while the parents’ exceptions focus on the childs’ interest and development, the municipal school of music and of arts has even more interests to satisfy and comply with.

Föräldrainflytande är ett komplext begrepp och en viktig del i förskolans värdegrundsarbete och demokratiuppdrag. Det är föräldrarna som har det yttersta ansvaret för barnet samt känner sitt barn allra bäst. En god samverkan mellan föräldrar och förskolan som möjliggör föräldrainflytande är därför viktigt för att kunna skapa de bästa förutsättningarna för barnet. Syftet med den här studien är därför att undersöka föräldrars upplevelser av föräldrainflytande i förskolans verksamhet med specifikt fokus på vilan. För att få svar på studiens frågeställningar har enkäter samlats in från sex föräldrar med barn i ett till treårsåldern som går i förskolan. Begreppet inflytande problematiseras med hjälp av inflytandetrappan, vilken synliggör olika nivåer av inflytande som alla är viktiga för att kunna tala om ett reellt föräldrainflytande. Vid första anblick tyder resultatet på att föräldrarnas syn på sina möjligheter till inflytande är övervägande goda. Men vid en närmare granskning av föräldrarnas beskrivningar och exempel synliggörs att det finns begränsningar i föräldrainflytandet, vilket leder till att föräldrarna inte får, eller inte utnyttjar sina möjligheter till att utöva ett reellt föräldrainflytande. / Parental influence is a complex concept and an important part of the preschool's value-based work and democracy mission. It is the parents who have the ultimate responsibility for the child and know their child best. A good collaboration between parents and the preschool that enables parental influence is therefore important in order to be able to create the best conditions for the child. The purpose of this study is therefore to investigate parents' experiences of parental influence in the preschool's activities with a specific focus on the childs rest. To get answers to the study's questions, questionnaires were collected from six parents with children aged one to three years who go to preschool. The concept of influence is problematised with the help of the influence ladder, which makes different levels of influence visible, all of which are important in order to be able to talk about a real parental influence. At first glance, the results indicate that the parents' views on their opportunities for influence are predominantly good. However, a closer examination of the parents' descriptions and examples reveals that there are limitations in the parental influence, which leads to the parents not being able to, or not using, their opportunities to exercise a real parental influence.