My experienced- and scientific based essay describes de communicative issues I experience with a specific couple of parents at my preschool. These issues are also applicable in a more general perspective regarding the communication between the preschool and the home. The reflection helps me to reach a deeper understanding of what communication is and the challenges that can arise when the preschool meets the home. Moreover, the reflection helps me to consider whether it is useful to see this from a power related perspective and what the preschool’s curriculum says about cooperation between the preschool and the home. I am trying to view the problematic issues from the parents’ point of view and thereby attend their position. My aim is to study the meaning of communication between pedagogues and parents in the preschool in order to be able to see the consequences that arise for the child when the communication fails. I also aim to illuminate the power relationship that takes place between parents and pedagogues. My question formulations are: Does my dilemma regard power and who possesses the most power in the meeting at the preschool; the pedagogues or the parents? What happens to the child when communication problems arise between pedagogues and parents? My conclusion is that it is difficult to really know how another person experience a situation and it is a bit of a chance when one is to interpret. Furthermore, I find that situations of this sort rarely can be solved by stating that there is a right or a wrong. Human relationships consist of grey zones where the specific situation often decides how it is most appropriate to act. / Min erfarenhets- och vetenskapsbaserade essä beskriver de kommunikativa svårigheter jag upplever med ett specifikt föräldrapar på min förskola. Dessa problem är även applicerbara ur ett mer generellt perspektiv vad gäller kommunikationen mellan förskolan och hemmet. Reflektionen hjälper mig till fördjupning av vad kommunikation är och vilka utmaningar som kan uppstå när förskolan och hemmet möts. Vidare hjälper reflektionen mig att överväga huruvida det är aktuellt att se detta ur ett maktrelaterat perspektiv och vad förskolans läroplan säger om samarbetet mellan förskolan och hemmet. Jag försöker ta möjligheten att se problematiken även ur föräldrarnas perspektiv och därigenom inta deras position. Vad gör att de agerar som de gör och vad gör att jag reagerar som jag gör? Mitt syfte är att studera kommunikationens betydelse mellan pedagoger och föräldrar i förskolan för att kunna se vilka konsekvenser som uppstår för barnet när kommunikationen brister. Jag ämnar även belysa maktrelationen som råder mellan föräldrar och pedagoger. Mina frågeställningar är: Handlar mitt dilemma om makt och vem som innehar störst makt i mötet på förskolans arena; pedagogerna eller föräldrarna? Vad sker med barnet när det uppstår kommunikationsproblem mellan pedagoger och föräldrar? Jag kommer fram till att det är svårt att verkligen veta hur en annan part upplever en situation och det blir lite av en chansning när man ska göra denna tolkning. Vidare finner jag att situationer av detta slag sällan kan lösas genom att säga att något alltid är rätt eller fel. Mänskliga relationer präglas av gråzoner där den specifika situationen ofta avgör hur det är lämpligast att agera.

The main purpose of this dissertation was to analyse and compare the attitudes of young people who lived in two different local contexts towards foreigners and immigrants. In the main study 36 teenagers, 17 from Bruksort and 19 from Industriort, were interviewed. Both local societies are rather small and dominated by one major industry, and a large number of the inhabitants are workers. Prospects for the future differed – in Bruksort people did not believe they had a future in the community because of the lack of jobs, while the people in Industriort felt a certain optimism in this respect, as the major industry was doing well. While Industriort had a long tradition and experience of immigration, Bruksort did not. Refugee camps were established in both societies in the early 1990s. The interviews brought up questions of attitude towards foreigners and immigrants. The analysis is also in part based on two pilot studies and an analysis of articles and letters to the editor in the local press, Industriort News and Bruksort Times during 1991-99. Two different discourses were analysed in the main study: the discourse of refugees, immigration, racism and anti-racism in the local press, and discourse of the young people´s discussions of those subjects. These two ways of talking were compared in order to discover possible patterns and changes in underlying thought figures in each town. The importance of the locality was demonstrated in the study. Young people are affected by political decisions, by demands made by adults and by the media. However young people are also being brought up in an active way by their own local society. The inhabitants of Bruksort were suspicious of strangers and of “the other”. However, in Industriort this sort of suspicion was only temporarily acted out towards the refugees in the camp and quickly dissipated because the refugees were integrated into the society. Also, a number of the young inhabitants in Industriort had an immigrant background themselves. The gender difference is notable; girls and boys narrated divergent versions of the events that had taken place involving the inhabitants and the refugees. The girls had a more emphatic way of reasoning about refugees and of the situation immigrants´ of than the boys. Boys on the other hand had been in conflict with the people from the refugee-camp and present juridical and economic arguments about Swedish immigration policies. It is concluded that creating meeting places where people from different ethnic backgrounds can get together and learn to know each other is of crucial importance. Also, the fact that young people seemed to be unaware of the anti-racist projects arranged by the school in Bruksort and the youth centre in Industriort a few years prior to the interviews, and that most of the teenagers interviewed felt that school had done too little, if anything, regarding the discussion of such matters as refugees, immigration and racism, emphasises the importance of more deliberate and longterm strategies as opposed to short term projects.

I essäns form utforskar jag i den här uppsatsen gränser och förhållningssätt för arbete och privatliv.  Jag reflekterar kring hur arbete tar plats i min yrkespraktik där jag lever och verkar till stora delar på samma ställe, Färentuna Hälsoträdgård, en tillrättalagd mötesplats för hälsofrämjande, förebyggande och läkande för främst psykosocial och existentiell hälsa. Genom mitt skrivande undersöker jag också hur min riktning att sammanlänka de olika delarna i livet kan påverka de möten som uppstår med människor jag arbetar för. I essän låter jag gestaltande berättelser från mitt yrkesliv, genom min egen röst, gå i dialog med bland annat R Paulsen, A Gorz i tankar rörande arbete, H Arendt om människans villkor och E Fromm och M Buber med resonemang om livsvärldar och möten. Eftersom en del av mitt arbete och liv innebär att ta hjälp av natur och konstuttryck lyssnar jag också på forskare och skribenter inom dessa områden för att fördjupa reflektionen. Undersökningens resultat uttrycker ett behov av en alternerande rörelse mellan olika definitioner för arbete och roller. / In the form of an essay I explore, in this text, limits and approach for work and private life. I reflect on how the work takes place in my professional practice where I live and work, most of the time, in the same place, Färentuna Hälsoträdgård, a prearranged garden, an area, for health promotion, disease prevention an healing for psychosocial and existential health. Through my writing I also examines how my direction to link the different parts of life can affect the meetings that occur with people I work for. In the essay I let the stories from my professional life, by my own voice, go to dialog with for example R Paulsen, A Gorz and thoughts concerning work, H Arendt about human conditions and E Fromm and M Buber with reasoning about life-worlds and meetings. As part of my work and life means taking the help of nature and art expressions, I also listen to researchers and writers in these areas to deepen the reflection. The survey results are expressing a need for an alternating movement between different definitions of work and roles.