Heft 7 der Zeitschrift Coils of the serpent.

Abstract How do we cope with technology today? We are surrounded by machines, computers and technological devices from mobile phones to automated check- outs. These types of machines are no longer exotic in Sweden where today the average person is usually fluent in their use. But do we really have an understanding of how these objects work, is understanding necessary and how do we cope when our knowledge is lacking? This thesis is intended as an introduction to an anthropological way of look- ing at strategies people develop for understanding, using and interacting with technological objects, specifically robots. Still an exotic object, robots are more widely known-about than experienced. Based on ethnographic data, primarily gathered in two distinct workplace environments as well as interviews and video documentation, my analysis aims to illustrate the implications of defining hu- mans and robots as equally significant agents within networks whilst disputing the traditional importance given to the dichotomy of technology (non-human) and human. Whilst robots are definitely less than we expect them to be, they are still so- cial artefacts, firmly situated within social networks and meaning which manifest through human–robot interactions. Perhaps little more than tools, an ambigu- ity exists in human–robot interactions which suggests that we form quasi-social relations that could, and have been exploited by designers and engineers to broaden the range of use for technological objects. Keywords: human-robot interaction, network theory, situated knowledges, agential realism, performativity, social contextualisation of technological objects

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Background Many patients especially from minority backgrounds are typically faced with cultural barriers during health care encounters and this hinders the delivery of culturally competent healthcare. This study seeks to understand how cultural barriers faced by patients are crucial in attaining the delivery of culturally competent healthcare. Aims   The aim of this study is to examine cultural barriers in the delivery of healthcare services from the  patient’s perspective. Method The method is a literature review based on qualitative primary research. Ten articles were selected from the CINAHL, PUBMED and Google scholar databases. All articles selected were published between 2010 and 2020. The quality of the articles used were assessed using a review template for qualitative studies. Data was analysed using the literature review matrix method.  Results The results suggest that four main cultural barriers from the perspectives of patients impacted healthcare delivery. These cultural barriers included the following; communication problems arising during verbal and nonverbal interactions, mistrust and discrimination arising as a result of previous contact with the health care system, socio-economic status and finally low propensity to seek healthcare.  Conclusion   To conclude it is evident that patients face a plethora of cultural barriers during their interactions with health care services and their experiences can be shaped by a number of variables and factors. These cultural challenges hinder accessibility to proper health care services might lead to inequality in the provision of health care services. / Bakgrund Många patienter, särskilt de med minoritetsbakgrund, står vanligtvis inför kulturella barriärer när de blir bemötta av hälso-och sjukvårdspersonal. Detta hindrar utformandet av kulturellt kompetent vård. Studien syftar till att förstå hur kulturella barriärer som patienter står inför är avgörande för att uppnå kulturellt kompetent omvårdnad. Mål Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka kulturella barriärer vid leverans av vårdtjänster ur patientens perspektiv. Metod Metoden är en litteraturstudie baserad på kvalitativ primär forskning.Tio artiklar valdes från databaserna CINAHL, PUBMED och Google. Alla utvalda artiklar är publicerade mellan 2010 och 2020. Kvaliteten på de artiklar som valdes är granskade med hjälp av en granskningsmall för kvalitativa studier. Data analyserades med hjälp av litteraturgranskning enligt en matrismetod. Resultat Analysen och resultaten från studien tyder på att fyra huvudsakliga kulturella barrier ur patientens perspektiv hade avgörande inverkan på bemötandet inom vården. Dessa kulturella barriärer inkluderade följande; kommunikationsproblem som uppstår under verbala och icke-verbala interaktionen, misstro och diskriminering till följd av tidigare kontakt med hälso- och sjukvården, socioekonomisk status och slutligen låg benägenhet att söka vård som är vanligt för människor med samma kulturella bakgrund. Slutsats Avslutningsvis är det uppenbart att patienter möter kulturella barriärer under sin interaktion med vården och deras erfarenheter kan formas av ett antal variabler och faktorer. Dessa kulturella utmaningar hindrar adekvat tillgång till hälso sjukvård och kan leda till ojämlikhet i tillgången till hälso- och sjukvårdstjänster.

La philosophie et le dialogue vont main dans la main, mais qu’en est-il de la place du dialogue dans la sphère politique ? Prenant comme point de référence la délibération, discours bien établi dans nos démocraties contemporaines, ce mémoire a pour objectif de montrer en quoi le dialogue peut compléter la délibération pour établir une société harmonieuse. Afin de bien établir la place du dialogue, celui-ci sera exploré dans son rapport à des notions telles que l’identité, la rationalité, l’intersubjectivité et l’éducation, ou l’apprentissage en général. Mettant de l’avant un décentrement, une écoute authentique et une ouverture critique, nous proposons de montrer que le dialogue permet non seulement une plus grande inclusion que la délibération, mais aussi la possibilité de répondre à des besoins politiques fondamentaux tels que la coopération harmonieuse et efficace et la solidarité. Nous montrerons par ailleurs comment l’éducation est un excellent moyen de promouvoir le dialogue dans nos société contemporaine, lui permettant ainsi d’accomplir sa tâche de faciliter le vivre-ensemble. Nous pouvons même aller plus loin encore et affirmer qu’afin d’accomplir sa mission démocratique, l’éducation doit faire appel au dialogue. / Philosophy and dialogue are known to go hand in hand, while the relationship between dialogue and politics remains unclear. Using deliberation, a well-established type of discourse in our societies, as a comparative standpoint, this memoire will show how dialogue can be complementary to deliberation to form a proper democratic society. To get a wide enough conception of what dialogue means, we will explore how it pertains to identity, rationality, intersubjectivity, and education. A shift from an egocentric perspective, an authentic ear, and a critical open mindedness, being essential elements to dialogue, will help us to demonstrate how it can not only show a greater inclusiveness than deliberation can, but also respond in and of itself to crucial socio-political needs such as cooperation and solidarity. Education will be shown to be an excellent way to promote dialogue onto the political grounds, letting it then accomplish its purpose of facilitator for the establishment of a harmonious civic life. And to go even further, we propose that democratic education, if it is to accomplish its goals, must make use of dialogue.

Bakgrund: Att bedriva hemsjukvård med hög kontinuitet har i tidigare studier visat sig medföra positiva effekter för vårdens kvalité. I lagen står det skrivet att patientens behov av kontinuitet ska tillgodoses, trots detta vittnar media fortfarande om brister kopplade till kontinuitet. Syfte: Att belysa kontinuitet från flera perspektiv utifrån ett patientfall i hemsjukvården. Metod: Mixad metod med kvantitativa och kvalitativa delar. Den kvantitativa delen beräknar kontinuiteten utifrån två formler och redovisas med deskriptiv statistik. Den kvalitativa delen består av kvalitativa innehållsanalyser av omvårdnadspersonalens dagliga noteringar samt en anhörig intervju. Resultat: Resultatet visade ett varierande värde på HHI och CoC index, Innehållsanalyserna resulterade i flera underkategorier och huvudkategorier. Syntesen kombinerar kvantitativa och kvalitativa för att få fram hur HHI och CoC förhåller sig till upplevelserna från patient och anhörig. Diskussion: Det finns styrkor och svagheter med respektive formel. Anteckningsboken ger en inblick i kommunikationen mellan vård- och omsorgspersonal. Intervjun av anhörig belyser vikten av kontinuitet från ett anhörigperspektiv. Slutsats: Studien visar hur kontinuitet kan belysas med både kvantitativa och kvalitativa implikationer. Vården kan dra nytta av att utveckla sätt för att bättre kunna belysa kontinuitet från både kvantitativa och kvalitativa data. / Background: Conducting home care with high continuity has in previous studies been shown to have positive effects on care. The law states that the patient's need for continuity must be met, despite this, the media still testify to shortcomings linked to continuity. Aim: To shed light on continuity from multiple perspectives from a patient case in home care. Method: Mixed method with quantitative and qualitative parts. The quantitative part calculates the continuity based on two formulas and is reported with descriptive statistics. The qualitative part contains two content analyzes, one of which is on the notebook from the patient's home and one is on an interview with a relative. Results: The results showed a varying value of HHI and CoC index, The content analysis resulted in several subcategories and main categories. The synthesis combines quantitative and qualitative to bring out how HHI and CoC relate to the experiences from patient and relative. Discussion: There are strengths and weaknesses with each formula. The notebook provides an insight into the communication between care and nursing staff. The interview of a relative highlights the importance of continuity from a relative perspective. Conclusion: The study shows how continuity can be elucidated with both quantitative and qualitative implications. Healthcare can benefit from developing ways to better illuminate continuity from both quantitative and qualitative data.

The umbrella term used in research to imply exposure to the English language outside the classroom is “extramural English”. The impact of the engagement in activities by second language learners of English through extramural activities is generally perceived as positive for language development. The aim of this study is to investigate the perceptions of teachers in Swedish lower secondary school on the influence of online extramural English on the written and spoken English proficiency of students, enrolled in years six till nine, learning English as a foreign language.A qualitative study in the form of an online questionnaire, consisting of open- and closed-ended questions, is used to answer three research questions: 1. What is the overall perspective of English teachers on their students’ proficiency in English and the influence of extramural English? 2. What is the perspective of English teachers on their students’ proficiency in written English and the influence of extramural English? 3. What is the perspective of English teachers on their students’ proficiency in oral English and the influence of extramural English? Teachers clearly believe that oral communication and listening skills benefit more than reading and writing skills from online extramural activities in English.

<div>Disciplinary perspectives, as a core element of interdisciplinary work, represent the ways individuals may see and approach a situation based on their unique disciplinary background and training. Interdisciplinary collaboration requires individuals to leverage disciplinary perspectives and knowledge from diverse fields to build a shared understanding of the problem situation. However, based on the diversity of background and experiences within a team, interdisciplinary collaboration can be a challenge because collaborators must negotiate disciplinary differences, while also fundamentally experiencing the collaborative situation in different ways. Therefore, it is important to understand how individuals engage and experience disciplinary perspectives in their practice of collaboration. In this study, I investigated the nature of disciplinary perspectives in the context of educational development. </div><div><br></div><div>The profession of educational development broadly aims to support the teaching and learning mission of higher education institutions, where educational developers work with faculty, graduate students, and administration on teaching, instruction, curriculum, and organizational development across disciplines. As such, educational developers play a significant role in engineering education transformation and offer a unique context to investigate interdisciplinary practice. In this work, educational developers bring their diverse disciplinary perspectives to their collaborative interactions. </div><div><br></div><div>In this dissertation, a phenomenographic study was conducted to investigate the following research question: how do educational developers experience disciplinary perspectives in the work of educational development? Phenomenography is a qualitative research approach that focuses on the variation in how a phenomenon is experienced and conceptualized. I adopted a situative theoretical perspective to see disciplinary perspectives in relation to the contexts, social interactions, and activities through which interdisciplinary work is performed. I conducted semi-structured interviews with eighteen educational developers from Centers for Teaching and Learning across the United States and Canada. Participants were recruited from various disciplinary backgrounds and levels of experience. In the interview, participants shared general descriptions about their work, and specific descriptions of an experience where they worked with others who contributed different disciplinary perspectives. Additionally, a scenario-based elicitation exercise was used to frame participants’ description of how diverse disciplinary perspectives appear in their work. The analysis followed an iterative and generative process to discern features and qualities of disciplinary perspectives. </div><div><br></div><div>The findings of this study are presented as a phenomenographic outcome space consisting of five categories of description as distinct ways that disciplinary perspectives are experienced by educational developers. Additionally, the findings illustrate how disciplinary perspectives become externalized as an object that is brought forward and shaped in collaborative interactions. This research contributes to further understanding interdisciplinary collaboration in two ways. First, for interdisciplinary practice, the findings provide an integrated view of the variation in ways of experiencing disciplinary perspectives such that educational developers may attune and attend to different collaborative interactions. Second, with the situative perspective, I provide insight into the situated knowledge that constitutes how disciplinary perspectives become meaningful based on educational developers’ position in relation to different disciplinary spaces. My findings highlight the situative relationships between the individual educational developer, their practice with disciplinary perspectives, and their work tasks in educational development. As educational developers continue to develop their practice to advance teaching and learning in higher education, this research contributes to the professional knowledge of educational developers in support of interdisciplinary collaboration. </div><div><br></div>

This is a qualitative study on bilingualism from Somali children’s perspectives. It aims to examine how Somali-Swedish bilinguals understand their bilingual experiences in a Swedish context. It looks at questions that relate to their views on language use in family and peer group interactions, their attitude towards heritage language maintenance, and challenges they may face in their everyday bilingual experiences. Three interviews were carried out with six children of Somali background between the age of 12-15 years, interviewed in pairs, and the empirical data were subsequently analyzed thematically. The findings of the case study show that children have a high-level of awareness about achieving monolingual-like bilingualism. This is linked to their language investment in Somali and Swedish languages in order to be better members of both the Somali community and the Swedish society. From the interviews, it became clear that Somali and Swedish are equally important for their everyday life for a variety of reasons, including: maintaining healthy family relationships and bonds, continuing contact and ties with extended-family, developing ethnic and societal identities, and understanding and fostering friendship. However, many experienced challenges such as bullying and embarrassment as a result of, for instance, insufficient knowledge of their language or avoidance of using multiple languages in public for fear of being mocked. Furthermore, children are active agents in their learning and in acquiring proficiency in Somali and Swedish as they explain their choice of preserving their heritage while they negotiate with teachers to find a balance between language demands in the parental interactions and those with others in their ethnic group, and achieving native-like mastery of spoken Swedish.

In a world where we are increasingly connected to one another, the English language surrounds us here in Sweden. Children today grow up in an environment where they are exposed to the English language and the Swedish language simultaneously through various media and activities. The informal learning that children gain through their activities has received more and more attention in recent years. The English that pupils learn outside of school has become known as extramural English. Thus, it is of interest to investigate the perspectives of English teachers in Sweden regarding extramural English and to what extent they incorporate it into their teaching. This study briefly explains extramural English as a phenomenon, discuss relevant theories and delve into previous research on the subject. The methods that are used for this investigation is a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches. The target group for the research methods are English teachers with varying backgrounds. The results suggest that the majority of the participants perceive extramural activities as a valuable asset. However, the results further indicate that the teachers have a greater reluctance to integrate it into their teaching, and rather recognise it as a complementary tool to education. The study draws attention to the strengths of pupils' extramural activities, how motivation is a key factor in second language learning, as well as the complications in implementing these activities into teaching. The discussion further highlights the syllabus' connection to the results of the study.