Syftet med denna studie är att bidra med kunskap kring fysisk aktiv lek i förskolans utemiljö utifrån barns perspektiv. Studien är relevant för förskolan då den kan ge kunskaper som kan påverka planering av verksamheten på ett sådant sätt att de bidrar till barns fysiskt aktiva lek och barns framtida hälsa. Baserat på tidigare forskning framkom faktorer som eventuellt kan påverka barns fysiska aktivitet och motoriska utveckling. I dessa studier har förskollärare intervjuats och barn har endast observerats. Utifrån det formulerades två forskningsfrågor där syftet blev att undersöka hur barn uttryckte fysisk aktiv lek på försöksgården. Studien har ett kvalitativt förhållningssätt och empirin bearbetades och analyserades utifrån den sociokulturella teorin med begreppen medling och appropiering. Resultatet visade på att barnen använder flera redskap i förskolans utemiljö i sin fysiskt aktiva lek. Det blev tydligt i resultatet att förskolan utemiljö har en påverkan på hur barns fysiskt aktiva lek blir. Vidare i diskussionen omsätts resultaten i tidigare forskning och jämför samband mellan denna studie och den tidigare forskningen. / The purpose of this study is to contribute knowledge about physical active play in the preschool's outdoor environment from a child's perspective. The study is relevant for preschool as it can provide knowledge that can influence the planning of the activities in such a way that they contribute to children's physically active play and children's future health. Based on previous research, factors that could potentially affect children's physical activity and motor development were revealed. In these studies, preschool teachers have been interviewed and children have only been observed. Based on this, two research questions were formulated where the aim was to investigate how children expressed physical active play in the experimental yard. The study has a qualitative approach and the empiricwas processed and analyzed based on the sociocultural theory with the concepts of mediation and appropiering. The results showed that the children use several tools in the outdoor environment of the preschool in their physically active play. It became clear in the result that the preschool outdoor environment has an impact on how children's physically active play becomes. Furthermore, the discussion translates the results into previous research and compares the relationship between this study and the previous research.

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Au Québec, la majorité des élèves en difficulté sont scolarisés dans des classes ordinaires au primaire, mais peu de travaux ont caractérisé l’enseignement des mathématiques spécifiquement dispensé à ces élèves dans ce contexte. En prenant appui sur le concept d’intervention didactique (Vannier, 2002, 2006) et sur une analyse didactique des probabilités, notre recherche a visé à décrire et à comprendre des interventions didactiques mises en œuvre dans le cadre d’un enseignement des probabilités à des élèves de classes ordinaires du primaire jugés ou non en difficulté en mathématiques par leur enseignant. Pour atteindre cet objectif, nous avons observé deux enseignants du troisième cycle, qui sont partis d’une même ressource didactique liée aux probabilités pour concevoir et mettre en œuvre un projet didactique adapté à leurs élèves. Un enregistrement en classe et des entrevues pré-action et postaction ont été réalisés avec chacun des enseignants. Puis, une analyse quantitative a été réalisée sur les interventions faites par les enseignants, et une analyse didactique a été menée afin de mettre en relief certains faits saillants liés à l’enseignement des probabilités et aux conditions didactiques offertes aux élèves jugés en difficulté en mathématiques. Les résultats de notre étude montrent que les deux enseignants ont rencontré certaines difficultés avec la perspective probabiliste fréquentielle et les enjeux conceptuels qui lui sont associés. De plus, l’institutionnalisation des savoirs en jeu a aussi été un défi, notamment pour établir un lien entre les enjeux probabilistes sous-jacents et les solutions de l’activité. Nous avons également constaté que les conditions didactiques offertes au sein des classes observées apparaissent influencées par la gestion des échanges par l’enseignant et par sa maitrise des savoirs mathématiques en jeu. De plus, il semble que les conditions didactiques offertes aux élèves jugés en difficulté en mathématiques soient de nature similaire à celles offertes aux élèves qui ne sont pas jugés en difficulté. Néanmoins, des différences quantitatives ont été observées entre les élèves jugés en difficulté en mathématiques et ceux qui ne le sont pas en ce qui concerne le nombre d’interventions et les moments où ces interventions ont été faites durant l’activité.

Researchers have taken a particular interest in children’s drawings as a means of representing and communicating knowledge and perspectives but a review of literature reveals that researchers routinely use drawings as a way of obtaining data without considering their function or value. This ESRC-funded research aims to explore drawing as a method of accessing children's perspectives and has three central research objectives which consider methodological and analytical factors relating to the use of children’s drawings as a research tool. These are: to develop a principled approach to analysing and interpreting children’s drawings, to create guidelines for the use of drawing as a research tool, and to gather children’s perspectives on play through the method of drawing. The research objectives were achieved by asking the following three questions: How can children’s drawings be analysed using a principled approach? What are the major factors to be considered when using drawing as a research tool? What can drawings reveal about children's perspectives on play? The study involved two visits to the homes of eight preschool children aged four. The sample included four girls and four boys from central and north-east Scotland with half of the families being categorised as being of low socioeconomic status. Visits were flexible and unstructured allowing the child autonomy regarding our level of interaction and the types of activities (such as free play and conversation) with which they wished to engage. The second visit included a prompted drawing activity in which I invited children to express their perspectives on play. The topic of play was chosen (i) to offer children a meaningful research activity to investigate the issues surrounding the method, (ii) to explore the task of representing an abstract, yet familiar, concept and how this may influence children’s drawings and representations of play, and (iii) as an extension of the ESRC project Young Children Learning with Toys and Technology at Home (Plowman et al., 2012) by giving greater emphasis to children's own perspectives on play and exploring the ways in which this can be achieved. My theoretical approach is not to consider drawings as reproductions of reality, but to value and attempt to understand children’s drawings as a semiotic vehicle in which messages are created and conveyed during the drawing process through representation and signification. Informed by social semiotics (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996) the research presents an innovative four-step approach to analysing children's drawings (4-SASA). The protocol, a key contribution of the research, was developed to promote a more systematic analysis, involving (i) isolating signs within drawings through manual annotation, (ii) documenting the child’s understanding of signs and the significance attributed to them, (iii) organising signs using specific categories of social semiotic analysis (mode, size, colour, salience) and identifying the child’s motivation and interest for specific sign production, and (iv) synthesis of the child’s perspectives from steps 1-3. Post hoc methodological examinations elucidated the following four key factors to be considered when using young children’s drawings: (i) contextual sensitivity of the drawing process, (ii) children’s perceptions of the research task, (iii) the complex task of representing an abstract and elusive concept such as play, and (iv) whether there is a fundamental difference between drawing spontaneously (non-commissioned) and drawing on request. Evidence from the study supports previous literature in demonstrating the potential of drawing as a method of accessing children’s perspectives. However, findings suggest that rather than routinely selecting drawing as a method for representing children’s perspectives, researchers need to be more thoughtful about the ways in which factors such as the social and contextual framing of drawing and approaches to data collection can affect research outcomes. The thesis concludes by discussing how these emerging issues impact research outcomes, along with implications for future implementation and analysis of drawings.

Electronic payment systems (EPS) have received considerable attention from researchers and business owners worldwide, because of their potential to support economic development and growth. Despite the significant contribution of the growth in EPS to the ability to complete transactions via the Internet, Libya lags significantly behind developed countries in its adoption of EPS. This research focuses on factors affecting EPS adoption and use in Libya, explaining how they positively or negatively affect Libyan customers and organisations‟ willingness to adopt EPS. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews with different stakeholders, including consumers, organisational staff (e.g. Telecommunications Companies, Banks, the Ministry of Telecommunication and Informatics, etc.), and strategic decision-makers (e.g. the Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Communications, Director of Islamic Banking at Bank of Republic). The research implements Grounded Theory methods (GT), in particular the Straussian approach, to analyse, explore, and investigate the socio-organisational, technical, political, and economic factors affecting the adoption of EPS in Libya, and importantly the relationship between these factors. It discusses the impact of the factors identified, from both organisational and consumer perspectives, highlighting the factors and issues that need to be overcome to support successful adoption of EPS. The findings confirm that, for consumers and organisations alike, economic factors (e.g. perceived benefits, cooperation with existing entities, mutuality of stakeholders, Internet costs, standard of living, marketing businesses, awareness, withdrawal control, XX feasibility studies on EPS implementation, Islamic banking services and competition) are the core factors influencing the system‟s adoption. Furthermore, the findings revealed three new and significant factors of relevance to Libya, including standard of living, post coding and the unstable political situation in the country. These represent a unique contribution to the body of knowledge, illustrating the attitude of the Libyan people toward Internet usage, and current obstacles to EPS adoption. The use of substantive GT, in particular the Straussian approach, for data collection and data analysis in the field of EPS adoption, and the assessment of organisational and consumer attitudes, is unique to this research to the best of the researcher‟s knowledge. Thus, the research embodies a substantial contribution to the body of knowledge. The interpretive analysis of data using a Straussian approach has permitted the researcher to attain a deep understanding of the socio-organisational, economic, political, and technical factors affecting adoption of an E-payment system in Libya, as implemented by different stakeholders: Consumers, and Organisational. The benefits that the adoption of EPS in Libya will bring, include facilitation of online transactions, the availability of more secure websites, easier payment and access to the global markets. Furthermore, detailed recommendations are also being offered to assist decision-makers in the development and introduction of EPS in Libya, i.e. including the Communications and Informatics Ministry, which is hoped will advise internet service providers and companies to discount the cost of using the internet for limited bandwidths, in order to insure everyone access to the internet, and EPS.

Målet med studien är att förstå hur och vad som beskrivs och bedöms genom de samtalsmallar som används inför utvecklingssamtal på förskolan. Det är en kvalitativ studie baserad på innehållsanalys av insamlade dokument. Innehållsanalysen utfördes genom kodscheman som tas upp av Bergström och Boréus (2008). I analysarbetet har vi inspirerats av diskursanalysen. Studien är baserad på åtta samtalsmallar inför utvecklingssamtal från olika förskolor i en kommun i Mellansverige. Studien visar att samtalsmallarna innehöll flera olika sätt att beskriva och bedöma barn. Genom vårt analysarbete fann vi framför allt fem tydliga teman som utgör vårt resultat; Det lärande barnet, där barnet genom samtalsmallarna beskrivs och bedöms inom olika områden och ses som lärande eller under utveckling. Barnet som person, baserat på punkterna i samtalsmallarna som utgörs av bedömning och beskrivning av barnets personliga attribut. Det bristande barnet, med grund i samtalsmallarnas fokus på barnets tillkortakommanden och brister. Barnet i verksamhetens kontext, utifrån punkter i samtalsmallarna där verksamheten beskrivs och bedöms och Det positivt framställda barnet, grundat i till exempel uppmaningar i samtalsmallarna om att hålla samtalen i positiv anda. Tillika visar studien att flera olika barnsyner ligger till grund för hur barn ska beskrivas och bedömas i samtalsmallarna, samt att det råder motsägelser och bristande direktiv i förskolans styrdokument för utvecklingssamtalens syfte och innehåll. / The aim of this study is to understand how and what is described and assessed in the templates used for parent-teacher conferences in pre-school. This study is qualitative in nature and the chosen method of examination was content analysis of documents through coding schemes inspired by those described in Bergström and Boréus (2008). Discourse analysis inspired us when analyzing our data. The documents upon which the study is based consist of eight templates for parent-teacher conferences from different pre-schools in a municipality of Sweden. The study shows that templates for parent-teacher conferences consist of several different ways of describing and making assessments of the children. In our analysis we found five distinguishing themes as described in our result; The learning child, where the child is looked upon and described as under development, within different subjects. The child as a person, as the child’s personality was to be assessed and described thru the templates. The child of flaws, based on the conversational topics in the templates focused on flaws and problems. The child in the context of pre-school, due to the focus on describing and assessing the pre-school in the templates and finally The positively described child, based on the directives in some of the templates about describing the child thru positive outlook. The study also shows a variety of teachers’ perspectives on children based on the ways in which the children are to be described and assessed in the templates. Additionally, the study reveals a lack of and somewhat contradicting directives in the regulatory documents for pre-schools, considering the purpose and content of parent-teacher conferences.

The aim of the present thesis was to listen to, examine and conceptualise students’ perspectives on bullying. Students’ perspectives have not been commonly heard in research and less qualitative research has been conducted. This study contributes with students’ perspectives on bullying using semi-structured interviews with students from fourth-to eighth grade. This thesis includes four studies. The aim with paper I was to investigate how bystander actions in bullying situations and reasons behind these actions were articulated. Paper II was a comparison study between Sweden and US, focused on how students articulate and discuss what factors influence students’ decisions to defend or not defend victims when witnessing bullying. The aim in Paper III was to study how students themselves discuss, reason and make sense of how and why bullying processes emerges in their social worlds. In paper IV the aim was to study how junior high school girls discuss and understand bullying. Findings reveal that students’ reactions as bystanders to bullying depend on how they define the situation. Explanations to the emergence of bullying were understood through a complex social ordering of belonging process. Students position themselves and others in striving to belong, and when defining victims as responsible for bullying. Social norms and negotiation of identities were also discussed among the students. Students discussed how gender and a normative peer structure, where a pressure to fit in, interlinked with how they understood bullying. / Syftet med denna avhandling är att lyssna på, utforska och konceptualisera elevers perspektiv på mobbning då elevers perspektiv utgör ett viktigt bidrag till vår fortsatta förståelse av mobbning. Det finns fortfarande få kvalitativa studier som fokuserat elevers perspektiv på mobbning. Denna studie utgör därför ett viktig bidrag och baseras på semi-strukturerade intervjuer med elever ifrån fjärde till åttondeklass. Avhandlingen består utav fyra studier. Syftet med studie I var att undersöka hur åskådarageranden i mobbningssituationer artiklueras av eleverna och skälen bakom dessa. Syftet med studie II var att jämföra hur elever i Sverige och USA artikulerar och diskuterar vilka faktorer som influerar deras beslut att ingripa eller inte ingripa när de blir åskådare till mobbning. Syftet med studie III var att undersöka hur elever diskuterar, resonerar och förstår vad som producerar mobbning. Syftet med studie IV var att undersöka hur högstadietjejer diskuterar och förstår mobbning. Resultaten visar att elevers reaktioner som åskådare till mobbning är situationsbundna utifån hur de definierar situationen. Förklararingar till vad som producerar mobbning sammanlänkas med en komplex socialt ordnande process där eleverna positionerar sig själv och andra i strävan att tillhöra och den utsatta ofta görs ansvarig för mobbningen. Även sociala normer och förhandlade av identiteter kommer till uttryck när eleverna diskuterar hur kön och normativa kamratnormer, där strävan att passa in, sammanlänkas med deras förståelse av mobbning.

The main thrust of this study argues that failure to account for the notion of power in considering learning in social contexts—like a working environment—inevitably presents an incomplete and unrealistic account of how learning actually is. Literature suggests that mainstream scholars and theorists have arguably pushed issues regarding the inter-connectedness of power and knowledge to the peripheral—resulting in both a paucity of theoretical coverage and empirical work on the subject. Through an interdisciplinary approach, this study takes inspiration from Foucault’s conceptualization of power—argued to provide a useful analytical framework for exploring power. Implications on how power impacts on learning in a contemporary workplace is viewed through the key ideas of ‘situated learning in communities of practice’ (Lave and Wenger). This study proposes that Foucault’s conceptualizations of power—regarding power as being relational and interconnected to knowledge—allows for a useful analytical framework that can sensitize our efforts towards understanding the power effects of knowledge with regards to learning at, and through, work practices, ultimately enabling us to re-work the concepts of ‘communities of practice’. The context of this study represents a professional knowledge-intensive workplace—Private Wealth Management (also referred to as Private Banking). Such contemporary work contexts—suggested to represent rather different environments vis-à-vis craft-like professions, for example—are argued to represent a more complex, conflicted and competitively-induced platform for learning. The wider regulatory environment was found to have strong influences in shaping the learning environment, representing both opportunities and restrictions for the bankers. Assessment based, compliant-driven and structured-training efforts were key drivers of the learning environment. Social interpersonal skills and professional relationships were observed as being integral and found to involve elements of power inequality, both within and across boundaries to which participants mediated, negotiated and often times obfuscated to effect power shifts through their discursive practices. Skills and perspectives, with regards to learning, evolved as the banker’s career trajectory progressed. Power punctuated not only the social network of relationships, but was also noted at the organizational level, via both explicit and implicit controls. Participants described purposeful thoughts and actions: mediating learning and strategizing outcomes in the respective environments with conflicted identity that requires balancing self, belongingness and directed efforts towards meeting the expectations of organization, respective clients and self.