Since the late nineteenth century, clerical work has transformed from a small cluster of respected occupations dominated by men to a rapidly changing group of occupations 90 percent of which are held by women. Due to bureaucratization and the feminization of clerical work, clerical jobs are assumed to be routinized and simple, and clerical workers deemed easily replaceable. With further changes to the occupation caused by technology and globalization, clerical workers today have become increasingly vulnerable to unemployment, precarious employment and underemployment. In this research, an Ontario-wide survey with approximately 1200 respondents (including 120 clerical workers) and in-depth interviews with 23 Toronto clerical workers were combined to explore the employment situation of Ontario clerical workers. It is apparent that clerical workers are underemployed along all measured conventional dimensions of underemployment, including credential, performance and subjective as well as work permanence, salary levels and job opportunities. Relational practice is a largely unexamined aspect of clerical work that is often essentialized as a female trait and seldom recognized as skilled practice. In this dissertation, I argue that relational practice is critical to the successful performance of clerical roles and that relational practices are not innate but rather learned skills. I explore some ways in which clerical workers acquire these skills. I conclude by noting that recognizing and valuing relational skills will make the value of clerical workers more apparent to their employers, potentially reducing for clerical workers both their subjective sense of underemployment and their vulnerability to job loss.

Since the late nineteenth century, clerical work has transformed from a small cluster of respected occupations dominated by men to a rapidly changing group of occupations 90 percent of which are held by women. Due to bureaucratization and the feminization of clerical work, clerical jobs are assumed to be routinized and simple, and clerical workers deemed easily replaceable. With further changes to the occupation caused by technology and globalization, clerical workers today have become increasingly vulnerable to unemployment, precarious employment and underemployment. In this research, an Ontario-wide survey with approximately 1200 respondents (including 120 clerical workers) and in-depth interviews with 23 Toronto clerical workers were combined to explore the employment situation of Ontario clerical workers. It is apparent that clerical workers are underemployed along all measured conventional dimensions of underemployment, including credential, performance and subjective as well as work permanence, salary levels and job opportunities. Relational practice is a largely unexamined aspect of clerical work that is often essentialized as a female trait and seldom recognized as skilled practice. In this dissertation, I argue that relational practice is critical to the successful performance of clerical roles and that relational practices are not innate but rather learned skills. I explore some ways in which clerical workers acquire these skills. I conclude by noting that recognizing and valuing relational skills will make the value of clerical workers more apparent to their employers, potentially reducing for clerical workers both their subjective sense of underemployment and their vulnerability to job loss.

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Förskollärares upplevelser av sitt bästa professionsjag bottnar i en förståelse för förskollärareuppdraget. Detta uppdrag omformas ständigt utifrån olika samhälleliga diskurser och styrdokument. Syftet med studien är att skaffa kunskap om på vilka sätt förskollärares professionella kompetens uttrycks i förskolan, samt vilka kunskaper förskollärare använder och relaterar till i möten med barn i förskolan. Genom kvalitativa semistrukturerade samtalsintervjuer undersöks på vilket sätt sex förskollärare formulerar kunskap som framstår som central i upplevda lyckade möten med barn i förskolan. Empirin består av fyra timmar och fem minuters inspelade och transkriberade intervjuer. Analysen är i det första skedet induktiv men övergår till att bli abduktiv. Det teoretiska ramverket består av Grimens (2008) professionsteorier, Aspelin och Perssons (2011) begreppspar sam-varo och sam-verkan samt Illeris (2015) komplexa lärmodell. Studien visar att det är i sam-varon och sam-verkan som förskolläraren upplever sitt bästa professionsjag. / Preschool teachers' experiences of their best professional self are based on an understanding of the preschool teacher assignment. This assignment is constantly being reformed based on different social discourses and control curriculum. The purpose of the study is to acquire knowledge of how pre-school teachers' professional competence is expressed in a preschool context. Which knowledge preschool teachers use and relate to in meetings with children at preschools. Through qualitative semi-structured interviews, the study examines how six preschool teachers formulate knowledge that appears to be central in successful interactions with children at preschools. The material consists of four hours and five minutes’ recorded and transcribed interviews. The analysis is, in the first stage, inductive but turns into being abductive. The theoretical framework consists of Grimens (2008) professional theories, Aspelin and Persson's (2011) conceptual pairs of co-being and co-operation and Illeris (2015) complex learning model. The study shows that it is in co-being and co-operation that the preschool teacher experiences his best professional self.

Training in psychotherapy needs to involve more than merely skills and techniques. The field of psychotherapy needs to involve more than the application of formulas in a modernistic framework. This study proposes an approach to training in psychotherapy where the emphasis is on the client and the therapeutic relationship. Psychotherapy training should be an ongoing process and this study aims to facilitate and enhance that process for students. The study combines basic therapeutic skills and interpersonal psychotherapy to form a training programme referred to as the Basic Relational Skills Training (BRST) programme. The first part of the study provides a historical perspective of basic therapeutic skills, followed by a review of the relevant literature. The second part of the study constitutes a possible format for a training manual for the proposed BRST programme. The researcher hopes that the proposed BRST programme be utilised by trainers to assess the programme's efficacy. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

Training in psychotherapy needs to involve more than merely skills and techniques. The field of psychotherapy needs to involve more than the application of formulas in a modernistic framework. This study proposes an approach to training in psychotherapy where the emphasis is on the client and the therapeutic relationship. Psychotherapy training should be an ongoing process and this study aims to facilitate and enhance that process for students. The study combines basic therapeutic skills and interpersonal psychotherapy to form a training programme referred to as the Basic Relational Skills Training (BRST) programme. The first part of the study provides a historical perspective of basic therapeutic skills, followed by a review of the relevant literature. The second part of the study constitutes a possible format for a training manual for the proposed BRST programme. The researcher hopes that the proposed BRST programme be utilised by trainers to assess the programme's efficacy. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)