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Many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) students in rural schools experience verbal and physical harassment due to their sexual orientation, which leads to higher rates of substance abuse, psychological problems, and greater academic failure when compared to their heterosexual counterparts. Because of the high percentage (81%) of LGBTQ students in rural schools experiencing bullying incidents, it is important to explore how the attitudes and perceptions of professional school staff influence the implementation of intervention strategies to prevent bullying in rural schools. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to gain insight into, and knowledge of, professional school staff's experiences with implementing intervention strategies designed to prevent bullying of LGBTQ students in a rural high school in a northeastern state. The theoretical framework was based on Albert Bandura's social cognitive learning theory, with a focus on collective efficacy. A qualitative case study design was used, with purposeful sampling of 9 professional school staff from a rural high school who have experienced or are familiar with LGBTQ student bullying and intervention strategies. The data were analyzed and coded to identify categories and themes. The results of this study indicated that, although there is limited training and exposure to the LGBTQ population in this rural setting, all 9 school staff were supportive of, and willing to help, their LGBTQ students. These findings have implications for positive social change by supporting collaboration to address antibullying policy and training and education programs to end bullying for all American students.

School has been identified as an important arena for health interventions among adolescents. One such intervention is “Young, Empowerment and Health”, which is currently in its pilot phase. The intervention encourages primarily upper secondary school students to form health councils that will initiate, plan and implement health activities. The health councils are autonomous but act with the aid of the student health body and physical educational staff involved in the project.   Aim: the purpose of this study was to investigate the experience of an intervention in the school arena from the perspective of adult stakeholders by using a formative assessment. The information that was collected during the study described what was most beneficial for adult stakeholders in maintaining the change and reaching the project goals. The information could be used in the development of the project. Method: the study was qualitative using inductive content analysis. Interviews were conducted with key adult stakeholders involved in the implementation of the project. The interviews were then transcribed and analysed with a semantic approach. Result: a clearly described plan and goals for the project was perceived as necessary for maintaining the intervention. A distinct connection relating to the educational plan and communication among participants was described as important to the participants. / Skolan har identifierats som en viktig arena för hälsofrämjande och förebyggande arbete med barn och unga. Skolor i Sverige har som uppdrag att arbeta hälsofrämjande och med kvalitetsutveckling. Uppföljning är viktig för att säkerställa att metoderna som används och deras målsättning överensstämmer med principerna för det hälsofrämjande arbetet. Intervention Unga, Makt och Hälsa är i sin pilotfas. Projektet uppmanar unga att bilda hälsoråd som initierar, planerar och genomför aktiviteter för att främja hälsa. Fyra skolor deltog från början, men under år 2 avbröt en skola sitt deltagande till följd av att dess hälsoråds medlemmar gick ut skolan. En annan skola erbjöds då att delta. Hälsoråden agerar självständigt med stöd från personal som är delaktiga i projektet.   Syftet med studien var att undersöka upplevelsen av en skolbaserad insats utifrån de vuxna deltagarnas perspektiv genom en formativ uppföljning. Genom en formativ uppföljning inhämtades information som för tillbaka åsikter och upplevelser av framgångar respektive motgångar av projektet Unga Makt och Hälsa ur de vuxna deltagarnas perspektiv. Metoden för studien var en kvalitativ ansats och bestod av intervjuer med anställda vid skolan som var delaktiga i projektet. Intervjuerna transkriberades och analyserades utifrån en induktiv semantisk ansats. Resultatet visade att faktorer upplevda som nödvändiga för implementeringen var tydlig planering och målsättning för projektet samt en tydlig förankring i skolplanen. Vidmakthållande av insatsen upplevdes vara främst ett utbyte med andra deltagare.

I föreliggande kvalitativa studie var syftet att undersöka hur förskolepersonal upplever och resonerar i anmälningsprocesser samt vilka aspekter de anser vara främjande respektive hindrande för arbetet i dessa. Studiens empiriska material har samlats in genom fokusgruppsintervjuer och individuella intervjuer. Det övergripande resultatet visar att förskolepersonal upplever anmälningsprocesser som komplexa då de måste förhålla sig till omständigheter på såväl en mikro- som en mezzo- och makronivå. Omständigheterna utgörs bland annat av individuella roller och rollkonflikter, gruppdiskussioner och hänsynstagande till kollegor samt rådande samhällsnormer. Det är också den upplevda komplexiteten i anmälningsprocesserna som gör att förskolepersonal resonerar huruvida en anmälan ska göras eller inte. Detta resultat stämmer väl överens med tidigare forskning gjord på området men är något som inte överensstämmer med lagstiftarens intentioner. Resultatet visar vidare på att förskolepersonal anser det som främjande med stöd och rådgivning från kollegor och andra professioner för att få hjälp med arbetet i anmälningsprocesserna. / The aim of this qualitative essay is to study how pre-school staff experience and reason in mandatory reporting processes and which aspects they consider important for their work in these processes. The empirical data was collected from focus group interviews and individual interviews. The overall result indicates that pre-school staff experience mandatory reporting processes as complex since they have to relate to circumstances at both micro, mezzo and macro levels. Among some other aspects these circumstances constitutes individual roles and role conflicts, group discussions and existing social norms. It’s also the experienced complexity that make pre-school staff reason about whether to report or not. This result corresponds with previous research but unfortunately badly corresponds with the intentions of the legislator. Further on, the result show that pre-school staff finds it meaningful to get support and counseling from colleagues and other professions to gain help when working in mandatory reporting processes.

Paper One: Developing positive relationships between schools and families has become an increasing priority within education in order to best support children and young people’s learning and development. Despite an increasing focus on seeking the parental ‘voice’, the views and experiences of school staff, parents and children appear to have limited prominence within the literature. This paper presents a piece of illuminative Community Psychology research that explored home-school relationships from the perspectives of school staff, parents and children from four Primary schools in a local community. A mixed-methods approach to data collection involved twenty-eight staff and sixty-four parent questionnaires, a focus group with eight children, and semi-structured research interviews with six staff and five parents. The importance of effective communication to encourage home and school to ‘work together’ is highlighted along with the need to provide support tailored to local needs focused around developing parental knowledge and skills to support children’s learning. The findings offer valuable insights into the views and experiences of parents, school staff and children around the current communication and engagement practices of schools in a local community. There are also implications for educational practice, including within Educational Psychology, in developing more effective home-school relationships in the future. Paper Two: With an increasing focus on supporting parental involvement within education, the development of effective ‘partnerships’ between schools and families is widening. Despite the wealth of information and advice around engaging parents in education (DfE, 2011), there appears limited training and ongoing support for school staff on how to foster and maintain these positive interactions and how to tackle ‘real life’ issues faced within home-school relationships. This research explored the role of a Community Educational Psychologist working with school staff to develop and maintain positive home-school relationships. Through support and facilitation from a Trainee Community Educational Psychologist, a series of education and supervision sessions were developed with a group of school staff to increase knowledge and confidence around the applications of psychology within education and the influential factors in home-school interactions. A model of reflection was introduced through the supervision sessions to assist the creation of a sustainable support network for staff within school concerning their work with families. The findings highlighted a ‘need to’ and ‘desire for’ developing school staff knowledge and confidence and the significant impacts of the education/supervision sessions in achieving this. Factors enabling and preventing progress through these sessions were noted along with the value of ‘sharing’ within supervision. The necessity of continued practice in order to embed supervision into teaching practice was acknowledged, and the positive impact of a Community Educational Psychologist facilitating these groups was found. Implications for educational practice, including within Educational Psychology, in supporting school staff with home-school relationships are discussed.

Doctor of Education / Department of Educational Leadership / Robert Shoop / Many school leaders do not understand their rights and responsibilities to facilitate social media use by their staff in P-12 education. This dissertation was designed to research, develop, and validate a resource guide school leaders can use to facilitate social media use by school staff. Research, Development, and Validation of a School Leader’s Resource Guide for the Facilitation of Social Media Use by School Staff was developed using the research and development (R & D) methodology by Gall, Borg, and Gall (2003) and Dick and Carey (2009). The seven steps in the R & D cycle included: (1) research analysis, needs assessment, and proof of concept; (2) product planning and design; (3) preliminary product development; (4) preliminary field testing; (5) product revision; (6) main field testing; and (7) the final product revision (Gall, Borg & Gall, 2003). An analysis of the literature, needs assessment questionnaire, and proof of concept results provided information used to develop the resource guide design. This initial design was then evaluated by preliminary field testers (social media experts) using a Likert scale and open-ended questions to provide feedback. Revisions were prepared based on their responses. A main field test was then conducted with additional social media experts. Final revisions were made based on this feedback. Major conclusions of this study included the following: (1) school leaders need more resources to understand their rights and responsibilities concerning social media use by staff; (2) this resource guide for school leaders should include legal information, case studies, and vocabulary used in the social media world; (3) and the R & D process produced a resource guide school leaders can use to understand their rights and responsibilities concerning social media use by staff. The resource guide’s information includes (1) background on social media, (2) legal aspects of social media use by staff, (3) social media promising practices, (4) digital citizenship, (5) emergence of issues and challenges in social media, and (5) how employers can avoid adverse employment actions. The focus of the resource guide is school leaders must understand their rights and responsibilities in guiding social media use by staff members.

The purpose of this study was to understand after-school care stuffs experience supporting special needs children in the classroom and during after school activities. What kind of help do children with special needs need in the classroom and after school? And what role do after-school stuff have in meeting these needs? I attempted to answer these questions using a qualitative study. I conducted several interviews with five participants from an after-school care center in Stockholm. My research focused on how staff support the inclusion of children with special needs, from a theoretical and practical perspective. Staff discuss their role both in the classroom and after school, the intensive and specialized support children with special needs require, and how they attempt to provide this support. My analysis of the experiences and thoughts participants described is guided by Per-John Ödman hermeneutics theory. Themes that emerged from my research was that participants/the staff felt more specialized information and education was needed regarding the different diagnoses. Participants/staff also expressed that they provided the majority of the support to special needs children in the classroom. Because of this additional support participants felt they had less energy to meet the high needs of these children during after school care activities. Although afterschool staff/participants described a willingness to continue providing this support in the classroom, they felt access to more information and specialized training for meeting these students needs would create greater confidence about their capacity to help thing for who need a special help. Finally, staff/participants felt that the main support children with special needs required is social integration. Staff planned various games and activities that everyone could participate in to help children with special needs to feel included. / Denna uppsats handlar om fritidspersonalens erfarenheter och uppfattningar av sin yrkesroll när det kommer till elever som är i behov av särskilt stöd i skolan och på fritidshemmet. Undersökningen behandlar frågorna vilken hjälp dessa elever får av fritidspersonal både under skoltid och på fritidshemmet, och vilken roll fritidspersonal har när det kommer till elever med särskilda behov. Denna undersökning är grundad på kvalitativa intervjuer med fritidspersonal från Stockholmsområde. I studien undersöks inkludering ur ett teoretiskt och praktiskt perspektiv samt analyseras med hjälp av Per-John Ödmans hermeneutiska teori för att tolka och förstå fritidspersonalens tankar och erfarenheter om deras roll under skoltid och på fritidshemmet med elever som är i behov av särskilt stöd. Önskan till utbildning inom olika diagnoser kom fram i undersökningen där fritidspersonalen ville känna sig mer trygga i bemötande av elever med särskilda behov. Informanterna som deltog i denna undersökning fungerade även som resurs för elever med särskilda behov under skoltid, vilken gjorde att de har upplevt saknad ork och energi på grund av långa arbetstimmar när de arbetade på fritidshemmet efteråt. Intervjupersonerna var i allmänhet villiga att hjälpa och stötta elever med särskilda behov, men alla har upplevt en viss osäkerhet samt saknad kunskap för att stötta dessa elever. Personalen har även varit osäkra när det gäller bemötande av dessa elever och om vilka material som skulle hjälpa eleverna att lättare kunna klara av skolarbeten. Det kom fram att inkludering som arbetssätt har använts dagligen, speciellt på fritidshemmet där genom lekar och olika aktiviteter är det lättare att integrera eleverna med särskilda behov med andra, så att dem känner sig inkluderade.

Syftet med denna kvalitativa studie har varit att undersöka förskollärares definition av omsorgssvikt, samt om emotioner påverkar att förskollärare gör en anmälan till socialtjänsten gällande omsorgssvikt. Empirin samlades in med kvalitativa intervjuer av fyra förskollärare, som hade erfarenhet av anmälan till socialtjänsten. Intervjuerna analyserades med hjälp av teori om omsorgssvikt, emotioner samt interaktionsritualer. Studien ger inblick och förståelse för förskolepersonalens kunskap och erfarenheter av omsorgssvikt samt om hur emotioner formar relationer mellan de inblandade och kan påverka en anmälan. Resultatet visade att förskollärarnas definition av omsorgssvikt inte består av ett visst antal tecken, utan att de bildar sig en helhetsuppfattning av barnets situation. Studien visar att emotioner kan påverka att en anmälan görs, både genom att förskollärarna tvekar och därmed förlänger processen, men också genom att en anmälan överhuvudtaget inte alls upprättas. / The aim of this qualitative study was to study pre-school teachers´ definition of child maltreatment, and the impact of emotions in reporting child maltreatment to the Social Services. The empirical data was collected through qualitative in-depth interviews of four pre-school teachers, who were all experienced in reporting child maltreatment to the Social Services. The interviews were analyzed using emotion theory, theory on child maltreatment and interaction ritual theory. The study provides insight and understanding of their knowledge and experience of child maltreatment, how emotions shape the relationship between the people involved as well as how emotions affect reporting. The result shows that preschool teachers´ definition of child maltreatment is not composed of one or two signs of neglect, but by forming an overall picture of the child's situation. The study also shows that emotions can affect the reporting of child maltreatment both in the sense of actually reporting, as well as hesitating and therefore prolonging the process, but also possibly that the neglect is not reported at all.

School connectedness, defined as the cohesiveness between diverse groups in the school community, including students, families, school staff and the wider community, is a well-documented protective factor for child and adolescent health. However, strategies for promoting school connectedness are less well known. The Western Gateway Health Promoting Schools Grant Scheme is a program that aims to increase school connectedness by using the health promoting school approach in disadvantaged communities in South-East Queensland, Australia. The scheme provides an opportunity for schools to apply for funding to implement strategies that increase students' sense of school connectedness, using a Health Promoting School approach. Evaluation of the Western Gateway Health Promoting School Grant Scheme provided an opportunity to investigate the influence of the health promoting school approach on school connectedness. The influence of the health promoting school approach on school connectedness was evaluated using a qualitative case study methodology. Three school communities were investigated as single, related case studies to examine the impact of the health promoting school approach on school connectedness. A conceptual framework, based on the theoretical understanding of how the health promoting school approach influences school connectedness, was developed and used as a guide to investigate the relationships within the case study schools. The health promoting school model, which is a 'settings' approach to health promotion, has the potential to promote school connectedness as it is based on the inclusive, participatory, and democratic principles shown to be necessary for the development of social connectedness at the broader community level. The model illustrates this potential through two mechanisms 1) processes that are characterised by the inclusion of a diverse range of members that make up a community; the active participation of community members and equal 'power' relationships, or equal partnerships among community members; and 2) structures such as school policies, school organisation and the school physical environment, that reflect the values of participation, democracy and inclusion andor that promote processes based on these values. These processes and structures, which are located both in the classroom and within the broader school environment, collectively hold the potential to promote connectedness in the school setting. Data on these relationships were collected using in-depth interviews with representatives of groups within the school community such as school staff, parents, students, health service and community agency workers. Additionally, student focus groups and documentary evidence, such as school program reports and observations of health promoting school activities were used in the collection of data. Data sources were triangulated to gain a complete understanding of the impact of the health promoting school approach on school connectedness. Data analysis was conducted by categorising the data into themes and categories based on, but not limited to, the conceptual framework that guided data collection. Data display matrices enabled theoretical relationships between the health promoting school approach and school connectedness to be drawn. The results of the in-depth qualitative evaluation of the program show that the health promoting school approach influences school connectedness through the mechanisms of a 'whole-school approach' that encourage interaction between members of the whole school community. Specific activities that promoted school connectedness were 'whole school' activities that celebrated the school community, for example, the launch of a school cafd and 'whole-class' activities where students and school staff work together towards a shared goal, such as the planning of a school breakfast tuckshop. Activities that encouraged links between classes and school staff in a school community, for example, shared curriculum planning in the co-ordination of a school breakfast tuckshop program also contributed to school connectedness by promoting interaction among school community members. Health promoting school structures and processes help to develop mutual reciprocal relationships characterised by school community members getting to know others better and developing care and support for each other, which in turn develops into other indicators of school connectedness, such as tolerance of diversity, perceptions of being valued, trust, perceptions of safety, and decreased absenteeism. A key element of health promoting school structures and processes that enables the formation of these relationships is the inclusive nature of the approach, which encourages school community members to participate in the school community. This encourages the formation of mutual reciprocal relationships. A number of elements of the health promoting school approach encourage participation in the community. For example, the formation of mutual, reciprocal relationships requires activities that are economically inclusive, and characterised by a social, positive, fun or celebratory element; that are informal and well-managed. Specifically, events characterised by eating food together; real-life activities; activities the school community 'owns' by having a say in them; and activities that involve school community members working together are important for the development of mutual reciprocal relationships. These elements occur at the level of the school and the broader school community interactions, as well as at the level of the class and interactions between classes within the school. In summary, this research provides evidence that the health promoting school approach is an effective model to influence school connectedness, which in effect promotes the health and well-being of children and adolescents.

To address a gap in the empirical literature on Educational Psychology (EP) practice and on adoption, and to gain perspectives from the Local Authority (LA), this thesis describes collaborative action research conducted by an Educational Psychologist (EP) with adoptive parents to support their communications with school staff. Participants were members of an Adoption Support Group and colleagues in Social Care. Information was gathered via focus groups and semi-structured questionnaires to ascertain the types of difficulties expressed by adoptive parents and inform the processes of communication systems. Participatory action research empowered participants to engage in meaningful and purposeful actions of planning, designing and evaluating information. The research narrative reports on first person inquiry through personal reflection and learning. Second person inquiry was generated in the course of research interactions with participants and the data that emerged from their realities to inform practical learning in action. Third person inquiry moved towards thinking around explanations for issues and the generation of knowledge. Knowledge was developed about parents’ perspectives on the barriers and enabling factors involved in their communications with school staff. The action research approach captured the potential of the insider position to generate rich data in situ while promoting a collaborative response to the social situation faced by the adopters when communicating with school staff. My insider position as researcher, holding multiple roles as an adoptive parent, as an EP and LA officer, is actively acknowledged as influencing understanding and the conceptualisations of the findings. The participants collaborated in the generation of a resource that provided opportunities for insight into issues to improve working practice and may provide a tool to allow parents to communicate effectively with school staff. The resource supported two main recognised functions: practical structure and emotional support. Empowering approaches were those that respected their knowledge, used their language and meanings in an emancipatory way that removed barriers, and were inclusive of them and their children. Communication is enhanced by and depends on systems that are empowering for parents and staff to co-construct shared understandings.