This research is based on semi-structured interviews with thirty-two people who understand themselves to be suffering from health problems called ecological illness, or environmental hypersensitivity. The research examines the experience of ecological illness. Given that the medical status of ecological illness is controversial, and that troubles considered to be ecological illness are typically vague and non-specific, the study focuses on meanings and interpretive frameworks that are applied in the definition of such troubles; by those affected, by significant others, and by physicians. The analysis examines the nature and course over time of definitions of trouble-related identity and the social psychological and practical consequences of such definitions for respondents' illness experience. Because respondents largely define their troubles as physical health problems, a central issue in the analysis is the medical and social legitimation of illness claims. The research found that, in the course of seeking medical treatment and legitimation for their problems, people's experiences of trouble were typically discredited. They were long unable to resolve conflicts between a self-identity as sick and others' assessments of them as "not sick" or psychologically troubled. While the eventual diagnosis of hypersensitivity was a profound relief to people in many respects, it was often not recognized and accepted by others as a basis for informal or "official'' sick role considerations. Because of scepticism toward the concept of multiple sensitivities, many people continued to feel stigmatized by their problems. The study illustrates the impact and significance of controversies within medicine for the experience of certain kinds of health problems. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

I den här kvalitativa studien undersöks lärares erfarenheter av att motivera lässvaga elever att läsa skönlitteratur i skolan, både på lågstadiet och på högstadiet. Bakgrund till studien är de senaste årens tapp i internationella kunskapsmätningar och efterföljande diskussioner om undervisning i läsförståelse i pedagogiska och specialpedagogiska sammanhang. Studien bygger på elva semistrukturerade intervjuer med lärare verksamma på båda stadier. De transkriberade intervjuerna har analyserats genom tematisk analys och ställts i relation till Rosenblatts och Bringéus läsartsbegrepp, förklarade med literacy som teoretiskt ramverk. Eftersom det är läsning i skolmiljö som är i fokus för undersökningen, ställs även resultatet i relation till Nilholms dilemmaperspektiv samt inkluderingsbegrepp. Delstudierna visar att det finns vissa skillnader i hur lärare på låg- respektive högstadiet beskriver sitt arbete att motivera lässvaga elever till skönlitteraturläsning. Lågstadielärarna har generellt en mer positiv inställning till skönlitteraturläsning med elever, medan högstadielärarna upplever att skönlitteraturläsningen kan vara givande, men att många elever är omotiverade och att den lustfyllda läsningen är svår att bedöma.

This study examines how primary school teachers view peer assessment. Six teachers were interviewed by semi-structured interviews about how they work with peer assessment with pupils in primary school, how they introduce it and what pros and cons they find with this method of giving feedback. The interviews were summarized with the analytical method called meaning concentration. We used Vygotsky's theory about the zone of proximal development (ZPD) which represents the space between what a learner is capable of doing with a little help called scaffolding from another child. The result was compared to this theory from a sociocultural perspective in the analytical part. The result showed that three teachers used peer assessment as a routine in their class in different subjects, two teachers had used peer assessment earlier but didn’t practice it by the time we had the interviews. One teacher had not used peer assessment with pupils but insisted on potentially using it in the future. The benefit that the teachers saw with peer assessment was that the teachers could focus on the students that needed their help while the other students were used as learning resources to each other. Another benefit was that the pupils developed in their own learning by giving feedback to others, which also prepared them for the peer assessment they would meet in high school. The disadvantage was that it was time-consuming since it required a lot of training before letting the pupils work on their own. One more potential risk with peer assessment was that the quality of the feedback could vary a lot depending on the pupil’s skills of giving feedback. Receiving low quality constructive criticism could make some students feel discouraged to present their work again in this way. The teachers also gave some advice for how to introduce peer assessment in primary school. The conclusions of this study are that peer assessment in primary school requires a lot of time for training as well as the teacher being a role model for the class in order to avoid unwanted conflicts and discouraged students. It is also a good way to prepare the pupils for their future studies and help them develop their own skills in learning.

In an increasingly globalized world and with rapid advancement in technology, there is a need to grapple more intently with social implications of engineering and technology. In the engineering community, these trends direct us to more critically consider how engineering and technology affect humanity and to interact effectively in diverse populations. Empathy, an ability that is central to the process of understanding and considering others, has been recognized as a valuable competency in the education of engineers. In engineering education specifically, several studies have pursued definition of empathy in the engineering context and its importance in engineering curriculum. Studies suggest that service learning is a useful pedagogical approach for supporting students in the development of social competencies, including empathy. However, it is not clear how this development happens. In this dissertation, I sought to understand engineering students' experiences in a service-learning context to learn the ways in which empathy emerged in their descriptions and the elements of participants' experiences that shaped their empathy development. My participants were fourteen engineering students from two institutions, a small private university and a large public university, with both groups involved in at least one-semester of a service-learning course. I describe my phenomenological approach to this investigation and share my findings. Notably, I found eight main themes in my investigation of the role of empathy within the service-learning experiences described namely: changing perspective about others, having a sense of responsibility to others, keeping an open mind, inquiring of stakeholders, seeing others' points of view, understanding others' situations, being able to adjust goals and compromise and recognizing and/or welcoming difference. Additionally, I found both elements of participants' experiences designed into the course and those that were unprecedented relevant in shaping their empathy development. I also discuss the implications of these findings for engineering education and practice. / Doctor of Philosophy / In an increasingly globalized world and with rapid advancement in technology, there is a need to think more intentionally about social implications of engineering and technology. These trends make is necessary for the engineering education to incorporate critical consideration of how engineering and technology affect humanity and how to interact effectively in diverse populations. Empathy, an ability that is central to the process of understanding and considering others, has been recognized as a valuable competency in the education of engineers. Studies suggest that service learning is a useful pedagogical approach for supporting students in the development of social competencies like empathy. My aim in this dissertation was to understand engineering students' experiences in a service-learning context to learn the ways in which their descriptions reveal empathy and the elements within their context that shaped empathy development. My participants are fourteen engineering students from two institutions, a small private university and a large public university, with both groups involved in at least one-semester of a service-learning course. Having explored students' experiences, I discuss key findings about how and within which contexts empathy came to play in these experiences. There are many different ways that empathy can play a role within students' experiences in a service-learning context and many facets of an experience help draw out more empathic practices. In this dissertation, I discuss implications of these findings for engineering education and practice.

The advertising industry is increasingly concerned with communicating about sustainability in campaigns that are produced by creative departments within agencies. It therefore appears relevant to understand the outlook on sustainability of the very people in charge of promoting it, even more so when these people are women who have long been subjected to barriers and discriminations within the industry. This thesis focuses on the perspective of women working in advertising creativity in Italy, a country in which the most widespread ideas of womanhood are disempowering as well. Evidence from interviews conducted with seven professionals in the field indicate that participants make sense of sustainability as primarily environmental and distinct from social issues. They also perceive it as future-oriented, made of small actions, linked with positive feelings. Overall, this understanding limits the actionability of the concept. At the same time, women are confronted with professional and social barriers that diminish the strength of their potential contribution. These include a solely profit-oriented industry, cultural and political boundaries and gendered socio-professional challenges.

Background: Occupational therapy has undergone a paradigm shift back to a more occupation focused perspective. Occupational therapy theories mostly derive from a Western context and have been discussed as difficult to apply in other parts of the world. Aim: Was to describe occupational therapists' perspective towards implementation of occupation-based interventions [OBI] on elderly patients in communities in Northern Thailand. Method: A qualitative method with a semi-structured interview approach was conducted, following by a qualitative content analysis. Results: The results indicated that knowledge regarding OBI varied between the participants, some used and valued OBI highly, while it emerged that attitudes and expectations can complicate implementation. More resources are also needed. Conclusions: There is a need for more knowledge regarding OBI and more resources are needed to successfully implement OBI. Occupational therapists also need to include cultural values and attitudes in the process to successfully implement OBI. Implications: The result can be used to better understand how Thai occupational therapists work with elderly patients and their perspective on implementing OBI. The awareness of how culture affects occupation can be used in multicultural communities where occupational therapy is practiced.

The purpose of my study is to study pre-school teacher’s conceptions of free play. This study focuses teacher’s view of free play, its possibilities and obstacles as well as the environmental effects and a teacher’s views of their own effects, on free play. My study was done with the help of qualitative semi-structured interviews. This method was chosen as ameans to achieve a deeper and more elaborated response from the interviewee and to create space to pose follow-up questions during the interviews. The paper is split up into different sections to reflect that structure as well as to keep the paper cohesive and clear (Dysthe, Hertzberg & Løkensgard Hoel, 2014).   The results showed that while free play is in fact something which is given a high priority within the organization, it is not always as free as one would think. This is due in part to the fact that free play is rarely problematized or discussed. The consensus among teachers is that there are obstacles which block genuine free play and that free play is an important factor for development, learning and cooperation. A conclusion reached was that teacher’s would like to create an environment which encourages the development of a child’s play skills and to find the balance between freedom and rules. / Syftet med min undersökning är att ta reda på vad pedagoger i förskolan har för tankar om den fria leken. Min studie handlar om hur pedagogerna ser på fri lek, vad de ser för möjligheter och hinder samt hur deras egen roll och miljön påverkar. Undersökning genomfördes med hjälp av kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer. Metoden användes för att få djupare svar och för att ge utrymme till att ställa följdfrågor under intervjuerna. Arbetet indelas i olika rubriker för att ge det struktur samt att det blir mer överskådligt och entydigt (Dysthe, Hertzberg & Løkensgard Hoel, 2014). Resultatet av studien blev att den fria leken är något som ges stor plats i verksamheten men att den inte alltid är så fri som man tänker sig då den sällan diskuteras eller problematiseras. Samtliga pedagoger menar att det finns hinder för att leken ska bli just fri, som till exempel miljön men de var enade om den fria lekens betydelse för både utveckling, lärande och samspel. En slutsats blev att pedagogerna gärna vill skapa lekskickliga barn men att det är svårt att finna balansen mellan frihet och regler.

Syfte:Att undersöka barnmorskors upplevelser och erfarenheter av att ställa frågor om våld enligt nationella riktlinjer. Design: Intervjustudie baserade på nio enskilda semistrukturerade intervjuer som analyserats med kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Omgivning: Fem mödrahälsovårdscentraler i norra Sverige. Deltagare: Nio barnmorskor, som arbetade på landstingsägda och privata hälsocentraler. Barnmorskorna som var i åldrarna 34 – 62 år hade erfarenheter av att arbeta inom mödravården liksom förlossningsvården. (Alla deltagare gav muntligt och skriftligt medgivande på att delta i studien). Resultat: Deltagarnas upplevelser och erfarenheter att arbeta med stöd av riktlinjer och fråga om våldsutsatthet kan sammanfattas i det övergripandet temat: Behöver rätt verktyg för att våga öppna Pandoras ask. Kategorierna: Sakna förutsättningar för att arbeta på ett bra sätt, Övervinna hinder, Hantera egna känslor och Känna trygghet och stöd när arbetet känns svårt beskrev olika aspekter av upplevelser och erfarenheter. Slutsats: Trots att riktlinjerna upplevs som stöd för arbetet visade studien att frågan om våld kan vara svår att ställa på grund av olika omständigheter. Barnmorskan kan då välja att avstå från att fråga eller skjuta upp frågan till ett senare tillfälle i det enskilda fallet trots medvetenhet om att hon ska ställa frågan. Kliniska implikationer: Mer utbildning och fortbildning behövs för barnmorskornas trygghet i att arbeta våldspreventivt. De riktlinjer som finns kan behöva utvecklas och förbättras för att minska osäkerheten vid olika dilemman när barnmorskan ska fråga om våldsutsatthet. / Objective: To explore midwive´s experiences of posing questions about intimate partner violence according to national guidelines.Design: Interview study with individual semi-structured interviews using qualitative content analysis for analysis.Setting: Five antenatal clinics in northern Sweden.Participants: Nine midwives, working in public and private antenatal care clinics. Midwives aged 34 to 62 years with experiences in antenatal health care as well as delivery care participated. All participants gave their verbal and written concent to participate in the study.Results: Participants´ experiences working with support of the guidelines and terms of intimate partner violence can be summed up in the overarching theme: Need to have the right tools to dare open Pandora´s box. The categories: Lack of opportunities to work in a good way, Overcoming barriers, Manage your own emotions and Feel safety and support when work feels difficult described different aspects of experiences.Conclusion: Although the guidelines are perceived as supporting the work study showed that the issue of violence can be difficult to make because of the different circumstances. The midwife can then choose to refrain from asking or defer the matter to a later date in the case despite awareness that she should ask the question.Clinical implications: More education and training is needed to increase midwives security in violence prevention work. The guidelines need to be developed and improved in order to reduce uncertainty at various dilemmas when the midwife to ask about intimate partner violence.

Cloud computing popularity has continued to be on the increase side, and it has been significant contributory factor to the of 24/7 365 days business culture of the digital 21st century where data and data centers are accessed via the internet through any connected device, anytime and from anywhere. Higher Education Institutions (HEI) or Tertiary Education Institution (TEI) are also among organisations, medium and large, that are tapping into this trend by gradually adopting this technology to reduce their high budgets in the prevailing face of financial shortage. This has particularly made the technology attractive to TEI in developing countries, and more of them are adopting the services being offered by cloud computing. The adoption of this technology however, affects the way and manner by which IT services are being delivered traditionally by the TEI IT or ICT departments. The objective of this study therefore, is to explore the adoption of this phenomenal technology and its impact on the role of traditional IT department in one of the tertiary education institution in the South Western part of Nigeria. The TOE framework adoption model was used to explore the adoption factors, and interviews conducted within the ICT department of the institution as part of the empirical findings process. In contrary to popular belief, no member of the IT staff has lost his or her job yet based on the adoption despite the impact on the skills and culture in service delivery of the department. IT staffs were encouraged to adapt to the change as quickly as possible with trainings given, and the ICT, thus the HEI have value added as most of the services are now available on a 24-hour basis to users, even while off campus and far remote, a dream very difficult and near impossible in the days of full traditional IT services delivery.

This work takes off in earlier studies concerning motivational factors to interact in various social media in relation to societal and political discussions. The aim for this study is to garner a deeper understanding about how users on Twitter are motivated to take part in debates beneath the hashtag #svpol. Also, this work contributes with the personal experience of entering the Twittersphere as a new user without the capital of trust or knowledge prerequisite to the participation in the community of #svpol. Through semi-structured interviews six respondents shared their experiences of political dialogue on Twitter. Further, this study presents a new form of gathering data by using Twitter as a channel for textual responses through the function of Direct Messages where 3 respondents answered in text. The results presented confirms earlier theory in some respects regarding motivational factors to engage in political commentary and debate on Twitter. Also, this study presents nuances which can be recognized as pre-dispositioning motivational factors addressed in earlier research. The respondents in this work show differences in their social orientation displaying both relation orientation and antagonistic features in the community of #svpol. Their motivation and gratifications differ, and the result are discussed and concluded in the final chapter. This study does not generalize by the findings presented, rather it describes a small window of the community of #svpol and political commentary on Twitter. Rather than posing any absolute truths or widely held conceptions, this study contributes by giving some depth to the notion of nine Twitter users and their perception of the activity beneath #svpol on the Twitter platform. This work also shines light hardships which a researcher might encounter on the way to a qualitative approach to Twitter users in a general, largely anonymous, network within a national setting.