The software engineering community is concerned with improvements in existing methods and development of new and better methods. The research approaches applied to take on this challenge have hitherto focused heavily on the formal and specifying aspect of the method. This has been done for good reasons, because formalizations are the means in software projects to predict, plan, and regulate the development efforts. As formalizations have been successfully developed new challenges have been recognized. The human and social role in software development has been identified as the next area that needs to be addressed. Organizational problems need to be solved if continued progress is to be made in the field. The social element is today a little explored area in software engineering. Following with the increased interest in the social element it has been identified a need of new research approaches suitable for the study of human behaviour. The one sided focus on formalizations has had the consequence that concepts and explanation models available in the community are one sided related in method discourses. Definition of method is little explored in the software engineering community. In relation to identified definitions of method the social appears to blurring. Today the software engineering community lacks powerful concepts and explanation models explaining the social element. This thesis approaches the understanding of the social element in software engineering by applying ethnomethodologically informed ethnography and ethnography. It is demonstrated how the ethnographic inquiry contributes to software engineering. Ethnography is also combined with an industrial cooperative method development approach. The results presented demonstrate how industrial external and internal socio political contingencies both hindered a method implementation, as well as solved what the method was targeted to do. It is also presented how project members’ method deployment - as a social achievement is played out in practice. In relation to this latter contribution it is provided a conceptual apparatus and explanation model borrowed from social science, The Documentary method of interpretation. This model addresses core features in the social element from a natural language point of view that is of importance in method engineering. This model provides a coherent complement to an existing method definition emphasizing formalizations. This explanation model has also constituted the underpinning in research methodology that made possible the concrete study results.

Η παρούσα εργασία μελετά την επίδραση του κοχλιακού εμφυτεύματος στην κοινωνική και ακαδημαϊκή πρόοδο των κωφών μαθητών με κοχλιακό εμφύτευμα πρωτοβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης σύμφωνα με τις απόψεις των εκπαιδευτικών τους. Στην έρευνα συμμετείχαν 24 παιδιά ηλικίας 2 έως 14 ετών με κοχλιακό εμφύτευμα τα οποία φοιτούσαν σε ειδικά σχολεία και αξιολογήθηκαν από τους εκπαιδευτικούς τους στον τομέα της επικοινωνίας, της ακαδημαϊκής και κοινωνικής προόδου συμπληρώνοντας ένα ερωτηματολόγιο για το κάθε παιδί. Τα αποτελέσματα έδειξαν ότι οι μαθητές αυτοί είχαν αναπτύξει ορισμένες επικοινωνιακές δεξιότητες, η κοινωνική τους πρόοδος ήταν κατάλληλη για την ηλικία τους και είχαν διαμορφώσει ταυτότητα κωφού ατόμου, αλλά σε ακαδημαϊκό επίπεδο υπολείπονταν σε σχέση με τους ακούοντες συνομηλίκους τους. Σημαντική επίδραση στους παραπάνω τομείς φάνηκε να έχει η ύπαρξη επιπρόσθετων αναπηριών, η ηλικία εμφύτευσης, ο χρόνος χρήσης του εμφυτεύματος και η μέθοδος επικοινωνίας του σχολείου. Τέλος, γίνεται μια προσπάθεια να αξιοποιηθούν τα αποτελέσματα αυτά και να ληφθούν υπόψη από τους εκπαιδευτικούς για να βελτιωθεί η εκπαίδευση των κωφών μαθητών με κοχλιακό εμφύτευμα. / This paper examines the social and academic outcomes of deaf students with cochlear implants from the perspectives of their teachers. The participants were 24 children aged from 2 to 14 years old who attended special primary schools. Their teachers completed a survey for each child with a cochlear implant about their communication, academic and social outcomes. The results revealed that the students with cochlear implants seemed to show improvements in the area of communication, they also had age-appropriate social skills, while they developed an identity as a deaf person, but they lagged behind their hearing peers in academic achievement. Significant factors influencing the social, and academic progress of these students seemed to be the additional disabilities, the age of implantation, the usage of cochlear implant and the communication approach used in special schools. Finally, implications for teachers working with deaf students with cochlear implants are discussed in order to improve the education of the deaf.