In this study the author investigates the nature of compassion, ways of developing compassion within ourselves, and ways of bringing compassion into schools. The author sees an imbalance and disconnection in the current Ontario public school system, between education of the mind (to have) and education of the heart (to be). This is demonstrated in the heightening violence in schools, because violence in schools means that students do not feel connected to and are not happy in their schools. To accomplish this purpose, the author explores the different ways we can connect—within ourselves, with classroom subjects, with students in the school, and with the community at large—through life stories of four holistic educators, including herself. Three have taught in Buddhist, Waldorf, and Montessori schools, which all foster compassion not only through empathy, caring, and love, but also through emotional and moral components of heart education, such as intuition, creativity, imagination, joy (Miller, 2006), and moral education (Noddings, 1992). The enquiry uses qualitative research and narrative method that includes portraiture and arts-based enquiry. The findings in the participants’ narratives reveal that compassion comprises spirituality, empathy, and caring. We can develop compassion through contemplation in an awareness of interconnection between the I and the Other. In conclusion, we can foster compassion in schools if we use holistic education’s basic principles of balance, inclusion, and connection (Miller, 1981, 1993, 1994, 1999, 2000, 2006, 2007, 2010), and if we bring in different ways of fostering compassion that the author has explored through four holistic teachers’ narratives in this study. By nurturing and connecting to students’ hearts, rather than forcing knowledge into their heads, it is possible to create schools where students are happy and feel connected to their learning.

The purpose of this study is to gain understanding of how self employed entrepreneurs (hereafter referred to as “entrepreneurs”) develop their competence based on their perceived learning space. The main question is: How do these entrepreneurs develop their competence based on their perceived learning space? Other questions relevant for the study are: How important is the social environment for these entrepreneurs and how do they interact with their social environment in order to develop their competence. The study has a qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews with six entrepreneurs were conducted, during March and April 2008. The main finding of this study is the process by which the entrepreneurs develop their competence based on their perceived learning space. This is done through interaction with the entrepreneurs’ social environment. With a specific work task in mind, the entrepreneur evaluates his/her own competence in order to solve the task at hand, and in parallell search for the needed competence in his/her social environment. The social environment is therefore found to be very important to the entrepreneurs in the study. The active and conscious interactions lead to learning and in turn to development of the individual competence. This approach is essential for the entrepreneur to keep up-to-date and to stay attractive on the work market. Another finding in the study is how the entrepreneurs are forced to be more selective in the development of their competence, compared to a traditional employee, i.e. the entrepreneur needs to be more aware of whether he or she will gain anything from engaging in the specific activity. The responsibility for development of the individual competence lies solely on the entrepreneur. The development of the competence is however not separated from the overall responsibility of the business, but can be seen as part of the daily work.

Introduction: La participation sociale "optimale" peut se définir comme une congruence parfaite entre les attentes de l'individu et sa réalité. La conciliation travail-famille fait appel à l'équilibre des différentes sphéres de vie du travailler. On peut alors s'interroger sur la perception de l'optimalité qu'ont les professionnels de la réadaptation quant à leur propre niveau de participation, conciliant plusieurs sphéres de vie et les facteurs qui influencent cette participation. But: Explorer la perception de l'optimalité de la participation sociale chez des professionnels de la réadaptation et les facteurs identifiés par ces derniers comme l'influençant. Méthode: Étude qualitative d'orientation phénoménologique auprés de treize professionnels de la réadaptation à l'aide d'un guide d'entrevue composé de questions ouvertes. Les données recueillies ont été enregistrées sur bande audio et transcrites intégralement (verbatim) suivi d'une analyse de contenu. Résultats: Les participants, majoritairement des femmes (12/13) étaient âgés de 31 à 44 ans et avaient entre un et trois enfants dont l'âge variait de 7 mois à 12 ans. L'optimalité de la participation est perçue comme: la possibilité (ou non) d'accomplir ses activités significatives tout en prenant en charge ses différentes responsabilités. Parmi les cinq facteurs environnementaux perçus comme ayant une influence (l'aspect financier, le soutien du conjoint, le temps, la flexibilité des horaires au travail et la structure familiale) la structure familiale apparait comme déterminante du possible et influence ainsi grandement les attentes individuelles.Conclusion: La conciliation travail-famille est un phénomène complexe qui gagne à être étudié dans sa globalité plutôt qu'en silo. / Introduction: Optimal social participation, which is the ultimate goal targeted by rehabilitation professionals for their clients, can be defined as perfect congruence between an individual's expectations and reality. Work-family dynamic requires balance between the different spheres of a worker's life. This raises questions about the perception that rehabilitation professionals have regarding their own optimal social participation, reconciling various life spheres, and the factors influence this participation. Purpose: To explore the perception of rehabilitation professionals regarding their optimal social participation, and the factors they identify as influencing this participation. Method: Qualitative study with a phenomenological orientation among 13 rehabilitation professionals using an interview guide consisting of open questions. The data was audio-recorded and transcribed in full (verbatim) followed by content analysis. Results: Participation were mostly women (12/13) aged 31 to 44 years having one to three children aged from 7 months to 12 years old. Optimality of participation is perceived as the ability (or not) to carry out important activities while fulfilling one's various responsibilities. Of the five environmental factors perceived to have an influence (financial aspects, spousal support, time, flexible work schedule, and family organization), family organization appears to be a determinant of possibility and thus greatly influences individual expectations. Conclusion: Work-life balance is a complex phenomenon that should be studied holistically rather in a siloed mode.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst., 2003. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Många anhöriga till officerare som tjänstgjort i internationell insats har upplevt negativa fysiska och psykiska besvär under och efter insatsen. Men hur påverkar detta officeren när denne ska återgå till det ordinarie arbetet eller åka på nästa insats, sett från en psykosocial arbetsmiljöaspekt? Och förändras detta med anledning av de nya lagstadgade kraven om tjänstgö-ringsskyldighet och uppföljningsansvar? Detta handlar en del av studien om. Den andra delen av studien beskriver hur ett framtida anhörigstöd kan utformas, kopplat till de nya kraven. Studien syftar till att ge en ökad förståelse till att officer och anhöriga tillsammans utgör en ge-mensam social ordning och att ge underlag till fortsatt forskning. Vidare syftar studien till att bidra med konkreta förslag till anhörigstöd till myndigheter och organisationer som idag arbetar med det. Studiens empiri erhålls genom djupintervjuer med sex långvariga partner till officerare som kom-pletteras med textempiri. Studien påvisar att det finns tendens till ett meningssamband mellan anhörigas upplevda välbefin-nande och officerens psykosociala arbetsmiljö. Studien föreslår vidare att det framtida anhörigstö-det utformas utifrån principerna erfarenhetsbaserat, flexibelt och tillgängligt, där en begränsad del föreslås bli obligatoriskt. / A lot of relatives to officers who has served in international operations have been af-fected by negative physical and psychological impacts. But in what way has this affected the officer when it’s time to readjust to the normal work or when preparing the next mission from a psychosocial working environment point-of-view? And does this change in accordance with new Swedish laws of official duty and rehabilitation responsibility? That´s the first issue in the essay. The other issue covers how the future Swedish relative support can be designed. The essay has shown a tendency to causality between the relatives’ perception of well-being and the officer´s psychosocial working environment. Further, the essay proposes that future relative support shall be based on the principles previous experienced, flexibility and availability with a limited mandatory part.

Diplomová práce se zabývá současnou podobou rodiny, jejími hodnotami, výchovnými přístupy, formami vzájemné komunikace, rodinného uspořádání a jejím vlivem na život a chování dítěte. Teoretická část vychází z odborné literatury věnující se oblastem rodinného života, dítěti a výchově. Postupně jsou v ní zpracována jednotlivá témata, která s rodinou a výchovou souvisejí (typy rodiny, funkce rodiny, výchovné styly atd.) Výzkumná část byla založena na kvalitativním přístupu, v jehož rámci byla provedena případová studie tří rodin s dětmi. Každá ze studií je podrobně rozpracována a odhaluje zákonitosti života a výchovných přístupů v současné rodině. Z výsledků této studie vyplývá, že současní rodiče dávají přednost demokratickému až liberálnímu stylu výchovy, který je mnohem náročnější, než po staletí užívaný autoritativní přístup. A že větší výchovný úspěch přijde pravděpodobně tam, kde je v rodině emocionálně pozitivní prostředí, rodiče jsou starostliví a stanovují jasná pravidla. Klíčová slova: rodina, rodiče, výchovné přístupy rodičů, rodinné prostředí, dítě, dětství, přístup k dítěti, výchova

Presented work deals with analysis and description of the pastoral approaches of youth workers in the Salesian youth centres. The common characteristics of the Salesian youth centres are presented in the introductory part of the work. At first this theoretic part deals with the common conception of the Salesian youth pastoral ministry, afterwards deals with the official Czech conception. Second part of the work is applied. It is focused on the qualitative research realised in autumn 2007. It involved 18 respondents from the Salesian youth centres. This applied part starts with description of the research preparation and continues with description of the research process. Finally it deals with the data synthesis. There is a list of the results at the end of this part. There is a large supplement of the data attached at the end of the work.

The diploma paper addresses the topic of the relation between systemic constellations, social environment and social work. The objective of the paper was to ascertain for what reasons clients most often use this method of work. The questions we wished to be answered were for example how the respondents came across systemic constellations, how long their decision-making lasted, and what primary impulse was the most important one. It was also interesting to learn what experience they had with this method of work, what effect on their life they perceived and what benefit for themselves they saw in the method. The paper includes description of the course of their first experience with their own constellation which had been elaborated for them.

La lutte traditionnelle est un duel qui, dans les pratiques, s'envisage dans une dynamique collective. Le lutteur est imprégné d’un espace de pratique qui reflète l’environnement social. Il prend appui sur son expérience individuelle mais sa pratique s’inscrit dans un imaginaire social. Le lutteur intègre un groupe dans lequel il acquiert les rudiments de la lutte et avec lequel il dispute ses combats. L’entourage du lutteur s’implique, de manière différenciée, dans les différents temps de la lutte. Aujourd’hui, ce jeu culturel, de nature corporelle et physique, tend à participer de manière significative à la transformation des relations sociales, comme levier dans l’acquisition d'un statut social, en termes de reconnaissance. Notre démarche de recherche s’appuie essentiellement sur le terrain. Il est question de comprendre le processus par lequel les acteurs lutteurs, dans un parcours qui leur est propre et dans le contexte spécifique du village lébou de M’bao, s'approprient la pratique de la lutte traditionnelle. / The traditional wrestling is a duel that is practically envisioned in a collective dynamic.The wrestler is impregnated with a space for practice that reflects the social environment. He gets support from his individual experience but his practice is registered in a social imaginary. The wrestler integrates a group that helps him acquire the rudiments of wrestling and with which he plays his battles.Those close to the wrestler involve in different ways during the diverse times of the wrestling match. Nowadays, this cultural game that is bodily and physical in nature tends to significantly participate in the transformation of the social relationships as a lever to acquire a social status in terms of acknowledgement. Our research method focuses essentially on the field. It is a matter of understanding the process through which the stakeholders, wrestlers- in a process that is specific to them and specially in the lebou village of M’bao take ownership of the practice of traditional wrestling.

Abstract The aim of this study was to construct a theory of an environment supporting the well-being of the home-dwelling elderly from Northern Finland. The development process proceeded as follows: 1) description of elements of environment supporting the well-being of home-dwelling elderly aged over 65 years (physical, social and symbolical environment) and, using concept synthesis, construction of hypothetical models of a physical, social and symbolic environment supporting well-being, 2) development of an indicator to test the hypothetical models and 3) testing the hypothetical models. The analysed data (N = 39) of the first stage consisted of theme interviews with home-dwelling elderly persons. Hypothetical models of an environment supporting the well-being of home-dwelling elderly were constructed using inductive concept synthesis. In the second stage, the reliability of the indicator designed to test the hypothetical models was evaluated by a panel of experts consisting of 15 students of nursing science and three doctors of Health Sciences. The data (n = 96) used to test the reliability of the second indicator consisted of the results of a postal questionnaire to elderly over the age of 65 from Northern Finland. The questionnaire also included questions about answering the indicator aimed further development. The data were analysed by looking at descriptive statistics and correlation coefficients. The data (n = 328) of the final stage of the study comprised again home-dwelling elderly from Northern Finland. The data were analysed using explorative and confirmatory factor analyses to test the hypothetical models. In addition, the data were analysed using statistical methods. According to the theory, an environment supporting the well-being of home-dwelling elderly from Northern Finland is made up by its physical, social and symbolical attributes. The attributes defining a physical environment supporting well-being are a northern environment, an environment ensuring safety and a pleasant physical environment. A social environment supporting well-being is made up of the availability of assistance, contact with family members, friends supporting well-being and a pleasant living community. A symbolic environment supporting well-being comprises the idealistic attributes of well-being, spirituality, the normative attributes of well-being and historicalness. The information gained from the study can be used to broaden the knowledge base of gerontological nursing science and gerontological nursing in supporting the health and well-being of home-dwelling elderly. / Tiivistelmä Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli rakentaa teoria kotona asuvien pohjoissuomalaisten ikääntyneiden hyvinvointia tukevasta ympäristöstä. Teorian kehittämisprosessi eteni seuraavasti: 1) kuvattiin kotona asuvien yli 65-vuotiaiden pohjoissuomalaisten ikääntyneiden hyvinvointia tukevan ympäristön osa-alueita (fyysinen, sosiaalinen ja symbolinen ympäristö) ja rakennettiin käsitesynteesin avulla hypoteettiset mallit hyvinvointia tukevista fyysisestä, sosiaalisesta ja symbolisesta ympäristöstä, 2) kehitettiin mittari hypoteettisten mallien testaamiseksi ja 3) testattiin hypoteettisia malleja. Ensimmäisen vaiheen analysoitavan aineiston (n = 39) muodostivat kotona asuvien yli 65-vuotiaiden ikääntyneiden teemahaastattelut. Induktiivisen käsitesynteesin avulla tuotettiin hypoteettiset mallit pohjoissuomalaisten ikääntyneiden hyvinvointia tukevasta ympäristöstä. Toisessa vaiheessa hypoteettisten mallien testaamiseksi kehitetyn mittarin luotettavuutta arvioi asiantuntijapaneelissa 15 hoitotieteen loppuvaiheen opiskelijaa sekä kolme terveystieteiden tohtoria. Toisen mittarin luotettavuuden testaamisessa käytetyn aineiston (n = 96) muodostivat pohjoissuomalaisten yli 65-vuotiaaiden ikääntyneiden postikyselyn vastaukset. Kyselylomake sisälsi myös mittariin vastaamista koskevia kysymyksiä sen edelleen kehittämiseksi. Aineisto analysoitiin tarkastelemalla tilastollisia tunnuslukuja ja korrelaatiokertoimia. Tutkimuksen viimeisen vaiheen aineisto (n = 328) muodostui niin ikään kotona asuvista pohjoissuomalaisista ikääntyneistä. Aineistolle tehtiin eksploratiiviset ja konfirmatoriset faktorianalyysit hypoteettisten mallien testaamiseksi. Lisäksi aineistoa analysoitiin tilastollisin menetelmin. Kehitetyn teorian mukaan pohjoissuomalaisten kotona asuvien ikääntyneiden hyvinvointia tukeva ympäristö rakentuu sen fyysisten, sosiaalisten ja symbolisten ominaisuuksien myötä. Hyvinvointia tukevaa fyysistä ympäristöä määrittävät pohjoinen ympäristö, turvallisen toiminnan mahdollistava ympäristö ja viihtyisä fyysinen ympäristö. Hyvinvointia tukeva sosiaalinen ympäristö rakentuu avun saamisesta, yhteydenpidosta omaisiin, ystävistä ja viihtyisästä asuinyhteisöstä. Hyvinvointia tukeva symbolinen ympäristö muodostuu hyvinvoinnin ideaalisista ominaisuuksista, hengellisyydestä, hyvinvoinnin normatiivisista ominaisuuksista ja historiallisuudesta. Tutkimuksessa tuotetulla tiedolla voidaan laajentaa gerontologisen hoitotieteen tietoperustaa tuettaessa kotona asuvien ikääntyneiden terveyttä ja hyvinvointia. Gerontologisessa hoitotyössä teoriaa voidaan käyttää eräänlaisena ajattelun tai päätöksenteon apuvälineenä jäsentämään ikääntyneiden hyvinvointia tukevaa ympäristöä.