The purpose of this study is to analyse and describe social work students’ view on a person with self-injurious behaviour and the following issues. The aim and focus is on the general depiction. The theoretical perspectives have been intersectionality and its focus on social constructivism, and gender perspectives. The method was semi-structured interviews with eight social work students at Linnaeus University Kalmar. The collected data was the social work students’ opinions and it was contrasted with the previous research and was analysed from the above perspectives. The main conclusion is that social work students’ view on a person with self-injurious behaviour generally not consistent with the previous research. Previous research says that a person with self-injurious behaviour generally is a young, blonde, normal female. The majority of the social work students say that a person with self-injurious behaviour is a depressed, young female with dark hair and dark clothes. The social work students focus more on why a person goes to such extremes and hurts themselves.

Aim. This study examines the attitudes of social work students towards LGBT-persons, and whether the students perceive that the content of the social work program provides competence on LGBT related questions. The theoretical frame of reference is based upon queer theory. Method. A quantitative method was adopted to address the aims and objectives of this study. The study is limited to comprise of social work students from 3-7 semesters, from a Swedish university. A survey based upon earlier surveys and containing 41 statements was translated from English to Swedish. The survey was emailed to 245 social work students through the university’s email system.  Results. Findings suggest that the majority of the social work students demonstrate tolerant attitudes towards LGBT-persons while a minority show negative attitudes. Further results suggest that most students do not believe that the educational content of the social work program sufficiently addresses LGBT related questions. The majority of the social work students estimates their competence in LGBT-questions as neutral or neither. The results further show a significant negative correlation between attitudes towards LGBT-persons and educational content, as well as between content and competence. Significant differences between semesters and perceived educational content was found. Conclusion. The study concludes a low level of heterosexism among social work students, a lack of competence of LGBT-related questions and an insufficient course content. The results partially confirm the study's hypotheses but also indicate other correlations. Course content offering more in-depth insights into LGBT-issues is seen as an area of improvement within the social work program. To conclude, this study is the first to investigate the subject at national level and therefore further research within this field is both suggested and recommended. / Syfte. Denna studie undersöker socionomstudenters attityder gentemot LHBT-personer och huruvida de anser att utbildningsinnehållet på socionomprogrammet ger kompetens om LHBT-frågor. Studiens teoretiska referensram är baserad på queerteori. Metod. Studien använder kvantitativ metod för att besvara studiens syfte. Studien är avgränsad till att innefatta socionomstudenter mellan termin 3–7 på ett lärosäte i Sverige. Enkäten innehåller 41 påståenden vilka är baserade på tidigare studier. Påståendena är översatta från engelska till svenska och har mailats till 245 socionomstudenter via lärosätets mailsystem. Resultat. Enkätstudiens svar fann att de flesta socionomstudenter uppvisar toleranta attityder gentemot LHBT-personer, men att det också finns studenter som uppvisar negativa attityder. Vidare framkommer att de flesta studenter upplever att utbildningsinnehållet på socionomprogrammet berör LHBT-frågor i låg utsträckning. Majoriteten av socionomstudenterna skattar sin kompetens om LHBT-frågor som varken eller. Resultaten visar att det finns ett signifikant negativt samband mellan attityder och utbildningsinnehåll samt mellan utbildningsinnehåll och upplevd kompetens. Signifikanta skillnader går att finna mellan terminer och upplevt utbildningsinnehåll. Slutsats. Sammanfattningsvis fann studien en låg grad av heterosexism bland socionomstudenter, en avsaknad av kompetens kring LHBT-frågor samt bristande utbildningsinnehåll. Resultaten bekräftar delvis studiens hypoteser men påvisar också andra samband. Kursinnehåll som mer specifikt behandlar LHBT-frågor ses som ett förbättringsområde på socionomprogrammet. Den aktuella studien är den första att undersöka ämnet på nationell nivå och vidare forskning inom ämnet föreslås och rekommenderas.

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The social services in Sweden currently face significant issues regarding recruitment and layoffs. A substantial portion of the public debate and media coverage casts a negative light on social services. The aim of this study is to examine the attitudes of future social workers towards social services as an employer. Furthermore, the study aims to investigate how social work students perceive and are influenced by both public perceptions and negative media coverage. This study is based on semi-structured interviews with six social work students in their seventh semester at Malmö University. Social interactionism is used as the theoretical framework for analyzing the collected data material. The data has been analyzed using thematic analysis. The results indicate that the majority of social work students hold a negative view of social services as a future employer. They also perceive public attitudes as primarily negative, with the negative media reporting having a significant role in shaping these negative perceptions of the social services. The results further demonstrate that social work students have adapted various behaviors to cope with the public attitudes both privately and professionally. A key finding is that social work students' prior experiences and associations with social services strongly influence their prospective choice of employer. The findings of this study show that social work students experience prejudice and a lack of understanding for their occupation. This perception is embedded in the public's ignorance and the media's negative coverage. The results suggest a need for increased awareness about the profession's nature and complexity among the general public.

This essay investigates the attitudes of social work students’ from Stockholm University, Sweden, towards people with autism and ADHD. The students participated in focus groups, where they discussed their thoughts and potential actions in the meeting with people with autism and ADHD. Through a thematic analysis, we identified the four following themes: perceptions; ignorance and its consequences; adaptation and actions tendencies; and needs of change. The results were then analyzed with a classic attitude theory. The results show that social work students mostly have positive attitudes towards people with autism and ADHD and that it is important to consider them like anybody else and to have knowledge about the disabilities, which leads to a helping and supporting preparedness towards them. Social work student has a strong will to help people with autism and ADHD but sometimes feel that society and organizations prevent them from doing so. In conclusion, social work students have a caring attitude, wants more knowledge about diagnoses and wants to help and do more for people with autism and ADHD.

<p>The present thesis examines the possible reasons social workers have for entering and eventually graduating from the Social Work Department in Iraklio, Greece. It is a three-phase study, consisting of three distinct but related research parts; each research part is built upon knowledge, issues and questions derived from the preceding part.</p><p>My background in sociology influenced the choice of theoretical perspectives; I was not interested in investigating students’ choice from a psychologically-based perspective. Bourdieu (e.g. 1977; 1987) and the work of others who have drawn on and developed his work (e.g. Hodkinson & Sparkes, 1997; Reay, 1998a) constituted a theoretical framework. In addition, theoretical perspectives which recognise the interplay between individual and structural factors (e.g. Kasimati, 1991) also proved useful. In this work both quantitative and qualitative approaches (grounded theory, narrative analysis) were employed.</p><p>The findings contradict views that stress the degree of free choice people have about work; it is clear that external structural factors limit or contribute to the shaping of this choice. This is not to say, however, that the findings stress the determining influence of solely external factors on students’ choice. Students in this thesis describe actively making decisions; they are players in the field of education. They enter the field with unequal amounts of capital (economic, cultural); thus, although in theory everyone is free to play, not everyone is equal. To the extent that they have different social backgrounds (gender, class), their classed-and-gendered habitus differs as well. In the process of students’ educational choice, their habitus along with the particular educational system (with all its opportunities and restrictions) influence students’ horizons for action, their perceptions of what is available and appropriate for them. The high value placed on higher education (educational fetishism) is another factor influencing students’ horizons for action. In the context of their horizons for action, students employ a variety of strategies in order to enter higher education (e.g. the way they prepare for the exams, their ranking of Schools in preference order etc). The outcome of these strategies is their admission to the Social Work Department, which may have been intended or unintended. After having entered Social Work, additional factors influence students’ educational choice; experiences within the School (e.g. practice tutorials) contribute to their attitude towards social work and their studies, thus to their decision to graduate from the Social Work Department. Students’ decision-making process is made up of patterns of routine experience interspersed with turning points.</p>

The present thesis examines the possible reasons social workers have for entering and eventually graduating from the Social Work Department in Iraklio, Greece. It is a three-phase study, consisting of three distinct but related research parts; each research part is built upon knowledge, issues and questions derived from the preceding part. My background in sociology influenced the choice of theoretical perspectives; I was not interested in investigating students’ choice from a psychologically-based perspective. Bourdieu (e.g. 1977; 1987) and the work of others who have drawn on and developed his work (e.g. Hodkinson &amp; Sparkes, 1997; Reay, 1998a) constituted a theoretical framework. In addition, theoretical perspectives which recognise the interplay between individual and structural factors (e.g. Kasimati, 1991) also proved useful. In this work both quantitative and qualitative approaches (grounded theory, narrative analysis) were employed. The findings contradict views that stress the degree of free choice people have about work; it is clear that external structural factors limit or contribute to the shaping of this choice. This is not to say, however, that the findings stress the determining influence of solely external factors on students’ choice. Students in this thesis describe actively making decisions; they are players in the field of education. They enter the field with unequal amounts of capital (economic, cultural); thus, although in theory everyone is free to play, not everyone is equal. To the extent that they have different social backgrounds (gender, class), their classed-and-gendered habitus differs as well. In the process of students’ educational choice, their habitus along with the particular educational system (with all its opportunities and restrictions) influence students’ horizons for action, their perceptions of what is available and appropriate for them. The high value placed on higher education (educational fetishism) is another factor influencing students’ horizons for action. In the context of their horizons for action, students employ a variety of strategies in order to enter higher education (e.g. the way they prepare for the exams, their ranking of Schools in preference order etc). The outcome of these strategies is their admission to the Social Work Department, which may have been intended or unintended. After having entered Social Work, additional factors influence students’ educational choice; experiences within the School (e.g. practice tutorials) contribute to their attitude towards social work and their studies, thus to their decision to graduate from the Social Work Department. Students’ decision-making process is made up of patterns of routine experience interspersed with turning points.

The aim of this study is to examine social workers' and social work students' attitudes towards people living with hiv in Sweden. I will also examine if there is a connection between knowledge and attitudes. The questions at issue are how social workers' and social work students' attitudes can assume to influence on their professional practice and what causes can affect their attitudes towards people living with hiv. The study is based on a qualitative method. The methods have been: conversational interviews with five social workers, who work with family issues and integration, and a focused group interview with four social work students. Both forms of interviews were combined with the vignette method. The theoretical framework of this study is symbolic interactionism. The result of the study indicates that both the social work students and the social workers lack adequate knowledge about hiv, however, the respondents are capable of reflecting and are able to put themselves into others' situations and therefore they will not discriminate their clients because of their disease. Results of the study also indicate that there is a great ambiguity among all of the respondents because of the lack of knowledge and adequate education.

I denna uppsats undersöks viktiga aspekter i känsliga samtal med barn och hur socialarbetare kan skapa förutsättningar för ett fungerande samtal. Uppsatsen är en del av en pilotstudie vars övergripande syfte är att framställa digitala lösningar för socionomstudenter att öva på inför känsliga samtal med barn. Uppsatsen bygger på kvalitativa intervjuer och utifrån dess syfte och frågeställningar har vi använt oss av grundad teori som metodval. Den grundade genomförda analysen resulterade i kategorierna 1) känslomässig hantering för ett professionellt bemötande, 2) flexibilitet och följsamhet, 3) samtalsmetoder och 4) sammanhangsmarkering. De slutsatser som dragits är att den som håller i samtalet behöver besitta förmågor som att kunna lyssna aktivt, härbärgera andras känslor och vara flexibel. Att vara flexibel innebär att vara följsam gentemot barnet såväl som att vara flexibel gällande samtalsmetoder och anpassa detta efter varje enskilt barn. Därutöver dras slutsatsen att en sammanhangsmarkering är viktigt för barnet att få före, under och efter samtalen. En sammanhangsmarkering är även viktig för att kunna bemästra att hålla i känsliga samtal med barn, vilket vi menar på att digitala lösningar för att öva på samtal kan vara ett bra verktyg för blivande socialarbetare som kommer att jobba med barn. / This paper aims to examine important aspects in sensitive conversations with children and how social workers can manage to create prerequisites to make the conversations work out in a functional way. The paper is a part of a pilot study which aims to create digital solutions for social work students to practice sensitive conversations with children in a digital environment. Our study is based on qualitative interviews and the methodology used for analysis is constructivist grounded theory. The analysis has resulted in the core categories 1) emotional management to achieve a professional approach, 2) flexibility and adaptability, 3) conversational methods and 4) context markers. The result shows that the professional who is leading the conversation needs to be able to practice active listening, to harbor other peoples (the children) feelings and to be flexible. To be flexible means to be able to adopt the approach to every individual child, but also to be adjustable towards what conversational methods to be used, so that every individual’s need can be met. In conclusion, it is important in the treatment of a child to mark out the context of the conversation and situation for the child before, during and after the conversation. To mark out the context of the conversation is also important for the social worker to be able to master the conversation. Using digital solutions in order to practice on sensitive conversations can be an effective tool to build up context markers for the social worker and therefore get more comfortable to lead difficult conversations.

Under år 2022 uppmärksammades och diskuterades socionomutbildningens utformning, både i debattartiklar och av undervisande lektorer på socionomprogrammen. Inom socionomprogrammen diskuterades det även bland elever om hur pass förberedda de kände sig inför det kommande yrkeslivet som socionom. Många studenter tycktes förespråka praktiska moment under sin utbildning. Med anledning av studenternas syn på praktiska förberedelser används i studien det teoretiska ramverket Learning by Doing utifrån dess lämplighet att tillämpa praktisk kunskap för att stärka inlärning hos individen. Denna bakgrund ligger till grund för studiens syfte, att utifrån en kvantitativ metod undersöka hur pass förberedda socionomstudenter under termin sex upper sig vara inför sitt framtida yrkesliv. Utifrån ambitionen att kvantifiera studenternas känslor och bereda tillgång till en större mängd data användes webbenkät som datainsamlingsmetod. Totalt valde sex universitet att medverka, vilket resulterade i totalt 103 respondenter, vilket har bidragit till studiens resultat. Studiens resultat visade på intressanta fynd. För det första fanns ingen association mellan tidigare erfarenhet och respondenternas känsla av förberedelse inför det kommande yrkeslivet. För det andra fanns det en association, likt det teoretiska ramverket och tidigare forskning, mellan studenternas verksamhetsförlagda utbildning och deras förberedelse för det kommande yrkeslivet. För det tredje testades även respondenternas association mellan erhållen kunskap inom myndighetsutövning och professionella samtal, vilket resulterade i att det fanns en association mellan respondenternas kunskap och känslan av förberedelse. Slutligen visade studiens tester rimligtvis på att desto mer kunskap studenterna uppgav sig fått från utbildningen, desto mer förberedda kände de sig. Sammantaget och utifrån studiens resultat föreslås ytterligare praktiska moment inom utbildningen för att stärka socionomstudenters känsla av förberedelse inför det kommande yrkeslivet.