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.

Autism-spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a group of neurodevelopmental disorders that are becoming increasingly more prevalent. A diagnostic criterion for autism is the presence of restricted, repetitive behaviours (RRBs), one of which is the intense fascinations for virtually any topic: circumscribed interests (CIs). CIs have the potential to be used for motivational purposes. This study employed semi-structured interviews using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) with individuals with ASDs and their parents. In total, 11 families participated in this study, comprising 33 individuals (16 parents and 17 individuals with ASDs). This study found five themes: He's Very Unique; They Don't Realize that Not Everyone Lives and Thinks the Same Thing All the Time; We Couldn't even Pronounce the Names of These Dinosaurs, and Jason was Telling Us; You Can't Change Them, You Can Only Love Them; and So I Can Do My Job at the Same Time and Observe the Weather at the Same Time.

Idag är psykisk ohälsa den vanligaste orsaken till långtidssjukskrivning i Sverige. Denna studie syftade till att undersöka vad det innebär för kvinnor att vara långtidssjukskrivna för psykisk ohälsa och återvända till arbetet. Datainsamlingen bestod av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Totalt intervjuades åtta kvinnor som varit sjukskrivna i minst två månader. Kvinnorna var bosatta i Uppsala län, Västmanlands län och Västra Götalands län. Dataanalysen genomfördes i linje med de riktlinjer IPA-metoden förespråkar. Resultatet påvisar att det förekommer en del svårigheter med att vara långtidssjukskriven för psykisk ohälsa. Mest framträdande var en känsla av orkeslöshet och isolering. Arbetsåtergången var utformad på olika sätt, den vanligaste rehabiliteringsåtgärden var arbetsanpassning. Studiens resultat tyder på att arbetsplatser saknar tydliga rutiner för arbetsåtergång vid långtidssjukskrivning för psykisk ohälsa. Vidare framgick det att delaktighet och inflytande, lyhörda chefer och den egna viljan var viktiga utgångspunkter för en god arbetsåtergång. Socialt stöd betraktades som en viktig förutsättning under hela sjukskrivningsförloppet.

Context. Agile Software Development has provided a new concept of Software Development based in adaptation to changes, quick decisions, low high-level design and frequent deliveries. However, this approach ignores the value that Software Architecture provides in the long term for increasing the speed in delivery working software, which may have catastrophic consequences in the long term. Objectives. In this study, the combination of these two philosophies of Software Development is investigated. Firstly, the concept of Software Architecture in Agile Projects; then, the major challenges faced concerning Software Architecture in Agile Projects, the practices and approaches that can be used to overcome these challenges and the effects that these practices may cause on the project. Methods. The research methodologies used in this study are Systematic Literature Review for gathering the highest amount possible of contributions available in the Literature at this respect, and also the conduction of Semi-Structured Interviews with Agile Practitioners, in order to obtain empirical knowledge on the problem and support or deny the SLR findings. Results. The results of the Thesis are a unified description of the concept of Software Architecture in Agile Projects, and a collection of challenges found in agile projects, practices that overcome them and a relation of effects observed. Considering the most frequent practices/approaches followed and the empirical support, it is enabled a discussion on how to combine Software Architecture and Agile Projects. Conclusions. The main conclusion is that there is not a definite solution to this question; this is due to the relevance of the context (team, project, customer, etc.) that recommends the evaluation of each situation before deciding the best way to proceed. However, there are common trends on the best-recommended practices to integrate these two concepts. Finally, it is required more empirical work on the issue, the conduction of controlled experiments that allows to quantify the success or failure of the practices implemented would be most helpful in order to create a body of knowledge that enables the application of certain practices under certain conditions.