In this study I wished to understand whether my short-term training intervention enabled teachers to design and implement a lesson in which technology is effectively integrated. Participants were 22 teachers, some of whom held positions on their school’s management team, and 80 learners from 4 districts of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education. Teachers in the province have been trained in computer literacy; however, sadly, this did not automatically translate into classroom ICT integration. Overall, teachers do not integrate technology into their teaching. A number of reasons for this are identified. People involved in integrating technologies into the teaching and learning process have to be convinced of the value of the technologies, be comfortable with them, and be skilled in using them. Therefore, a short-term training intervention was designed to test whether it can benefit teachers by enhancing teaching and learning through communication and collaboration, by means of ICT. The results revealed that the teachers on the training programme gained knowledge of how to integrate ICT, that they collaborated, that their pedagogy also changed, and that their learners felt that their learning was improved. To ensure realistic and holistic solutions for policymakers, district and school officials, the factors that prevent teachers from making full use of ICT were also iterated. Detailed results and implications of the results are discussed.

Therapeutic education initiatives embodying a whole child approach can be seen to address the intellectual, emotional, bodily and spiritual as being part of a child’s educational self. Through designing and implementing the concept of “aesthetic life narratives” in a primary school classroom, my research produces a curricular example of how therapeutic notions such as those found in psychological thought can be integrated into contemporary Scottish education through narrative and aesthetic means, exemplifying how individual children can make sense of expressive processes and roles introduced to them in an educational context. The specific characteristics of the research space and the particular interactive quality of research participation also illustrate how different children are able to participate in a short-term emotional education intervention specifically designed to be empowering. At the same time, my experience shows that the complex dynamic between the subjective life of a researcher and the historical nature of a child’s experience with caregivers in their home life can shape educational/research experience, as well as its adult and child participants, in ways unanticipated. What transpired in the process of applying philosophical ideas to the real lives of children in my research produced ethical implications regarding critical reflexivity and the socio-cultural regard of the child that are of wider relevance to educators, researchers, counsellors and policy makers who interact with children in their own work.

Background and aims: Impaired eating habits and reduced physical activity have become associated with obesity in children in the last three decades. Parents have a responsibility to be good models for their children regarding lifestyle patterns and habits. The aim of this thesis was to evaluate a family-based behavioural intervention programme (FBIP) for children with obesity designed for use in paediatric outpatient care. The specific aims were to investigate the clinical outcomes and programme adherence and to examine the children’s lifestyle habits according to their own and their parents’ reports, the agreement between these reports, and the correlations to change in z-BMI (standardized body mass index) from baseline to 12 months after the FBIP. Subjects and methods: This thesis is based on a prospective single-group before/after design. Twenty-six children, 14 boys and 12 girls aged 8.3–12.0 years, and their parents attended 25 group sessions, in 3 child and 3 parental groups, during a 2-year FBIP. The treatment manual, Group treatment for children with Overweight and Obesity and their Parents and the semistructured interview called MORSE, a Swedish term for Food and Activity, Social and Emotional adaptation, emphasizes cognitive and behavioural guidelines and the focus is to change eating and physical activity habits and to maintain the new changes. Results: The results showed that the children decreased their z-BMI from a mean of 3.3 (0.7 SD) at baseline to 2.9 (0.7 SD) 1 year after the completion of the programme. There was a significant decrease in z-BMI in boys from a mean of 3.5 (0.6 SD) at baseline to 3.0 (0.7 SD) (p = 0.001) at follow-up 12 months after completion of the programme; the z-BMI in the girls decreased from a mean of 3.0 (0.6 SD) at baseline to 2.7 (0.8 SD) (p = 0.155) at follow-up. The children’s waist/height ratio (the waist circumference in centimetres) divided by the height (in centimetres) showed no significant decrease over the same period. The biomedical markers of blood glucose metabolism and lipid status remained within the normal range at the 1-year follow-up after program completion compared with baseline. The rate of family adherence to the programme was high. The reports from the children and the parents regarding the children’s lifestyle habits showed a significant increase regarding the level of physical activity after the FBIP (24 months) compared with baseline. Agreement between the children and their parents improved after the FBIP (24 months) compared with baseline, regarding whether the children felt hungry most of the time and the children’s levels of physical and sedentary activity. Changes in the child or parental analyses of lifestyle were not significantly associated with reduced weight 1 year after the end of the FBIP. Conclusions: A 2-year FBIP against childhood obesity implemented in a paediatric outpatient setting can be seen as a potential model for children and their parents. It is important to offer interventions to children with obesity although this FBIP needs to be confirmed with larger populations in a randomized controlled trial.