Mixing ages in school classes became more and more common during the last dec-ades of the 20th century. From being a way to organise classes out of necessity they have now come to be something which is implemented on the basis of pedagogical arguments. The aim of this research has been to improve our knowledge of classes where pupils are not of the same age. A study of the pupils’ perspectives has been my main interest. (Age) homogeneous class can been looked upon as a result of the authorities’ deci-sion to have a fixed age for children to start school and their decision that certain courses should be completed within a defined period of time. Terms and the data concerning heterogeneous age groupings are ambiguous and cannot be fully understood without knowledge of national and sometimes even local contexts. Practices within age heterogeneous classes may differ greatly. A great deal of individual work takes place in age heterogeneous classes. Whether the class is non-mixed or mixed-aged does not seem to have a major im-pact on cognitive or non-cognitive abilities among the pupils, but there are suggestions that age heterogeneous classes might be disadvantageous to pupils in problematic situations. I am able to show that more than 30% of pupils in grades 1-3, close to 25% in grades 4-5, about 15% in grade 6 and a couple of percent of Swedish pupils in the later school years are taught in mixed-age groups. My own empirical research focuses on pupils’ experiences. My investigation has a ‘life-world’ oriented approach inspired by phenomenology. Pupils in grades 5 and 6 from three schools in three different socio-economic settings were interviewed. These pupils had experienced both mixed-age and single-age classes. The life-world of pupils seems to be something different from that encompassed by the philosophy about the advantages of mixing the ages in classes. Pupils find it diffi-cult to maintain or create relationships when only a few pupils of the same sex, who have started school at the same time, can be together in a class for a long time. Be-cause of the importance of social relationships almost every pupil in this investigation wished to be in a single-age class during the following year. It is the importance of common experiences rather than age that is central. Pupils stated that having things in common to study in their everyday schoolwork makes it easier to communicate and contributes to stable friendships. In my conclusion I focus on what it means to have relationships and how these are important for human identity. I also try to show how relationships are important in learning situations at school and for pupils’ opportunities to expand their knowledge. / digitalisering@umu

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:31:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Renata M Brunetti.pdf: 718848 bytes, checksum: 89a26be7bf7d94724e3d31f6ed6330a9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-12-12 / The objective of the research that originated this text was, by means of the analysis of the interviews with a few Ashoka fellows social figure, try to identify spaces in our society, in which actions that promote emancipation are possible. Trying to locate models, recipes, pre-defined and replicable solutions; however, the reading and listening during the works carried us in another direction. Some forms of defining a name for the social figure were questioned, since they don t spontaneously fit as entrepreneurs, nor as the well known militant. Social poets and polyglots were names used in this work to enhance their qualities in social listening and mediation. The interview analyses showed they strongly value local knowledge, are multifocal have multiple interests, are incapturable. Differently from the old paradigm, instead of defining forms of producing the world, they go out there the world, Habermas life-world listening and translating it, and mediating it with the systemic world . The main theoretical inspiration belongs to the philosopher J. Habermas. We reflected some of his recent theoretical concerns, not avoiding however, referring to other authors and propositions. High interests were placed in providing sense and meaning to our interviewees. Thus in this work, theory is at the service of an empirical world. The comprehension of the experience performed with our interviewees as well as that of the interviewees with their communities was the key element, that as such, selected the theory. Lastly, the work suggests that these social figures, with their actions, seem to rehearse changes in the political culture with the strengthening of civil society, as well as a change in knowledge paradigm. The rehearsal a political culture that may results, first and foremost, in facing our conscious individual and social responsibilities / O objetivo da pesquisa que deu origem a este texto foi tentar localizar em nossa sociedade, por meio da análise de entrevistas com alguns fellows da Ashoka figuras sociais , espaços nos quais ações que promovam emancipação sejam possíveis. Foram questionadas algumas formas para nomear essa figura social, uma vez que ela não se enquadra espontaneamente como um empreendedor, nem como o conhecido militante. Poetas e poliglotas do social foram os nomes utilizados neste trabalho para valorizar suas qualidades de escuta do social e de mediação. A análise das entrevistas apontou que eles valorizam sobremaneira os saberes locais, são multifocais possuem múltiplos interesses, são incapturáveis. Diferentemente do antigo paradigma, em vez de definir formas de produzir o mundo, vão até lá o mundo, o mundo da vida de Habermas o escutam, o traduzem e fazem sua mediação com o mundo sistêmico . A inspiração teórica principal é do filósofo J. Habermas. Refletimos algumas das suas recentes preocupações teóricas. Não evitamos, porém, recorrer a outros autores e outras proposições. Interessou-nos sobremaneira dar sentido e significado aos nossos entrevistados e, então, nesse trabalho, a teoria está a serviço do mundo empírico. A compreensão da experiência que fizemos com os nossos entrevistados e aquela que os entrevistados fazem com a comunidade foi o elemento guia que, por assim dizer, selecionou a teoria. Por fim, o trabalho sugere que essas figuras sociais, com suas atividades parecem ensaiar mudanças na cultura política com fortalecimento da sociedade civil e uma mudança no paradigma do conhecimento. Uma cultura política que implica, antes de tudo, a conscientização de nossa responsabilidade individual e social

Mixing ages in school classes became more and more common during the last dec-ades of the 20th century. From being a way to organise classes out of necessity they have now come to be something which is implemented on the basis of pedagogical arguments. The aim of this research has been to improve our knowledge of classes where pupils are not of the same age. A study of the pupils’ perspectives has been my main interest. (Age) homogeneous class can been looked upon as a result of the authorities’ deci-sion to have a fixed age for children to start school and their decision that certain courses should be completed within a defined period of time. Terms and the data concerning heterogeneous age groupings are ambiguous and cannot be fully understood without knowledge of national and sometimes even local contexts. Practices within age heterogeneous classes may differ greatly. A great deal of individual work takes place in age heterogeneous classes. Whether the class is non-mixed or mixed-aged does not seem to have a major im-pact on cognitive or non-cognitive abilities among the pupils, but there are suggestions that age heterogeneous classes might be disadvantageous to pupils in problematic situations. I am able to show that more than 30% of pupils in grades 1-3, close to 25% in grades 4-5, about 15% in grade 6 and a couple of percent of Swedish pupils in the later school years are taught in mixed-age groups. My own empirical research focuses on pupils’ experiences. My investigation has a ‘life-world’ oriented approach inspired by phenomenology. Pupils in grades 5 and 6 from three schools in three different socio-economic settings were interviewed. These pupils had experienced both mixed-age and single-age classes. The life-world of pupils seems to be something different from that encompassed by the philosophy about the advantages of mixing the ages in classes. Pupils find it diffi-cult to maintain or create relationships when only a few pupils of the same sex, who have started school at the same time, can be together in a class for a long time. Be-cause of the importance of social relationships almost every pupil in this investigation wished to be in a single-age class during the following year. It is the importance of common experiences rather than age that is central. Pupils stated that having things in common to study in their everyday schoolwork makes it easier to communicate and contributes to stable friendships. In my conclusion I focus on what it means to have relationships and how these are important for human identity. I also try to show how relationships are important in learning situations at school and for pupils’ opportunities to expand their knowledge. / digitalisering@umu

The purpose of the present study is to describe adult second language learners’ experiences of mathematics learning from a past and contemporary perspective. What experiences in mathematics do they bring? What does it mean to learn Mathematics through their new language? The study is based on life-world narratives from five second language students with another native language than Swedish. Today they all study at a Swedish folk high school, at upper secondary level and they have previously studied at this level in Mathematics.   The result shows that the meeting with the Swedish school and folk high school context is confusing. They face a new school culture with quite different normative rules and it is unclear to them how to behave as good students in this context. They are positive about the response from teachers which is much unlike their previously experiences. The teachers are competent tutors, supportive, listening, encouraging, friendly, authorities without being iron handed.   The multilingual students in this study describe that the new language is of secondary importance in mathematics learning. Everyone starts off  in year one at upper secondary level and sees mathematics the first period as a refresher. Mathematic studies are, during this period, used to consolidate the mathematical concepts in the new language. All change automatically to their native or previous school language when working with mathematical tasks. There are basic mathematical  concepts learned and automated, it is too cognitively demanding to use the Swedish language. They are critical of how Mathematics is taught, a lot of individual work and pace and says that briefings and discussions are more effective, a teacher led approach that they are familiar with.

The aim of the thesis is to illuminate music therapy in Sweden by exploring participant’s experiences of Functionally Oriented Music Therapy (FMT), music therapy grounded on psychodynamic theories and Guided Imagery and Music (GIM). How can adult participants’ experiences of music therapy used as individual treatment, be described from phenomenological perspectives? Theoretical framework is the life-world perspective according to Merleau-Ponty (2005), an ethical perspective according to Ricœur (1992) and a perspective of time consciousness according to Husserl (1991). Two pairs of persons comprising one patient and one therapist from each orientation participated, totally 6 patients and 6 therapists. Each couple was documented during three sequential sessions which were videotaped and followed up by an interview. Totally the study included 18 videotaped sessions, 36 interviews, notes and literature. The analyses show music therapy sessions based on rituals that can be divided into three phases: an entering-phase, a current-phase and an exit-phase which can be considered to be predetermined and governed by the music therapy orientations.  The participants' experiences of the sessions are described as transcendence, based on the participants' imagination during which they dialectically communicate and interact. However, the therapeutic processes do not seem to be fulfilled unless the participants have the possibility of using verbal narratives. Music helps them though to organize their experiences in the present moment since it possesses a natural innate structure. The results are discussed in relation to theories in music therapy and Damasios neurological theory which includes body, emotion and consciousness (Damasio 2004, 2000). Implications for theory and practice are made and considerations and suggestions for further research are put forward.

The aim of the thesis is to illuminate music therapy in Sweden by exploring participant’s experiences of Functionally Oriented Music Therapy (FMT), music therapy grounded on psychodynamic theories and Guided Imagery and Music (GIM). How can adult participants’ experiences of music therapy used as individual treatment, be described from phenomenological perspectives? Theoretical framework is the life-world perspective according to Merleau-Ponty (2005), an ethical perspective according to Ricœur (1992) and a perspective of time consciousness according to Husserl (1991). Two pairs of persons comprising one patient and one therapist from each orientation participated, totally 6 patients and 6 therapists. Each couple was documented during three sequential sessions which were videotaped and followed up by an interview. Totally the study included 18 videotaped sessions, 36 interviews, notes and literature. The analyses show music therapy sessions based on rituals that can be divided into three phases: an entering-phase, a current-phase and an exit-phase which can be considered to be predetermined and governed by the music therapy orientations.  The participants' experiences of the sessions are described as transcendence, based on the participants' imagination during which they dialectically communicate and interact. However, the therapeutic processes do not seem to be fulfilled unless the participants have the possibility of using verbal narratives. Music helps them though to organize their experiences in the present moment since it possesses a natural innate structure. The results are discussed in relation to theories in music therapy and Damasios neurological theory which includes body, emotion and consciousness (Damasio 2004, 2000). Implications for theory and practice are made and considerations and suggestions for further research are put forward.

The aim of this study was to investigate the young child's experience of intensive sport participation. The study concentrated on the following aspects: The role that adults play in children's sport experience. The reasons for children's sport experience becoming negative. Children's sport experience with special focus on enjoyment, pressure to win, competition anxiety, sportsmanship, crowd behaviour and withdrawal from participation. A comparison between children's sport experience and the perceptions of parents and coaches of those experiences. It was found that children experience aspects such as pressure to win, competition anxiety and crowd behaviour as negative. Another outcome of this study was the finding that children experience their sport participation more negative than parents and coaches think they do. Lastly it was found that children, in spite of having a negative experience of some aspects of sport, still enjoy participating in sport and are not considering withdrawal from it. / Educational Studies / M. Ed (Guidance and Counselling)

There is dissatisfaction with the Collects when scholastically (classically) understood. An alternative phenomenological understanding is an engaging and artistic philosophical enquiry. Phenomenological philosophical enquiry engages the individual in meaningful interpretation and construction of the life-world founded on a non-dichotomous ontology. Phenomenological enquiry (existential philosophy) interprets the present and relates to the future such as is not possible in scholastic (classical) philosophy. The early twentieth century philosophers, Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, conceived a phenomenological method of interpretation which innovatively placed the subject and object in a dialectical union. Understanding the Collects phenomenologically presents new insights susceptible to consensus within a community. At present, the Collects are structured on the principles of classical (dichotomous) ontology. The Collects reflect the collective religious meaning of the life-world and provide a vision upon which a community may build. In phenomenological interpretation an individual and a community, in the presence of that which is divine, participate as co-creators of the life-world. Thus, in contemporary western society phenomenological methodology ~ay be more helpful and therefore more desirable than scholastic methodology for theological interpretation. The hypothesis that phenomenological philosophy is more helpful, thus more desirable, than scholastic philosopl1y began as a hunch on my part. From a theological perspective, I examined data obtained from a particular focus group. Intelligent reflection, phenomenologically not classically understood, is a working principle in this thesis. / Taking into account phenomenological methodology and conceptualising the problem as originally and scientifically as circumstances permit, I offer a resolution to the dissatisfaction with the Collects. I suggest replacing scholastic ontological understanding with the more helpful phenomenological ontological understanding in liturgical interpretation. This replacement-solution hypothesis is evidenced in this study minimally, but sufficiently, to conclude that such replacement is occurring in theological understanding. There are clear existential intimations of a shift from classical understanding to phenomenological understanding. The results of the survey show traditional understanding to be favoured, however. In the concluding remarks, I evaluate my findings and suggest what direction future studies may take. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Practical Theology)

The phenomenon of aggression has been of interest to psychologists for many years, and has resulted in a variety of theories which-attempt to explain its existence in man. Aggression is prevalent in our primary schools today and it was this observation which initiated the research project. The Relationship Theory was applied in order to gain insight into the life-world of the aggressive child and to explore possible causes which may originate from changes in our society. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. with specialisation in Guidance and Counselling (Psychology of Education)

The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions street children have about the most important referents in their life worlds and to propose guidelines to their helpers on the most appropriate intervention. The street children's perceptions of their families, schools, society, peers and themselves were examined through a literature study on the phenomenon of street children and their intervention and, an empirical study consisting of a questionnaire survey and case studies. It was found that the street children generally perceived themselves and these referents negatively, which can be related to experiences of severe physical, emotional and social deprivation. These perceptions influence their involvement with all referents in their lives negatively, as their main tendencies in response to problematic situations are flight, avoidance and withdrawal. Guidelines given to their schools, social-and care-workers, and educational psychologists focused on inter- and intra-personal areas of development. / Psychology of Education / M.Ed. (Guidance and Counseling)