The thesis explores the meaning of the concept "children's best" in relation to the social Swedish parental insurance debate from a post-structuralist view. The main material has been taken from daily news papers and the methodological as well as theoretical basis is provided for by Laclau & Mouffes discourse theory. In particular has the concept "empty signifiers" been of use when investigating "children's best" as a strong argument on both the "pro" and "against" sides of the debate of an individualized parental insurance. The theoretic purpose of the thesis is also to examine the poststructuralist/feminist dilemma in order to approach a more pragmatic and useful model of the two combined provided by Alcoff and Fraser. One conclusion is that "children's best" may never have an objective answer and will be a changing concept in time, ideology preference and discoursive field.

The aim of this study was to, with a social constructivistic approach, examine how parents,regarded as neglecting their children, are depicted in 12 LVU-legal cases from the Supreme Administrative Court in Sweden. By using a document analysis influenced by discourse analytical tools, we found that there are repeated descriptions of the parents, which constructs an image of parents as shortcoming in the care of their children. The categories lack of emotions, mental disorder, substance abuse and physical maltreatment were the main reasons for child neglect that the parents were described from. Attitudes towards authority, aggression and immaturity, lack of insight, and deficiencies in the home were repeated in the description of the parent. We further found that mothers were regarded as more responsible of the children compared to fathers.

AbstractMaster?s Thesis in Comparative literatureTitle: Ghettoiserade Vampyrer. En studie av barnvampyrlitteratur och dess betydelse för vampyrlitteraturgenren (Ghettoized Vampires. A study of children?s vampire literature and its significance for the vampire literature genre)Writer: Peter KostenniemiDepartment of Literature, History of Ideas and ReligionSupervisor: Anna NordenstamExaminer: Yvonne LefflerKey Words: Vampire literature, children?s literature, Der kleine Vampir, Nattens BørnIn vampire literature research the focus usually lies on adult and, to some extent, young adult fiction.

The aim of the present study is to examine which need´s unaccompanied children in adulthood describe as significant. Furthermore the study aims to examine if the participants experience that they have received the support they need from Örebro Municipality?s unit for unaccompanied children. To answer this, qualitative interviews were conducted with six persons in 20-22 years of age who arrived to Sweden as unaccompanied children four to six years ago. The interviewees are some of the first in the care of the Örebro Municipality?s unit for unaccompanied children.

AimThe aim with this essay has been to investigate how preschools profiling in motor activity training, work to stimulate motor development of children. In order to study this, the main focus for the research has been on the following queries:What characterize motor activity training at the preschools studied?What is the purpose with the motor activity training of preschools which were studied?How do the preschools describe the affect that motor activity training has on children?How do the preschools look at the need for motor activity training?MethodFour in-depth interviews were conducted with representatives of the chosen preschools profiling in motor activity. My selection was based on a strategic sample and this was made by an internet mapping of preschool activities in the districts of Stockholm, and information from the service guide of the town of Stockholm. Then e-mail was sent to ten contact persons at preschool units, and ten preschools were contacted directly by phone.

The public library is an institution that throughout history has been associated with anumber of social codes, that seem to be deeply rooted in the minds of the public. Thesecodes regulates how users act and interact in the library environment and as a library useryou have to obtain knowledge about these social codes.This master's thesis aims at studying how these codes are transferred to children in the earlyschool-age, how children react to the social codes and what effects they have on thechildren's development into library users.The empirical material used in this study consists of observations and interviews. Theobservations are conducted during two school classes visits to a public library and focuseson the interaction between librarians, the children and their teachers, and the interviewswere conducted with the two librarians responsible for the library visits.The theories used in this master's thesis consists of symbolic interactionism, in the form oftheories by George Herbert Mead and Erving Goffman, Peter L. Berger and ThomasLuckmanns theories regarding the concept of institutions. Another theory that's used in thismaster's thesis is the one concerning the social aspects of information literacy focusing onthe concept of epistemic communities as presented by Kimmo Tuominen, Reijo Savolainenand Sanna Talja.The result of this study is that the social codes are communicated to the children primarilyby the teachers rather than the librarians.

The aim was to evaluate and suggest improvements for the prototype TIVOLI (sign-learning via computer-based playful interaction). The game purposed to give children who need signing as augmentative and alternative communication enhanced signing skills. Three children in need of signs played TIVOLI at home during 4-5 weeks. Data contained parental interviews, Talking Mats interviews, assessment of signing competence before and after the evaluation period and game protocols. One game interaction per child was filmed.

This thesis focuses on Chinese?Swedish code-switching of bilingual children in Sweden. The purpose is to, through a case study, study what Chinese?Swedish code-switching looks like in daily conversations between bilingual children and their parents. Three main questions are formulated from the purpose of the thesis, foucusing on the types and frequencies of code-switching, the grammar of code-switching, and the motivation of code-switching.The linguistic material comes from voice recordings of naturally occurring conversations between three children and their parents, which are transcribed afterwards.

The purpose of this study is to understand how roman children and young people?s relations are to school and education from a family point of view.I have used a qualitative method and by means of that studied different information sources.  I have proceeded from two different theories: culture conception and categorizing. My first theory choice - Culture conception - represents a value of how we see the culture and the prospective of it.My second theory choice ? categorizing ? represents that we humans classify consciously or unconscious ourselves and others into categories, with the consequence that we understand the world by categorizing. Question I have proceeded from are: - Which roll does the family has for children and young persons from roman society? - Which expectations do children and young persons from roman society have from the family when it comes to education? Throughout my study I have come to the conclusion that roman culture looks differently upon boys and girls.

The objective of this graduate work is to gain a better understanding in how pre-school educators are able to work with music in their pre-school activity to promote child development. We also want to enlighten possible factors for the development of children based on music and to form our own ideas of whether teachers choose to apply music in their didactic practice or not.The point of this essay has been to attempt answering on what importance music makes for children's development and learning in pre-school, and how teachers could work with music in pre-school in order to promote children?s development. Our data consists of six interviews and two observations realized at a pre-school in Södertälje.We took heed from the theories laid out by Lev Vygotsky's which describe four different levels of development that includes educational development in social interaction between teacher and child. Our choice of this theory is inspired by our seeking deeper understanding of Vygotsky's theory´s application to the aesthetic approach in the interaction in meaning making and learning.The result of our study confirms previous theory and research in that music as a form of expression has a major impact on children's development.

Bilingualism and multilingualism have always existed in Sweden. Preschool teachers must provide a stimulating pedagogical environment adapted to bilingual children.The purpose of this examination is to study the perspective of the preschool teachers and their knowledge regarding bilingual and multilingual children. Their knowledge will be examined related to their language experiences. I hope to find similarities and dissimilarities in the preschool teachers? opinions concerning teaching and learning what they actually do when they are teaching.My study is based on qualitative method, based on interviews and repeated observations.

How do special educators work to include children with special needs in preschool? That was the question that our thesis proceeded from, and the purpose was to get an insight in the methods used by the special educators to achieve inclusion. Our questions were: ? Is Swedish preschool a place for inclusion? ? How are special educators work organized and focused? ? Which experiences do special educators have working with children with special needs in preschool, and what role do they mean that inclusion plays in this work? Our procedure in this enquiry was to perform semi-structured interviews with 5 different special educators in two different cities. Interpretation and analyis proceeded from three different theories: Urie Bronfenbrenner?s ecological systems theory, John Bowlby?s theory of attachment and Karsten Hundeide?s sociocultural theory. The result showed support for the idea of the Swedish preeschool as a place with many opportunities for inclusion. We have also seen how both money and political decisions has an impact on which possibilities the preschools receive to work with inclusion. In addition it became apparent that the methods used by special educators differed depending on both cities and districts.

Children undergo great developmental changes during the preschool and early school years. It is also the very same period in which their pragmatic abilities develop. This study aimed to examine the relationship between Theory of Mind and syntax. Fifty-four preschool and school children aged between 3:11 to 9:0 years participated. TROG-2 and a False Belief assessment of Sally Anne design using three conditions: narrative, silent and distortion were used.

This masters thesis investigates the relation between China and the Information Society as it is manifested in the UN conference the World Summit on the Information Society WSIS. The first phase of this two-phase conference took place in Geneva 10-12 December 2003, with two documents, Declaration of principles DP and Plan of action PA, as main results. The information policy is central to an authoritarian rule in its efforts to keep control over the national identity. The thesis investigates the impact that the information revolution and Internet might have on the Chinese national identity through the acceptance of DP and PA in various aspects. With the use of the information science theories by Manuel Castells and Frank Webster, the vision of WSIS was compared with the Chinese information policy.

ABSTRACTTo be a incarcerated parent and separated from your children can awake difficult thoughts and feelings of being powerless and burdened with debt. When it gives possibilities to maintain connections between the parent and child it can make a feeling of belonging and security. Children and families have long struggled with the difficulties created when a parent goes to prison. The aim with this essay has been to look into how fathers in prison, professionals from correctional institutions and social workers experiences of the connections between children and their incarcerated fathers. We reached our aim through interviews with fathers who had been incarcerated, professionals from correctional institutions, social workers and by literature studies.