AbstractThe purpose of my study is to examine how preschool children experience nature and how the educationalists at the preschool can make nature more exciting and support the children?s personal growth. I have also studied what the educationalists of the preschool do and what they can do to make nature more interesting and playful for the children. Observations and interviews have been conducted at a preschool in a small town. The preschool is situated close to nature, that is, close to a small forested area.

Our essay starts with two self-experienced stories where we describe how we as pedagogues act when children do not behave as we wish. We examine the different perspectives that can influence us pedagogues to act as we do. Our narrative about Kevin, seven years old, shows how he is excluded from his school mates as they perceive him as disruptive. Also the narrative about Pelle six years old is about his dislike of an activity he is forced to attendag ainst his will.The study is based on a hermeneutical method where, through the interpretation of different perspectives, we discuss several aspects that affect us in our actions. The perspectives we have chosen to highlight are treatment of children, organization, power structures, communication and reflection.Our narratives differ from each other in the way that the recreation instructor Ulrika has no mandate over her situation on this particular day she helps as an extra support in a class atschool.

In this essay we discuss how the decentralisation of the Swedish school system affects the concept of ?equal opportunity school?. We investigate the development from both a historical and contemporary perspective, in order to identify changes over time. The central question of the essay is how the decentralisation of the school system affects the teacher?s perspective and experiences of the government?s framework about ?equal opportunity school?? The analysis is based on four qualitative, semi structured, direct interviews with respondents both active in municipal schools situated in the Malmö council and with more than thirty years of experience in their profession. Our analysis of the interviews show that both respondents experience the overall situation in the schools has deteriorated from an equal opportunity aspect since the decentralisation of the school system.

AbstractThe purpose of our study is to reach an understanding of the situation of unaccompanied refugee minors in school. Thus the study aims to investigate what sort of possibilities and limits they encounter when going through their school education. We have chosen a qualitative method and conducted interviews with four persons between the ages of 18 and 21 years.The result of the study shows that unaccompanied refugee minors experience numerous limitations and lesser possibilities than other students, which prevents their educational and social development. The limitations partly depend on the school personnels lack of knowledge about this target group, and partly on the difficulty of dealing with a new culture which is different from the students original culture.  An important conclusion that our study has shown is that the educational system has a great impact on how well the students manage to function in the new society later on.  Therefore it is of great importance that the teachers have access to competence development , since this is of substantial importance for the  unaccompanied refugee minors development and socialization. .

AbstractBackground: An elective surgery can be something new that is frightening and unpleasant. The children and their individual needs are not always considered when surgery is prepared. Children?s needs differ and depend on their sense of coherence. Aim: The purpose of this study was to illuminate how children experience preparations before elective surgery.

The aim of the study was to examine the impact of the use ofTalking Mats in group conversations with preschool children. Two preschoolteachers and eight preschool children, aged 4-5, took part in one of twoconversational groups with one teacher and four children in each group. Thegroups were video-taped during four group conversations on two topics, withand without the use of Talking Mats. The amount of time for each child inthe conversation was calculated, the child?s communicative contributionswere coded and thereafter the extent to which their views were noticed wasanalyzed.

AbstractMany of the refugees around the world today are children. Some of these children are travelling alone without anyone looking after them. These children flee from their countries to save their lives and as they are children they need special care and protection. This thesis has investigated the protection given to unaccompanied children during the asylum process in the two key instruments in the area: the Convention of the Rights of the Child and the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. The Refugee Convention does not contain any procedural rights and does not specifically acknowledge children, even though they are included in the scope of the Convention.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to investigate if the reading habits of teacher students are influenced by merit and descent. The empiric material consists of six questionnaires answered by students at the teacher training with Swedish at the upper secondary school as their first topic. The questionnaire comprised questions about reading habits in the childhood and today and information concerning merits and descent.Pierre Bourdieu?s sociological ideas about cultural capital transmitted from parent to child and the concept of habitus are used as a theoretical framework regarding descent.

The purpose of this study was to illustrate a parental perspective of children´s participation and quality of live through personal assistance. Important aspects of parents' experiences were highlighted based on how they experienced participation and quality of life for their children. We chose to use a qualitative approach in the form of four individual interviews with parents from different municipalities in central Sweden. The study was conducted with a narrative approach in which we used a holistic perspective. Parents' experiences were highlighted over time to create a complete picture.

Summary The purpose of this research is to find out if technology is being used in pre-school activity, to what extent, in which way and what part the pre-school teachers believe they should have in the process. To gather information for the research, questionnaires were sent out to all pre-schools in a municipality in central Sweden. Based on that information two were chosen for observations and interviews. The work with technology in pre-schools may vary. Some pre-school teachers believe they do not adopt any technology at all when asked and all this because of their own lack of interest or knowledge, while others believe it is contained in all of their educational activities.

On the 1st April 2006 a new legislation came into effect in Sweden; The ProhibitingDiscrimination and Other Degrading Treatment of Children and Pupils Act (2006:67). TheAct is applicable to education and other activities referred to in the Education Act(1985:1100). This dissertation aims to examine how teachers work to combatdiscrimination, and establishes whether headmasters and teachers have changed their work procedures since the law came into force.In order to seek the answers to my questions I have conducted 8 qualitative interviews with headmasters and teachers from two schools in a community outside Karlstad, with both schools comprising of students from pre-school until year 6.Discrimination is not a new phenomenon in schools, but neither is the fact that it is theschools? responsibility to work against discrimination. Discrimination is still taking place,despite discrimination laws being clearly stated within the Education Act (1985:1100) andthe school curriculum.

At the Women?s House in Örebro, a children?s project has started where the work method ?Oasen? [Oasis] model has been developed by two children?s educationists. The aim of this study is, with the ?Oasen? model as a starting point, to deepen the knowledge of (1) how to meet children?s central needs while staying at a Women?s House and (2) what the ?Oasen? model may contribute to the children. The theoretical framework consists of a cognitive approach to the progress of children experiencing domestic violence and a presentation of conceptions concerning children?s needs.

This Master's thesis examines some aspects of children's books for 9-12 year olds, and the children's books market, from a gender perspective. The main objective is to make a gender analysis of attitudes among children and other agents in the book market towards children's books of different qualities. Children's reflections on gender roles in the books and the importance of gender aspects for publishers in the field, are investigated. A combination of methods are used, including literary analyses, surveys of publication lists of the BTJ group Bibliotekstjänst interviews with children and questionnaires sent to children as well as to Swedish publishers of children's books. The analysis of children's books clearly shows that images of gender roles vary in different kinds of books which supports theories of gendered literature.

This thesis is about how to criticize the large number of non-fiction for children which is published nowadays. I have noticed that both librarians and teachers do not know what perspective to apply with regard to this category of books. There are some good ones, but also a lot of bad ones and some really bad ones. The purpose of this essay is to search by means of criteria from history of art, history of literature ? principally history of children's literature ? and pedagogy, for prevalent attitudes towards non-fiction for children.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how a children's book is suggested to be prepared in order to be accepted for publication by a publishing house in Sweden today.My questions was first to clarify the concept of a "children's book". Secondly, to understand if there are any guidelines to follow regarding the design and illustration of a children´s book, and how to proceed with the best chances of getting a mauscript published.To answer the question, I have chosen to use a qualitative method containing questionnaire items involving eleven Swedish publishers of children's literature.My results show that children's books includes all literature that has an target audience of people between 0-18 years of age. The most important thing is that the book's material is appropriate to the target group's level of mental perceptions and emotional competence. The material which then is submitted to the publisher will need to be of the highest quality and the author must investigate a consistent niche in order to submit the material to a publisher..