The research in this thesis attempts to understand what happens when children (3-6 years of age) interact with each other in the context of free play in two pre-school settings when adults are not involved. The aim of the study was to get a closer look at how children create relationships and how they protect and defend their interactional spaces. Data was gathered through ethnographically inspired methodology, using video observation to capture the everyday interactions of the children. Results were analyzed using a phenomenological approach to peer cultures. Previous research suggests that it is very important for children to maintain their interactions with peers and gaining access to play.

Introduction: The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test is a widely used test for measuring aspects of social cognition. The aim of the present study was to provide results from a group of typically developing Swedish children (age 9-12) and to compare these results with children and adults in other Swedish and English studies, as well as results from a group of children with Asperger syndrome. Method: A Swedish version of the child version of the test was completed by 83 controls and by six children with Asperger syndrome. Results were compared between the two groups and with data from other studies. Results: The children in the current study did not differ on scores compared to children in the same age group in other studies.

The purpose of this thesis is to study how preschool teachers can reach the goal of the swedish educational plan to prevent traditional gender roles for children ages 3-6 through drama in education.This is answered by four hypothesis based on Judith Butler's queer theory, George Herbert Mead's social psychological theory and Gavin Bolton and Dotothy Heathcotes drama pedagogical theories. The hypotheses are tested against four teachers' examples of their work.The hypotheses areHypothesis 1: By using the expert's mantle and active observation in teacher-in-role indrama educational exercises, we can see how the children internalize the heterosexualmatrix and the outline of the internalized other.Hypothesis 2: By using the "mistakes" that occur when children repeat performativeacts that do not fit with the heterosexual matrix, these other possible behaviors can bestrengthenedHypothesis 3: Through drama exercises that are not normative teachers can widen theheterosexual matrixHypothesis 4: Through drama pedagogical methods like teacher-in-role teachers canprovide possibilities of other performative acts and the creation of a more tolerantinternalized other.The analysis show that the respondents work within all these hypotheses in different ways and thathypotheses 2 is the one with the weakest support in the interwievs. The examples are also weakregarding the use of Boltons drama pedagogical methods, but that there are a number of othermethods in use.Some of the conclusions are that more theoretical knowledge in the preschool drama pedagogics tocounteract traditional gender roles and patterns, as well as the drama of educational theory need tobe linked to queer and social psychology research. There is also no monitoring of the long term effects of the work..

The aim of the study is to show how children and adults are described in three picture books, examining how children and adults are portrayed in text-and-picture narrative and how this has changed over time. We have analysed how the characters in the books are presented and how the representation of children and adults has changed in our own times.The material for the study consists of three picture books from different periods, with the focus on how children and adults are described as the common point of departure. The analysed picture books are: Tomtebobarnen (Beskow 1919), Aja baja, Alfons Åberg! (Bergström 1972) and Snäll (Dahle 2008).We have arrived at the conclusion that a text-and-picture narrative is in very large measure a reflection of the outlook on children, childhood and child rearing at the time when the book was published. The result shows that the greatest change that has happened is that parents? and adults? dominance in the books has declined over the years, and that children have been given a more prominent role.

AimThe purpose of this study is to examine which tools teachers, teaching physical education, are using for assessment and grading in primary schools.IssuesHow it is perceived by teachers to assess and grade the students? How have the assessment and grading tools been developed?How do the teachers document what they assess and grade?How do the teachers communicate to the students what they assess and grade?MethodThe study has a qualitative approach in which the study design is represented by several semi-structured qualitative interviews. The semi-structured interview guide was authored using the foundations of ramfaktorteorin and an overall hermeneutisk approach. The interviews were then carried out with six physical education and health teachers from the Stockholm area. The interviews were recorded with a voice recorder and transcribed.

The study aims to gain insight into how social workers perceive their psychosocial work environment and examine whether this effects the performance of their duties. The study mainly addresses the shortcomings of the psychosocial work environment of Social Services and the implications it entails for social workers health and wellbeing. The psychosocial work environment includes physical and psychological factors therefore the study's interpretive framework consists of organizational theoretical and social psychological concepts and previous research on the subject. We examined the organizational and social psychological connections to social workers perception of their work environment with a qualitative approach. The empirical data was collected through interviews with four social workers in a municipality in central Sweden using a semi-structured interview guide.

The purpose of this work is to investigate how 4-5 year olds perceptions of materials and material properties can be developed through an educational activity. The study is based on two interviews with eight children in that age category. The interviews were conducted before and after an activity where the children were first introduced to the subject by the tale of The three little pigs (Harris, 2009) and then given the opportunity to explore various materials related to the book. The kids got to experiment and explore how water affected materials and to compare different materials properties. The children were also attracted to build and create the material that was offered during the activity.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to investigate children?s librarian?s perspectives on children?s literature and reading of fiction books. This is a comparative study of Swedish and Lithuanian librarians. The main questions to be answered are how children?s librararians at public libraries motivate their selection and purchase of fiction for children and what kind of considerations there are behind the purchases.

Purpose: This study examines pedagogues? thoughts about children?s understanding of death, and their reactions to the death of a relative. The aim is also to examine pedagogues? thoughts about their part in supporting bereaved children, and how they wish to do so. Method: Seven pedagogues, who work with six to nine year old children, were interviewed.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of learning on open-field activity among pre-school children varying from 3 to 5 years old. Altogether 25 children, 13 girls and 12 boys, entered the test from three different preschools in Dalarna. Six of these children represented the control group. The children were asked to learn 2 tasks, 1 visual memory task and 1 spatial constructing-kit task. Before, between and after the tasks, the children were allowed to move freely in the open field.

According to reports from the department of education the majority of school children consider school as a place for happiness, security and development. However, one of ten children experience cruelty and abuse on a daily basis and research shows that children are more often violated by their teachers rather than their peers. In year 2006 legislature decided that school children needed to be protected from the harmful abuse and bullying from other children as well as their teachers. Despite the law approximately 50 000 children are the victims of adult abuse in school every year. Meanwhile science also proves that teachers dare not, for different reasons, confront colleagues when witnessing violations of children.

According to reports from the department of education the majority of school children consider school as a place for happiness, security and development. However, one of ten children experience cruelty and abuse on a daily basis and research shows that children are more often violated by their teachers rather than their peers. In year 2006 legislature decided that school children needed to be protected from the harmful abuse and bullying from other children as well as their teachers. Despite the law approximately 50 000 children are the victims of adult abuse in school every year. Meanwhile science also proves that teachers dare not, for different reasons, confront colleagues when witnessing violations of children.

The purpose of my study was to explore how preschool educators in Kenya look at children's influence on teaching. Researchers have argued that the formal educational system in Kenya today is a remnant of its days as a colony when people were expected to blindly follow rules without questioning them. I have used qualitative interviews as a method in order get the most concrete understanding of educators? views on the influence from children. The educators I interviewed were based at a school I visited in Kenya.

The purpose with this study is to find out the experience of growing up in a family where the biological parents, has taken the assignment as family child caregiver?s. We have taken the help from the following question formulations to immerse ourselves in the subject. How do the biological children experience their relationship to their parents? How do the biological children experience their relationship to the children who are placed in their home? How do the biological children experience their participation in the family home? How do the biological children experience the need for support from outside the family? We have used a qualitative research method and interviewed six respondents with help from a semi-structured interview guide to get the respondents unique experiences told.

The aim of this descriptive review was to elucidate how the literature describes how children of parents with mental illness experience and have knowledge about their parent?s illness. The aim was furthermore to describe how the children?s existence is affected, can be improved and why the children so often are invisible. Search through Medline (through PubMed) database and additional manual search was conducted.