According to the immigration service forecasts Sweden faces large refugee influxes in the coming years. This means that educators in the kindergarten, preschool and school, will meat children from the war torn countries. In this study, the purpose is to find out the educators different conceptions of war-affected refugee children, because my theory is that their beliefs influence their actions. I wanted to get answers to their beliefs about the difficulties or challengers that children and educators may be faced with. Furthermore, I wanted to know what educators envisioned about their own role?s importance to the war affected refugee children and their perceptions of the Swedish culture, environment, language and school.

This research is about the experience educationalists have of children encountering mathematics in a preschool. What is the impact of introducing mathematics in preschool? How do educationalists work with mathematics and how do they experience the children?s interest in mathematics?  The aim of this degree project is to examine how educationalists experience children´s interest in mathematics when they encounter mathematics at an early age. The degree project is limited to educationalists and children within a preschool located north of Stockholm.This research seeks answers to the following questions at issue. Does an early encounter with mathematics in preschool lead to increased interest in mathematics among children?  How can educationalists in preschool work in a appropriate way with mathematics to stimulate children to develop within mathematics and to increase their interest? How does educationalists in preschool experience children´s interest in mathematics?Theories by Piaget, Vygotskij and Dewey were used as well as former research in this subject.To answer the aim and the questions at issue in this research, three interviews was conducted with educationalists at the preschool and recorded with a Dictaphone.

There are many children in Sweden today, approximately 200 000, who have parents or a parent that abuses alcohol or other drugs. The aim of this study was to investigate how group leaders in support groups for children with addicted parents relate to this sort of support groups. What are their advantages and disadvantages, according to the group leaders?The method used was qualitative and the empirical material was collected through group interviews. We have interviewed eight persons who are social workers and the interviews were carried out at three work places.

The aim with this thesis is to investigate how librarians experience communication with children in reference interviews. In today?s interactive community it is meaningful to study how children communicate with the librarian in virtual reference interview as well as in ordinary reference interviews in physical libraries. Focus has been on finding out what children ask about and how they are asking in virtual reference interviews and in ordinary reference interviews, what type of information needs the children have. The study also focuses on which barriers there can be in reference interviews.

This essay deals with children?s and adolescents? use of interactive media as a tool for doing relations with each other. The purpose is to increase the understanding of the impact interactive media has on pupils? relations and identity development both in school and on their spare time. The school system?s mission is not only to teach formal knowledge and facts but also to train children?s social skills and abilities.

The purpose of this study was to examine some teachers thought about the educational indoor environment in free preschool. With free preschool this study means a Swedish specially adapted to parents/adults and their children and for a typical type of children who are 0-5 years old. Questions to the study were:? How do some teachers in free preschool perceive that they are adapting the preschool indoors environment to children and learning?? How do some teachers in free preschool perceive that they are adapting the preschool indoors environment to children and learning to attract children to the pedagogical environment?In this study I used qualitative methods and interviewed five teachers and preschool indoor environment is observed. I applied the socio cultural perspective to my study.

Workbooks are used and has been used for a long time in teaching context with younger children. Given that children start grade 1 after one year of preschool, I will in my study examine what type of activities that are presented in textbooks used for teaching younger children in pre-school and school grade 1. The purpose of the study is, through a selection of published skill-training materials investigate its pedagogical basic view related to reading and write form of education in pre-school and school grades 1. In line with the aim of the study and to answer the study questions, a qualitative text analysis and pictures analysis was carried out. The result shows that there are more similarities in content than the forms of the textbooks, there are assumptions about language as well as how images should be interpreted in a right way.

Scheduled time for reflective work is common at many Swedish preschools. Reflection is a complex concept that is being used with many different purposes in preschools. The reflective work in Swedish preschools today has its roots in the theories from Vygotskij about how children learn by watching and cooperating with others. Also, many Swedish preschools have taken inspiration from the preschools in Reggio Emilia in Italy, who see the reflective work as something necessary in their work around children?s learning processes.

The purpose of this investigation was to investigate how being outdoors and participating in physical activities affect the concentration in a collection situation among children.The methods I chose were observation of two groups of children two times each and interviews with four educators.The results showed that the concentration in the collected situation depends on past activity, where it has taken place and that the environment has an impact. If the previous activity been more active and physical the subsequent collected situation is calmer and the children more concentrate. The facts that the children have been outside in an inspiring environment that encourage playing and movement also have a position impact on the child´s ability to concentrate. The collected situation is an important moment in the preschool day when the kids need to congregate and get a chance for social interaction and a sense of togetherness with all the children and teachers. The conclusion is that there is a relationship between movement, physical activity and an increased concentration.

The purpose of this study has been to describe and analyze how seven Swedish preschool teachers and two special education teachers think and work with children who show a lack of social skills. The study method has been semi-structured interviews with the educators which have been analyzed and sorted under different themes/categories. The theoretical framework used in this study is sociocultural, relational and categorical perspectives. These perspectives have been chosen in order to better understand how teachers see their role in supporting children in need of special support. The environment in the preschool is found to be of great help and the teachers? approach is of great importance.The research emphasizes the importance of integrating thinking, feeling and behavior.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the outreach services for children and youths in a specific area, in this case Västra Götalandsregionen. In particular this thesis will examine the development in the outreach services for children and youths from 1990-2010. Our thesis will also examine if the financial crises affected the outreach services for children and youths, and how control documents influence the work of the librarians. This study is based on interviews, document and literature studies. For the analyses we used Torgil Persson?s theoretical model.

During my time as a student of education I have learnt that it is my responsibility, as a teacher, to adjust the ways in which I teach to the needs, abilities, experiences, and thoughts of each individual child. What I have not yet gained much knowledge on is how to go about finding the children?s thoughts.In this thesis I investigate the interview as a method of finding out how sixth graders think about their mathematics education. Four children were interviewed. In addition to these inter-views, as a means of giving a broader perspective to and a greater understanding of the chil-dren?s answers, one math lesson was filmed and the math teacher was interview on two sepa-rate occasions.What I found was that a number of factors seemed to influence the children?s thoughts and answers, and that their answers were most likely not always a mirror of their thoughts.

The purpose with this essay is to study how children in the fifth grade experience reading in three different reading cultures; library, home and in school. The children?s experiences from reading are compared to expectations from library and school.Data, to this study, is collected through qualitative interviews in two focus groups and analyzed by using an idea analysis. The INSU-model, Information Needs, Seeking and Use, and Aidan Chambers reading circle in combination with a triangle of the three reading cultures are used as a theoretical framework. The analysis shows that children are using reading for different purposes in different reading cultures.

The purpose of this study is to contribute knowledge on how pedagogues use play as a way to expose children to the English language. I chose the qualitative method of interviews to conduct my study. The objects of study were four English speaking pedagogues at a preschool with English in their profile. This profile was a major factor when choosing where to carry out the study, as not every preschool in Sweden offers English.The interviews were conducted in English, as all four pedagogues were native English speakers and I did not want a possible language barrier to influence the results. The questions were composed with play as a focal point and a way to expose the children to English.My findings showed that play is an important tool for children to take part of and learn English.

This essay is about how working with children with autism works with the laws and regulations that fall under the Compulsory School Ordinance and Lgr11 (Compulsory for primary school, preschool classes and kindergarten). The aim of this work was to examine various educators thoughts, experiences and practices related to children with autism in primary school. The study is based on three questions: what kind of rights regarding support do children with autism have in the Swedish primary school, according to the primary regulation and Lgr11? How do the selected primary schools work with the support of children with the diagnosis of autism? And how well does the affected educator?s think that the support works?To answer these questions, four qualitative interviews with various educators, were made. My results show that all four educators believe that inclusive labor of children with autism is a good thing for everyone, as long as it is done properly and with the right order, so that the child with autism gets the opportunity to be part of a social group.