The main purpose of this essay was to study how the child's own view appeared in the office of family law investigations and in the following municipal court verdicts and if it had influenced the judgement and the verdict. We wanted to see if the child's age was important for the possibility to make oneself heard and if there had been changes overtime related to the consideration to the child's own view in investigations- and court context.To obtain answers to the questions, we decided to execute a qualitative case study, which exclusively was based on document analyses. We selected to examine a middle-sized municipal in the southern part of Sweden. We concerned only for children in the age of 8-12 years, who was affected by a court verdict either 1999 or 2003.Our study showed, among other things, that the majority of all children were interviewed. It also showed that the age of the children didn't affect the consideration the court took to the child's opinion.

The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate how some children's librarians view their working situation. There is one main question and three subquestions at issue: How is the working situation of the children's librarians today described by agents on the library field? - Are children's librarians ascribed any value and has this changed during the last three decades'? - What is the apprehension of children's librarians and what qualities should they possess? - What is considered to be most important about work of children's librarians'? The thesis is based on qualitative interviews with children's librarians, library managers and library consultants. The interviews are analysed by the help of Pierre Bourdieu theoretical concepts; capital, habitus, field, doxa and distinction. Today, children's librarians are ascribed capital by their librarian colleagues because of their specialist qualifications.

In this thesis the positioning of children and adults in the context of children?s rights in SouthAfrica and Sweden are examined. With theoretical terms as children in vulnerability and adults incharge the analysis examines how South Africa and Sweden has been using the UN children?sconvention to empower children and for what consequences in the positioning of children that hasshown. And that adults are positioned as a powerful group with a responsibilty of protectingchildren.

The study sheds light on pupils individual plans of development and portfolios from the perspective of children. It has an ethnographic standpoint. It was carried out on children and pupils in pre-school, pre-school class and third grade. By further investigating how children and pupils use their individual development plans and portfolios, in which settings and to whom they communicate them, this study is able to grasp the discourse that is created around the instrument itself. This study is also interested in and aims to find the theoretical frame, in essence, which envelops both the construction of childhood and children?s own activities within the limitations and opportunities that this structure offers.

Abstract   In this thesis, my aim was to investigate how preschool teachers view their involvement in children's free play. In order to answer this, I chose to do semi-structured interviews with four preschool teachers in three different preschools. My interviews has revealed similarities and support for as how history of research looks at the involvement of educationists. Both research and my results stresses the importance of being active in children's free play and to be a supportive teacher, particulary in conflict situations. For those children who have difficulty entering into the free game its the educationists task to co-play and help the children find the game.

ABSTRACT Poverty, and in particular child poverty, is a serious social problem. Statistics show that the number of children living in poverty has increased over the last ten years. Earlier research shows that there are huge gaps in our knowledge of how the actors in civil society handle child poverty. With this study we hope to help fill this gap. The aim of our study is to look at how four different organisations working in the civil society in Uppsala perceive and handle child poverty.

The aim of this Master's thesis is to examine and analyze what discourses about children that can be found in three Swedish culture publications, and also to identify the different social roles that are attributed to children in these publications. The theoretical and methodological background is discourse theory, as described by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. Additional theory used is social constructionism and Norman Fairclough?s critical discourse theory. Three questions are asked: What discourse/s can be found in these publications? What do these discourses tell us about the view on children within the library domain? What social roles are attributed to the children in the texts and what consequences do these have for the power configuration between children and adults? Furthermore there is a discussion concerning what effects these discourses might have on the direct and indirect reception of children in the library.

The aim of child health care is to promote health and development for all children, to early identify problems that concern children´s growth and development and to prevent ill-health among children. Today in our society the proportion of children who are underweight are few.The aim with this study was to describe paediatric nurses experience in meeting with underweight children and their parents. Interviews were implemented and analyzed according to qualitative content analysis. Focus was placed on looking at differences and interpretations in the text content. The analyse resulted in six main categories, such as a need of sensitivity and a holistic view from the nurse, difficulties in handling the meeting because lack of tools.

The aim of this study was to examine how children in the age of 5 are communicating in play at the preschool and how their fantasy games are different from each other. In this study, I have gained a greater insight on how to control children's imagination games.My approach has been the observation of three fun times where I also used me out of a voice recorder to record children's voices when their children are communicating with each other during the time of play at the preschool.The results of my study showed that children's fantasy games based on children's past experiences in which children use different themes and characters. The children's communication activities are different from each other. Children have different themes but the deck is based on imagination and communication.Fantasy games that children perform is rooted in the experiences that children get through to experience and see the reality.

The main aim of this study is to analyse the grotesque characterization of adults in four novels by Roald Dahl, from Michail Bachtin?s definition of the carnival-grotesque in Rabelais and his world. From this view I have examined how the conflict between children and adults is described in these books, and to what extent the grotesque motifs have a function in this conflict.For this purpose I have applied theories of the literature-grotesque by Michail Bachtin, and of the meaning and function and ? in this context ? the necessity of fright and horror in children?s fiction, in particular by Bruno Bettelheim and J.A. Appleyard.

This study is about the preschool environment. Earlier studies show that preschool environment affect children?s development and learning. This study will exemplify the perspective of active preschool teachers of how they see at preschool play environment. The aim of this study is to bring insight and understanding on how preschool teachers see upon their play environment and the play that occurs.

The purpose of this study was to examine how girls and boys are described by social workersin psycho-social assessments in child and adolescent psychiatry. The questions at issue wereif girls and boys are described in different ways and if gender related patterns could be found.The study was both qualitative and quantitative. I used textual analysis as a method anddiscourse analysis as theory.Results: Sexes were generally described differently. Girls are depicted from how they are andhow they look and boys are described by what they do and their behaviour. The mother isdescribed as the person who is most responsible for children of both sexes.

The purpose of our study was to examine how missing children are portrayed in media. We wanted to see if there are any recurring story patterns and characters in the texts. We also wanted to examine how the relationship between children and adults are framed and which comprehensive View of children is mediated in journalistic texts.Our questions were: how do Swedish newspapers write about missing children? Which narrative pattern are there in the texts? How are children and adults represented in the texts? What relationship between children and adults are made visible in the texts? What a comprehensive approach to children is constructed in the texts?For this study, we used the media discourse, theories of representation, stereotypes and characters. And theories of narrative, dramatic turns and opposites.We chose to make three case studies in which children suddenly disappeared, the case of Bobby Äikiä, the case of Engla Höglund and the case of Sebastian Hedman.

Abstract The purpose of the study is to examine how children perceive the relation between play and sex and analyse it from a gender perspective. This by answering the questions: "Is the children?s choice of place, materials and company in play dependent on gender?" and "Is there a significant difference between the sexes and/or ages?" The study was done through twelve focusgroup interviews with three children in each group except two groups of two children in each. Eight boys and nine girls of six years old and nine boys and eight girls of nine years old were interviewed. Boys and girls were interviewed in separate groups and the questions were open ended and followed up.

The aim with this thesis, based on five childrens librarians statements, is to highlight their view of their work, and what they deem to be of importance when working with small children within the library sphere. My main question is as follows: What motive compels childrens librarians in their work with small children, and will Vygotskys theories be recognised in their statements. I have two questions as a base for this main question: How do childrens librarians work with small children, and do they utilise any special methods in their work? How do childrens librarians view their work tasks, and what do they deem to be of importance regarding small children and libraries? The thesis is based on qualitative interviews. As a theory I have decided to concentrate on Vygotskys thoughts on imagination and creativity, the Zone of Proximal Development, and childrens language development.