Browsing by Subject "attityder"

he aim of this Thesis was to examine in which way a Finnish-speaking immersionprogram affects Swedish-speaking children’s attitudes towards the Finnish language, seen from a parent ́s perspective. The context in which the study was made and in which the children are growing up, is very homogeniously Swedish-speaking. A view on attitudes as socially constructed and strongly imprinted by the surrounding culture and the ambient environment acted as theoretical frame for the study. Immersion is a volontary form of education, that is why the study proceeds from a hypothesis on parents wanting to place their children in immersion, in hope of mediating a positive attitude towards the Finnish language. The research questions were as follows: 1. Which discourses emerge when parents talk about the Finnish language, the immersionprogram and their children’s attitudes towards the Finnish language? 2. Which functions do these discourses fulfil? A discoursepsychological approach enabled an interpretation of the material where the context is strongly present. Six parents were interviewed for the study. They had all had at least one child in the same immersionprogram kindergarten. The result shows that the parents consider Finnish as a difficult language and that the attitudes toward Finnish in the own municipality are poor. Finnish is seen as necessary, and the own experiences confirm this view. Participation in the immersion program, and the immersion program itself, are seen as effective ways of strengthening the positive attitude in the context in which the children grow up. The immersionprogram is based on a principal of functional multilingualism, which is also what the parents wish for their children. The results confirm that the parents consider this a good starting position for the future. The immersionprogram and the positive attitude strengthen the childs selfassurance, facilitate in future study- and workcontextures and contribute to a greater tolerance against other cultures, languages and languagespeakers. Accordingly, the immersionprogram would be an advantage for all children who grow up in a similar context as in this study. On a local political level this should be taken into consideration.

In accordance with the fact that the core curriculum for basic education 2014 came into effect in the autumn of 2016, the discussion about teachers' digital competence has flared up in the media. The diverse views regarding the use of digital tools in teaching contributed to the Thesis's subject. The purpose of this survey was to identify the attitude of the teachers towards information and communication technology (ICT), as well as to investigate whether psychological factors and factors in the work environment affect the attitudes of ICT in teaching. The survey was conducted as a quantitative study and was limited to primary and secondary school teachers in Swedish-speaking schools in the metropolitan area. Data was collected using an electronic questionnaire sent to 40 headmasters by e-mail, which were then forwarded to the teachers. The questionnaire was sent out in January-February 2018 and was answered by a total of 87 teachers. The material was processed and analyzed using the SPSS statistics program. The results showed that the teachers largely seemed to be positive to the use of ICT. Nevertheless, there were many open comments that were critical to digitalization, resources and the possibility of further education. Attitudes towards and perceptions of ICT were unrelated to gender, age and school level, number of pupils and work experience as a teacher. However, the psychological factors engagement and workload had a positive versus negative impact on attitudes.