This study investigates how environmental conditions for development in reading, as well as support in Braille and assistive technology, have influenced the literacy of 11 pupils…
Abstract
This study investigates how environmental conditions for development in reading, as well as support in Braille and assistive technology, have influenced the literacy of 11 pupils in Norwegian mainstream schools. It was recommended that these pupils learn to read both Braille and print because of their severe visual impairments ie. a visual acuity of 0.1 (20/200), or complicated visual functioning. Their reading and participation in a modern society depends on extensive use of assistive technology. The analysis is based on the pupils' coping strategies in reading and interviews with pupils, teachers and parents. Findings show that the pupils have appropriate reading devices for Braille and print, but technical aid for Braille is infrequently used. Lack of competence in Braille and reading devices at school and home will influence stimulation of literacy and choice of reading media. Possibilities in assistive technology are thus not fully realised. Each pupil's individual needs, as well as ways in which support and stimulation could be provided, should therefore be addressed when recommending reading media and devices.
Details
Keywords
Katarina Pettersson and Susanna Heldt Cassel
This paper aims to explore how gender is “done” on farms in Sweden in the context of increased tourism and hospitality activities. The authors seek to investigate how gender is…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how gender is “done” on farms in Sweden in the context of increased tourism and hospitality activities. The authors seek to investigate how gender is done vis-à-vis women’s farm tourism entrepreneurship. They seek to answer the questions: What has motivated the farm women to become tourism entrepreneurs? How are the gendered divisions of labor changed through women starting businesses? How does the gendered associated symbolism, as well as the identities, change?
Design/methodology/approach
Research has indicated that introducing tourism entrepreneurship at farms may challenge established gender relations, as many of these entrepreneurs are women. The empirical material consists of in-depth interviews with 15 women farm tourism entrepreneurs in central Sweden.
Findings
The analysis suggests that the gendered divisions of labor are not changed through the interviewed women starting tourism businesses. The authors conclude that the women build their entrepreneurship and develop some of their products on an image of rural domesticity, including a representation of themselves as traditional farm women. At the same time they are changing how gender is done through identifying as entrepreneurs and changing the use of the farms.
Originality/value
The authors seek to fill the research gap concerning women’s farm tourism entrepreneurship and the potential associated gendered changes. Their theoretical contribution is applying the perspective of “doing gender” and entrepreneurship, for delineating potential changes in gendered relations.