Tiltai

During the soviet times pedagogy in Latvia develops in difficult and controversial conditions. It becomes a specific area of influence and a propaganda tool, in which ideologised guidelines of soviet pedagogy prevail. So far Soviet experience in education theory and practice (1940–1941, 1944–1990) has not been fully identified and evaluated because it is “recent” history. People living during the soviet times have developed self-experience, based on which conclusions can be made. At the same time young people develop this experience in their daily life (communicating with people, watching and reading in the mass media), thus based on other people’s experience. One of the sources promoting teachers’ historical experience is study courses The History of Pedagogy and Literature Didactics, in which future teachers gain knowledge about the historical development of pedagogy, learn different ideas proposed by famous educators, acquire skill in analysing pedagogical ideas in the context of a particular historical period, assess different offerings of pedagogy and their application in nowadays pedagogical situations. At the same time in the study course Literature Didactics future teachers enrich their knowledge about the development of Didactics of Latvian Literature during the soviet period, master their skills in critical evaluation of study contents, study programs, materials, additional materials, study aims, methods and approaches as well as teacher student interaction during the lesson.

This article analyzes the survival strategies of homeless men in the night shelters and in the street. Homeless people face social and economic lack of resources and because of that, their daily life is related with hope to meet their minimal needs: to find the shelter and food, to protect themselves from the cold and violence. The article presents empirical study the goal of which was to find out how the homeless people construct their hope to survive the homelessness on the streets and shelters. The results of the research show that homeless men use these survival strategies: in order to get food they go to the charity canteens, get food from their friends, try to buy food with their minimal incomes or beg in the streets. In order to protect themselves from the violence homeless men try to be open-eyed at any time of the day, take the role of “conflict fighter” or try to be brave and proud when there is a threat to their health. Trying to protect themselves from the cold homeless people look for the relevant things and find remote places to hide from wind and cold.

The article analyzes the quality of education services efficiency, effectiveness and accessibility aspects. The theoretical part of the article discusses the concept of education and their range of services. A detailed presentation of educational and social services. Describes the attitude of the respondents to provide educational services. Research period 2007–2014. Empirical research carried out in Lithuania: Klaipėda, Telšiai, Tauragė, Šiauliai and Kaunas. Empirical research participated 520 respondents (IX–XII / II–IV G students).

This article presents findings and discussions generated on the basis of the Danish-Swedish development project CareSam. The article will on the one hand focus on how work in groups consisting of representatives from different levels in the elderly care sector at one time served as learning spaces and cultural encounters in which established notions of older people and elderly care were challenged and discussed. Inspired by action research these challenges were brought forth through discussions of and through insight in practical experiences. On the other hand it will focus on the tendencies to narrow the diversity of perceptions of elderly people and their care, which were also seen in the project and led to stories in which the meaningfulness of care work were honored. Departing from the interviews presented in the CareSam film and parts of the empirical material produced in connection to the work in the project-groups this paper will ask whether it is possible to represent care work for elderly people with all the ambiguities it holds: How can we as researchers represent both meaningfulness and straining dimensions of care work? Can we avoid either supporting Florence Nightingale-ideals or cementing negative cultural perceptions of help-needing elderly and the people who support them in everyday life? In answering these questions and thereby reflecting on our own work process we apply a caring, a learning and a political perspective. Hereby the article wishes to formulate a methodological point: The CareSam cross sector collaboration produced important experience near knowledge, but also lead to present somewhat one-sided understandings of elderly care. Applying theoretical perspectives to analyze the empirical material and the working process, nuances the understanding and makes it possible to maintain immediately conflicting dimensions in this kind of work.

The article seeks to reveal the importance of critical evaluation of authority of social workers. The problem of authority and different meanings attached to the role of a social worker are discussed and the practical and theoretical value of the research study is revealed. The article presents the theoretical explanations of the concept of authority and its ethical implications for social work practice at a children day care center. It also discusses the empirical findings of the qualitative case study conducted at the day care center X. The perceptions of its practitioners, what authority of a social worker means and consists of and how to gain it, are peresented. The article includes a detailed description of the specific context of the case study and indicates the selected research methods. The degree of reliability and validity of research study are also discussed. The empirical data of the case study is analyzed and discussed and conclusions are presented.

The greatest achievement of technology, the Internet, not only changed the lifestyles of the world population, but also created unheard of before opportunities for learning and teaching foreign languages. The development of digital technology provided the important shift from the informational Web 1.0 to the social Web 2.0, which allows involving users in active communication and collaboration with each other. The number of social media websites keeps constantly increasing, which makes them available to learners all over the world. The estimated number of social network users worldwide is 1.79 bn. Students’ familiarity with online social media has been reported in this article. The opportunities for applying the Internet websites in active learning / teaching of languages depend to a great extent on what sites learners are accustomed to using and how often. The findings on the use of social media websites are obtained from the survey completed by two samples of students of Klaipeda University. The research reveals that learners use (constantly or often) Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google, and Wikipedia. However collaborative editing, social bookmarking, weblogs and conversational sites are never used or even not familiar. The data imply that it is essential to increase learners’ training in application of social sites. Some statistical correlations between the data for both samples have been found by using the Software Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). There is either 99 % or 95 % probability that an observed Pearson’s correlation coefficients are not a chance finding. It means that the findings might be applied beyond the studied samples.