Browsing by Subject "koulu"

Children’s and adolescents’ well-being as well as school well-being has been a headline on many news recently. The aim of this study was to examine compulsory school students’ perspectives on school factors that have influenced on their school absenteeism. The aim of this study was also to view student’s perspectives on the support the school has offered them. The aim was also to find out what kind of support the adolescents would consider to be effective in preventing absenteeism. Many researchers have done research on truancy but only few studies have focused on students’ perspectives on truancy. This research was conducted as a theme interview. Research material consisted of five theme interviews from compulsory school students that have been absent from school and school is concerned on their school absenteeism. Themes covered school aspects from a wide range. Themes covered also student’s views to their school absenteeism. The research material was analysed by using content analysis. Results from this study indicate that school bullying is one of the major reasons behind school absenteeism of the interviewed adolescents. Interaction with teachers play also an important role. Only one of the adolescents interviewed stated that her absenteeism is due to her own motivation. The results show that school has not offered enough support against or preventing bullying. The results concerning support in school matters other than bullying vary from not getting enough support to getting all the support student could ask for. Results from this study show that students hope the school to act stronger in preventing school bullying. Also schools should place more effort on the school atmosphere and the interaction between students and teachers. Strengthening school engagement and preventing school bullying could help reduce school absenteeism.

The aim of this study was to examine what kind of harmful perceptions young people have on sexual consent. The other aim was to find recent scientific research on how sexual consent could best be discussed in school-based sex education and why. Sexual consent is an integral part of healthy and enjoyable sexual encounters which the lack thereof is a violation of one’s self-determination and physical integrity. Previous studies have shown that the legal and binary notions of sexual consent are unsuccessful in describing any and all experiences of unwanted and non-consensual sexual encounters. Subtle and deeply ingrained social norms affect how we behave in sexually charged situations. This study was conducted as a descriptive literature review. The data consisted of ten peer-reviewed articles that discuss sexual consent, school-based learning and young people. The studies were published in 2020 and 2021 and they took place in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Sweden, Denmark and New Zealand. According to this study young people have a varying understanding of sexual consent. Where some young people indicated a nuanced and multifaceted understanding of sexual consent, others expressed problematic and even dangerous views regarding the topic. Heteronormative gender roles were heavily related to young people’s notions of sexual consent. Men were seen as active and having initiative whereas women were seen as the passive party. However, the responsibility to set boundaries and express refusal was almost entirely on women. Insufficient understanding of sexual consent, gender roles and relying on body language to assume sexual consent may lead to situations where young people unintentionally wind up having unwanted sex. By discussing sexual consent in school-based education it is possible to influence young people’s understanding of sexual consent, to contest social norms related to sexual consent and to prevent such sexual violence that is caused by the lack of understanding of the phenomenon. Addressing sexual consent in education should focus on identifying one’s personal boundaries, communicating consent and non-consent, fostering deep understanding of sexual consent and pursuing enjoyable sexual experiences. Advisable methods in this study were inclusive exercises where young people could share their thoughts and in return learn information directly related to their personal experiences.

Lapsen henkilökohtaisella osallisuusoikeudella on korkein mahdollinen hierarkkinen tuki erityisesti perustuslain 6.3 §:ssä ja YK:n lapsen oikeuksien sopimuksen 12 artiklassa ja se vaikuttaa myös kaikki lapsen oikeudet läpileikkaavana periaatteena. Osallisuusoikeus on toteutettava jokaisessa lasta koskevassa tilanteessa ja se on otettava huomioon niin lapsen ja huoltajien kuin lapsen ja muiden yhteiskunnan toimijoiden, kuten koulutoimen, välisessä vuorovaikutuksessa. Tutkielmassa tutkitaan alaikäisille kuuluvaa henkilökohtaista osallisuusoikeutta, ja sen kontekstina on sekä perhe että peruskoulu, jotka sulautuvat lapsen henkilöä koskevissa kysymyksissä yhteen moniulotteiseksi suhteeksi. Lapsen osallisuusoikeudesta peruskoulun toimintaympäristössä on nostettu tiettyjä ongelma- tai erityiskohtia. Tutkimuskysymykset muodostetaan näiden pohjalta ja niihin pyritään vastaamaan pääasiallisesti lainopillisella tutkimusmenetelmällä, kuitenkaan unohtamatta oikeuden ulkopuolisen maailman vaikuttavuutta lapsen oikeuksiin. Ensinnäkin tutkitaan, turvataanko perusopetusta koskevassa sääntelyssä riittävällä tavalla lapsen osallisuusoikeutta henkilökohtaisella tasolla siten kuin perus- ja ihmisoikeussääntely velvoittaa. Toiseksi selvitetään, millainen on lapsen ja huoltajien vaikutusvallan ja lapsen henkilökohtaisen osallisuusoikeuden suhde peruskoulun toimintaympäristössä lasta koskevissa kysymyksissä. Tutkielmassa käsitellään lapsen osallisuusoikeuden tärkeimpiä ulottuvuuksia perus- ja ihmisoikeuslähtökodissa tutkimuskysymysten kannalta. Osallisuusoikeudesta on erotettavissa erilaisia elementtejä, kuten velvollisuus lapsen mielipiteiden selvittämiseen ja kuulemiseen sekä niiden painoarvon huomioimiseen lapsen kehittyvien valmiuksien mukaisesti, kuin myös lapsen tiedonsaantioikeus. Lisäksi huomioon on otettava lapsen edun ensisijaisuus, jossa eräänlaisena punnintaparina on lapsen osallisuus ja erityinen suojeluntarve, joka voi joissakin tilanteissa rajoittaa lapsen osallisuutta. Lisäksi tärkeä seikka on huoltajille kuuluva perhe-elämän suojasta seuraava autonomisuus lapsen huoltoon ja kasvatukseen. Huoltajilla on lähtökohtaisesti oikeus päättää lapsen henkilökohtaisista asioista sekä edustaa lasta ja käyttää hänen puhevaltaansa. Huoltajille kuuluu myös velvollisuus keskustella lapsensa kanssa ennen päätöksentekoa. Lisäksi tutkielmassa käsitellään kattavasti lapsen osallisuutta perusopetusta koskevassa sääntelyssä ja esitetään seikkoja kodin ja koulun yhteistyöstä ja vuorovaikutuksellisuudesta. Erityisenä kysymyksenä tutkielmassa nostetaan oppilaan oppiainevalintoihin liittyvää sääntelyä. Esimerkkinä huoltajien vaikutusvallasta käsitellään lapsen uskonnonopetusta koskevaa sääntelyä sekä oppilashuoltolain 18.2 §. Oppilaan osallisuutta turvataan peruskoulussa henkilökohtaisen osallisuuden sijasta varsin korostuneesti yleisenä ja kollektiivisena osallisuutena etenkin perusopetuslain 47a §:ssä. Tätä on pidettävä heikkoutena, sillä useat lasta koskevat kysymykset vaikuttavat peruskoulussa hyvin vahvasti ja konkreettisesti lapsen elämään. Lisäksi osallisuus näyttäytyy koulussa enemmänkin yhteiskunnallisten kansalaistaitojen opetteluna. Hallintopäätöksenteon yhteydessä lapsen osallisuus on turvattu hallintolaissa kuulemisena, mutta tosiasiallisen hallintotoiminnan yhteydessä oppilaan osallisuus saa velvoittavuutensa lähinnä perus- ja ihmisoikeustasolta ja hallinnon periaatteista. Johtopäätöksenä pidetään tutkielmassa esitetyn mukaisesti sitä, että nimenomaiselle lapsen henkilökohtaista osallisuutta turvaavalle säännökselle olisi tarvetta perusopetusta koskevassa sääntelyssä lapsen oikeusturvan turvaamiseksi. Lisäksi tutkielmassa esitetään johtopäätöksenä huoltajille koululainsäädännössä annetun vaikutusvallan korostuneisuus ja osittainen ristiriitaisuus. Lisäksi todetaan huoltajien vaikutusvallan olevan suhteessa siihen, millä tavoin ja, kuinka aktiivisesti huoltajat toteuttavat lapsensa osallisuutta ja ottavat lapsensa mielipiteet ja toiveet huomioon.

The aim of this study was to examine literature on grief in general, grief of children and the role of the school in supporting a grieving child. This study examines the views on grief, grief from perspective of a child and also the opportunities of the school and teachers to acknowledge and support a grieving child. The study deals with the grief through concepts of grief work, stage model of grief, comprehensive grief and the new concept of grief. Additionally the study examines the mediators and special characteristics of a child´s grief, the meaning and opportunities of school in the life of a grieving child and instructions for schools regarding acknowledging and supporting a child in grief. The study was conducted as a descriptive literary review. Relevant scientific literature and few notable written guides on grief were used as source material. The findings of the study showed, that while general research on grief is moving towards to concepts of comprehensive grief and the new concept of grief, the research on the grief of a child is still leaning heavily on the more traditional concepts of grief work and the stage model of grief. However, grief experienced by child appeared as a complex phenomenon with multiple mediators. The role of the school in supporting a child in grief was significant. By supporting a grieving child the teacher and the class community had an opportunity to create a space for grieving. Also the National Core Curriculum for Basic Education 2014 enabled discussing the matters of death and grief in school, while the Finnish legislation on student wellbeing (1287/2013) required schools to organize support for grieving children when needed. The instructions provided by the Finnish National Agency for Education offer the teachers practical guidelines on how to discuss grief with a child, and how to support child in grief.

Tiivistelmä - Referat – Abstract The growing marginalization and inactivity of Finnish young people in societal matters has increased debate on participation in the 21st century. Solutions to social problems, such as indifference, insecurity and exclusion, have been sought from participation. Disturbing information about children and young people's dissatisfaction in school has contributed to questions about pupil’s participation, activity and opportunities to influence in the school community. The school, as a community of growth for children and young people, plays a key role in promoting well-being and preventing social problems. The aim of this literature review is to establish the meaning of children’s participation and find out how it is connected to the school satisfaction. Finnish and Anglo-Saxon research literature is used as a source material for the thesis. Research literature does not provide such a comprehensive definition of participation. The meaning of the concept varies depending on the context. In the research literature children’s participation has been described through “the ladder of participation”. These typologies describe the gradually increasing participation from incapacity to the opportunities to influence in joint action with adults. Children’s participation requires redistribution of power and critical review of the traditional state of children and adults. In other case participation will only remain to the level of non-participation. In addition to the functional element, participation includes also more subjective experience of empowerment and the feeling of belonging to the community. Studies have shown that the school satisfaction and participation in the official activities of the Finnish pupils is comparatively low. One reason for dissatisfaction seems to be lack of experience of the opportunities to influence in the school community and poor social relationships with peers and teachers. The participation in the curriculum (2014) has been taken into account mainly as an experience of democratic influence in the context of formal schooling, such as an activity in student council. For children, however, the school appears as a community where informal and formal are linked together. The perspective of students should also be taken into account whilst developing participation and promoting school satisfaction.

Objectives. According to the Child Welfare Act (417/2007, 3a §) the vital parties in preventive child welfare are public services, including educational administration. Preventive child welfare aims in guaranteeing welfare when the child is not a customer of child welfare. The goal is to support children at an early stage, during which it is still possible to prevent problems escalating any further. (Bardy, 2013.) Furthermore, the aim of this study was to map teachers’ experiences on child welfare in school environment. The study looks at how teachers at primary schools perceive their awareness of child welfare work, how child welfare concerns of primary school teachers show up, and what kind of experiences primary school teachers have with regards to the cooperation with child welfare. Methods. The thesis was carried out as a qualitative research, based on the phenomenological approach. The study was conducted at an elementary school with seven teachers participating in the theme interviews, five individual interviews, and one pair interview. Out of all the participants, three were class teachers, two subject teachers, and two special education teachers. In addition to theme interviews, an email containing three open-ended questions was sent to all the participants in August 2017. The data was analysed via theme-analysis. Results and Conclusion. Teachers felt they were able to partly put into practice the child welfare act, despite the bigger picture of it being unclear. Teachers’ awareness of child welfare came mainly as a result of their own work and experience. Teachers' perceptions of preventative child welfare work at the school were related to student work, school curator activities, co-operation with parents, and teachers' pedagogical methods in the classroom. The raise of concern regarding child welfare was affected by troubles at school, behavior, general appearance, home life, and the negligence of parents toward the school life of their children. The concerns that raised from the students´ behavior were often seen as multi-dimensional and aggregated. Teachers´ child welfare concerns awakening is often affected by the child's school, problems, behavior, general appearance, home life, or the parents´ indifference towards school-going. Ways to deal with concerns were open discussion and, as a last resort, a child welfare notice. Experiences in co-operation with child protection were varied, but often the co-operation was not working well enough. In particular, the flow of information was considered inadequate. Nearly all of the teachers hoped for better co-operation between schools and the child welfare.

The social life of modern youth has expanded from the physical world to also include the virtual world. Because of this is completely natural to see bullying spread into the world of internet as well. Thus bullying knows no time nor place and can instead happen both during free time and at school. The different ways, influences and preventative methods of cyberbullying have been studied before (Patchin & Hinduja, 2012), but studies from the teachers’ point of view, especially of which situations do they feel obligated to resolve, are almost nonexistent. This study aims to fill that hole and simultaneously discover how teachers define, encounter, prevent and act in cases of cyberbullying or conflicts. This study was conducted as a case study in 2019. The research material was collected by interviewing six teachers with teaching experience, using a semi-structured theme interview. The material was transcribed and analysed using content analysis. The analysis was conducted using the Atlas.ti-program. The results showed that teachers did not encounter cyberbullying very often. They mostly mediated arguments taking place in virtual environments, before they could develop into bullying. The situations they did encounter were handled with discussions and by contacting the students’ parents. Preventative work was done actively in schools. The teachers themselves felt that handling cases of cyberbullying was mostly up to the parents. Even so, if the needs of a student demanded it, or if bullying was noticed in the classroom, the teachers started handling them themselves. Based on the results it can be stated that teachers need guidelines to specify which cases of cyberbullying are a part of their duties, especially when the bullying happens outside of the school day. At the moment, teachers define their respective roles very subjectively, which can lead to inequality between students, depending on the teachers subjective definition.

The aim of this research is to study what kind of conceptions class teachers have about elementary school's festival traditions and especially Christian based festival traditions. This is a fairly topical issue at the moment. Over the last decades the Finnish society has come more plural and that has highlight the questions what festivals should school celebrate. In the centre of this discuss are Christian based festivals and festival tradition. The subject hasn't been researched much. So this study strives to answer this need of research. I approach the subject from the perspective of the pedagogics and the cultural heritage education. My research problems are: 1. What kind of conceptions have class teacher about the elementary school's festival traditions? 2. Which overtones is relation with these conceptions? 3. What kind of conceptions have class teachers about the reasons of school festivals? The nature of this study was quantitative and qualitative survey research. All together 245 class teachers of elementary schools from Satakunta (n=118) and Helsinki (n=127) took part in survey which was gathered in the fall of 2012. I chose these two areas because of their difference in population, culture and environment. By gathering large sample from two different areas I tried to conservative extrapolate these responses to all class teachers. The material was analysed by statistical analysis methods as means and factor analysis and by using qualitative research basic ideas: categorising and formulating types. According to the results of this study the teachers perceived Christian based festival tradition as part of the cultural education of the school. Teachers also thought that the school festivals were great opportunity to get to know Finnish culture tradition. The culture tradition of other cultures was also seen very important part of the school festival. Teachers' experience was that pupil's religious diversity didn't make school festival tradition significantly problematic although it has impact to the staging of the school festivals. Teachers saw that most of the meanings of the festivals were engaged to the purpose of the festival and in to the celebration of the festival. Teachers from Satakunta felt school festivals a bit more important than teachers from Helsinki. However altogether teachers' conceptions were positive against the school festival traditions. It seems that based on this study celebration of the school festival isn't that problematic thing that public conversation sometimes implies. The school festival tradition definitely needs more research. One viewpoint for the future study could be which issues teachers estimate to include in the Finnish culture heritage, which transmitting is the one assignment of the school.

Tavoitteet. Maahanmuuttajataustaisten ihmisten määrä Suomessa on viime vuosina kasvanut ja kasvun odotetaan myös jatkuvan. Aiempien tutkimusten mukaan maahanmuuttajataustaiset nuoret kokevat yhteiskunnassa ennakkoluuloja, rasismia, syrjintää ja toiseuttamista. Erityisesti viimeiseksi mainittu eli ihmisen tai ihmisryhmän pitäminen erilaisena ja vähempiarvoisena koskettaa maahanmuuttajataustaisia ihmisiä, koska valtaväestö kokee usein maahanmuuttajataustaiset ihmiset uhaksi itselleen. Yhteiskunnan ja koululaitoksen ollessa tiiviissä vuorovaikutuksessa, myös koulujen arkea on tärkeää tarkastella ja muuttaa, sillä toiseuttaminen haastaa oppilaiden ja opiskelijoiden yhdenvertaisuuden toteutumisen. Tässä tutkielmassa selvitetäänkin, miten maahanmuuttajataustaisia oppilaita ja opiskelijoita toiseutetaan koulussa sekä sitä, millaisia vaikutuksia toiseuttamisella on sen kohteeksi joutuville oppilaille ja opiskelijoille. Menetelmät. Tutkielma toteutettiin kuvailevana integroivana kirjallisuuskatsauksena. Aineisto koostui kymmenestä vuosina 2005-2022 julkaistusta tieteellisestä tutkimusartikkelista ja analysoitiin tutkimuskysymyskohtaisesti joko teoriaohjaavan tai aineistolähtöisen sisällönanalyysin keinoin. Analyysiin kuului aineiston lukeminen, ilmausten pelkistäminen ja yhdisteleminen sekä ala- ja yläkategorioiden luominen. Tulokset ja johtopäätökset. Maahanmuuttajataustaisia oppilaita ja opiskelijoita toiseutettiin koulussa verbaalisin, toiminnallisin ja spatiaalisin tavoin. Toiseuttaminen vaikutti oppilaiden ja opiskelijoiden koulunkäyntiin, sosiaalisiin suhteisiin ja henkiseen hyvinvointiin. Vaikutukset olivat pääosin kielteisiä. Toiseuttaminen oli niin tahallista kuin tahatontakin. Tahattomassa toiseuttamisessa oli kyse toiminnasta, jonka tarkoitus oli myönteinen, mutta lopputulos toiseuttava. Yhteistä tahalliselle ja tahattomalle toiseuttamiselle oli niitä ohjaava ajatus toiseuttamisen kohteen oleellisesta erilaisuudesta verrattuna itseen sekä kielteiset vaikutukset toiseuttamisen kohteelle. Tutkielman tuoma ymmärrys siitä, millä tavoin maahanmuuttajataustaisia oppilaita ja opiskelijoita koulussa toiseutetaan, on tärkeää erityisesti opettajille, koska kuten tutkielman tulokset osoittavat, myös opettajat osallistuvat koulussa maahanmuuttajataustaisten oppilaiden ja opiskelijoiden toiseuttamiseen, ja toisaalta heidän tehtävänsä on myös kyetä puuttumaan oppilaiden ja opiskelijoiden maahanmuuttajataustaisiin koulutovereihinsa kohdistamaan toiseuttamiseen. Tulevaisuudessa olisi erityisen tärkeää kehittää tapoja kitkeä ja ennaltaehkäistä toiseuttamista niin koululaitoksen kuin yhteiskunnankin tasolla.

The purpose of this research is to study and understand racism between ethnic minority group children as a phenomenon in schools. The goal is to study, through the speech of teachers, what kinds of cultural categories exist in schools and what factors, according to teachers, influence racist encounters between children from ethnic minority groups. This study is part of the research project Racism Between Ethnic Minority Groups, carried out by the youth education organization Non Fighting Generation. The intention of the project is to study racism between ethnic minority groups. The theoretical background of this study is in the theory of social identity, which focuses on group behaviour and out-group relations. It is based on the notion that people form evaluations about their own group by comparing it to other groups. The data of the research was collected from seven elementary school teachers in the Helsinki metropolitan area by using semi-structured interview method and the interviews were analyzed through discursive methods. The data show that there is hierarchy-based reasoning between ethnic minority groups. Considering one's own ethnic group to be better than other minority groups seems to help the individual strengthen his/her social identity. Based on cultural categorization children with Asian background were seen as calm survivors, more likely to stay in the background. Children with Russian roots were described to have a strong sense of cultural identity. Arrogant behaviour was also seen as a cause for why Russian boys got into trouble. The Somali children were the ones who stood out the most and who also separated themselves the most from other ethnic minority groups. Physical appearance, style of clothing, cultural habits and religious way of life defined the Somali children as a cultural category. In this study four factors were shown to influence racist conflicts between ethnic minority groups in school; religion, lack of a majority language, cultural habits and behavioural patterns learned at home. The results of this study indicate that racism exists between ethnic minority group children and that teachers feel they lack the means to tackle the issue. This research shows the need for a deeper understanding of the phenomenon, so that it can be prevented in the future.