Browsing by Subject "moninaisuus"

The topic of my thesis is the social construction of reality in Finnish children's literature. In my dissertation, I am looking for an answer to what kind of reality is constructed in Finnish children's literature. Literature is an important part of education. As society changes, it is necessary to examine what kind of reality is built in children's literature, because children's books are the part of children's reality. Children's books are a mirror where children reflect themselves and the world around them. The values, norms and attitudes that appear in literature are transmitted to the child and how the child builds a picture of reality through books. The Finnish education system has been criticized for the favoring of middle-class and white children. There is also too little diversity in Finnish education materials. The first step to appreciate and understand diversity is to become aware of the phenomena associated with it. For this reason, in my thesis I have examined the values, norms and attitudes of the most popular and newest children's books.  The theoretical framework of my dissertation is divided into two parts. I examine the research material from the perspective of social constructionism and intersectionality. In the theoretical framework, I focus on examining the language used in the material as a factor that constructs and shapes reality. From the point of view of an intersectional approach, I look at different social groups and their attention in children's books. My material consists of eight Finnish children's books, which have been selected as material according to two different principles. Four of the children's books have been selected from among the most quoted children's books of 2021. The other four books have been selected as part of the material based on their year of publication, as the thesis had an imperative to pay attention to the newest children's books as well. There are three research questions. In the first research question, I am looking for an answer to what kind of reality is constructed in the books from the point of values, norms and attitudes. In the second question, I study whether there are factors that promotes equality. In the third research question, I am searching for what kind of racism appears in the books. I divided the material into two main entities, through which reality was constructed. They are called discourses of values, norms and attitudes that differ from traditional ones and traditional values, norms and attitudes. These two entities contain a total of 15 discourses, which turned out to be relevant for the topic of my research.  The results of my thesis show that although there are more factors supporting equality in children's literature than before, the presence of diversity is low. Instead of diversity, the whiteness norm prevailed in the majority of the books. For this reason, based on the results, children belonging to the PoC (People of Color) group or other minorities do not have enough identification in my thesis literature. With the help of observed discourses, educators and teachers can in the future choose anti-racist children's books as books to read, which promote equality and prevent racism. As a whole, the thesis provides important information about the values, norms and attitudes prevailing in Finnish children's literature. Through them, educators and teachers can utilize better the power of social change hidden in children's books. 

Previous studies have shown that the importance of diversity is to encounter a person with multiple characteristics, where intersectionality affects them by taking into account the factors that produce differences and their mutual relationships (Kulttuuria kaikille, 2023; Olive, 2015). Otherness is a complex phenomenon (Dervin, 2015), where the diversity of the Other is not seen. The Other is not seen as an independent and versatile actor, but rather placed in the position of an object (Dervin & Keihäs, 2013). The purpose of this thesis is to critically examine discourses of othering in opinion pieces related to early childhood education. I study the topic with the help of the following subproblems: what kind of discourses of otherness appear in opinion pieces and who is defined as an Other in opinion writings. The theoretical background of the research is built from studies dealing with diversity, intersectionality, and otherness. The thesis was carried out using a qualitative research method and the research material was produced through opinion pieces from newspapers including Kaleva, Turun Sanomat, Aamulehti, and Helsingin Sanomat. Opinion pieces were collected from between the years 2017–2021 and from pieces in which othering related to early childhood education and care appeared. After a critical examination, the research material consisted of a total of 41 opinion pieces and discourse analysis was used to analyze the material. The discourses expressing othering were disadvantage, segregation and immigration back-ground, the child's individual need for support, minority religions and worldviews, a foreign-language, special diets, gender roles, parents' weak labor market position and the conflict between the supply and demand of early childhood education services. Along with the dis-courses expressing otherness, I also answered the latter subproblem, who is defined as an Other in opinion pieces dealing with early childhood education. The research results revealed direct othering and the perspective of an awareness of otherness, in which something was recognized as discriminating or othering. Structural otherness also appeared in the research results. Judging from the research results, the factors embodying otherness are spread over a wide area and thus, from the point of view of intersectionality, create new categories embodying otherness.