Browsing by Subject "opettajuus"

The aim of this study was to shine light to ADHD as a phenomenom in a teachers career. Hypothesis was that a teacher can have ADHD but it doesn’t make a teacher unqualified. This study focused on key themes of ADHD which were hardships, compensation or alleviation of these hardships and strengths in a teacher’s career. Research shows that ADHD can cause hardships but it is also possible to affect these hardships with certain actions (Lehtokoski, 2004, 75−78; Nadeau, 2005, 550; Adler & Florence, 2006, 41−42; Michelsson ym,. 2004, 21 & 93). Research also states that ADHD can also be a strength, which means that it is important for an ADHD individual to find a job that fits those personal ADHD related traits (Hansen, 2017, 13 & 114; Michelsson ym., 2004, 93). Research question was to find out how teachers experience their professional identity and teacherhood and which hardships and strengths they experience in their career as a teacher because of ADHD diagnosis. This study was executed by interviewing seven teachers from varying levels of education with means of semi-structured interview. Answers in these interviews were analysed with means of qualitative content analysis. Results of this study consisted of many experiences about teacherhood and a teacher’s professional identity from teachers who have ADHD diagnosis. Experiences about teacherhood and teachers’ professional identity were in line with earlier research about teacherhood. Although in this study the teachers emphasized a bit more on humanity and understanding as part of teacherhood and related personality traits. ADHD can affect the working of a teacher via hardships as well as strengths. Teachers brought up many different hardships, compensation methods and strengths related to ADHD. For example, hardships with time management and memory were brought up in these interviews. These for example can be alleviated by using a calendar and other sources of written reminders of important things. The use of ADHD medication was also mentioned in some form on most interviews. ADHD related strengths were linked to more humane and understanding approach to students, creativity, efficiency, increase of neuropsychiatric knowledge and curious or enthusiastic lifestyle. ADHD affects a teachers work, but it most certainly does not mean, that the teacher would face big problems in his or her career because of ADHD. It is important that a teacher with ADHD finds his own best way to do things and to find out his or her strengths as well as to utilize them. In this way a teacher can succeed in their line of work despite of their hardships. ADHD related traits or attributes do not define an individual, its more about how they can be utilized and alleviated via different solutions in work related environment, if needed.

The aim of our research was to map how teachers experience their work and their attitude to school development. In addition we were interested in how the teachers perceive the future of their role and that of the school. The material was collected by interviewing two primary and two secondary school teachers. We interviewed at the schools where we found interested teachers, so the divide between the primary and the secondary teachers was incidental. Our method of interviewing was the theme framed interview. This was chosen because it allows the interviewee a freedom to talk widely about the subject, but it still gives a structured framework for the interview. The themes of the research were subdivided into four categories: being a teacher; the teacher’s role; the planning of the curriculum in the school and the attitude of the teachers towards the development of the school. In addition we asked the teachers to write an essay about the future of the teachers’ work and their school. In analysing the material we could use the themes as our framework. The themes springing out of the interviews were being a teacher, the role of the teacher, reforms and the future. Three important issues affecting the work of today’s teachers came up in the interviews. These were the increasing problems of pupils, the lack of training and insufficient time to do one’s work. The raise in pupils’ problems in school can at least partially be blamed on the increasing use of alcohol and drugs amongst the young and socio-economic problems experienced by parents. Pedagogic subjects especially were deemed lacking in the teacher training programme. Too much time is devoted to train student teachers in the subject matters and not enough time is used honing the skills to tackle the pastoral issues. Time management was the problem both when implementing reforms and co-ordinating work with colleagues. Teachers’ attitudes towards the reforms were generally positive. Experience showed that initiatives developed locally by teachers were more meaningful than the nationwide ones, because the results of the changes could be seen more quickly. The increasing socio-economic problems of pupils were seen to change the work of a teacher and the role of the school towards managing pastoral issues. Accordingly, the role of a teacher would become more concerned with raising the young and supporting the parents. The change in society and the increasing amount of information available will change teaching, thus encouraging students to get skills to seek information independently. Cooperation inside school, between school and parents and international cooperation will increase in the future according to the teachers. The results of our research cannot be generalised, but they will help us to understand the teachers’ work and the demands made on them in society both today and in the future.

The purpose of this study has been to investigate the views of elementary school teachers on teacher expertise and the effects of social change on expertise. The aim of this study has been to determine how experienced teachers perceive teacher’s role and the changes that have taken place, focusing on teachers’ professional growth and the development of expertise. The significance of teachers and schools in society is evident. Education has been on display in the social discourse recently, focusing on the challenges brought by social change. The demands placed on teaching can be seen to have increased, and teachers view the social changes as a challenge to the implementation of the teacher’s and school’s primary task. By examining the construction and changes of teacher expertise, information can be obtained about the work of teachers in the present day and the meeting of demands and resources, so that the teacher’s professional development can be supported. The research was conducted as a qualitative study, using theory-guided content analysis methods, aiming for phenomenological inference. The data was collected by performing semi-structured interviews for six elementary school teachers, each of whom had worked as a teacher for over ten years. The participants of this study saw teacher expertise being formed by expertise in education and training, which includes professionalism and humanity. Teachers emphasized the building of expertise on a foundation of knowledge and, increasingly, educational skills, where the significance of an individual teacher has grown. Social change was seen to bring challenges to education, which require increasingly more thinking and decision-making skills. Teachers emphasized the need to adapt to a diverse world in times of social change through professional ethics and pedagogical expertise. A special challenge for expertise seemed to rise from the limited opportunities to influence one’s work and its implementation.

The purpose of this thesis is to study, how sixth graders in a normal school describe their student teachers. The aim is also to find out if the representations made by the pupils are similar to the representations of teacher's profession and a good teacher that are prevalent in our society. The research approach of this study was qualitative. The qualitative survey data with open questions was collected in the winter 2013 from 6 graders who studied in a normal school. 73 pupils participated in the study. The survey data were analysed applying principles of qualitative content analysis. Five categories emerged from the data describing good student teachers. These categories were: personality, pedagogical relationship, didactical relationship, industrial peace and other qualities. The pupils' representation of the personality of a good student teacher consisted of friendliness, kindness and humorous. A good student teacher had a good style as well as a personal handwriting or a way of speaking. Representation of the pedagogical relationship of a good student teacher included treating the pupils according to their age, treating them equally, respect them and help them when needed. A good student teacher didn't yell or rage and didn't complain unnecessarily. The didactical relationship representation consisted of creating a relaxed and fun atmosphere as well as keeping the classes interesting. During class a good student teacher knew how to take it easy and explained everything clearly. With his/hers own action a good student teacher could make dull topics interesting. He/she used diverse methods like using drama or group assignments. Industrial peace was seen as a quiet class where a little noise was allowed. Keeping the peace in classroom was an important skill to have as a student teacher. It was not done by yelling but having a relaxed and positive way of doing this. The pupils' representation of the other qualities that a good student teacher had were being young, giving candy and not smelling. In regard of the earlier studies there seems to be similarities with the representations of the pupils of a good student teacher and the representations of teacher's profession and a good teacher that are prevalent in our society.

In my study I examine expatriate teachers' experiences of working abroad and the development of their professional identity. The starting point of my study is the idea that a person's identity is formed through interaction with other people and is a constantly changing process. My study is based on a narrative inquiry. This is because my intention has been to open up new perspectives to better understand the experiences of expatriate teachers, instead of trying to get measurable results. My research questions are: 1. What kind of image(s) do teachers give about expatriate teacher's work? 2. How do teachers reflect on their professional identities after their working period abroad? a) How do teachers experience the fact that they have been expatriate teachers? b) Have teachers' professional identities changed according to their stories? Four teachers who taught in Abu Dhabi as part of EduCluster Finland's education export program were interviewed. In my interviews I used the method of thematic interview which gave space for stories. In the data analysis I used the perspective of the different roles teachers held. This approach is based on Hermans' (2001) positioning theory according to which people have different roles depending on context and interaction with other people. In my first research question I used content analysis as a method to find out the different roles teachers held in their different social contexts. In my second research question I used Webster's and Mertova's (2007) critical event analysis to outline the conflicting roles from the data. In the end I focused more on the conflicting roles by using dialogical analysis based on Hermans' (2001) positioning theory. The results revealed that expatriate teachers have multiple roles many of which are in conflict with each other. From the roles of expatriate teachers were formed four different classes of conflicting roles through which the teachers reflected on their professional identity. As a result of their self reflecting process the teachers created an in between identity in order to survive among all the conflicting roles. In the end the teachers found their experiences as expatriate teachers positive but also educational. They experienced that the period abroad had an influence on their professional identities in different ways and that it brought change to their thinking as well as to their teaching in practice. The results of the research can be used in the development of teachers' international mobility and teacher education.

Tavoitteet. Ammatti-identiteetin kehittyminen on tärkeä osa omaa opettajuutta. Sen merkityksen pohtiminen on hyvä aloittaa jo varhaiskasvatuksen opintojen aikana. Tutkimukseni teoreettisessa osassa tarkastelen erilaisia ammatti-identiteettiä ja reflektointia käsitteleviä tekstejä. Lisäksi tarkastelen miten kolmen eri maan, Alankomaiden, Suomen ja Sveitsin, varhaiskasvatuksen opettajankoulutukset muodostuvat. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoitus oli ymmärtää varhaiskasvatuksen opettajankoulutuksen merkitystä ammatti-identiteetin muodostumisessa. Tutkimuksessa haluan selvittää millaisilla tavoilla ammatti-identiteetin rakentumista tuetaan opettajankoulutuksen aikana ja eroavatko kolmen eri maan yliopistojen tavat tukea ammatillista kehitystä toisistaan. Menetelmät. Tutkimus oli laadullinen tapaustutkimus ja tutkimusmenetelmänä käytettiin sisällönanalyysia. Tutkimusaineistoni koostui kolmen eri maan varhaiskasvatuksen opettajajaopiskelijoista. Haastattelut litteroitiin tuoreeltaan, jonka jälkeen niistä poimittiin viittaukset keskeisiin käsitteisiin. Seuraavaksi tutkimuskysymyksen kannalta keskeiset havainnot teemoiteltiin. Aineiston kuvailussa käytettiin haastattelusta tutkimuskysymykselle keskeisiä sitaatteja apuna. Tulokset ja johtopäätökset. Kaikkien kolmen haastateltavan vastauksissa ilmeni paljon yhteneväisyyksiä siinä, miten yliopistot tukevat heidän ammatti-identiteettinsä kasvua. Erityisen tärkeäksi nousi harjoittelujen sekä reflektion tärkeys. Harjoittelussa opiskelija pystyy soveltamaan yliopistolla opittua teoriaa käytännössä. Harjoittelut tarjoavat hyvän ympäristön reflektoida omaa ammatti-identiteettiä. Yliopistot tukevat opiskelijoiden ammatti-identiteetin kehitystä myös tarjoamalla heille tietoa lapsen kehityksestä ja oppimisesta sekä ymmärrystä pedagogiikasta. Opiskelijat kokivat tärkeäksi myös yliopiston tarjoaman palautteen ja neuvot. Kaikki haastateltavat kokivat, että vaikka he olisivat toivoneet enemmän tukea oman ammatti-identiteettinsä kehityksen suhteen yliopistoilta, he ovat kuitenkin valmiita aloittamaan työnsä opettajina.

Finnish grammar schools were partly gender-segregated during the independence time, because 35 finnish-language girls’ schools operated in Finland and at the most approximately 40% of all pupils studied in these girls’ schools. The task of this thesis is to find out, using the methodology of oral history, the significance of the girls’s schools as an educator in the memories of pupils from 1930s to 1970s. My thesis is based on qualitative research, where I describe and analyze school memories with a phenomenon- and event-focused research method and I use oral history to interpret broad cultural and social phenomena and events. The focus of my thesis is school history and social development viewed from a microhistorical perspective. With the oral history data I form a longitudinal picture of the individual as part of the girls’ school culture and I examine the transitions of the education culture across generations and find out what the girls’ school’s education has meant to different generations of women in the past. The source of my thesis is the survey material on girls’ and boys’ schools experiences collected in the Finnish Literature Society’s folk poetry archive’s tradition and contemporary culture collections in 2005-2006, which consists of girls’ school memories written by 26 women. The research material includes seventeen different girls’ schools located in ten different cities. The school memories I studied represented a strong narrative of experiences of teachers’ educational practices towards their pupils. The girls’ school pupils of 1930s and 1940s took the educational ideas of the school to be humility, necessary submission and the interest of the homeland as a matter of course. The teachers in the school memories were harsh and demanding, the punishments were based on blaming and creating shame. In 1950s the school’s educational culture sought uniformity and unity, and the teachers’ educational task emphasized the maintenance of the school’s operating culture with strict discipline and control of order. Restrained behavior was a demand internalized by the pupils from the school of the time. In 1960s the educational culture of the school began to change, although the teachers’ actions were still based on restrictive pedagogy and eradicating arrogance from the pupils. It was only at 1970s that the democratization of the school changed the teachers’ attitude towards their pupils and they were met as individuals. Throughout the decades, special sexual morality education was emphasized in the educational mission of the girls’ school. The pupils saw the schoool’s mission to raise kind, obedient, innocent and well-mannered girls.

Objectives. This study aims to examine a class teacher’s work from the teacher’s point of view. The objective is to find out how a teacher’s primary task is perceived by teachers themselves. Another goal is to examine the teachers’ experience on carrying out this primary task, focusing on the factors that have an effect on this. The role of a teacher has lately been a subject of an active debate. Teachers themselves feel their workload is too big and burdensome. Re-examining the primary task can clarify a teacher’s own assessment of their professional role and thus support their everyday work. Analysing the primary task as well as its implementation also provide a better understanding in how to better organize the teaching and how to invest in the teachers’ well-being. Methods. This study was conducted using qualitative research methods. The data was collected by performing thematic interviews with five class teachers, each of whom had worked as a teacher for at least 15 years. The interviews were recorded and then transcribed, and finally the data was analysed following the principles of thematic analysis. Results and conclusions. The class teachers perceived the primary task to consist of six segments: following the law, teaching, raising the child together with parents, encouraging self-direction, caring, and developing one’s own professional skills. The class teachers felt they are still able to perform their primary task but were concerned about the future of the profession. Different factors related to the teachers themselves, as well as to interaction, job description, and boundaries of the job were considered to have an effect on the teachers’ ability to perform their primary task. The teacher’s own attitude, work experience, and possibilities to develop professionally and cooperate were seen as reassuring factors. Challenging factors included impractical cooperation with parents, classes growing in size and diversity, and an excessively expanding job description.

Aims. This particular case study focuses on teachers who write lifestyle blogs. The aim is to discover, analyse and interpret how lifestyle-blogging teachers see their teachership in relation to their private life and how they experience the potential influence of lifestyle-blogging on their teachership. The aim is also to examine how, why and where teacher-bloggers draw the line of privacy in their blog posts and whether drawing the line is influenced by their teachership. The previous study of blogging and teachership is focused on how blogs can be utilised as a tool in teaching. This case study aims to bring a new point of view to the study of social media and teachership. Methods. Five teacher-bloggers who write public lifestyle-blogs were interviewed for this study. A survey was used to collect basic information on teacher-bloggers and their blogs and to get an understanding of their views regarding teachership and blogging. The results of the survey were used to create the form for the focused interview. The individual interviews were made either face-to-face or with Skype. The interviews were transcribed. After that, 14 titles were created to help the analysing process. The study material (transcribed interviews) was analysed in accordance with the principles of data driven content analysis. First the material was categorized and then combined into minor and, if possible, major categories. The unit of analysis was a thought or an idea. Findings and conclusions. In the discourse of the teacher-bloggers was highlighted the teachers' right to privacy and private life. Public blogging was justified through a common belief in the right to use one's private time however one might want to. To successfully combine blogging and teachership required drawing a strict line between work and private time. Teachers didn't want to process their work on the blog, which is a part of their private life. By leaving the teachership and everything that it includes outside of the blog teachers protect their teacherships and school communities. To present an authentic representation of one's self on the blog seems to be more of an aim than an achievable goal. Bloggers inevitably brand themselves by the material they decide to publish in their blogs and what they choose to omit.

Constantly changing work life has placed new demands and challenges on the Finnish education system. The respond to these demands and challenges is a General Upper Secondary reform, which was launched in 2017. The General Upper Secondary reform includes renewal of curriculum, a new Act on General Upper Secondary Education and amending the regulations for the matriculation examination. The reform challenges the traditionally strong autonomous position of teachers as teachers are expected to adopt new ways of working. According to previous studies, the change in teacher work towards a team work culture requires new professional skills from teachers. The purpose of my study was to find out what possible changes and challenges the renewal of curriculum (LOPS) might have on the LOPS-tutors work. Furthermore, I wanted to map out whether the competencies of teachers need to be updated after possible changes in competency requirements. I studied the phenomenon qualitatively by interviewing six LOPS- tutors who, in addition to their teacher work, are working closely on reform of General Upper Secondary Education. The material of this study was collected by semi-structured theme interviews. As a theoretical part, I defined the General Upper Secondary Education in the Finnish context, the history of school development, teachership and teachers work. In addition, I presented the key themes of the reform, the new Act on General Upper Secondary Education and renewal of curriculum. The method of analysis in this study was theory-guided content analysis. According to the results of my study, the teacher work life will change due to the new curriculum (2019). The most essential changes affecting to teachers’ work were increasing amount of team work and interaction, multidisciplinary study modules and the expansion of supervision. Lack of time, concern for well-being of teachers, as well as the structural challenges and bureaucracy emerged as key challenges in the implementation of the reform. Interviewees did not agree on whether teachers would need in-service training. My study supports the view that teachers have a contradictory attitude towards school changes. Although school development was seen as an important and necessary factor, the changes did not appear to be realistic taking into account the everyday reality of the school.