Browsing by Subject "segregation"
Now showing items 1-11 of 11
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(2020)Socio-economic segregation has been increasing in Helsinki for decades and the relation between socioeconomic factors and educational outcomes have been discussed frequently recently and have been an important topic for politicians and researchers. An increasing segregation and dwindling school results in the more disadvantaged areas of Finland have been connected in various reports. The main objective in this master’s thesis is firstly to investigate the spatial socio-economic differences between school catchment areas of the 26 municipalities in the Uusimaa region. And secondly, the relationship between educational outcomes and socio-spatial segregation in Uusimaa, as the former research evidence has only documented the socio-spatial differentiation within the municipalitan core of the region. The aim is to analyze the relationship of the four different socio-economic variables of basic level education, higher education, unemployment and low income households in each school catchment area and present them with help of four different maps created in GIS. Lastly data consisting of educational outcomes from first year pupils (N=1 920) from 41 different schools in the Uusimaa region provided by Kansallinen koulutuksen arviointikeskus were analysed. The data consisted of two standardized tests, one regarding mathematics and one about the finnish language. These two tests were part of a longitudinal evaluation which started in the fall of 2018. The core finding of this study is that Helsinki is by far the area with the largest socio-economic differences between the school catchment areas in the Uusimaa region, where eastern Helsinki often displayed low socio-economic levels and where western Helsinki and southern Espoo often presented a high socio-economic level compared to the rest of the Uusimaa region. And that the educational results regarding the Finnish language had a stronger correlation with the socio-economic data compared to the mathematical educational outcomes. These findings offer new insights for Finnish educational policies and demonstrate the need for supporting schools in disadvantaged neighbourhoods in different types of urban and rural areas.
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(2020)Segregation is usually treated as a place-based phenomenon based on residential locations, but during the last ten years more emphasis has been put on understanding segregation as a multi-contextual phenomenon, where mobility in urban space affects the individual’s exposure to segregation. Such research has not yet been done in Helsinki, where socio-economic and ethnic segregation has been on the rise since the 1990’s, but there is anecdotal evidence of for example young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods not being as mobile in the urban space as others. The aim of this study is to find out how socioeconomic differences and experiences from the past are linked to how people move around and use urban space in Helsinki. A survey study was carried out (N=1 266) in spring 2020 for the purposes of this research. The study is based on a self-selected sample, so the results cannot be generalized for the whole population. Spatial mobility is analyzed with four measures: which parts of the city the respondent usually moves around in, how often they visit the city center, how many of their everyday activities are located near their home, in the city center and in other neighbourhoods and municipalities, and how many of the listed places in the survey they had visited during the last year. The main research methods are linear regression, correlation analyses and statistical tests. Spatial mobility varies based on education, age, family background and mobility practices in the youth. These factors explain at most a quarter of the variance in mobility. Cultural and economic capital also correlates with mobility, but their explanatory power diminishes when education and age are controlled for. The spatial mobility is low for them who had small activity spaces in their youth, and especially for them who still live in the same neighbourhood. Those who live in the outer suburbs are among the least mobile and many of the respondents in Northeastern and Eastern Helsinki do not regularly visit Southern Helsinki. Even though there are many different factors that influence the level of mobility that are not ad-dressed in this study, the results confirm that family background and past experiences affect the individuals’ mobility practices. The results indicate that people who live in disadvantaged neighbourhoods risk exposure to segregation in different contexts of everyday life as a result of low mobility. As people with low education are underrepresented in the study, it is possible that there are some kind of immobilities in the city that have not been covered in this study. The results underline the need for more research in multi-contextual segregation and the experiences and conceptions of the city, especially regarding children and young people.
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(2022)Recent studies on day-care staff have reported on problems in hiring qualified staff, and in increased resignations in existing staff. These problems are connected to an increase in workload and stress, and reduced wellbeing at work. When workload and challenges in day-care work increase, there can even be a risk of diminishing the pedagogical quality of education. The problems seem to occur differently and in different magnitudes in different day-care units, which indicates learning conditions’ possible segregation. In the case of schools, the socioeconomic status of nearby population has been noticed to affect children’s predisposed abilities to learn, and their support requirements in learning. This effect can be assumed to affect early childhood education similarly, which would lead to day-cares in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas to require extra resources and staff to compensate for the children’s increased support requirements. If those extra resources are not available, the staff will experience increased workload and stress, which will cause problems in the long term. The city is known to be somewhat socioeconomically segregated, and if this is mirrored in day-cares so that the backgrounds of children in day-cares get segregated, it may also start to affect the quality of education. In this case the unevenly distributed challenges would cause institutional segregation of learning conditions in early childhood education. The institutional segregation of early childhood education or schools has not been studied much in Finland. Earlier studies on Finnish schools have been able to explain differences between schools through differences in children’s backgrounds, and there has not been a reason to doubt the institutional equality of schools’ quality. The basic principle of the Finnish early childhood education and school system is to provide every child with equal conditions and opportunities to grow and learn. These equal conditions equalise segregation in the population by offering equally high-quality education in both disadvantaged and well-off areas of the city. However, if the segregation of children’s backgrounds is accompanied by the segregation of learning conditions in day-cares, there is a risk of the cumulation of both socioeconomic disadvantage and lower quality of education. In this case, the quality would decrease exactly where it would be most needed. In my thesis I study whether there is differentiation in problems related to hiring or keeping staff in the day-cares in Helsinki, through the numbers of resigned and unqualified staff in each unit. I also look at whether this segregation of day-care units is at all related to the socioeconomic segregation of the city’s population. In the study I utilize HR data from the city of Helsinki and socioeconomic population data from Statistics Finland, which I join onto spatial data of day-cares’ locations. I use this combined dataset to study the segregation of day-cares and its connections to socioeconomic segregation using quantitative statistical methods and spatial analysis methods. The results indicate that there is perceivable segregation in the staff of day-cares in Helsinki, but socioeconomic segregation is able to statistically explain the patterns only slightly. Therefore, mostly other phenomena seem to cause the differentiation in staff related problems, but these phenomena are not yet known. In terms of institutional segregation, the early childhood education system in Helsinki seems to still be quite equal. However, more knowledge about the subject is needed, because both the results in this study, as well as previous studies show some worrying signals pointing to the possibility of institutional segregation. In addition, intense public discourse around the topic of early childhood education, and a wide-ranging worker’s strike, including day-care staff, seem demonstrative of the seriousness of these challenges in day-cares.
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(2011)Segregation or demixing of particle systems is a phenomenon where one component of a homogeneous powder mixture tends to separate from the other components. The segregation tendency of powder depends on the characteristics of particles, environmental conditions and interactions between particles. A huge number of segregation mechanisms are presented in literature and even small differences between the properties of particles and particle interactions can lead to a completely different segregation mechanism. The segregation phenomenon is very essential from the perspective of pharmaceutical industry. However, the phenomenon is not yet sufficiently well known in order for segregation to be systematically avoided. Current research on segregation is largely based on learning through trial and error. Therefore, innovative research methods are needed to understand the true segregation phenomenon. The purpose of the experimental part was to develop and basic test the method of testing the segregation behavior of different particle systems and use this method to examine the segregation behavior of pharmaceutical mixtures of granules and pellets. The aim was to prove that the operating principle of the developed Babel-device is suitable for examining the segregation behavior of particle systems, but the trials carried out mainly consisted of method and device testing. The problems were composed of the limitations imposed by the Babel-device, particle electrification and particle interactions. Linear approaches used were insufficient for creating segregation by the Babel-device. Convection resulting from vertical shaking prevented the generation of segregation. In conclusion, we can say that the Babel-device measures well and reproducibly, and it is able to distinguish different particle sizes and different particle size distributions from each other. The development aim of the device would be to obtain a more visible segregation in the powder mixture as a result of shaking. Thus, we would be able to draw conclusions from the segregation behavior of the powder mixture and the prevailing segregation mechanisms in the system. Further development of the device and the method could provide useful additional information which would contribute to better understanding of the phenomenon of segregation.
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(2021)Purpose. Equality is seen as the value that is the basis for inclusive school. Inclusive school can be seen as meaning each individual student's participation in their own local school community regardless of any challenges. More and more schools are working towards the goal of creating a common school for all students and thus inclusion is a current theme. The aim of this study was to get an idea of teachers' attitudes and possible prejudices towards inclusion which in themselves may have an inhibiting effect on the development work related to inclusive procedures by answering the research questions: "What kind of perceptions, values and possible prejudices does teachers express regarding inclusion?", "What challenges does inclusion entail in teachers' work?" and "What are the positive aspects of inclusion for students and teachers?" Theory and methods. For this quantitative research data was collected by using the Teacher's Attitude to Inclusion Scale (TAIS). TAIS includes questions and statements that are answered on a liking scale. The measuring instrument's 30 statements have been categorized according to the themes "Expected outcomes", "Workload", "Inclusion as a value" and "Children's rights". The analysis method is descriptive statistical. Reliability, variations and correlations have been examined in IBM SSPS version 26. Results and conclusions. The results show that teachers perceive inclusion as demanding. Both negative attitudes and prejudices towards inclusion emerge, which itself can complicate the development of inclusive procedures at school level. Nevertheless, teachers express that inclusion of students with special educational needs in general education groups has a promoting effect on both understanding and acceptance of differences in the group's other students.
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(2021)Purpose. Equality is seen as the value that is the basis for inclusive school. Inclusive school can be seen as meaning each individual student's participation in their own local school community regardless of any challenges. More and more schools are working towards the goal of creating a common school for all students and thus inclusion is a current theme. The aim of this study was to get an idea of teachers' attitudes and possible prejudices towards inclusion which in themselves may have an inhibiting effect on the development work related to inclusive procedures by answering the research questions: "What kind of perceptions, values and possible prejudices does teachers express regarding inclusion?", "What challenges does inclusion entail in teachers' work?" and "What are the positive aspects of inclusion for students and teachers?" Theory and methods. For this quantitative research data was collected by using the Teacher's Attitude to Inclusion Scale (TAIS). TAIS includes questions and statements that are answered on a liking scale. The measuring instrument's 30 statements have been categorized according to the themes "Expected outcomes", "Workload", "Inclusion as a value" and "Children's rights". The analysis method is descriptive statistical. Reliability, variations and correlations have been examined in IBM SSPS version 26. Results and conclusions. The results show that teachers perceive inclusion as demanding. Both negative attitudes and prejudices towards inclusion emerge, which itself can complicate the development of inclusive procedures at school level. Nevertheless, teachers express that inclusion of students with special educational needs in general education groups has a promoting effect on both understanding and acceptance of differences in the group's other students.
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(2020)This Master’s thesis studies the mechanisms connected to negative changes in educational outcomes in upper comprehensive schools in Helsinki. What are the factors associated with negative changes in educational outcomes of individual students during the transition from 7th to 9th grade? There is an increased socioeconomic and ethnic segregation in Helsinki Metropolitan Area, and the differences between schools’ levels of success have also been growing throughout the 21st century. There is little research on combining schools and city development in Finland. The aim is to examine is there an association between decreasing individual educational outcomes and socio-spatial or school segregation, and to look at what is the role of individual factors and social context in decreased educational outcomes. Studying pupils and schools is a good way to capture local processes of differentiation and neighbourhood effect, because children and youth are especially prone to neighbourhood and school effects due to their ongoing process of socialization, localized lives in their neighbourhood and shared institutions, such as school. This study is conducted quantitatively, and the main method in this study is hierarchical linear regression. The data is from Metropolitan Longitudinal Finland research, which studies the success and wellbeing of pupils in upper comprehensive schools in the Helsinki Metropolitan area. The study was conducted during the Fall of 2011 and the Spring of 2014 tracking the same cohort when the pupils were in their 7th and 9th grades. The results suggest that there are no differences found between schools, but some of the qualities describing neighborhoods indicate that some neighbourhood effect might be found. There are indications that pupils with decreased educational outcomes are more likely to study in schools that are located in low income areas than higher income areas. Also, for pupils with decreased educational outcomes, attending a school that is located in Northern or Southeastern Great districts is more likely than attending a school in Eastern Great district. Based on the results, pupils with negative change in educational outcomes are more likely to spend time with friends of own area than with school friends. Boys have a bigger risk for a negative change in educational outcomes than girls, and the change of school is connected to decreased educational outcomes. Mother’s education and immigration background was not found to have connection with decreased educational outcomes. Decreased educational outcomes have a connection with a low parents’ pedagogical ethos, but no connection with peers’ pedagogical ethos was found. The results are significant from the perspective of urban and educational politics and planning. The indications that the educational outcomes in upper comprehensive schools in Helsinki are differentiated in neighborhood level for example between Great districts, and in individual level between genders, challenge the goals of equal educational opportunities. Also, urban planning should be targeted to prevent socio-spatial differentiation of neighborhoods, in order to combat differentiation in schools’ composition of pupils. In future research, the starting level of educational success could be studied more closely- does decrease in educational outcomes implicate different educational paths for pupils that start with high starting level than pupils that have lower starting level in the beginning? This study provided information that there are no differences between schools found currently, but the processes of differentiation are not stable, so the processes should be observed continuously.
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(2022)As inequality has increased globally, so has its spatial expression, socio-economic segregation. Traditionally Finland has been considered an egalitarian social welfare state where inequality and segregation are low. While inequality decreased until the 1990s, it has since started to grow and so has socio-economic segregation. In Helsinki Metropolitan Area this development is seen in the growing welfare differentiation between neighbourhoods. As policies to prevent segregation have proven inadequate, the role of spatial accessibility in connecting people with opportunities has grown increasingly important. Using data on travel times and population statistics on a 250m x 250m grid this thesis tries to answer two questions; (1) to what extent does spatial accessibility differ for different socio-economic groups in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area and (2) how has spatial accessibility developed from 2013 to 2018 and how have different socio-economic groups been affected. Spatial accessibility was defined by calculating the average travel time by public transport and by car between every 250m x 250m grid cell in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area using Helsinki Region Travel Time Matrix. To identify advantaged and disadvantaged grid cells in the area, an index of disadvantage was calculated using Statistic’s Finland’s Population Grid Database. Data from these two sources were combined to assess whether there is a difference in spatial accessibility between the least and most disadvantaged quintiles in Helsinki Metropolitan Area. While the main focus of the thesis is on public transport, spatial accessibility by car is also of interest, especially in relation to public transport. This thesis finds that there is a difference between spatial accessibility from the least and most disadvantaged grid cells in favour of the most disadvantaged, though the results are statistically significant only for public transport. Furthermore, the difference in spatial accessibility by public transport has increased from 2013 to 2018 in the area in favour of the disadvantaged grid cells while spatial accessibility by car has decreased. Furthermore, spatial accessibility is far better by car than by public transport and despite two major investments in public transport in the area during the study period, spatial accessibility by public transport as defined by average travel time has decreased.
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(2022)Lack of physical activity and obesity are increasing problems that have caused higher healthcare expenses for society. As prior studies have shown, there is a connection between proximity to a sports facility and increased physical activity. Public sports facilities are a way of preventing segregation by providing opportunities for recreational sports for everybody. In my thesis, I studied spatial segregation and accessibility to swimming halls in the Greater Helsinki region. Spatial segregation was studied in terms of travel times to the nearest swimming hall between the most advantaged and the most disadvantaged areas. The disadvantage sum index was used to identify the most advantaged and the most disadvantaged areas which were classified into quintiles by the index. The study was conducted using open source GIS data and applications apart from segregation analysis. Travel times to the nearest swimming facility were calculated using Helsinki Region Travel Time Matrix (250m x 250m grid). Travel times were calculated for six different types of transportation: walking, cycling, public transportation (rush hour and midday) and private cars (rush hour and midday). Statistically significant differences between the most advantaged and the most disadvantaged quintiles were calculated with Student’s t-test in SPSS. The analysis showed that spatial accessibility to swimming halls in the Greater Helsinki region is generally good. Swimming halls have by far the best accessibility by cycling and private car. Travel times to the nearest swimming halls were shorter with all types of transportation for the most disadvantaged than the most advantaged which indicates that living in a more deprived area does not restrict spatial accessibility to swimming halls.
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(2018)Tablet manufacturing requires both high-quality equipment and powder blend with high flowability and compactability and low segregation tendency. The process is complex and tablet formation process still remains not fully understood. Adequate powder flow is a necessity for the pharmaceutical manufacturing process, i.e., powder flowability and flow properties play a great role when designing manufacturing processes for solid dosage forms. As such, the powder characteristics need to be investigated. However, one property is seldom enough to predict the flowability of a powder in specific processes and different test methods need to be used to fully understand the tableting performance of a particular powder. It is crucial to know how the assessed properties reflect the manufacturing conditions. The need for test batches and the use of empirical testing still exists despite the numerous powder characterization tests available. The main aim of the study was to understand the influence of material properties, flow properties and segregation tendencies on both the processability of a formulation during tablet compression and the critical quality attributes, such as mass, tensile strength and dose uniformity of the final drug product. Additionally, testing of an in-line NIR method to observe the homogeneity of the powder inside the force feeder right before the compression step and transmission Raman as an at-line method for tablet content were also evaluated. A number of powder characterization tests were employed in order to fully understand the impact of the formulation on the process performance. Three formulations with different particle size of the active substance and mannitol were used throughout the study. Both the sifting segregation and fluidization segregation tests’ results predicted the formulations’ tabletability particularly well. Fluidization segregation test predicted the changing composition of the formulation throughout tableting whereas sifting segregation results showed the constantly fluctuating API concentration in the manufactured tablets. Moreover, the Raman results confirmed the tablets of variable content despite the offset caused by the different particle size of the raw materials used. The functionality of the NIR in the force feeder was tested successfully. The residence time distribution could be determined at a sufficient level to point out tablets of a bad quality from the batch on grounds of the NIR data. Results from the powder flow property tests were rather conflicting. Angle of repose, Carr’s index and volume flow rate gave the best characterizing results, whereas the mass flow rate, shear test with higher normal stress in pre-shear gave the worst results, considering the experienced flow character of the formulations. As stated above, different flow property tests may give conflicting result, and hence, it is crucial to know which results are the most relevant ones. Furthermore, the right settings for the test should be known to gain applicable results, best exemplified by the shear cell test.
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(2016)In this thesis I investigated previous research about gender differences in the vocational choice of kids and adolecents. The main focus was segregation which is a complex phenomenon in the world of work. It causes inequality and ineffectiveness in the labour market. Segregated structures are also seen in the educational field. The aim of this study was to help being aware of them. A systematic literature review was made from 14 original articles which were publiced in the International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance from 2008 to 2016. The review indicates that there are several views to gender differences in the vocational choice of kids and adolecents. For example occupational aspirations, intrests and barriers are discussed. Segregated structures and traditional gender roles are also presented in previous research. Therefore the review indicates that the significance of gender should be considered in the work among young people in educational and vocational fields.
Now showing items 1-11 of 11