Browsing by Subject "urapolku"

This is a narrative research about the career paths of adult immigrants in Finland. The study is conducted in the context of a course that prepares immigrants to study in higher education in Finnish. Based on earlier research immigrants’ paths to work life are often complex and include overlapping studies. Different kinds of transitional courses and trainings have emerged to support educational transitions. There is little research of preparatory courses that focuses on the narratives of students taking part on a preparatory course. This research aims to describe career paths of the students studying in a preparatory course, and the most defining factors of the career paths progress. This phenomenon is specifically examined from a theoretic point of view based on agency of the students. 10 interviews were conducted with different students studying in a preparatory course. The course focused on the field of social and health services. The data was collected and analysed through the means of narrative methods. The interviews were semi-structured theme interviews that included questions about the students’ backgrounds, study experiences in the preparatory course and their visions for the future. The approach contains features of the life-course research branch in the narrative methodology. The results of the study illustrate the different factors on individual-, community- and society levels that affected the students’ career paths either progressively or restrictively. Different factors from individual attitudes and ways of action to policies of educational organizations affected the progression of career paths in the students´ stories. For example, motivation and Finnish language skills, the preparatory course and good studying opportunities in Finland appeared to be progressive factors for career paths. On the other hand, as restricting factors were described for example challenging life situation for studying, lack of high skill level Finnish teaching and bureaucratic obstacles in the education system. The different factors are put into perspective in type stories that describe the most typical career paths of the students in the preparatory course. For the highly educated the preparatory course seemed to be a secondary choice in their career paths and an adjustment to the current situation. The one’s with children described studying as motivating but challenging in their busy phase of life. The young adults who were the closest to the typical studying phase of life appeared to be very committed to their career choice and seemed to experience the least contradiction related to studying.

In this study liberal adult education teachers tell about themselves as teachers. Full-time teachers from metropolitan area make up the majority of my research subjects. Liberal adult education is the institutional context of teachers' work and their work environment. Context gives general guidelines for teachers work. My research presents teachership as a three-dimensional phenomenon, which consists of career path, teachership and textbook selection. Dimensional model of understanding teachers and teachership functions as the main structuring principle throughout this report. Out of three dimensions, textbook selection is least researched. Still, it is a very important part of teachers' work. I see textbook selection as a vital part of pedagogic planning and curriculum. In my study, I have a narrative approach on teachers' world. As a research material collection method I have used episodic interview. I have analyzed my research material using narrative research method. I have chosen narrative analysis to construct narratives from semantic and episodic knowledge. My results consist of situational and thematic narratives that intent to describe three-dimensional teachership and type narratives that describe two different teacher ideal types.

The aim of this master’s thesis was to describe, analyze and interpret the perceptions of women who have progressed to the management level about their own success and the factors that have positively or negatively influenced their career path. In addition, the purpose of the study was to understand at a more general level their perceptions of the relatively small number of female leaders compared to men and their ideas of ways to increase that number. This dissertation is made at a time when equality matters have been on the table for a long time. My qualitative research consisted of seven semi-structured thematic interviews and they were analyzed by data-driven content analysis. The interviewees were currently or formerly in leadership positions, all women over 40 and under 70 years of age. All interviewees worked or had worked in medium-sized or large listed companies. Results of the study show that women leaders described their own success and the positive and negative factors that influenced their career, as well as the relative scarcity of women leaders and ways to increase the number with societal and organizational, social, and personal factors. Both their own success and the relative scarcity of female leaders were justified in particular by the importance of their own attitude and personality. Other important criteria for one’s own success were given, such as networks and contacts. The relative scarcity of female leaders was seen to be resulted from for example gender inequality in parental leave, segregated gender networks, and the different upbringing styles of boys and girls. Equalizing parental leave, having gender-neutral networks, raising children in the same way, and examining one’s own attitude were some of the solutions given by the interviewees. Overall, the results revealed that many explanations were given for one’s own success and for the lack of female leaders in general, and the interviewees did not name just a few decisive factors that determine a person’s success, but it is a sum of many different factors.