Browsing by Author "Eloranta, Lotta"

The aim of this study is to portray preschool teachers’ experiences about how they prevent bullying from happening among children in their classroom. It also aims to describe what kinds of methods are used in the context of preschool when trying to prevent bullying from occurring. The nature of this study is qualitative and the research matter has been collected by using theme interviews with three preschool teachers. The research matter has been analyzed by using theory based content analysis. The informants had all come across with bullying between children in their classroom and they all felt that the prevention of bullying is important. Also the role of the teacher was described as significant. The outcome of this study shows that the informants describe the prevention of bullying as teaching the children social skills, handling and naming emotions and as observation of children in action. In addition all the informants regarded direct intervening to bullying as a preventative method. This study also shows that preschool teachers talk about bullying with their class in all every day actions. All three of them also felt that they execute various methods in their actions to prevent bullying. Two informants acknowledged the importance of teaching children various ways to handle bullying independently as well. Sadly, in this study the absence of a plan to handle bullying came out in all three interviews. Yet all the informants had talked openly about how to handle bullying situations between children with their colleagues. In preventing bullying all three preschool teachers said that collaborating with parents is essential. In this study came out, that the actions to prevent bullying are a part of the whole preschool day. The described medium to a successful way to prevent bullying from happening was high-class pedagogy and the actions of the teacher.