Browsing by Author "Lahtinen, Dani"

The purpose of this research was to find out, what kind of a relation early childhood teachers do have to the worldview education and how early childhood teachers think their co-operation with the Creating Spaces for Diversity of Worldviews in Early Childhood Education -project influences on their relation to worldview education. This study tried to respond to the need of letting early childhood teachers ponder freely about themes around worldview education and to find out, what kind of things do early childhood teachers associate to their relation to worldview education. The evolution of this relation was reflected through the first meeting of the project co-operation to the last meeting of the first six months. As theoretical frame of reference for this research served Jack Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning together with actual studies of reflection. Three early childhood teachers were interviewed for this study and the answers they gave during the interviews were scrutinized in relation to the learning diaries they wrote soon after the first meeting. These data’s were analysed according to the principles of a data based content analysis in the light of above mentioned theories. The three early childhood teachers who participated to the research seem to have a positively charged relation to the worldview education especially after the project co-operation started. Yet two of the three teachers still feel a bit reserved in their relation to worldview education. Nevertheless all of the three interviewed teachers send clear messages that their relation to worldview education has in some levels deepened: The difference being that the effects on the teacher who is most experienced workwise are smaller than with the other two. The co-operation with the Creating Spaces for Diversity of Worldviews in Early Childhood Education -project has given the early childhood teachers more self-confidence and understanding in the field of worldview education and given them a bit more tools for fulling the objectives of worldview education.