Browsing by Author "Pursiainen, Virve"

Teachers’ professional development has been studied widely in Finland and all over the world. After the postmodern turn in the 1990’s the viewpoint on studies concerning professional development has turned from phase models to individual life histories and experiences. The aim of this study is to find out what kind of personal experiences have been significant to one class teacher’s professional identity and development told by herself. In addition the aim is to find out and present what kind of personal experiences have influenced the teacher so, that she has developed into a participator and why she finds participatory pedagogy meaningful. The theme of participation is strongly present in the upcoming curriculum (POPS 2014) which comes into effect during autumn 2016. For my study I interviewed one class teacher, called Pirjo (pseudonym). The research data was collected using a narrative interview. The transcribed research data was analyzed by using a narrative approach by Stenberg (2011) in her dissertation research. This so called holistic-content approach contains several analyzing phases. In the final phase a new narrative, a core story was created. In Pirjo’s core story there were many events experienced during different times of her life which all had influenced on her professional development during her lifelong journey towards becoming a participator. The research results revealed that along with her experiences as a member of family, society and university, her whole life with both misfortunes and success has influenced on her professional growth and identity. The results also revealed that Pirjo’s becoming a class teacher has been only partially a result of a conscious thinking. She found participatory pedagogy during her post-graduate studies and got interested in it through (the questions concerning) power relations in the field of education. The influence of participatory pedagogy can be seen in Pirjo’s practical theory. Participatory pedagogy also defines her professional identity as a class teacher.