Browsing by Author "Ryynänen, Lilli"

My Bachelor's thesis is a qualitative study which aims to identify the early childhood education teacher’s ideas of the self-esteem of 3 – 5 years and the importance of a healthy self-esteem. In addition, the study examines the way in which early childhood education contributes to the healthy self-esteem of children, which may possibly be an obstacle to its development and the influence of the home culture on the development of children's self-esteem. A few previous studies have been found in support of self-esteem in early childhood education. In Finland, the most extensive research on this subject is the thesis of Päivi Koivisto from 2007, "Yksilöllistä huomiota arkisissa tilanteissa”: Developing a Kindergarten culture to strengthen the self-esteem of childrens. The data for my thesis was gathered from three Southern Finnish municipalities in late 2018. The Material was collected by interviewing five qualified early childhood teachers. Interviews were conducted through thematic interviews. The Material is analysed by using the phenomenographic analytical method. The Results show that each interviewee knew the basics of self-esteem, and they taught that supporting a healthy self-esteem is an important task in everyday life. They felt that the development of the healthy self-esteem of children was best supported by a bracing meeting, positive interaction and by highlighting the strengths of the children. The importance of cooperation with parents is important. With that we can support parent’s own self-esteem or parenthood, as well as making visible children's strengths. Although the interviewee felt the importance of supporting a healthy self-esteem, they felt that the demanding of educational work effects so that educators couldn’t daily face the children, because of hurry and exhaustion, so that it would support the development of a healthy self-esteem. Every interviewee experienced a major challenge in the work of incompetent or unprofessional educators who may not have the skill or interest to confront and interact with children in order to support children's self-esteem. Due to the parent’s personal problems, children face with more challenges in the foundations of self-esteem. In the case of these children, the interviewns highlighted routines and the need for safe, reliable, sensitive and supportive adults in the everyday life of early childhood education.