Browsing by Subject "http://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p11005"

The aim of my study is to find out, which factors affect the celebratory speeches of Espoo elementary school principals, which are held at the end of each school year. From the view point of our ever-changing society of multiple diversities, I will also find out what the principals want to achieve through their celebratory speeches. The celebratory speech is a means to an end, a window, through which I examine the attitudes of the principals towards every day school life and how they position themselves with the challenge of a diverse student. I will also find out the meaning and background of these celebratory speeches. I will examine the connection between the celebratory speech and the national curriculum, which has come to effect in the year 2016. My hypothesis is, that the principals will comment on their everyday school life through the talk on the celebratory speech. The celebratory speeches are important to the elementary school principals and the aim of my study is to find out, what the meaning of these speeches is in a modern school system. I have not found former studies on principals' celebratory speeches. In this study I interviewed three elementary school principals in Espoo. I held private interviews with the principals on their views regarding the celebratory speeches and on their speech which was kept at the end of the school year of 2017. My data gathering method was that of a qualitative attitude research and for my analysis I used dialogism as a method for multivoicedness. In this study, I found out that the keeping up the traditions is persistent in the way the principals talk about the speeches, although the new national curriculum is a learner centered curriculum and the paradigm in the field of education is emphasizing the individual.