Browsing by Subject "http://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p14751"

The promotion of care and compassion has been regarded as primary goals of education in order to achieve a more sustainable world. For this reason, compassion—inseparably related to both moral and values—should be studied in the context of practical education. The aim of this thesis is to analyze compassion as an empirically observable phenomenon that manifests as emancipatory action targeted against violence and oppression. The data, consisting of video re-cording of a nature school field trip among 10-11 year olds, is approached in the theoretical frameworks of sustainability- and environmental education as well as that of compassion re-search. By theoretically conceptualizing acts of emancipatory compassion, the focus of this study is on the analysis of moral construction. The hypothesis is that these acts are embodied in order to negotiate and criticize the institutional limits of compassion and the emerging circle of concern. As a conclusion, the meaning of compassion is discussed in the context of educating for holistic sustainability. The theoretical conceptualization of emancipatory compassion is based on both empirical observations and theoretical studies concerning compassion, constructional violence, and emancipatory action. Qualitative methodology in the general framework of social constructionism and approaches of grounded theory are utilized in order to analyze the video-ethnographic data using methods of critical discourse analysis and interaction analysis. In the data, there were several occurrences of acts of emancipatory compassion. The phenomenon manifested as exceeding the limitations between human and non-human life, and served to construct the institutional circle of concern in relation to other forms of life. Acts of emancipatory compassion were also used to express several factors relating to the construction of morality; some of these interpreted as acts of oppression in themselves. In relation to normative attempts to define the meaning of both violence and oppression, the teachers embodied moral authority over the students. It is concluded that education promoting holistic sustainability should acknowledge the essential meaning of compassion in the context of education in order to allow the questioning of established moral norms, encourage negotiating the limits of the circle of concern, and to recognize implicit manifestations of violence and oppression. It is also stated, that by identifying the inherently violent nature of the human condition, it is possible to overcome the boundaries constructed by perceiving particular agents as either violent or non-violent—inhibiting inclusive promotion of compassion towards subjects interpreted as being in the wrong.

The aim of this qualitative study is to produce descriptive information about children's connections to nature and the possibilities of primary school teaching to support that relation. The subject is viewed through the perceptions of the professionals in environmental education (EE). Relationship with nature is a multiplex phenomenon that builds up by factors of physical and sociocultural environment. According to researchers the most determinative causes are authentic connections to natural environments and the role model given by adults. It is also stated that the relationship with nature also deals with wellbeing of human and environment, which serves as a basis for this study. The first part of the study discusses children's relation to nature on a general level and the second part is examined from the viewpoint of environmental education in primary school. The data was collected through the interviews of four experts of environmental education in December 2014. A semi-structured interview was used as the method of collecting data, which consists of 4,5 hours of recorded material. The analysis was accomplished by adapted qualitative content analysis: the analysis was connected to the collected material and also to the theoretical framework. The interviewees' perceptions were considered to indicate a wider professional view on the phenomenon over the ideas of an individual. The professionals of EE thought that for supporting children's relation to nature it is crucial to secure their authentic experiences of nature. An important factor associated with it was the importance of benefiting the nature nearby. Parents were considered an important role model when building up a connection to nature. However, there seems to be a great variance in the nature education that families give to children: some get a lot of experiences and guidance while others lack the support to engage with nature. Primary school was also considered as an important agent in supporting children's relation to nature, although its possibilities were seen as limited. According to the interviewees the pedagogical approach to help children engage with nature is based on authentic experiences in natural environments and the active role of a student in the learning process. Outdoor learning was considered as the most efficient way to set EE in practice in primary schools.