Browsing by Subject "osallisuus"

This study examines early childhood education teachers’ experiences of the participation of 1–3-year-old children in the early childhood education and care plan (known as an ECEC plan) process. The process includes prepara-tion for the discussion of the child’s ECEC plan, discussion and the creation of the plan, and implementing and evaluating the plan. Section 23 of the new Act on Early Childhood Education and Care states that the child’s opinion must be heard at every stage of the ECEC plan process. Previous studies have indicated that the partici-pation of the child has not been implemented in accordance with targets. The purpose of this study was to ascertain how early childhood education teachers define child participation. Another point of interest for the study was to map the methods used by early childhood education teachers to support the child’s participation in the ECEC plan process. The study was carried out using semi-structured interviews, with seven early childhood education teachers chosen for the study. Interviews were carried out individually and data-oriented content analysis was used to analyse the material. According to early childhood education teachers, the participation of 1–3-year-old children in the ECEC plan process involved observing the child and discussing with the child to ascertain their interests, strengths and needs, recording the information in the child’s ECEC plan, team discussions and expanding on the child’s perspective, listening to the child’s parents and making use of their knowledge of their own child, and implementing the ECEC plan in everyday life, as well as the child’s opportunity to influence joint activities. The participation of 1–3-year-olds in the ECEC plan process has also given some teachers pause for thought. One challenge was ascertaining the perspective of a small child if the child was not yet able to speak. According to the results of the study, observing and interviewing the child using a new ECEC form to ascertain the child’s wishes and interests were significant for the participation of the child during the preparation phase. Child participation was also supported by daily discussions with parents, information about the child obtained from the initial discussion meeting held when the child began day-care, and team discussion on observations of the child. The new ECEC form and shared information about the child highlighted the child’s perspective in discussions. Participation was strengthened by child group activities, which were organised based on the targets outlined in the children’s ECEC plans, as well as on an assessment of pedagogical methods. Flexibility in the daily routine, activities initiated by the child, pictures and supportive signs, and voting were all methods of implementing child participation. Photographs, storycrafting, an educational portfolio, naming a star child of the week, and video recording made activities and significant experiences of the child visible. In order to increase child participation in the ECEC plan process, illustrated support for interviews with children and the presence of the child at ECEC plan discussions were proposed.

The purpose of this study was to describe and analyze the everyday life and the challenges of epileptic children and their families. The meaning was to find out the biggest challenges of epilepsy families and children in everyday life. My interest focuses on children's participation and social cohesion in kindergarten and school, as well as other childhood environments. I studied epilepsy and experiences of parents of epilepsy children. How they have adapted to living with epilepsy? The study involved two adults who were diagnosed with epilepsy as child and five parents whose children have epilepsy. The study method was a half structured interview. Some of the interviews were done by using Skype. The interviewees were found in Facebook's Epilepsy life and Epilepsia kohtauspaikkana. The interviews took place in early spring 2016. The data was analyzed by means of abductive narrative. In analysis it was used three difference theories as an important reference: Ecological system of Branfenbrenner, participation and cohesion and resilience.Results and conclusions: The research showed that the epilepsy was seen as a challenge of today's everyday life, if after the diagnosis had been challenges with in the hospital, daycare or school. If co-operation had gone well with the mentioned parties, not everyday life seem so challenging. It is how the situation was seen to be challenging, influenced by the togetherness and participations.

The framework for this study comes from Koster’s, Nakken’s, Pijl’s and van Houten’s (2009) theory of a child’s social participation in a peer group. According to Koster and the partners, social participation is built by four dimensions: child's social self-perception, acceptance by classmates, contacts/interactions and friendships/relationships. A lot of research has been conducted of social participation of children with special educational needs in mainstream schools, but most of the researches are quantitative or have been examined through the adult perceptive. The aim of this study is to examine social participation of a disabled child from multifaceted perspective. In addition to this, the aim is to find out how the dimensions of contacts/interactions and acceptance by classmates are related to each other’s. This is a qualitative case study of a child with Down syndrome, who has been in a mainstream primary school class. The data of this study consists of a thematic interviews of the child herself and the persons who have been involved through her school path. In addition to this the data consists child’s writing book and a message book of a parent and school counselor from the 6th grade. The analysis was done using a deductive content analysis. The results suggested that the child’s social participation of the peer group had been incomplete. On the eyes of outsiders, the child’s social self-perception had been seen as positive, but the child’s own school satisfaction had been alternately positive and negative. The child didn’t have any actual friendships or two-way play during the primary school. During the school years she had participated a lot to classes activities and especially on these situations there had been strong support from the other classmates. In general, the child was a respected and accepted member by her classmates but the externality became relevant in occasional conflicts or on group work situations. Social participation is a key requirement for inclusion and it needs to be reached more so that the equality of every student can be advanced

The purpose of this study is to examine children's experiences of participation in everyday preschool life. Children’s participation is considered as an important part in legal documents regulating the field of early childhood education in Finland. However, previous studies show that child participation is poorly implemented in early childhood education. Barriers to participation have been seen as a various understanding of the concept of participation, and the lack of policies that support children's participation. Children's participation is best realized in play and small everyday moments. Instead, in situations involving children’s basic functions, routines take precedence over children’s participation. (Turja & Vuorisalo 2017; Virkki 2015; Fabric 2016) Methods. The study was conducted as a qualitative case study of one pre-school group. The study involved 19 children aged 6-7 years. The research material was collected using method triangulation. The data were collected through five group discussions of 4-5 children and observations of the group´s daily life. The children also took pictures of things they like in preschool. They shared a reason for the pictures they took. The analysis was guided by abductive reasoning. The study followed the basic principle of childhood studies; Children have their own important self-worth and a wealth of information that can only be obtained by asking the children directly (Alanen 2009). Turja's (2011) model of multidimensionality of participation was used in the analysis. Results and conclusions. Children see adults in a pre-school as limiting their activities. They believe that adults decide almost everything in preschool. In addition to supervised activities and daily routines, adult control extends also to children's free playtime. The children had useful and sensible suggestions for activities they felt needed change. The children thought that the daily rest was a function that needs to be changed. Preferably, they would remove it altogether and exchange it for play. Play was an area where children felt participated. In the play, they were allowed to decide who to play with and what to play with. The nice thing about the play is "That you can do whatever you want." The play and friends gained a lot of importance in the children’s speeches and the photos they took. The activities of pre-school education were strongly planned by adults. However, the consideration of the children's interests and the children's ideas fit within the framework of the plans. These children’s ideas, which strengthen children’s participation, engaged them noticeably. Supervised pre-school activities were fun for many children. However, it should be considered how to enable the full participation of children in early childhood education so that it also goes beyond the planning of activities.

Objectives: In my thesis, I studied the fourth, the fifth and the sixth graders views about the conceptions of the influence at school. In the thesis it was also surveyed what kind of matters the pupils wanted to influence at school. Furthermore, it was studied what kind of influencing skills pupils thought they have. The theory part of the thesis consisted in an overview to the children's and youth's different kind of needs for participation as well as an overview to the curriculum system which forms the base of the school work was studied. In addition, in the theory part of the thesis the democracy expressed at school and the awakening of the children's interest in civic matters were studied. Methods: The thesis was a survey-research and structured questionnaires were used when information was collected. The research group consisted of 112 pupils who studied at the fourth, the fifth and the sixth grades in the primary school situated in the Southern part of Finland. The data was analyzed with the quantitative research program SPSS. At first different numbers such as averages and standard deviations were examined and after that factor analyses were used. Correlation examination was also used. Results and conclusions: The results showed that the pupils had a positive image about their own influencing skills and they trusted their own opinions. They felt that it was important to have influence on they own matters as well as on the common matters at school. However many of the pupils felt that they didn't have possibilities to influence what happens at school during the school day. In addition, the pupils didn't want the teachers or the headmaster to decide solely how the work at school was carried out. The things that the pupils wanted to influence the most were the lunch and the snack at school, the seating arrangement in the classroom, the visits carried out at school and the optional subjects. According to the results it's possible to draw a conclusion that the pupils' participation at school is necessary. The pupils value the possibilities to take part in and seem to understand that it is needed them to contribute themselves so that it is possible to enjoy more the time spend at school. It's also possible to draw a conclusion that although the possibilities to participate are valued there is a lack of real enthusiasm to participate. This is why it seems that there is a need for different kinds of ways to participate since the current ways to participate at school lack to motivate many pupils. Also the work of student body needs to be improved since many of the pupils didn't want to participate to the work of student body although they thought the work done by the student body was important.

The purpose of this thesis is to find out how human rights education is present in Finnish elementary schools. What do teachers know about human rights education and how it's tied to the elementary school and teachers' professionalism? My hypothesis is that human rights education exists in elementary schools but it is not well-known. There are no previous studies done of this subject. Closest is Mia Matilainen's doctoral dissertation from 2011, where she examines human rights education in high schools. The research is done by using the interview method. I interviewed six elementary school teachers form four different schools and 3 different municipalities. Two of the schools were comprehensive schools. In addition to the teachers, I interviewed two human rights specialists from two different organizations. The interview material is analyzed by using content analysis. The this thesis includes several direct quotes to give it a more down to earth feel, and also to stay in touch with the interview method used. Human rights education was a foreign concept to the teachers I interviewed. However, they thought that with the current elementary school curriculum (in 2016), human rights education will become more familiar and its meaning will become more important. Human rights education was seen as being a part of current subject contents, such as religion, ethics and history. Handling every day issues such as conflicts and bullying were seen as part of human rights education also. Its presence was seen in class rooms, but there is room for improvement in within the school culture, especially when it comes to getting people involved. Teacher's own values were seen as a key element in human rights education. Teacher's role in Finnish schools is still very autonomous, and that it's up to individual teachers how human rights education fits in with the everyday school life. This means that human rights education and taking part in it varies within schools.

Children's participation has been a subject in the international research since past ten years. This research has explored participation from the standpoint of the UN's Convention of the Rights of the Child and focused mainly on schoolchildren or on the working youth's chances in developing countries to have impact on their own lives (eg. Sinclair, 2004 and Thomas, 2002). In Finland there has been less research about the children's rights while the main focus has been on the customers of the child welfare system. This study examines children's participation in Helsinki metropolitan area via the views and the practices of the personnel of early childhood education. The adopted viewpoint is Shier's level model of participation (2001), in which the children's participation process is building in phases, is observed via the everyday actions of the kindergarten personnel. Attention has been paid on the special characteristics of the Finnish early childhood education. This study was part of VKK-Metro's research project. The inquiry in May 2010 was directed to all working teams in the kindergartens of the Helsinki metropolitan area. Of these 56.59 % (1116 teams) answered. The quantitative data analyzed by principal component analysis gave four principal components, from which three were named after Shier's participation model. The fourth component included variables about rules and power. The level model of participation fit well to assess early childhood education in the Helsinki metropolitan area. The professionalism of the personnel became emphasized in the area of everyday interactions between the personnel and the children. Important aspects of the children's participation are to become heard, to get support in the play and in interaction and to be able to share both power and responsibility with personnel of the early childhood education.

The aim of the study was to describe children’s agency related to climate change and to find out what kind of climate actions children do. In addition, the factors limiting and supporting children’s climate action were studied. The climate crisis is a wicked problem that requires a change in human behavior. In recent years young people's concern about the climate change as well as their social impact have increased. Previous research shows that active agency promotes student’s environmentally responsible behavior. Efforts have been made to strengthen children's empowerment and agency in society by increasing opportunities for participation. In this study climate change knowledge, emotions and climate change action were the main research themes. The target group consisted of 4th grade children (N = 18) which were interviewed during winter 2021. The group interviews were recorded and analyzed using theory-guided content analysis. The children were able to name causes and consequences of climate change, as well as to suggest solutions. Participants also expressed misconceptions about climate change. Differences were found considering how children experience the severity of climate change. Emotions that the participants associated with climate change were anxiety, sadness, fear and hope. However, not all participants associated strong feelings about climate change. The children committed climate actions related to transportation, food, energy consumption and social impact. The study showed that child's social environment can act as a limiting or promoting factor in climate action. Adult example in particular, such as parents’ role, was significant. The study shows that children’s climate action is a multidimensional entity. As some children feel that their own influence in mitigating climate change is weak, there is a need to create more opportunities for participation. Adult’s role as an enabler of child’s climate action is essential.

Early studies have shown that parents in modern society are living their everyday life in the middle of the cultural expectations. Studies also show that children enjoy being in day care, if they have friends there, as well as the opportunity to play and to do something meaningful. Purpose of this study was to bring children's voices heard and to describe the child's everyday experiences. The study was to find out pre-school children's everyday life experiences at home, in family and in day care center. Children live their everyday life at home and in day care centers. This study describes the child's well-being and everyday in the basis of Bronfenbrenner eco-logical theory of education. The data were collected by questionnaire in Hämeenlinna day care centre personnel and its customers in the spring of 2011. For the individual interviews participated 478 children. The data were analyzed by using content analysis and content analysis methods. The study was a qualitative and approach by phenomenographic. The results showed that children want to play both at home and in day care centers. 39 % of the children wanted to spend time with their parents at home and in day care center only 13 % of children wanted to be with adults. Importance of friends in day-care center was emphasized, because 37% of the children mentioned in their responses friends. The study also asked if children are listened by the adults and 63% of the children felt that adults listen them carefully.

In a recent pedagogical debate the animation is seen as a result of a child-oriented education. It includes terms communality, agency and participant, which were studied at VKK-metro's participation- and Billding bridges -projects. In a social pedagogy and a free education is known sosio-cultural animation, that has come to Finland by Leena Kurki (2000). In this study a connection to Kurki's sociocultural animation is searched from todays's child-oriented thoughts and from Vygotsky's sociocultural theory. This study applies and experiments sociocultural animation by the means of drama, and examines in which ways animation appears as communality, agency and participation in a kindergarten preschool group. Methods: This study was made in spring 2012 in a day-carecenter near Helsinki and it took six days. The target group of the educational experiment was 24 children. This study applies qualitative research methods and there are forms of action research, where the researcher is a facilitator and participating observer.The data collection method was observation, notebook and video- and research diary. In the analysis of the data is utilized content analysis. Results and conclusions: Communality was seen at the Zone of proximal development as peer learning for example in drawnings. At the emotional Zone of proximal development animation created animation. This was shown as cheering of others, appreciation of drama performances and as enthusiasm in ones own activity. Negotiations where often non-verbal and handled through operation. Agency was shown as expression and realization or non-realization of ideas. If necessary, help was sought from a more capable individual and an adult was sought for attention and acknowledgement. Participation was shown as mutual ideation, doing, evaluation, decision making and diverse creation of culture between adults and children. Hence animation increased the culture of communality where children can learn, open up and encourage themselves to act proactively and creatively to achieve a mutual goal, a drama performance.