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Aims. Touching is an essential part of human life and well-being: touch is a way of communicating in human interaction, and touching has positive influence on growth and development of a child. Thus, touching should also be a part of school life in interaction between a teacher and a student. On the other hand, many studies discuss concerns that teachers have regarding touching students. In this study, the aim was to discuss primary school teachers' attitudes towards touching as a pedagogical tool: is it allowed to touch children, do teachers want to touch in the first place, in what kind of situations do teachers touch, and how is touching discussed in schools. The purpose of this study is to enhance understanding of touching in schools. Methods. The research data was gathered by interviewing six class room teachers, and I applied theme interview in the interview. This study was a qualitative study, and I applied phenomenography study's analysis model in the analysis. Phenomenography is based on different kinds of ways of understanding the same phenomenon: therefore I observed primary school teachers' different views about touching in school. Results and conclusions. Primary school teachers associated six different meanings with touching: touching as natural and common thing; as a tool for calming and guiding; as caring; as a worry; as an object of avoiding; and as restricting. The factors that influence teacher's decision to touch are the norms of society and community, context of the situation in which touching occurs, teacher's own touching history, characteristics regarding a student, instructions or pedagogical freedom, and conscious decision making or spontaneous action. As a summary for these results, there was formed five different roles for teachers as touchers: teacher as an educator, as a communicator, as a restrictor, as an avoider, and as a victim. Even though the results cannot be generalized to apply every primary school teacher, the results imply possible ways of comprehending touching as a pedagogical tool.

The purpose of this study was to find out what kind of collaboration the classroom teachers had with other teachers, and whether the experience of collegial collaboration was related to classroom teachers' conceptions of ability. There is an increasing emphasis on collaboration in schools, so research on collegial collaboration is topical. Collaboration between classroom teachers was classified using a collaborative model for different needs, which includes every way to collaborate. The research questions were influenced by their own interests in cooperation and previous research results on teacher cooperation. A total of 46 classroom teachers participated in the study, but the material contained 45 useful answers for the study. Class teachers participated in the research all over Finland. Class teachers were asked to participate in the research through social media and email. The material was collected primarily through a questionnaire, after which the class teachers had the opportunity to participate in the interview if they so wished. The interview was conducted as a semi-structured interview. The classroom teachers had tried and worked with a variety of collaborators with other teachers. For the most part, the class teachers had done collaborative teaching and joint planning with others. Class teachers said they were the ones who benefited the most from collaborating by sharing ideas and materials with others. On average, the highest personal teaching ability was found among class teachers who taught for 5 to 10 years and general teaching ability among those who taught between 0 and 5 years. Personal teaching ability was found to be the weakest among those teaching 0-5 years and the lowest overall teaching ability among those teaching 5-10 years. In fact analysis, the claims loaded for the most part as in previous studies. Minor exceptions were noted. A statistically significant association was found between the classroom teachers' conceptions of ability and the perceived benefit of organizational needs.

Previous research has suggested that job demands and resources are related to teacher’s wellbeing. The purpose of this master’s thesis is to find out how inclusion in classrooms is connected to classroom teacher’s work-related wellbeing. In this thesis it is tried to find out what kind of demands inclusion brings to teachers and what kind of resources teachers have. In addition the aim is to find out which factors are especially weakening techer’s wellbeing and how they affect it and which factors support teacher wellbeing. This thesis was carried out as qualitative research. The qualitative data was obtained through half-structured interviews. There were four interviewees and all of them worked in inclusive classrooms as classroom teachers. The data was analysed with content analysis. The job demands of inclusion and the resources the teachers have were categorized as institutional, classroom and personal demands and resources. The demands factors that weakened the teachers wellbeing especially were the feeling of insufficiency combined with a too challengin job. This consisted of too many students with special needs and too few resources, especially not enough adults in the classroom. In addition behavioral problems and excessive workload by paperwork as well as more multiprofessional cooperation and parent-teacher meetings were such factors. Resources and factors supporting teacher wellbeing included especially good school climate, support from colleagues. administration and parents, teamwork and simply enough appropriate resources. In addition, smaller groupsize was considered as a resource. Teachers’ weakened wellbeing demonstrated as e.g. sleeping problems, tearfulness, being tense, disengagement and as feelings of despair and anxiety. Classroom teachers felt that they were less excited about their work and felt their work motivation decreasing when their wellbeing was compromised. In conclusion, inclusion in classrooms may weaken teacher wellbeing if the resources and demands do not match.

The growth towards class teachership – what kind of a teacher one is as an individual and in relation to others and what one strives to achieve – continues throughout teachers’ whole career. Teaching practice and related supervision which are part of teachers' education have a significant effect on their growth. Cooperative teacher supports and advises the student teachers and prior studies have discovered that cooperative teacher's conceptions are easily transmitted to the students. The purpose of this thesis was to examine how cooperative teachers’ conceptions affect their supervision, what significance they perceive their supervision has towards students' growth towards teachership and what kind of challenges they experience in supporting the growth of their students. Data was collected by interviewing eight cooperative teachers from one official training school as well as municipal schools. The interviews where analysed using phenomenography with a data-driven approach. Answers to the research questions were explored by constructing categories from the conseptions of the cooperative teachers. Theoretical framework consisted of the concepts of teachership, teacher practice supervision and cooperative teacher. Cooperative teachers perceived that class teachership consists of diverse duties of a class teacher and that teachership is a profound phenomenon. The teachers' conceptions of class teachership were similar to their conceptions of a good class teacher. The cooperative teachers did not seek to transfer their conceptions of teachership to the students but they acknowledged that they transfer nevertheless. Teachers strove to improve their students and teach them that there is no one correct way to be a class teacher. There was variation in the cooperative teachers’ perceptions of the significance of their supervision in students' growth towards leadership. The cooperative teachers did, however, believe that they had several ways of supporting the students' growth. The experienced challenges in supervision were difficult students, problems in supervision relationships and challenges rising from the practice environment. Attention should be paid to the selection and further training of the cooperative teachers in order to guarantee equal and qualified supervision of the students in their growth towards teachership during their teacher training.

Aim. The purpose of this study was to examine classroom management problems and its effect on teacher's well-being. The objective was also to examine successful classroom management and ways to advance classroom management and teachers' well-being. The study introduces ways to advance classroom management and work related well-being. Class-room management is a current topic in schools. Schools should be safe for both students and teachers. Teachers' well-being has been studied widely but mainly from a negative point of view. Methods. The study was conducted as a qualitative research. The research data consisted of individual interviews with seven teachers who work in the Uusimaa area. The interviews were semi-structured and were held in April 2016. Data from the interviews was analysed by using theory oriented content analysis. Results. The effect of classroom management (problems) on teachers' well-being was evaluated as very strong. A teacher who didn't have classroom management problems in class was able to put more effort on work than a teacher who struggled with classroom manage-ment problems. It seems that it is challenging to recover from stress related to classroom management problems and this stress effects working life as well as personal life. The teachers used several methods to advance classroom management and to interfere with classroom management problems. The reasons for the problems were considered by most of the teachers as student-related. The teachers wished for more effort by schools on advancing teachers' well-being and classroom management. Serious and long-lasting problems could be prevented by advancing teachers' well-being. This study offers viewpoints for current and future teachers and others interested in the subject.

The goal of this thesis was to research the interaction in Finnish as a second language lessons and the support of visual elements to the students and to the use of Finnish vocabulary in the classroom. In the thesis it was researched how the students possibly use the visual elements in the classroom to help them to find a specific Finnish word. The aim of this thesis was also to research if the assignments the students did during the lesson might helped them to learn Finnish vocabulary. There are only few studies on the support of the visual elements in the classroom and to the students learning. The data was collected as a part of the Long Second research project. The lessons were recorded twice a week in 2011-2012 in instruction preparing for basic education lessons. The data of this thesis was recorded in January and February 2012. The lessons consisted the human body and it's functions. In this thesis was used four Finnish as a second language lessons. There were five to six students in each lesson and they were 7 to 12 years old when the lessons were recorded. The data was transcribed and analyzed using the methods of the conversation analysis. In the classroom there is rich interaction between the students and with the teacher but also with using the support of the visual elements. Using the methods of the conversation analysis examples was presented where the students used the visual elements to support their interaction in the classroom. On the basis of the collected data, it seems that the visual elements in the classroom might support the learning and remembering of the Finnish vocabulary of the students. Furthermore it seems that the student's assignments done during the lesson possibly support the interaction of the students and help them to constitute a joined understanding on a subject.

Goals. The goal of the thesis was to find out what kind of a learning environment and a situation of teaching of good manners is classroom catering. In recent years, the media have come up with some examples of how classroom catering has been felt as a more restful eating situation than eating in the canteen. Classroom catering has been felt a functional way to arrange school catering. Educational guidance for school catering is based on law and curriculum, and the Finnish national curriculum requires the organizer of the education to set the educational goals for school catering. This study aimed at studying the teaching of good manners at the levels of class teachers and school system. Methods. The study was a qualitative case study, which interviewed three class teachers and one school catering authority. The case-teacher’s data consists of a themed group interview. The qualitative data was analyzed by theory-based analysis. Results and conclusions. Teaching of good manners involves centrally the consideration of another person and the proper use of cutlery. In the case school, classroom catering turned out to be an inherent way to teach of good manners. The case teachers of this study felt catering in the classroom more restful than catering in the canteen. The case teachers felt that classroom catering was cramped and challenging to keep clean. The school catering expert interviewed in the study, saw the cleanliness and food delivery challenging in classroom catering. The case teachers experienced classroom catering as a pleasant and social environment that naturally included in the discussion and had a good visual contact with the pupils. The study found that earlier research related to teaching of good manners is confined to theses. The teaching of good manners has been a little explored theme, especially in the 21st century.

Making leather includes multiple phases and there are several options when executing each phase. The selected tanning method affects most to the properties of finished leather. In literature there are lots of descriptions about the methodology of how to tan furs and skins in a traditional way, but there are only a little information about the properties of these naturally tanned fur skins. The aim of this study is to analyse different kinds of traditional and environmentally friendly tanning methods to be able to make durable leather of a good quality. The research problems of this study are to find the most practical method for tanning wild furs and to analyse if it is possible to make high-quality leather by using natural ways of tanning leather. A review of the literature inspired the idea of comparing single-component tannages against a combination of two conventional tannages. The most practical methods were chosen from the traditional and the easiest ways of tanning furs. Chosen methods were tanning with tealeaves, willow (salix), sour porridge, urine, Novaltan Al and Pretanix C. The data was collected from three red foxes, which were tanned in 11 different ways: six single-component tannages and five combinations of two tannages. Fur skin properties were investigated for tear strength, elongation, water vapour permeability, shrinkage temperature, hair fastness and surface structure. The data collected was mostly numeric and it was analyzed by Spearman's rank-correlation. Scanning electron microscopic photos were taken from the leather surface and the results were compared against numeric data. This study shows that thinner leathers had better tear strength and relative elongation. Water vapour permeability results analyzed with SEM-pictures revealed that aluminium-based Novaltan Al made the leather surface smoother allowing water vapour to pass through it. Meanwhile, other tannages made the surface more spongy, possibly soaking moisture into leather. Plant based tannages had higher shrinkage temperature than any other tannages. The results showed that using two conventional tannages made the leather properties better compared to single-component tannages. The best and probably most practical tanning method according to this study was combination tanning by using tealeaves and Novaltan Al. It's important to think of the desired properties for the leather, and then choose the tanning method that makes wanted properties possible.

Objectives. The purpose of this study is to untangle how companies located in the textile sector see the utilization of natural dyes on an industrial scale in the future. The research examines what kind of factors could enable and, on the other hand, challenge the utilization of natural dyes. Research from the companies' point of view has not been done before, so the companies' views provide valuable information that could benefit both ongoing research and project work as well as companies interested in utilizing natural dyes. Methods. This research was qualitative, and the research material did consist of theme interviews of five companies working in the textile sector. The companies are Natural Indigo Finland, Lappajärven Värjäämö, Lapua Kankurit, Nanso and Arela. All interviewed companies had experience of using natural dyes in their production. The interviews were analyzed using content analysis. The analysis was used content analysis program the Atlas.ti. With this a concise description of the companies' future visions was formed. Results and conclusions. The research indicated that all companies were interested in the possibilities of using natural dyes. The requirements of industrial production were partly seen as a challenge when the target was to produce uniform quality and colour-retaining textiles. Great potential was seen in utilizing consumers interest as interest in more natural textiles and production methods has grown. Consumption behavior that supports natural values is required from consumers. The higher price of products dyed with natural dyes could therefore be balanced by more thoughtful consumption. The possibilities of natural dyes in the future were seen to be stronger the closer the company was to the beginning of the production chain. These companies were already more committed to utilizing natural dyes. It was easier for a dye producer to believe in the possibilities of the future than for a textile producer who uses pre-dyed material. Cooperation in the entire value chain is important to increase the utilization of natural dyes. The textile industry needs new operators as part of the development chain of natural colours. In this way, the utilization of natural colours can be created as Finland's selling point.

This study examines the technique of natural dyeing in the context of the craft teaching. This research explores the natural color chart of Finland’s nature in mordant dyeing of woolen yarns. The objective is to compile a selection of Finnish natural colors and colorants that are suitable and environmentally friendly in mordant dyeing procedure. In this research I explore also the phenomenon of multidisciplinary approach as a teaching method. The study combines a theory of natural dyes together with environmental education, craft design and modern ways of dyeing. The research is based on collection of natural dyed yarn samples and those related notes made by dyer. These woolen yarn samples were dyed in Southern Finland between decades 1970 and 1990 by one enthusiast. In classification of yarn samples I used qualitative methods to observe visual properties of these yarns. After evaluation the research material consisted of N=178 yarn and 20 different quality of woolen yarns. These 20 samples were tested under the microscope and by burning yarn samples to recognize fiber materials without lab circumstances. The color values were measured by spectrophotometer. These CIELAB codes helped me to find various hues for the color palette. With code numbers the use of colors is possible also in the digital environments like computer graphics. The digital use of colors in design is made possible by changing the color map values to RGB and CMYK color codes used by image editing software and printers. These codes enable the use of digital colors in teaching, design and printing. The study combines post-positivistic and qualitative research methods in the theoretical framework. All conclusions of the Finnish natural colors and colorants in this study are applicable only to the used research material and yarns that are researched. The analysis was conducted by one researcher only, which may have affected on the reliability and validity of the study. On a basic level the range of hues in Finnish color chart for woolen yarn contains yellow, red, green, brown and dark shades. Also, rare shades of blue are possible to find and dye with Finnish natural dyes, but those colors are not included in the color chart. I observed that natural dyes are suitable for environmental education when using natural or nontoxic mordant. Introduced color chart is intended to be used in craft teaching when design items and dye yarns for products made by hand. Environmental education and craft design are easy topics to combine with natural dyeing process in craft teaching. Practical activity, sustainable utilization of the surrounding environment, and the experience in engaging and influencing on environmental issues also support the student’s nature relations in the teaching of crafts.