Browsing by Subject "osallisuus"

Objectives. The main task of the study was to find out what kind of pedagogical knowledge, methods, practices and models does a teacher take advantage of when building a class into a well-functioning group. This study investigated primary school teachers' use of pedagogical theories and practices in creating a communal and supportive classroom atmosphere. The research problem was formulated into two research questions: What kind of pedagogical knowledge does a teacher use in grouping a class? What kind of methods, practices and models does a teacher use in building a cooperative attitude in a class and a safe and positive learning atmosphere? Methods. The research strategy was based on a qualitative study. The data collection strategy was based on reminiscence and reports methods. The data was collection by requesting essays from experienced teachers. The call for essays was published in the Teacher-journal and in Facebook. Also other methods were used in the data collection. Eight essays were received. The teaching experience of the surveyed teachers ranged from 3 to 38 years. The teachers were all women and they lived in different parts of Finland. The essays were analyzed through a data based content method in which the results were constructed based on the essays. The data was grouped and classified into themes and the results were reported based on the research questions and the used theory. Results and conclusions. The essays revealed the teachers' pedagogical knowledge and common methods in creating a class into a well-functioning group. The key concepts of teacher's pedagogical knowing were e.g. encouragement, positive feedback, building trust, teacher's own role, enticing students into trying, and noticing an individual student as a person. The used methods were e.g. common rules, responsibility and involvement of students, cooperation in the class, emphasizing belonging into a group and active participation. Group formation of a class was considered as an important part in teachers' work. However, not all teachers in the teacher profession see the class formation process so important.

Especially in recent years, student participation has come to the fore and at present participation is part of the operating culture of Finnish primary school. Student participation and supporting it are in the center in the curriculum (2014). Students’ participation has significant magnitude. It is essential in building safe atmosphere, and when students can participate in considering about implementations methods and operating methods, their motivation and results of actions are better. Supporting students’ participation reflects also in the prevention of bullying and exclusion. Although student participations significance is recognized, Finnish primary school has shown flaws in terms of the right to participation. Students’ participation takes mostly place in formal structures that are provided by adults, and students’ influence in school is minimal. Teachers are in important position to enable student’s participation in school, and teachers need to understand students’ participation in terms of it to actualize. The purpose of this master’s thesis is to examine what is the impact of student participation and how can it be supported according to teachers. Furthermore, purpose of this master’s thesis is to bring forth and examine the possible challenges that teachers experience when supporting student participation. The material for the thesis was collected by interviewing five teachers. Four of them worked as classroom teachers at the time of the interview and one as a resource teacher. The data was analyzed using theory directed content analysis. According to the results of this thesis the teachers felt that the students’ participation is important. In addition, the teachers felt that the students’ participation influences school motivation, the experience they can influence and be heard and feeling of belonging to the community. According to the teachers, students’ participation can be supported with many ways and approaches. These included, for example, having conversation with students and hearing their opinions at school, involving student in planning and teacher reducing his own speech and giving space to the students’ voices. In the interviews, the teachers brought up various issues that they have experienced as challenge for supporting student participation. These included, for example, deficiency in teacher education, attitudes against participation, lack of resources and teachers’ challenges in managing.

Student boards aim to increase children’s participation and develop democratic competencies needed for active citizenship. However, not much research has been done on young children’s experiences on this topic. Previous studies suggest that use of representative democracy structures within school context provide students elected to the board with a space to practice e.g. negotiation skills. This qualitative case study aims to investigate the experiences of children elected to the student board government, focusing on the agency and participation narratives produced by the children, and instances of democratic competency. Research material was collected via questionnaire consisting of five open questions and a multiple choice section to examine the reliability of the answers. The study was partaken by nine students from a school actively developing their student board. All students were 4th or 5th graders elected to the student board either during the semester in which material was collected or the previous year. The material was analyzed and themed by qualitative content analysis. Themes were studied in the light of participation and growing into active citizenship discourses found from previous research. The children perceived the student board as a space where they have permission to speak out about school matters, be heard and partake in collective decision making. They viewed social skills and the ability and courage to express opinions and ideas as cardinal strengths and competencies. These skills are both needed and learned while being a member of the student board. The school democracy practiced by the student board appeared as a cooperative negotiation typical to deliberative democracy with the goal to advance common good. On the other hand, the student board appeared as a separate space from everyday school life the other students aren’t very interested in. Thus, social participation in the school community might not fully come true, and the agency in the context of the student board might not intertwine with other areas of life despite the skill-developing experiences it offers.

Aims. This thesis discusses the possibilities of participative and action-based food education in home economics education and school mealtimes in comprehensive schools. The aim of this thesis is to discuss how the co-operation and combining of home economics teaching and school lunches can assist in reaching the goals of food education, such as the development of food sense. The study is based on previous research within food education, school lunches and student participation, as well as the national documents for steering education. School mealtimes as situations for formal learning are not vastly studied in Finland. The aim of the participative food education is to help students reach significant goals of well-being and lifelong learning, as well as increase the number of students who eat diversely. Methods. The data were gathered with half-structured thematic interviews. The individual interviews took place in three schools in Helsinki. In each school, either home economics teachers, school catering staff, or both, were interviewed. In total, there were six informants and the interviews were 17-35 minutes. These interviews produced 62 sheets of literal transcriptions. The data is analyzed thematically. The results were interpreted with the help of the definition participation and participativeness (Niemi et al. 2018) and the three-level model of food sense (Janhonen et al. 2018). Results and conclusions. Three main themes were found in the analysis: the educational potential of school lunches, student-led development and inclusion, and school’s adults as enablers of food educational cooperation. The interviewees’ degree of self-awareness of their role as food educators was found to be an important factor behind formal food education. Co-operational food education benefits from the recognition of participation as an aim of pedagogical activities. In addition, different co-operative projects, school celebrations, themes connected with sustainable development, and including students as responsible participants help the co-operation. On the other hand, lack of resources, fragmented nature of employment tasks and schools catering staff’s shortage of education in (food)education prevented the co-operation in this study. The study implies that educational aims midst school lunches are not systematic nor target-oriented, at least as co-operative effort since they lack both resources and action plans on the school level. Utilizing the three-level model of food sense in the evaluation of the realization of food education showed that in the context of formal schooling, the structural changes in methods are challenging to execute or achieved without the support and commitment of school’s adults. This study concludes that the development of formal food education to become more participative demands expertise and time, as well as school’s food educators’ personal passion and interest in the matter.

To advance children's participation is actively pursued and it is seen as a leading concept in documents guiding the work of early childhood education. However, supporting children's participation requires a common understanding of what the concept means. This study examines the views of kindergarten teachers in Vantaa about the participation of children. The study identifies factors affecting participation, and examines in particular how kindergarten teachers feel that the need for special education influences the child's participation in early childhood education. The characteristics and skills associated with adult activities that contribute to the realization of each child's participation and the sense of belonging are analyzed as part of the study. The theoretical framework of the study is based on the view of participation as one of the principle of inclusion. The theory of participation has been dealt with according to the multidimensional model of Leena Turja. The material of the study was collected at half structured interviews witch were taken part in seven teachers from city of Vantaa on February 2017. The interviews were recorded and transcribed for analysis. The analysis was done with the methods of content analysis. Sosiograms of the groups have been utilized as a supplementary research material. The results of the study show that interviewed teachers describe participation as a multi-dimensional phenomenon that can be viewed from different perspectives. Determining participation was considered challenging and there was a clear need for a common discussion both in the team and in the work community. In general, participation was seen as an important topic that could also have a wider impact on children's well-being. According to the interviewed kindergarten teachers, the special educational needs of the child contributed significantly to their participation in the group. However, the factors contributing to participation are strongly linked to an inclusive culture and supported the participation of every child in the group. Kindergarten teachers felt that the same factors could support and, on the other, block children's participation. Play was felt as an activity to support participation and children's peer interaction. The most important factor for participation was adult activity and interaction that takes into account the individual needs of children.

In my thesis, I studied the conceptions of the teachers who supervise school councils in primary schools. The purpose of this study was to examine the aims of school councils, how the aims are actualised, and how the school councils are organised and enhanced at the school level. The concern about the social passivity of children and the young has been raised to public discussion after the millennium. School councils have been considered to be a solution for decreasing social passivity. School democracy has not been a popular topic since the 1980 s, but during the 21st century, it has become more popular, and nowadays, many primary schools have their own school councils. Nevertheless, school councils have not been a popular research subject. In this study, the perspective to school world is societal, and the supervising teachers' conceptions are reflected to democracy, participation and citizenship education using the writings by Dewey, Freire and Biesta. The research data was collected from ten thematic interviews. The interviewees were ten teachers from Espoo, who were responsible for supervising the school councils at their schools. The interviews were analysed using research methods typical for a phenomenographic study. According to the study, the teachers are mainly very satisfied with school councils. School councils were considered to be such places in which pupils learn useful knowledge and skills. In addition, the teachers thought that school councils enhance the communality of schools as well as the participation of pupils. The role of school councils as an organiser of events was considered to be very strong. Via school councils, pupils have been able to affect schools' equipment and conventions, for example, the equipment that can be used during breaks, and school catering. Even though school councils were considered very positive, the interviewed teachers found many things to improve. For example, the teachers thought that pupils and teachers should be more active. In addition, it was considered that even though school councils provide a model of democracy and active citizenship, the pupils' possibilities to impact matters at their school were only minor. School councils were considered to be led by teachers and coordinated from above. School councils could be improved by shifting the focus on school democracy from school councils to classrooms. In classrooms, every student would have an opportunity to learn useful knowledge and skills and to gain experience if they could impact matters at school.

With the drawing up of the new 2016 curriculum the concept of pupil participation has played a major part in the discussions on care and education. Peer mediation has been seen as a way of enabling participation and increasing communality in schools. The goal of this treatise is to survey the significance of peer mediation in pupil participation and as an activity aimed at increasing communality. Restorative thinking and restorative approach are essential in peer mediation. Hence, the ability of pupils to use these methods is also of interest here. Research questions became: 1. How do the objectives of pupil participation and increasing communality in schools in the basics of the curriculum of basic education (2014) manifest in the experiences of the pupils acting as peer mediators? 2. How do restorative thinking and restorative approach manifest in the peer mediator students' descriptions of the mediation process? This is a qualitative study and the research material was collected by themed interviews. The informants were eight girls who had acted as peer mediators in a primary school in Helsinki in the school year 2014-2015. The data was inspected using content analysis. According to the findings of this study, peer mediation does increase communality. However, its affect on pupil participation depended on the overall operational culture of the school and particularly the actions of individual teachers. If the teachers of the school allowed the pupils to participate, the peer mediator students had strong experiences of participation. However, other pupils had the opposite experience. There were great differences in the restorative thinking of the peer mediator pupils. Some of them applied the restorative approach well, others had a less restorative course of action.

Aims. This research is based on the sociocultural background, which sees learning as an interactive process with the community. Learning affects both the community and the individual, who is building his identity through learning and interaction. Previous studies indicate, that sense of belonging increases commitment and agency. In this research I followed pupils for few days in Poikkilaakso elementary school, where the pupils were teaching each other. The event was called 'I Teach' -day. In this research I am pointing out the skills that this kind of event develops in pupils and what are the effects to the pedagogical community. The students were involved planning the event and their own teaching as well as the realization of the lesson. The pupils also gave feedback of the 'I Teach' –day. Methods. The data was collected using simulated recall –method, which was extended by theme interview. There were 13 interviewees, of which four were adults and teachers and nine were pupils aged 9 to 12. The interviews were transcripted and systematically analysed. When all the data was collated I made the analysis and brought some theoretical interpretation to the analysis. Results and conclusions. The event was encouraging pupils to become active agents, who take responsibility for their own learning and others by planning, creating, giving feedback and developing teaching. The frames of the event, which were given pupils by the teachers, gave the possibility to develop skills in agency. The creative culture was prerequisite for developing of pedagogical agency. Pedagogical agent takes responsibility of learning with others, and strives for development of the community of learning.

In a tightening economic situation it has become more difficult to find work or study place. This can create a threat that leads to the danger that young people are getting socially excluded from education and working life. Social exclusion has brought up a great concern in Finland. Youth guarantee is been used to prevent social exclusion and to improve adolescents' possibilities to have a degree after the basic education and be employed. One of the tools to prevent social exclusion is Youth guarantee which raises workshop activities that aim to support adolescents' life management skills, strengthening their involvement and preventing social exclusion. In the previous workshop studies it has been brought up that it would be important to study workshop activities in qualitative measures to get the voices of the people being in the risk of social exclusion to be heard. This study examines the way the young people that work in workshop in Tampere under the Youths start- project talk and how they give meanings to being part of the society, participation and how are they relating to the work shop activity. This study analyzed two group interview materials that are collected in Youth start workshops. There were eight young people that participated to this study. The material was analyzed using discursive analysis methods. The discursive analysis is built to the assumption of being context related, assumption of meanings being built using the language, assumption that several lateral discursios exist and to the assumption that use of the language has causes and it socially constructs the reality. In this research four repertoires were analyzed from the participants' discourses. These were being part of the society, participation, social exclusion and workshop repertoires. The tightening competition situation from the work and studying places showed up as a factor that in the adolescents' discourses caused insecurity and repetitive disappointment that had negative influence to their self-esteem and these factors can lead to even faster social exclusion. The Workshop appeared as a safe place, kind of like a second home where it was easy to come. Working in a workshop brought meaningful things to do and building blocks to build self-esteem and recover courage. Outside of the workshop social inclusion of the people going there it was considered to be shameful and even stigmatizing. Because of this factor it is important that the image of the workshop can be improved. In the light of this study it is important to improve the participation and feeling social inclusion of the surrounding world. The adolescents need to have real power and responsibility to decide and influence the matters that concern them in the workshop activities.

Tiivistelmä - Referat – Abstract Tämän pro gradu -tutkielman tarkoituksena on selvittää vapaa-ajan ryhmätoiminnan mahdollisuuksia nuorten hyvinvoinnin ja osallisuuden tukemisessa. Nuoruus on erityinen ajanjakso, johon sisältyy itsenäistymistä, irtaantumista kasvuperheestä ja oman identiteetin etsimistä (Kinnunen, 2011). Vapaa-aika on näiden teemojen kannalta keskeinen toimintakenttä (Tolonen & Määttä, 2011). Erityisesti vapaa-ajan harrastamisessa nähdään valtava potentiaali nykyajan nuorisokysymysten, kuten syrjäytymisen, ratkaisemiseksi (Salasuo & Homi, 2021). Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on selvittää Nuorten Akatemian Mahis-hankkeessa toteutettujen nuorten vapaa-ajan projektien vaikuttavuutta nuorten elämään. Tutkimuksen kohteena on Nuorten Akatemian Mahis-hanke. Mahis on haavoittuvassa asemassa oleville nuorille suunnattua ryhmätoimintaa. Aineistona toimii vuosina 2017-2020 toteutuneiden Mahis-projektien loppuraportit. Raportteja saatiin yhteensä 165 kappaletta. Raportit ovat ohjaajien kirjoittamia, ja tutkimuksen näkökulmana onkin ohjaajien näkemykset toiminnan vaikuttavuudesta nuoriin. Tutkimus on toteutettu laadullisena dokumenttianalyysinä. Aineiston luokittelussa ja analysoinnissa on käytetty sisällönanalyysia. Tutkimuksessa ollaan kiinnostuneita nuorten hyvinvoinnista ja osallisuudesta ilmiönä, joten siinä on myös osin fenomenologinen tutkimusote. Mahis-projektit näyttäytyivät nuorten elämään positiivisesti vaikuttavina ajanjaksoina. Ohjaajat havaitsivat positiivisia muutoksia neljällä eri osa-alueella, jotka olivat yksilön kasvu, sosiaaliset suhteet, tulevaisuuden suunnitelmat sekä koulunkäyntiin liittyvät muutokset. Eniten havaintoja tehtiin itsenäistymisestä, itsetunnon kasvusta sekä uusien ystävyyssuhteiden syntymisestä. Tulosten perusteella Mahis-toiminnalla pystytään vastaamaan nuorten osallisuuden ja hyvinvoinnin edistämisen tarpeisiin. Mahis-toimintaa tarkasteltiin myös sosiokulttuurisen innostamisen välineenä. Toiminnasta löydettiin kaikki sosiokulttuurisen innostamisen ulottuvuudet: kasvatuksellinen, kulttuurinen ja sosiaalinen ulottuvuus.