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A school choice reform of compulsory schools was established in Finland in the early 1990s. This study is about how families acted in relation to this reform and how they made their choices. The aim of this study is to examine what kind of discourses can be found in relation to school choice and how resources and values are used in choices. The research questions were as follows: How values and resources are used in school choices? What kind of discourses parents produce when they speak about school choice and how they produce them? What kind of epistemic and practical positions are construed in discourse? What kind of dilemmatic speech there is? Research data has been collected with theme interview in 2008 in Vantaa. 9 parents were interviewed. The concepts capital of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu has been used to support the analyses of resources and concept of earlier school choice study to support the analyses of values. There were three discourses in relation to school choice: Society discourse, school choice discourse and emotional discourse. They all are critical towards school choice. Parents prefer schools nearby. Findings show that structural factors are of great importance together with families resources and values. School choice is however not entirely free, since it is conditioned and all choices are not realized. There are subtle differences between families resources. Uncertainty about the system and how to act in given situation refers to lack of resources and knowledge about the options available to them. Also values influence what options are known while some options are rejected without even trying.

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.

The aim of this master's thesis is to examine the experiences of home economics teachers in the Liberal Adult Education field concerning home economics online teaching. The Liberal Adult Education institutions were faced with an exceptional situation along with other education providers during the Covid-19 pandemic, when all teaching was provided via online. After the pandemic, online teaching has become a permanent alternative form of teaching. Home economics education in Liberal Adult Education emphasizes practical skills, interaction and working together. Previous studies suggest that in online education it can be challenging to implement home economics education to the fullest regarding its objectives and contents. This thesis examines, what kind of pedagogical decisions home economics teachers make to teach practical skills online, how interaction and collaboration are supported online and what kind of challenges and opportunities do home economics teachers see in online home economics teaching. The thesis was carried out in accordance with the principles of qualitative research approach. The data were collected in late spring 2023 by means of theme interviews with five (N=5) home economics teachers working in Liberal Adult Education who had experience of online home economics teaching. The data were analyzed by means of theory-driven content analysis. Due to the size of the data, the results of this thesis cannot be generalized quantitatively. The results show that home economic teachers make pedagogical decisions before and during teaching. The key pedagogical solutions preceding teaching were related to the value base of teaching, guiding principles and goals, planning of teaching and digital materials prepared by the home economics teachers. The pedagogical decisions during teaching were particularly related to the use of ICT equipment and services to support illustration. Speech as a pedagogical tool also emerged as a significant factor. Supporting interaction and collaboration proved to be challenging due to the different premises and goals of the course participants, as well as their often-passive role. From the home economics teachers' point of view, online teaching had several challenges, such as challenging content, IT challenges and the lack of community spirit and active participation. On the other hand, some of the online home economics education opportunities were seen as location-independence and the participation of friends and family. The teachers felt that online teaching was mainly meaningful, and they saw it as an opportunity to develop their own teaching skills and examine their work from a new perspective. On the other hand, online teaching was also seen as arduous. To obtain a more accurate picture of the phenomenon, it would be important to have a larger sample covering the whole country. It would also be important to study how participants in home economics courses experience online teaching, interaction and collaboration, as well as what their main interests and motivations are for participating.

Nowadays, young people are expected to make educational decisions that affect the rest of their lives. Neoliberal ethos, which emphasizes competitiveness, individualism and effectivity, puts young people in a position that increases their decision-making responsibilities. At the same time, Finnish society tries to prevent the marginalization of young people by guiding them toward education that suits their strengths and resources. The expertise of student advisors is in high demand, while at the same time we talk about the autonomous responsibility of young people to make decisions. Young people are placed in situations where they have authority and are expected to make the “right” decisions. Referring to previous research concerning guidance and neoliberal marketization of education, it is important to consider young people’s viewpoints. The aim of this master’s thesis is to examine what views ninth graders have on educational path guidance offered in comprehensive school and to examine what guidance dialogue occurs in the context of neoliberal educational politics. Eleven students from 9th grade were interviewed in two group discussions. The study advisor was also interviewed. At that comprehensive school, students attend either general classes or specialized classes where students are chosen through suitability tests. Six of the interviewees studied in general classes and five of them studied in specialized classes. The data was analyzed using a discourse analytical approach, and the discourses discovered were then set in a wider perspective. The results showed that the study advisor was seen as an expert who was being relied on. Students spoke of autonomous responsibility and decision making in two different ways. Autonomous responsibility felt oppressive to some, and to others it was seen as a route to actualize one’s dreams. Competitiveness supported by specialized classes and other advantages, such as socio-economic backgrounds, had an effect on how students dealt with study guidance. Students who came from backgrounds that supported their competitiveness felt that guidance was encouraging. On the other hand, students from less supportive backgrounds felt that guidance was oppressive. From the students’ point of view, the individual and the guidance do not always come together. Neoliberal ethos increases inequality in students’ negotiation positions concerning guidance. It is important to modify guidance structures in a way that allows students and guidance to come together.

Objective. The aim of this study was to carry out a survey on the guardians’ views on nurturing in primary schools. The focus was on three dimensions: guardians' views on nurturing in general, nurturing in primary school and co-operation, and the need for cooperation in primary school nurturing. The secondary aim was to investigate whether there were statistically significant differences between the guardians’ background variables, regarding their views on nurturing within these three dimensions, and whether correlations/relations could be identified. Research on nurturing in our primary schools was considered important because the curriculum for basic education in Finland describes the school as an nurturing arena, which is visible especially in the lower grades of primary school where nurturing is constantly present in both teaching and interaction, and emphasises individual national goals for nurturing. However, studies conducted in Sweden showed that teachers do not always agree, or are unsure, on how to approach the nurturing task.In Finland, guardians perceive the general co-operation between the school and home to relate specifically to the child's learning and success, but not to the child's overall well-being. The child's closest adults, in this case carers and teachers, play a major role in the child's learning, development and growth. Cooperation between home and school, including in nurturing, therefore plays a significant role in children's well-being and makes the theme important. The views of parents and carers were considered extremely important in order to get an overall picture of the situation regarding the theme. The studies and theories of Joyce L. Epstein on partnership serve as a theoretical frame of reference for this study. Methods. The research approach was mainly quantitative, with an electronic questionnaire as the primary data collection tool. The response options regarding education consisted of 5-point Likert scales. Most of the questions/statements also included an optional open comment field, which enabled the collection of qualitative data. Therefore, the study could also be seen as a mixed methods study. The voluntary comments were analysed phenomenographically to visualize the variety of views on nurturing in primary schools. A total of 144 respondents, carers, answered the questionnaire. Results and conclusions. According to the quantitative data, guardians' views on the nurturing role of schools were on average relatively positive. Guardians were somewhat satisfied with the nurturing in the school and were comfortable or somewhat comfortable with the nurturing role of the school in the specified themes. The need for closer co-operation regarding nurturing was moderately perceived. However, the qualitative data showed that a large proportion of the parents did not really know how the school worked regarding nurturing and therefore found it difficult to answer the questionnaire. A few carers also felt that nurturing is not really part of the school's mission, while a large proportion were very satisfied with the school's efforts in this area. On average, they seemed to have confidence in the nurturing role of the school and felt that it was a good support for the nurturing role of the home. On the whole, lack of time and insufficient communication were perceived as obstacles to cooperation. A statistically significant difference was found between school sizes and how comfortable guardians were regarding the nurturing theme: behaviour and etiquette. Carers with children in a small school were more comfortable with the nurturing role of the school in the stated theme than carers with children in a large school. The following correlations were identified: The better the child did in primary school, both academically but also socially and behaviourally, the more satisfied the parent was with the nurturing in the school, more comfortable with the stated nurturing themes and perceived the quality of nurturing in the school to be higher. The more positive the carer's attitude towards the curriculum's nurturing objectives, the more satisfied they were with the nurturing in primary school. The higher the guardian's perception of the quality of co-operation, the lower the need for co-operation and the more satisfied they were with primary school nurturing. Thus, the problem remained a lack of clarity about the school's approach to nurturing and mutual exchange between school and home. Improved dialogue and common guidelines could be crucial to strengthen cooperation, which in turn can have a positive impact on the holistic development of children.

Tiivistelmä - Referat - Abstract The objective of this study was to examine early science education and children’s scientific curiosity. Previous studies have shown that children benefit from inquiry-based learning of science, and curious behavior is often used when talking about small children. However, most previous studies focused on adults, and research about young children’s scientific curiosity is sparse. This study is part of The Joy of Learning Multiliteracies (MOI) program. The goal is to examine children’s scientific curiosity about natural science and study what shapes children’s curiosity. A theoretical framework is based on previous studies on curiosity and how previous researchers studied the nature of curiosity. The research questions are: What subjects cause curiosity about natural science? What shapes scientific curiosity? Data was collected in group interviews with several children while they drew pictures of what causes curiosity and what they wanted to study. The interviews were collected in two rounds, before and after the poetry science sessions. There was also a structured interview based on the Scientific Curiosity scale. Data was gathered with videotaping and consists of nine group interviews. The participants were 17 pre-school children from three different daycare facilities in Helsinki, Finland. According to the first round of interviews, children’s scientific curiosity is related to biological subjects and geological sciences. After the poetry science sessions, curiosity came up in subjects relating to physics, chemistry and astronomy. Children also talked about what they were doing in the poetry science sessions and described how they used the scientific equipment. During the interviews, much of the children’s curiosity was influenced by their social situation in the context of the interview. This indicates that the nature of curiosity is alive, and new subjects emerge when children learn collaboratively. However, some children had their own interests, and other children did not influence these children’s curiosity choices. The study showed that children’s experiences was either an enriching or limiting factor when scientific curiosity was observed. The results indicate that for this reason, it is important to create opportunities for children to be part of playful learning and scientific learning based on children’s needs and support positive experiences. Without the provided opportunities, children’s curiosity cannot be developed, or it can be hard to know what can be studied. This study’s results support previous research on the meaning of children’s curiosity in the social situation and the meaning for the learning process.

The purpose of this research is to study (1) how early childhood educators co-operate with evangelic-lutheran parishes and other religious communities when organizing worldview education in kindergartens and (2) what kind of practices and new ideas do early childhood educators have concerning worldview education and (3) what kind of recommendations do early childhood educators have for in-service training of worldview education. This is a qualitative research. The data is based on a survey conducted in the winter of 2018 in selected social media discussion groups of early childhood educators. The questionnaire contained mainly open-ended questions. The answers (N=60) were analysed by using content analysis. As a result of the research, it was found that co-operation concerning worldview education is generally made only with evangelic-lutheran parish in most of the work communities of the survey participants. Co-operation was categorized into different categories: (1) minor co-operation, (2) more plentiful co-operation which maintains traditional practices and (3) dialogical and innovative co-operation. Those practices and ideas which included co-operation with religious communities were divided into five themes: general worldview education, religious events, support of wellbeing, mentoring and more general co-operation with none specific theme. Those practices and ideas which did not include co-operation were divided into six themes: general worldview education, festivals of the kindergarten community, moral education, organizing optional activities during religious events, dialogue with parents, and the lack of the practices. It was also found that recommendations for in-service training contents were divided into six themes: opening The National Core Curriculum for Early Childhood Education, clarifying the concepts of worldview education, giving information about different religions and non-religious worldviews, introducing methods for worldview education, and for the moral education, and developing sensitivity towards religions and other worldviews. Based on the study, it can be concluded that organizing in-service training to early childhood educators is very necessary and more discussion is currently needed about practices concerning worldview education, both in work communities, with parents and with co-operating religious communities.

The aim of this study was to survey whether early childhood education professionals (early childhood childcare workers, teachers, special education teachers and social workers) use playfulness in their work, how they assess their own well-being at work and how playfulness is connected to their well-being at work, and whether there are differences in responses between professional groups. In addition, I wanted to find out how playfulness and well-being at work are connected. Play and playfulness are often associated with children, so there has been less research on adults. However, play and playfulness are both important part of the working day of early childhood education professionals, and the pedagogy used in early childhood educa-tion is largely based on these. Playfulness in adults has been found to be connected to various aspects of life, such as sociability and stress tolerance. Proyer's (2015) structural model of playfulness is used as the background theory of playfulness. In the field of early childhood education, well-being at work has previously been studied mainly from the perspective of early childhood education teachers, so in this study I wanted to examine other professional groups as well. Well-being at work was examined by Aho's (2011) survival path and Kangas and colleagues’ (2022) research. Although there has been little research into the playfulness and well-being at work of people working in early childhood education, a connection has been found between these two phenomena. The purpose of this quantitative study was to analyze the data collected with an electronic questionnaire using the SPSS 28 Statistics program. For the survey, the sub-areas of playfulness (other-directed, lighthearted, intellectual-creative, and whimsical playfulness) and the sub-areas of well-being at work (self-development, community spirit of the work community, holistic outlook on life and external support, and meaningfulness of work) that emerged from the theory base were operationalized into measurable variables. Variables measuring different sub-areas were combined into sum variables. The research started in the original research community was continued due to the low response rate in four early childhood education-related groups on social media. The survey received 166 responses from three professional groups: early childhood childcare workers, teachers, and special education teachers. Differences between professional groups were examined using the Kruskal-Wallis test and the connection between playfulness and well-being at work using Spearman's rank order correlation. According to the study, early childhood education professionals use playfulness in their work quite well (mean 3.94). According to the results, all aspects of playfulness are used, some more than others. Statistically significant differences were found between professional groups, especially in the whimsical playfulness. According to this study, the well-being at work experi-enced by early childhood education professionals is moderate (mean 3.61), with the community spirit of the work community supporting well-being at work the most. However, there was no statistically significant difference between professional groups in the variables of well-being at work. As could be assumed from previous studies, a statistically highly significant connection was found between playfulness and well-being at work

The aim of this thesis is understand the perception´s of special early childhood teacher´s and early childhood teacher´s regarding co-teaching in integrated special group´s. The purpose of this study was to form overall picture of the benefit´s and challenge´s of co-teaching based on perception´s of these teacher´s in integrated special group´s , through three research question´s. The first research question aimed to determine the co-teaching practice´s or method´s utilized by special early childhood teacher´s and early childhood teacher´s in inclusive early childhood education within integrated special education group´s. The second research question focused on identifying the factor´s that special early childhood teacher´s and early childhood teacher´s perceive as facilitating co-teaching in integrated special education group´s. The third question examined the factor´s that special early childhood teacher´s and early childhood teacher´s perceive as hindering co-teaching in integrated special education group´s. The theoretical section of the thesis consists of defining the concept of inclusion and reviewing previous research literature related to inclusive early childhood education, co-teaching model´s, and multiprofessional collaboration. The study was qualitative and the philosophical approach was phenomenological. Data was collected through remotely organized semi-structured theme interview´s conducted as individual interview´s. Six special early childhood teacher´s and four early childhood teacher´s participated. Data was analyzed using both abductive and inductive content analysis The research result are examined in three section according to the research question´s. The first section discusses the model´s of co-teaching used by the teacher´s in integrated special group´s within inclusive early childhood education. Co-teaching was utilized following the co-teaching model´s implemented in basic education and based on comprehensive interaction. The co-teaching between special early childhood teacher´s and early childhood teacher´s was perceived as promoting inclusion. In the second section result examines factor´s that support co-teaching and third section addresses factor´s that do not support co-teaching in integrated special group´s. Shared planning and discussion time between special early education teacher and the early childhood teacher was seen as a crucial supporting factor for co-teaching. However, teacher´s found this planning and discussion time to be insufficient and too sporadic. The quality of interaction and collaboration between the teacher´s was also seen as both a supporting and challenging. factors for co-teaching. Based on the finding´s, it can be concluded that co-teaching between special early childhood teacher´s and early childhood teacher´s supports inclusive early childhood education in integrated special group´s. The teacher´s described co-teaching as full-time pedagogy, which emphasized sharing idea´s between teacher´s in multiprofessional collaboration. However, the models of co-teaching are not widely utilized, and the roles of teacher´s are often too fixed. Regular scheduling of planning and discussion time among teacher´s is necessary to maximize the benefits of co-teaching.

The development of a child’s eating habits is influenced by the individual characteristics of the child but also by the feeding practices used by adults during mealtimes. Feeding practices are behavioral approaches by which adults try to control what and how much children eat. Health and Joy from food – meal recommendations for early childhood education and care (VRN 2018) provides recommended feeding practices for early childhood education personnel to be used during preschool mealtimes. The purpose of this study is to determine how personnel’s background factors relate to the implementation of these mealtime recommendations. In addition, we look at how guidance related to mealtimes given from outside of the preschool affects this relationship. The study was conducted as a quantitative study. Data comprised of questionnaires filled in by preschool personnel in the cross-sectional study of the DAGIS project in 2015–2016. 379 preschool staff members from 66 preschools returned the questionnaire. Four mealtime recommendations were identified: modelling healthy eating, encouraging children to eat vegetables and fruit, helping children to recognize feelings of hunger and satiety and avoiding using food as a reward. The associations between personnel’s background factors and the implementation of mealtime recommendations was examined using logistic regression analysis. The background factors examined were level of education in early childhood education, age group, work experience in early childhood education, and knowledge of the recommended intake of vegetables, fruits, and berries for children. Respondent’s gender and municipality were used as confounding factors. The effect of guidance from outside the preschool was analyzed by including an interaction term. The results showed that respondents who did not have a degree in early childhood education were less likely to implement several mealtime recommendations than those with a preschool teacher university degree. Respondents aged 40-49 were more likely to implement more mealtime recommendations than those under 30. Other background factors were not related to the number of recommendations implemented. Guidance given from outside the preschool did not affect the association between background factors and the implementation of mealtime recommendations. The research reveals the importance of education in the fulfillment of early childhood mealtime recommendations.