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(2018)In this study, I examine how consumers choose wine. The research questions are as follows 1. What factors in general affect wine buying? 2. What factors influence choosing wine in the store environment? 3. What is the significance of responsibly consuming in choosing wine? The research background consists of research on wine-making, its environmental impact, as well as wine-labelling. This framework also includes the wine choosing- and consumer behaviorism theories. Previous research has shown that wine choosing is affected by price, country of origin, taste descriptions, as well as the labelling. The data consists of seven research subjects, of whom five were women and two men. The subjects were between 29-70 years of age, six subjects lived in the Helsinki metropolitan area and one in central Finland. The data were collected with the thinking aloud protocol, in which the subjects report their wine selection process by speaking aloud. All the wine selecting was done in the Alko store environment. The recorded data was transcribed, after which it was structured with content analysis to fit the research questions. The analysis highlighted the researcher's abductive reasoning, where the collected data and the theoretical framework alternated to answer the research questions. My research shows that wine consumption is social: it is consumed in everyday life, as a socializing drink, and in combination with food. The main wine selection factor is time. When there is little time the subjects either chose a familiar product, or ended up impulsively for a colorfully labelled product. With more time, the subjects spent more time on comparing products. Independent comparisons made in the selection process were aided by the Alko product information cards. They contain information about the price, flavor descriptions, as well as taste type classifications and food symbols. Alko customer service is valued and needed especially if you're looking for wines to pair with food. Sustainability and ecology did not largely influence wine selection. Except for organic wines, the subjects had incomplete knowledge in different wine growing methods and the associated labelling. In general, it can be stated that the less the consumer had knowledge of the label entries, the more frustrated they were, when there were several entries. All the subjects were, however, interested to know more of the entries. It seems that the information given by the Alko information cards and customer service, affect the customers attitude towards the different entries.
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(2022)Objectives. The purpose of this study is to elucidate and describe the Finnish natural dyeing tradition. The research is interested in who natural dyers are, and how they dye. The study is also searching knowledge on what color sources dyers use, as well as how they have learned the skill and whether they share their knowledge with others. In addition, the study examines the significance of natural dyeing for dyers. It is important to study the topic because there is no previous research data on the tradition of natural dyeing in Finland. The theoretical background of the research focuses on natural colorants, natural dyeing, and the tradition of natural dyeing in Finland, and the concept of tradition. Methods. This is craft science research where folkloristics is adapted. The study material of which consists of a survey and thematic interviews. To the survey 35 responded 35 Finnish dyers and of them 26 was interviewed. The participants were Finnish natural dyers. The interview material was analyzed by using content analysis. Results and conclusions. The study found that typically, Finnish natural dyers are women over the age of 51 and they dye once a month or more often. The most widely used dyeing technique is boiling dyeing. The most commonly used mordants are alum and tartar. The most popular dyed materials are wool, cotton, silk and linen. Interviewees mentioned 37 different favorite color sources. Natural dyes are made for personal use, as a gift and for sale. Most of the respondents use dyed material for their own crafts, but they are also used for textile art and as material samples for teaching. The most common way for Finnish natural dyers to obtain color sources is to collect them from the nature. Information about natural dyeing is sought in books, journal articles and the Internet, but learning by experiment is also a common way to gain knowledge about nature dyeing. Communality and knowledge sharing are essential parts of the natural dyeing tradition. Also, Internet and smartphones include important sharing tools. Based on this research material it can be concluded that the transfer and sharing of dyeing information is an essential part of the natural dyeing tradition in Finland.
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(2023)Aim. Previous research shows that social media use has increased among young people. There are many benefits to social media but also serious risks such as cyberbullying, which can have crucial consequences. The benefits of social media include contacting friends and family, gaining information and entertainment. It is important that children create good relationships with their classmates and that the students have a great class spirit, as it increases well-being at school and prevents bullying. Research shows that around 40 percent of students have witnessed bullying online and ten percent have been exposed. The teacher has an important role in creating a good class spirit, which has been proven to reduce bullying and that the teacher can be a safe support for victims. It is also important that the teacher teaches the student net etiquette. Since social media has increased in use over the past ten years there is a need for new research. The aim of the master´s thesis is to analyse how students in year 6 communicate with each other on social media and how social media affects students’ friendships and class spirit. Methods. The data for this qualitative research was collected through interviews with 21 students. The students were in year six in a Swedish-language school in southern Finland. The interviews were semi-structured and were done on site in school. The audio from the interviews was taped and transcribed. The data was analyzed using thematic analysis and the Atlas.ti program was used in the coding stage. Results and conclusions. The results show that all the students use social media in some form, but not all have permission from their parents to use more than one platform. Although no student confirmed that they are being excluded, some expressed that they sometimes feel outside of the community. The students said that no bullying had occurred in the past year. My conclusion is that the school has succeeded in building a strong class spirit and strong friendships. Even though cyberbullying cannot be completely monitored, the school has succeeded in preventing it. Based on the results, the school’s preventive work against bullying and how they create a good classroom spirit could be modeled in other schools, as it seems to work.
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(2021)The challenge of teaching mathematics is to make the student’s mathematical thinking heard and visible. To find out how students mathematical thinking can be supported I familiarized concept of mathematical languaging. Mathematical languaging allows student to express their thinking through the language, orally and in writing. Theoretical background of this study is Joutsenlahti’s and Rättyä’s model of four languages of mathematics, which allows students to express their mathematical thinking. The purpose of this study is to find out which mathematics languages teachers emphasize in their teaching and how teachers guide students to languaging in mathematics lessons. In addition, I also explore which mathematic languages the textbooks tend to use, and how the textbooks support the teacher’s role in guiding students languaging mathematics. The material of my study was based on video material: Oppimaan oppimisen avaimet, which was filmed in fall 2012. It included eight sixth grade math lessons. The videos featured a total of seven teachers, one of whom taught a lesson to two different classes. Mathematics textbooks, which were used in the lessons, from four different book series were also used as research material. The data were analyzed using quantification and sosiosemiotics analysis. The videos showed that the lessons were quite teacher-regulated. Teachers asked questions that students answered briefly and accurately. Teachers guided students to use mainly natural language and symbolic language, and to switch between these languages. The textbooks guided to interpret the text in natural language as well as in symbolic language and to produce only symbolic language. Teachers and textbooks also guided to use pictorial language mainly in connection with the contents of geometry. The content of the subject of mathematics influences the language used by the student to express mathematical thinking. Teachers guided oral languaging in the classroom, while textbooks supported written languaging.
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(2014)Objectives: Anxiety symptoms are among the most common psychiatric problems in late adulthood, and they have a wide negative impact on an individual's physical and psychological health. Stressful life experiences may increase anxiety symptoms throughout life, even in late adulthood. The purpose of this master's thesis was to study the association between stressful life experiences, such as self-reported trauma, low socioeconomic status in childhood and adulthood and early separation from parents, and self-reported anxiety symptoms in late adulthood. Moreover, the aim was to examine if cumulative stressful life experiences are associated with a greater amount of anxiety symptoms in later life. Methods: This study comprised 1872 participants of the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study born in Helsinki in 1934-1944. The participants completed the BAI anxiety questionnaire in 2007-2009. In addition to this, 1266 of the participants completed the TEC questionnaire in 2001-2004, inquiring about traumatic events throughout life. Information about the participants' socioeconomic status in childhood and adulthood and childhood separation from parents due to war was based on data from national registers. The association between the different stressful life experiences and anxiety symptoms in late adulthood was examined using linear regression analysis. Moreover, the number of traumatic experiences, the age in which trauma and separation were experienced, and cumulative stressful life experiences as risk factors for anxiety symptoms were examined using one-way ANOVA and t-tests. Participants' age, sex, parity and mother's age were used as covariates. Results and conclusions: As expected, higher amount of self-reported traumatic experiences were associated with higher levels of anxiety symptoms in late adulthood. This association was also found for physical and emotional trauma separately. Moreover, lower socioeconomic status in childhood and adulthood were associated with a higher amount of anxiety symptoms. However, no significant association between childhood separation and later anxiety symptoms was found. Stressful life experiences both in childhood and in adulthood were associated with later anxiety symptoms. Cumulativeness of different stressful life experiences was associated with self-reported anxiety symptoms: the higher amount of stressful life experiences an individual had experienced during life course, the higher was the amount of anxiety symptoms. In conclusion, our results suggest that stressful life experiences throughout life course may increase anxiety symptoms in late adulthood.
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(2015)Objectives: Optimism is usually defined as a stable outcome expectancy. Optimism is known to be positively connected to well-being and health but there are few studies to examine the development of optimism. Traumatic experiences are known to have various negative effects on well-being and mental health. There are also studies that show an association between traumas and personality development and change. Because optimism and pessimism are thought to be concepts similar to personality traits, it is justifiable to study if traumas are also related to optimism and/or pessimism. There are no studies to investigate this earlier. The aim of this study is to examine whether lifetime trauma experiences are associated with optimism-pessimism in early adulthood and whether different traumas or the age of trauma experience have differential effects. Methods: This study is part of the Arvo Ylppö Longitudinal Study (AYLS). All newborns born between 1985 and 1986 in the county of Uusimaa, Finland, who needed hospital care during ten days after birth were invited to participate. Also controls not admitted to the hospital wards were recruited. The current 25-year-old follow-up study consisted of 902 participants who completed a self-report questionnaire for optimism (LOT-R) and a retrospective self-report for traumatic experiences (TEC). The associations between lifetime traumas and optimism-pessimism in early adulthood were analyzed statistically using linear regression and analysis of variance and t tests when examining different groups for the amount of traumas and for different age groups. Results and conclusions: Reporting of any traumatic experience was associated to lower optimism and higher pessimism. The more traumatic experiences one had the lower was optimism and the higher was pessimism. By contrast, the age of traumatic experiences was not statistically significantly associated with the trait of optimism-pessimism. These results remained after controlling demographic variables. However, after controlling neuroticism, only the connection between emotional traumas and optimism-pessimism remained statistically significant. Because optimism and pessimism are known to have an impact on well-being and coping in future adversities, the association between traumas and optimism-pessimism can be considered noteworthy. The results of this study give ground for discussion about whether optimism interventions could be targeted to people who have experienced traumatic events to reduce the negative effects of trauma.
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(2021)The purpose of this thesis is to desribe what potrays to be a ’’problem’’ in the political documents of European union which regulate the lifelong learning. The study also focused on the matter how the lifelong learning is used as a technology of government and produces idea of ”normal” through political discourses. What kind of ideal or normality it constructs and how the lifelong learning subjectifies the individual? In the end of the thesis the presumptions and silences which has been left unproblematized or unquestioned in the political documents of the lifelong learning are raised. The research material was collected from EUR-lex, the official database of the juridical documents of European Union. The material consists of six notable documents related to lifelong learning of European Union from the years of 2005-2020. The material was analyzed using Carol Bacchi’s method “What’s problem represented to be (WPR)?”. The concepts of Foucault’s governmentality and discourse theoretical ideas based on post-structuralism has been utilized in this research in the context of lifelong learning. The results of this research showed that the starting point of lifelong learning is based on the discourses of economy, competitiveness and growth. Lifelong learning was seen foremost as the solution to the competitiveness and growth as well as to the constant change of the society and to the questions of social involvement. Ideal lifelong learner was constructed to be more entrepreneurial using competence talk. In addition, the lifelong learning was portrayed to be the responsibility and obligation of the individual more than before.
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(2020)Goals. In Finland the popular confirmation school provides young people an opportunity to reflect on their values. One of the goals of confirmation work is to equip the young to ethical reflection on themes like sustainability. As a part of sustainability education food-related themes provide an easily approachable way to reflect on the impact of one´s choices on oneself and others. Eating is a complex phenomenon related to many conflicts both at the individual and societal level. The goal of this study is to describe and analyze meals at a confirmation camp from the perspectives of different actors. The purpose is to examine the role of food at a confirmation camp and to look at the practices that are regarded as indicating sustainability at meals. This study also analyzes how sustainability can be improved at confirmation camps. Methods. This study was conducted as an ethnographic case study. The data was collected at a Vantaa parish confirmation camp and consisted of focused interviews of confirmands, young confirmed volunteers, parish workers and food service staff as well as a field diary kept by the researcher. The interviews were carried out individually or in groups with 20 people participating. After being transcribed the data was analyzed using data-driven content analysis. Results and conclusions. Food had a wide range of meanings at the confirmation camp of which the most important seemed to be receiving nutrition and experiencing eating as a so-cial event. The meal times were also moments to share information, they gave a structure to the days and food was seen to affect the atmosphere at camp. Between the shared meals, the young people were constantly snacking sweets and other snacks they had brought to camp. Different actors had different perceptions of the visibility of sustainability in confirma-tion camp meals, but in general it was thought not be visible enough. Among other things increasing the share of vegetarian food and improving recycling opportunities were suggested to promote sustainability. The lack of resources and co-operation and the eating habits of young people were seen as challenges for carrying out the developmental suggestions concerning sustainability.
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(2014)Objectives: Hostility and anger in adulthood have been associated with adverse consequences such as coronary heart disease, early mortality, worse mental health and social problems. It is therefore important to study the antecedents of hostility and anger. Previous studies have shown that low socioeconomic status in childhood and in adulthood and traumatic experiences are associated with higher hostility and anger in early and middle adulthood. However, very few studies exploring the association of traumatic experiences and hostility or anger have used large population-based cohorts, and no studies have explored the association in older adults. The aim of this study was to test whether emotional and physical traumas, childhood separation from parents and low socioeconomic status in childhood and adulthood are associated with hostility and anger in late adulthood. Second aim was to test whether the accumulation of these stressful experiences and the age at the time of the first traumatic experience are associated with hostility and anger in late adulthood. Methods: Participants were 1702 people who were born in Helsinki between 1934–1944 (women 55.9 %, average age 63 years) and were part of the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study. The participants filled out a psychological survey between 2001–2004. Emotional and physical traumas were measured with Traumatic Experiences Checklist, hostility with Cook-Medley Ho-scale and trait anger with Spielberger's Trait Anger Scale. The information about childhood and adulthood socioeconomic status and childhood separation from parents due to war time evacuation were retrieved from registers. Linear regression was used as the analysis method. Results: An experience of an emotional or physical trauma and their frequency were associated with higher levels of hostility and anger in late adulthood. Emotional and physical traumas were also separately related to higher levels of hostility and anger. Age at the first emotional or a physical trauma had an effect on hostility: having experienced the first trauma in childhood was associated with higher hostility level, whereas having experienced the first trauma in adulthood was not. Experiences of an emotional or physical trauma were associated with higher anger level regardless of age at the first traumatic experience. Low socioeconomic status in adulthood was associated with higher hostility but not anger. Low socioeconomic status in childhood or childhood separation from parents were not associated with hostility or anger. However, the cumulative number of these stressful experiences was associated with higher levels of hostility and anger. Conclusions: Emotional and physical traumas and the accumulation of stressful experiences during the life course may predispose to higher hostility and anger in late adulthood.
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(2015)Negative child-rearing environment has been associated with substance use in previous studies. Although, temperament has been shown to moderate the effects of parenting, only few studies have taken this into account when examining the relationship between family environment and substance use. Participants (n=1878; 56,8 % women) were selected from the longitudinal Young Finns study that began in 1980. The association between temperament trait emotionality and three child rearing attitudes dimensions (i.e., tolerance, significance and discipline) with alcohol consumption and smoking were examined using multinomial and logistic regression analysis. Higher emotionality and negative child rearing attitudes were associated with increased risk of smoking. Interaction between emotionality and tolerance was found: negative tolerance was associated with increased risk of drinking among boys who were high in emotionality. The results indicate that parenting has far-reaching consequences for substance use. The effect is partly moderated by emotionality, which helps to understand why people in the same kind of growth environment drift into different pathways.
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(2015)Aims. Understanding of emotional processing is important for the research of mental states. A better understanding of the visual system would facilitate understanding the functioning of the entire brain. Emotions are processed in a complex neural network. The aim of the present Master's thesis is to explore the effective connectivity of the occipital face areas (OFAs) and fusiform face areas (FFAs) during the processing of visual stimuli eliciting negative emotion. Methods. The subjects (n = 16) were young adult male students. Negative and neutral emotion were elicited using visual stimuli from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were acquired using an MRI scanner. The fMRI data were preprocessed and analyzed using SPM8 software. In order to proceed to the psycho-physiological interaction (PPI) analyses, imaging sessions were concatenated and entered into the analyses as one single session. Subject-level model comprised the following regressors: negative emotion, neutral emotion, baseline and a binary regressor for each functional session to model session effects. An effects of interest F-contrast and a negative emotion t-contrast were defined. Spherical volumes of interest (VOIs) were computed for each subject for the left and the right occipital face area (OFA) and for the left and the right fusiform face area (FFA). The PPI variables were computed for each statistically significant VOI. A standard PPI model was defined. Each of the 4 VOIs was used as source region for all other VOIs. A group-level whole brain analysis was done for each PPI source VOI. Group-level VOI analyses were conducted for all PPI source VOIs. Results and conclusions. In the whole brain analyses statistically significant group-level PPIs were found in the following brain regions: left cuneus, right middle occipital gyrus, right and left inferior occipital gyrus, left lingual gyrus, and the left culmen. VOI analyses demonstrated the strong connectivity in the network consisting of the right OFA and left and right FFAs. Negative emotional content enhances effective connectivity in the bilateral OFA-FFA network.
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(2015)Goals: The emphatizing-systemizing theory (E-S theory) states that emphatizing and systemizing helps us understand gender differences in normal population and the causes of autism spectrum disorders. Emphatizing is the capacity to recognize and predict other people's emotions and thoughts and to respond appropriately. Systemizing is the drive to analyze nonagentive systems and create if-then rules in order to predict their behavior. In general, women have a stronger drive to emphatize and men have a stronger drive to systemize. Extreme male brain theory (EMB Theory) is an extension to the E-S theory. According to the EMB Theory, autism is a result of the extreme of the normal male cognitive profile. In recent years, it has been noticed that autistic traits can also be found in normal population. One might expect that the relationship between emphatizing, systemizing and autistic traits would also be found in healthy individuals. However, not much research has been done on this subject and the results have been somewhat mixed. There have also been some weaknesses in the methods used in previous research. In this paper, I examine the relationship between emphatizing, systemizing and autistic traits in normal population using a wide variety of measurements. The hypothesis is that low emphatizing and high systemizing are related to the amount of autistic traits. Method: 3084 participants took part in an online study. The study consisted of questionnaires and computerized tests. Results and Discussion: Low emphatizing and high systemizing were related to the amount of autistic traits. The negative relationship between emphatizing and autistic traits was bigger than the relationship between systemizing and autistic traits. Tests that measured emphatizing and systemizing abilities correlated only weakly to the amount of autistic traits. Low emphatizing was related to autism's social difficulties. High systemizing was related to the interest toward numbers and patterns associated with autism. It seems that emphatizing and systemizing are linked to different parts of the autistic phenotype.
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(2018)Migration is becoming broader and more complex by the day. After the refugee crisis in 2015, the state policies revolving integration were revised in order to better meet the needs of the situation at hand. The revision lead to a strong focus on labour market integration, and consequently a narrower understanding of integration. Previous research shows that employment is the gateway to society, but at the same time it is widely acknowledged that sensing belonging is crucial for well-being, hence also a building block for integration. However, sensing belonging is constantly challenged due to migration. People move to Finland due to very different reasons, and also have different needs, therefore integration needs to be inspected from a broad perspective, taking into account various factors. Questions revolving what the objectives are with integration, and what it means for the individual as well as for the society are predominant when doing research on integration. The aim of this thesis is to place the immigrant in the centre of the discussion, to gain a deeper understanding of what is perceived as meaningful for integration and furthermore to investigate what value employment has within integration for the persons involved. The data was gathered during the spring of 2018, thematic in depth interviews were made with five informants, all of whom are first generation immigrants and have experience of working life in Finland. The results demonstrated that integration is a manifold process, that it was subjective and had a temporal connotation. A unanimous result showed that interactions with society, sensing belonging and employment are central for what is perceived as meaningful for integration. In regards to what the value of employment is within integration, a more shattered result was seen, central experiences were that employment gives financial security, purpose and daily routines. Furthermore, the result showed that perceptions of the value of employment were often loaded with faulty expectations that were not met in real life. The main result showed that employment was not a precondition for integration, neither was employment equal to integration, furthermore a differentiation between being employed and unemployed was far too easy to make, since today a lot of the benefits that a paid job gives can be found in other settings, for example through volunteer work. Despite this, financial security which only derives from a paid job was a precondition for all informants to be able to stay in Finland, and therefore employment was of great value for integration.
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(2023)The purpose of this study is to describe, analyse and interpret what kind of role outdoor education has in elementary school education, as well as what kinds of opinions class teachers have about outdoor education. The aim of the study is to make outdoor education more visible and to highlight experiences from the perspective of class teachers. Considering previous research data, it has been established that teaching especially in the natural environment improves both well-being and enhances learning, which makes it important to study how Finnish class teachers themselves experience outdoor teaching. This study is a qualitative study in which data were collected through themed interviews. Individual interviews involved five class teachers from grades 1 to 4, who regularly used outdoor education at least twice a month. The data was analysed using data-driven content analysis. Theoretical research consists of outdoor teaching, teaching in urban learning environments and teaching in natural environments. I also researched effects of the natural environment on well-being and learning. The results show that the most popular out-of-school learning environments were forest, library, and learning environments for physical education. The most popular subjects were environmental studies, Finnish language and literature, physical education, and mathematics. Outdoor education consisted of action-based learning, like playing, games and inquiry-based learning. Teachers used outdoor education to improve well-being and teaching, to develop a relationship with nature and to increase action-based learning. Teachers’ own preferences were also one of the reasons to teach outside the school building. The need for pupils’ support did not increase in outdoor education. Instead, pupils benefited from studying particularly in nature. In outdoor education, the role of the teacher was most often as an instructor or a fellow learner. Benefits of outdoor education included improvements in well-being, in social relations, and in learning. There were more room for diversity in teaching and in pupils when learning outdoors. Pupils also had more responsibility outside of school building. Outdoor education also created a genuine interest to learn more. The challenges in outdoor education included advance preparation, challenges brought by students, unpredictability of teaching, lack of resources, difficulty in prioritizing, and changes brought by weather. Teachers felt that pupils liked outdoor teaching and the parents mostly supported teaching outdoors. Emotional support was usually provided from the working community, although other teachers did not always share same values. Teachers needed support for outdoor education, for example extra adults, equipment, planning time, money, a more functional local environment, and community support and assistance. By identifying the challenges in outdoor education, we can better support teachers’ work in out-of-school learning environments.
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(2016)The penetration of digital media has had a big impact on life in modern society. The new national core curriculums for the Finnish basic education and general upper secondary education (from year 2014 and 2015) are therefore emphasizing the importance of media literacy for practicing one's citizenship. On the basis of John Dewey, social scientist and pedagogue, the aim of this study is to examine a group of Swedish speaking teachers' perception of the media education responsibility of schools. Furthermore, the aim is to review these teachers' experiences of taking part in the media education project Yle Nyhetsskolan. The research questions are: How do the teachers understand the media literacy responsibility of the schools? Besides Yle Nyhetsskolan, how do the teachers conduct media education and what are the challenges? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the project Yle Nyhetsskolan? Eight teachers, from five different basic or general upper secondary schools in the Swedish speaking part of Finland, participated in the study. All teachers had taken part in the project Yle Nyhetsskolan during year 2014. They were interviewed, based on a semi-structured model and open questions. A phenomenological approach was applied and the answers were transcribed and analyzed in three stages. The answers were categorized in order to describe the essence of the teachers' reflections. The teachers had an evident engagement for media literacy and an understanding of the importance of developed media skills in the digital society of today. The teachers found it challenging to define and integrate media literacy education and they urged for more time and shared responsibilities among colleagues. The lack of time, pedagogical tools and technical skills form the main challenges for media literacy education. There is a need for teachers training, especially focusing on pedagogical methods for integrating media literacy in the education. The teachers found the project Yle Nyhetsskolan to be authentic, exciting and rewarding. Taking part in the project was, on the other hand, challenging because projects do not always fit into the non-flexible school day and because news as a genre is difficult, to both teachers and students. Yle Nyhetsskolan should be developed into a project with an even lower threshold concerning both timescale and desired result.
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(2019)The aim of this thesis is to participate in the ongoing conversation concerning home and school cooperation, in which the upbringing responsibilities are being negotiated and the relations of home and school are structured and reorganized. Home-School partnership offers an ideal cooperation model in which the parents have equal opportunities to make their voices heard. On the other hand, the idea of partnership has been criticized because the core elements of equality, trust, voluntary and participation do not consider the unequal power relations between parents and teachers. Previous research has shown that the rhetoric of Home-School partnership usually differs from the way partnership is practiced in school settings. The rhetoric emphasizes agency, activity and dynamics of the parents but when put in practice parents are usually seen as passive crowd, passive receivers of information, participants of events, volunteers and non-participating supporters. I participate in this ongoing conversation with the help of two research questions, which I approached by using the elements of discursive analysis. My research questions are: 1. What are the Home-School partnership ideals the barometer respondent parents are building in their responses, and what kind of tensions these ideals might include? And 2. What kind of parenthood is possible within these ideals? My research data consists of one open ended question of the Parents 2018 Barometer, which I interpreted as a structuralised e-form interview question. As an answer to my research questions I identified four Home-School partnership ideals. These ideals included tensions, which came apparent when parents were building their Home-School partnership with other parents of the school and when the parents were problematizing their participation in relation of trust, the school practises and the voluntary aspect of Home-School partnership. The findings of this thesis also show based on the partnership that there are a variety of possible parenthood identities to parents in these ideals which can be conflicting and challenging to each other.
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(2020)Goals. The purpose of the thesis was to find out the professional development of already em-ployed teachers studying to become special teachers, “more than as teachers”. As a back-ground theory, I look at teaching, the profession and career of a teacher, especially from the perspective of a special education teacher. The aim of this research was to find out why an already qualified teacher wants to go to study special education, what are the goals for study-ing and how those goals were achieved. Since it is possible to train as a special education teacher both as a degree student and by completing separate special education teacher´s studies, the research also looked at the difference between the two study methods. Methods. The research was carried out as a qualitative interview. The informants were kin-dergarten teachers, classroom teachers or vocational teachers who studied special education as master’s degree students, completed separate special education studies, or studied spe-cial education at the Open University. The interviews were supplemented with an email sur-vey. The interviews were transcribed and the material was analyzed by content analysis. Results and conclusions. The development of teachers into special educational teachers was described by two paths, which were “alternative” and “goal”. The “alternative” path was the choice of students majoring in special education as a Master of Education, and they had not specifically pursued the teaching profession but rather drifted into teaching. Those who com-pleted separate special education studies were on the “goal” path and were already oriented to the field of education after their secondary education. The special education studies aimed at eligibility and competence for the position of special education teacher, community spirit and knowledge and understanding of meeting special needs students in school. Studies in special education were found to be useful, although there is room for improvement in their or-ganization and practical implementation. Informants saw master’s studies in special educa-tion and separate special needs teacher studies as an important part of professional growth and development.
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(2023)The aim of this research is to highlight the challenges and opportunities of the two-year pre-primary education trial. To find out how the pedagogy in the trial has been adapted to achieve the goals in the curriculum to further develop early childhood education in Finland. Previous research shows that educators play a central role in children's development and learning. The research also indicates that there are some challenges in early childhood education. It is therefore necessary that this experiment be investigated to see if the idea behind the experiment is really implemented and worked. The research questions that have been highlighted are how the two-year pre-primary education trail is perceived among the pedagogues and how the pedagogy has been adapted to achieve the goals in the curriculum. Eight educators in Swedish Finland working in the pre-primary education where the two-year pre-primary education trial is being carried out participated in the study. In this study, an educator can be a teacher in childhood education, a childcare worker, or a sociologist. This study was done through a qualitative research method through semi-structured interviews with the educators. The results showed that the educators have a positive approach to two-year pre-primary education. The educators see the lack of support from management and staff resources as the biggest challenges with the trial. The educators also highlight many possibilities with the trial. A two-year pre-primary education brings extended opportunities for both children and educators, which creates an equal and qualitative education. The results also reveal that the five-year-olds attending the one-year pre-primary education have very different levels of knowledge, which affects equal education according to the pedagogues. Overall, the educators believe that the trial of two-year pre-school education forms a good whole for the children's development and learning. The results for the second research question indicate that the educators take into account the age differences in the children participating in the trial and that they work in a play-pedagogical way. The informants agree that the trial of the two-year pre-primary education has a positive effect on the children's development and learning.
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(2021)COVID-19 has had a large impact on education since schools around the world had to quickly move to distance learning. Consequently, this has possibly affected the equality of education. The main focus of this study is to find out how equality is constructed in Finnish teachers’ survey replies about their experiences during the state of emergency and to find out how these teachers in basic education have taken pupils from lower social classes into account according to their experiences when they have been distance teaching. This study was executed as a qualitative study. The research approach of this study was phenomenological. The study was conducted as a part of the project DISKO, digitalisation and distance education in Swedish-speaking school. The data collection was conducted through the E-lomake e-form. 17 teachers from basic education participated in the study from both Swedish-speaking and Finnish-speaking schools in Finland. The analysis in this study was conducted as a thematic analysis. The majority of teachers in basic education have experienced that schools have not been equal during the Corona spring of 2020. However, this study shows that there are teachers that have experienced this period as equal. The way distance education has been organised has varied between schools. Support measures have also not been organised according to guidelines. Living circumstances and digital equipment in relation to equality were also highlighted during this period. Teachers in basic education have taken pupils from lower social classes into account by lending computers and calling the pupils. Distance education has also been planned out so that pupils who do not get any support from their homes are able to do the exercises by themselves. However, it emerged that there were teachers and schools that had not taken pupils’ socioeconomic status into account. Results in this study indicate that education has not been equal for all children during the state of emergency in the spring of 2020 according to teachers’ experiences. The future holds, how severe the effects of COVID-19 have been on children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds.
Now showing items 386-405 of 3677