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In this research, I will examine the educational pathways of young individuals with se-vere sensory or mobility impairments in Finland, focusing on their transition from educa-tion to the workforce. Interviews with 45 participants born since the early 1980s indicate four key struggles: 1) the fight for inclusion in mainstream education, 2) the struggle for accessible learning environments, 3) combating discrimination and ableism in educa-tional settings, and 4) integration into the labor market. These struggles highlight em-bedded ableism in the education system and society, perpetuating the belief that disa-bled people are less capable or valuable. Until the early 2000s, the existence of a net-work of special schools emphasised the choice of school enrolment, with parents play-ing a crucial role in choosing the path. Since the dismantling of the special school sys-tem, people with severe sensory and mobility impairments are more likely to be educat-ed in mainstream education, so the struggles have shifted to the later stages of the ed-ucational pathway. This has meant that disabled people themselves have become key players, alongside parents. At the same time, the difference in educational pathways be-tween disabled people with a disability before the start of the school years and disabled people with a disability later in life has diminished.

Goals. The aim of this research was to create railway safety education material for elementary school. The material was needed to fulfill besides railway safety aspects elementary school education principles and learning viewpoint preconditions. In Finland, there has not been any railway safety education material, even though road transport safety has been taught long as a part of school's traffic safety education. Methods. In this research, it was studied what kind of aspects need to be considered when creating traffic safety education material for elementary schools. The research has an active research nature. The material created in the research was piloted, and needed adjustments were made to the final material. After creating the material, the content was analysed by using content analysis method, which allowed assessing the quality of the material to the other direction, i.e. from the outcome to the starting point and objectives. Results and conclusions. A comprehensive education material set including lesson plans was created in the research. In connection to the lesson plans, the material includes also background information for teachers, who are the primary deployers of the material. The analysis of material created indicated that the material responses to the objectives set at main parts. Based on the analysis, the most essential development needs are to increase possibilities for constructivist learning, local tailoring and learning evaluation.

The purpose of this user-centered development research was to design sustainable and long-lasting trousers for the 7-year-old child. There was such a problem with the use of the child's trousers that the knees of trousers broke really fast, and even the more expensive trousers assumed to be higher quality had not endured in the child´s use. In addition to functionality and durability, the long-lived product should be pleasing to the user, so the user´s participa-tion in the design process was important. The research also considered suitability of partici-patory design methods to the design process of an individual garment. The framework for determining the user's needs for trousers was the FEA model of Lamb and Kallal (1992), in which the user's needs are divided into functional, aesthetic and expressive needs. The child and his parents participated in determining the user profile, the context of the use-situation and the needs of the user. Methods of participatory design were used to col-lect the data. The data was analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The need for recrea-tional trousers used in normal everyday life raised from the data. The development of the trousers continued iteratively with the manufacture, use, and usability evaluation of trousers´ prototype and two further developed trouser versions. The user evaluated trousers with the child-custom survey, where contentment with the trousers was measured using a colored smiley scale. The child and parents were interviewed about the usability of trousers at each stage of the research. Parents also evaluated the last trouser version using a checklist. Based on evaluations of the trouser versions, trousers evolved at each design iteration, and in the opinion of the child and parents, the latest trouser version corresponded to all needs of the user. In the research used a participatory design toolkit by Brandt, Binder, and Sanders (2013), divided into themes of telling, making and enacting. These themes provided a good basis for the methods of data collection, and in particular helped to show up the child's wish-es for trousers. Participatory approach allowed research to be done on a practical level and was understandable to the child.

In my thesis, I examined the winning works of the Nuori Aleksis project from two perspectives: I interpreted how young adult novels embody the construction of adolescent identity and its developmental concerns and I observed how do these books, popular among young people, serve as a field of introspection for young readers in the movement for identity formation. The purpose of my thesis was also to bring out interpretive surfaces of identity formation in YA literature, which teachers can use when they choose suitable reading for their students. I interpreted the novels Auringon pimeä puoli, Rikki Revityt and Mistä valo pääsee sisään in light of Erikson's ego identity theory and its developmental concers, and outlined my interpretation based on the meanings of concepts such as parasocial relationship, transportation into the narrative worlds, narrative strategies and the expression of memory and time. The outline of my thesis was guided by the idea of the school's mission to support the construction of identity. I chose the winning works of the Nuori Aleksis project because I wanted to examine the description of identity in novels that have affected young readers themselves. I implemented my theses according to content analysis at the intersection of inductive and deductive methods. I examined the material in the light of identity research such as ego identity and literary study, interpreting descriptions of identity formation from them, as well as the meanings between reader and work, and the teacher's perspective. In the works as bildungsromans, the description of identity formation was manifested in situations where the character experienced a transition to another dimension, encountered a 'doppelganger' or a moral dilemma. The description of identity was often shaped in the meanings of the characters' agency. The possibilities of shaping the reader's identity are affected by the stretched and dynamic temporal description which also enables the depth of the characters and thus the birth of a parasocial relationship. The works offer an avenue for multi-perspective identity related moral etchical and societal reflection in teaching discussion.

The purpose of this study was to describe and get a deep understanding of pedagogical change process. The phases of pedagogical change process and the nature and the role of teacher's pedagogical thinking in it were mapped. The change process as a whole was also modeled. The previous research of teaching change process has had been scarce on an individual teacher level, but on a school level it has been investigated abundantly. The theoretical background of this study consists of theories of teacher's pedagogical thinking and action and how their thinking and action change and develop. Teacher change has been researched from the point of view of both school change and professional development. The basic principle in the theoretical frame is that change in teacher's thinking leads to change in action. Three men teachers and a woman teacher who have put change into practice took part in this study. The data consisted of two parts: teachers' essays of their change process and interviews that were based on the essays. The data was analysed by content analysis. The categorizations of both parts of the data were made separately but they were interpreted together. In this way a deep understanding of pedagogical change process could be reached. The results of this study were descriptions of the phases of pedagogical change process and the nature and the role of teacher's pedagogical thinking in it. In addition a model of pedagogical change process was presented. Pedagogical change process started up because of disorder in teacher's pedagogical thinking and action. The disorder leads to an absolute necessity to change the activities. Change activities stabilize throughout intuitive experiments and reflection-on-action. The change in a teacher's thinking is a prerequisite for the start of the process but also, a teacher's thinking develops as a result of the process. Thus, the whole process results in a real, deep level change in instruction and in the teacher's thinking. That is why pedagogical change processes are visible, significant and they have wide and extensive effects. The study gives out information of controlling the change processes. Consequently, the results of this study encourage teachers to confront change and put their new ideas into practice.

Aims. The aim of this study is to find out how Finnish schools’ teachers utilize crafts in their teaching. Previous research handling the aforementioned aim does not exist. Handcrafts as a tool of integration is approached by the six dimensions of teaching. Those dimensions are: teaching goals, teaching contents, teaching methods, teaching contexts, student and teacher. These dimensions are generally approved and widely used in educational research (Kansanen, 2014, 24). Methods. The thesis at hand represents qualitative survey research. The data was collected via an online questionnaire that was distributed to Finnish Schools’ teachers via email. The final amount of respondents was 33. The gathered written data reflects the personal impressions and experiences of Finnish Schools’ teachers. The data was analyzed using theory-guided content analysis. Results and conclusions. The writings of the teachers show that using crafts in teaching is one of the ways of integrating teaching in Finnish Schools. Teachers implement crafts in their teaching in multiple different ways. All in all, teaching Finnish language is seen as the primary responsibility of Finnish Schools. Majority of the respondents however considered crafts as an integrative method important in supporting the language learning of the students. A conclusion can be made that the role of the Finnish schools’ teachers in integrating teaching is significant. Crafts is being taught within the limits of the teachers’ capabilities and in their teaching the benefits of the students are taken into consideration.

Objectives. The aim of this study was to investigate the connection between parental alcohol use and school bullying among eighth and ninth graders in School health survey from 2019. The research problem was to find out if parental alcohol use could be linked to being a bully at school when other risk factors of being a bully have been observed as well. Previous studies have found that parental alcohol use and being a bully at school may be linked though there were not numerous amount of previous studies. Parental alcohol use affects the lives of many children and adolescents in Finland which makes this as an important topic to explore. This research raises the experiences of adolescents whose parents are consuming alcohol and develops ways to recognize children and adolescents who have a higher risk to become a bully as well as expand the understanding of bullying and it`s causes. Methods. The data used in this study consists of a Finnish school wellbeing survey that was conducted in 2019. The survey is a nation-wide study with target group being one cohort of eighth and ninth grade primary school pupils. The survey received a total of 87 215 responses of which 52 821 fulfilled the criteria of the employed analysis methods. The data was analysed through a linear regression using a forced entry method. There were 15 additional variables used in addition to parental alcohol use. Those variables were formed based on previous studies. Linear regression was used to examine the connection between parental alcohol use and being a bully when other risk factors were observed as well. Results and conclusions. In contrast to previous research, parental alcohol use and other risk factors of this study did predict being a bully at school. But even though the linear regression model itself was statistically significant, it was capable to explain only 16.5 percent of the total variation in being a bully variable. There could be a potential link between parental alcohol use and being a bully at school but the link seemed to be weak according to this study.

The purpose of this study is to compare special education teacher training programs of University of Helsinki and University of Jyväskylä trough the lenses of inclusion. Study has been made by comparing curriculums of special education using a theory of core-values of inclusion. According to Watkins and Donnelly (2014) there are four core-values of inclusion: valuing learner diversity, supporting all, working with others and professional personal growth. Study has been made by using qualitative content analysis. This study is a part of Oppijan oikeus – Opettajan taito -project, which aims to create com-mon teaching materials and equalize special education teacher training in universities and universities of applied sciences in Finland. This study is a part of the first step of the project: to find out what is the current situation of special education teacher training in Finland and what are the most important issues curriculums consist. Results show that all four core-values of inclusion are highly included in both curriculums of the universities, alltough the word inclusion does exist only once in curriculum of Jyväskylä. Common contents in both curriculums are special education in science and in practice, varie-ty of special needs in education, to plan, execute and evaluate the support in learning, work-ing with others and personal professional growth. The differences in curriculums are primarily in perspectives that contents are presented. Positive pedagogy, criminology, social exclusion, Finnish in second language -teaching and psychiatry exist only in curriculum of Helsinki. Mul-ti-professional teamwork, disablement and challenges in behavior are more visible in curricu-lum of Jyväskylä. Both of curriculums include rhetoric about troubles and hardships.

The purpose of this study is to explore learning experiences of sixth grade students in the Me & MyCity learning environment. The research task is approached through the criteria of meaningful learning, which have been used as a theoretical framework in a Finnish learning environment study, among others. Previous research has shown that criteria of meaningful learning can be found in different kinds of learning environments. The study focuses on what working life skills the students learn in the Me & MyCity working life and society simulation. Very little research has been conducted on Me & MyCity, so the study is much needed. Research on learning environments shows that understanding and studying the usefulness of different learning environments is necessary, since there are few studies available on the topic. The goal of this study is to generate new information about the Me & MyCity learning environment, and also about which working life skills it can help students learn. The results of this study can also be used, for example, in the development of Me & MyCity. The study was carried out as a case study. The data consists of thematic interviews of a class of students and a teacher from a school in Vantaa who visited Me & MyCity in the spring of 2016, and papers the students wrote (two per each student). Altogether there were thematic interviews of 19 students, 38 papers, and one thematic interview of a teacher. The data was analyzed deductively, using the criteria of meaningful learning and a framework of working life skills that was compiled for this study. The results show that all criteria of meaningful learning can be found in Me & MyCity. However, based on the research data, the criterion of constructive learning was fulfilled only to a small extent, so the learning environment of Me & MyCity could be developed to support students' reflection of their own learning more, for example. There is variation in how working life skills are learnt in Me & MyCity. According to the results, some working life skills were not learnt at all. These results can be applied, among other things, in the pedagogical material of Me & MyCity, and its development. The results can also be put to use in ordinary school teaching to consider how school work can support students in learning working life skills and how, for example, an authentic learning environment that supports learning can be built in a school environment. The results can also be applied to building a good learning environment that supports the learning of other skills and information as well.

The concern of healthiness reflects the Western idea of food and today's eating habits. Especially women have shown to be the pioneers of a healthy diet. The ideals of eating properly are also gendered. Women are assumed to eat less than men. In Finland, the nutritional recommendations for how to eat properly have excisted for many decades. However, recommendations for a healthy diet are not always followed. Food is not only a daily necessity but it is also a source of pleasure. People enjoy food and they want to bring joy to themselves and to their close ones with it. On weekends there is often more time to cook and enjoy food. The aim of this study is to find out which factors affect women's pleasure eating and how women take and describe this kind of eating. Furthermore, this study aims to find out what kinds of delicacies women enjoy during their Friday nights. The data for this study is from the Finnish Literature Society's Folklore archives Ruokapäiväkirjakeruu Mitä söin tänään? 12 April 2013. The method of this study is qualitative, and the method of analysis is data-driven content analysis. The basis for this study is oral history, and the texts written by women represent narrative style. 42 women from the data form the research group for this study. (n=42) The study showed that the women's perceptions of pleasure eating were contradictory. Pleasure eating was seen as the counterbalance of normal food and it was generally considered unhealthy. Pleasure eating was perceived more positively when the person's diet in general was healthy. On Fridays pleasure eating was more allowed than on other weekdays. Out of all the delicacies the women were eating, chocolate and cheeses were the most popular. Overall the women tried to follow a healthy diet despite the pleasure eating.