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Tiivistelmä - Referat - Abstract The concept of multiculturalism is often used in the world of education. In connection with this concept, we also often talk about immigrants. However, every child, group of children, or work community, for example, can be thought of as multicultural. For this reason, when using the term multiculturalism, one should be particularly sensitive and define what kind of phenomenon the concept describes. Each pre-school group has children from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and children are influenced by a wide range of cultures outside the pre-school. Pre-primary education should therefore be culturally and linguistically aware, it should take into account the linguistic and cultural background of each child and family, so that each child receives support in building and developing their cultural identity. Diversity should therefore be a prerequisite for learning, allowing each child to build and grow his or her own cultural identity on an equal footing, and through which children can also perceive and experience different cultures and languages in a safe environment. The purpose of this master's thesis was to find out what kind of things children bring up from their own cultural background and what kind of things they notice in their peers. The dissertation focuses especially on the interaction between children in the daily life of pre-school education in a group where 16 children spoke a language other than Finnish as their native language. The dissertation was carried out as an ethnographic observational study. Participatory observation as well as covert observation have been used as observation means, various interaction situations between children have also been videotaped. The material has been analyzed in the way of a discussion analysis, and the observations have been divided into four different categories according to the principles of thematic design. The material consists of observations collected during the spring of 2021 in a pre-school group in Helsinki. With the written permission of the guardians, 19 pre-school children participated in the study. Based on the observational data, it can be concluded that the children of the preschool group were interested in each other’s cultural backgrounds and were proud of their own backgrounds, especially their knowledge of different languages. The children asked each other about their mother tongue, were interested in learning them and, for example, wanted to teach each other their own mother tongue. Children discussed ways of different countries as well as different religions, especially in eating situations, comparing, for example, what kind of food was offered in pre-school education and what was eaten at home or wondering why some children ate pork and some did not. Religions also appear in the observational material in discussions about gods of different religions or searching for children from the same religion in a group. The importance of a sense of belonging is emphasized in the material strongly. The children care about belonging to their own group, but also take care of the other children in the group. This can be seen, for example, in noticing a lack of common language skills, for example during play time. From the observational data, it can be concluded that the feeling of belonging to a group is important for children and children may distort their language skills or say that they belong to a religious group to which they did not really belong in order to feel part of the group.

The purpose of this study is to examine what kind of trauma symptoms are shown to a teach-er when pupils have been previously living in a war zone or a conflict area. In addition, the purpose of this study is to examine what kind of working methods elementary school teachers have with traumatized pupils. The research questions are: How can war trauma affect a pri-mary school child? What good practices can be found for those working in primary school to work with a child who has experienced a war trauma? The study examines experiences of the appearance of war trauma in the school environment and good practices for working with children. Previous studies show that children living in conflict areas have a wide range of trauma experiences. Previous research also shows that a child’s mental well-being is im-portant to his or her learning. The theoretical framework of this study is described in the beginning of the study. The theoret-ical framework consists the definition of trauma, childhood and trauma, child and resilience and living in a war zone or a conflict area as a child. It also describes the importance of the pupil's mental well-being in learning and the teacher's support measures in primary school. In the interviews, the interviewees presented their experiences of working with traumatized chil-dren and their thoughts on good ways to work with children. Data analysis was the method of analysis in this study. Based on the results, teachers and others working with children had a variety of experiences working with children who came from conflict areas to Finland. They also had good practises to support these children. The study emphasizes the role of safe adults and safe environ-ments. The study also emphasizes individual working methods with each pupil.

The aim of this study was to explore positive discrimination projects, which promote equality during early childhood education and elementary education. The projects were funded by government assistance by Finnish National Agency for Education. The purpose of government assistance was to promote social and regional equality and to prevent social exclusion. The data was gathered by interviewing project participants who were working in three different projects. Based on the data, I did explore dimensions of equality and opportunities that the projects gave to promote setted goals of positive discrimination. For the sake of analyzing the gathered data a discursive reading method was used, which aimed to point out different, parallel and competing meanings of equality. Discursive analysis sees that language has constructive and profitable nature. Using the method makes it possible to look at the project objectives and outcomes through these meanings. According to the results of this study equality and inequality had different meanings in the context of these projects. Some of these meanings emphasized more individual characteristics and skills and some were taking into consideration more structural factors. Employees described the projects as temporary solutions with uncertainty of continuation and maintenance of developed solutions after finalizing them.

Family's and school's educational responsibilities are being discussed in the public media. Studies show that there is no consensus on what educational role the parents and school teachers should have. Especially parents are being judged by their lack of participation in child-rearing. In this sociological study education is considered as a social and political phenomenon in the framework of social constructionism. The purpose of this study was to describe, analyze and interpret Teacher Magazine's discourses of family's and school's educational responsibilities. The discursive processes in which the power relationships between parents and schools are constructed were examined. In addition, attention was paid to the education politics that can be traced behind these discourses. The research material consisted of 30 articles between the years 2013–2015 from Teacher Magazine which is a professional journal for teachers in Finland. The research material was gathered from the archive service of the internet site of the Teacher Magazine. The analysis was carried out using qualitative methods such as critical discourse analysis and power analysis. The results of this study shows the variation of discourses in Teacher Magazine's articles concerning family's and school's educational responsibilities. Discourses that present teaching as the main responsibility of schools, produce familist interpretations of the question of responsibility, object the idea of parents been patronized by the society and emphasize the shared responsibility of all adults and the holistic care of children were found from the research material. These discourses produce conflicting image of the educational role of the parents and the teachers. Based on the power analysis, three hegemonic discourses were identified. Two of these hegemonic discourses are the ones that present teaching as the main responsibility of schools and produce familist interpretations of the question of responsibility. The bourgeois politics of education were traced behind these two discourses that produce the hierarchical relationship between family and school. The politics of a welfare society was traced behind the third hegemonic discourse that emphasizes the shared responsibility of all adults and by doing that produces more equal power relationship between family and school.

Aims. Research is linked with National basis on early childhood education curriculum (2003) published by National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (Stakes). In the basis term partnership is used to describe cooperation between parents and day-care staff. Research ́s aim was to find out how parents and kindergarten teachers define this new concept and their role in the partnership. Aim was also to survey how they feel partnership is realized in care and development agreement discussions between staff and parents of under 6-year old children. Furthermore it was researched what elements on the basis of their experiences do affect partnership and what things they feel should be developed to get partnership realized better. Research was expected to raise up useful information to be used in planning, developing and realizing partnership in kindergartens. Methods. Research material was collected by theme interviews in November - December 2004. Interviews were completed in 12 kindergartens located in one social center area of Helsinki. Kindergartens were chosen randomly. One teacher from each kindergarten was interviewed and in 10 kindergartens of 12 one mother of under 6-year old child was interviewed. Interviews were based on thinking partnership in general and in thinking it with reflection on one specific care and development agreement discussion. Parents reflected partnership on their latest discussion and teachers chose one discussion of the discussions held in autumn 2004. Material was transcribed and analysed by Gillham ́s 11-point directions to content analysis. Results and conclusions. Definitions of partnership and experiences of it varied a lot. Partnership was felt very personally and many humane elements, like familiarity and characteristics of partners, were connected to partnership. Common elements in definitions of partnership were for example trust, respect and communication between partners. The care and development agreement discussion seemed to be an important situation in developing partnership. At the same time, it was also seen as a situation that had a lot to be developed. Interviewees felt that neither the care and development agreement discussion nor the form used in it, took enough account on child’s individuality and personality. Other developmental tasks mentioned were linked more on developing already existing forms of partnership activity in day-care settings. Those were for example developing the daily discussions between parents and day-care staff members. Wishes for developing new forms of partnership activity were mentioned only seldom.

The starting point for this thesis was my observation that early education varies in many different ways in different day care centers. My main objective was to study what early education teachers that represent different professional generations feel and think are the main factors that influence their work. My aim was to find out what these teachers tell about their careers and to examine what those stories reveal about their pedagogical consciousness which has not been studied very much even though it is a relevant issue. Previous research has shown that early education teachers can be categorized into different professional generations based on their professional thinking. I obtained the research data by conducting narrative and thematic interviews. The informants were four early education teachers, who work in the same municipal day care center and represent different professional generations. I analysed the data in a versatile process, in which I examined the thematic questions on the basis of their themes and classes. The analysis of the narrative questions I used the narrative plot analysis and an adaptation of Ricoeur's narrative theory. At the end of the data analysis, I combined the questions that were analysed using different methods into cohesive narratives, in which each teacher told their story about their career. Then I examined the narratives from the point of view of the professional generation and the pedagogical consciousness. My goal was to find out, how early education teachers that represent different professional generations describe the essence of their pedagogical consciousness. The results show that early education teachers' work is a constant balance between factors that are either exhausting or uplifting. The professional generation proved to be an interesting point of view, however, I could not prove it's effect on the pedagogical consciousness. Nevertheless, I did find clear emphases in the early education teachers' pedagogical consciousness. These can be seen in the differing strengths, on which they base the planning and execution of their work. The main factors that each of the teachers shared, were the strong commitment to their work, their pedagogical knowledge and the need and desire to improve themselves. On the basis of this thesis, I can state that the development of pedagogical consciousness is something worth focusing on already in teachers' education.

Finland is one of the leading countries in consuming dairy products. The consumption of fluid milk has decreased during the recent years, but the consumption of other dairy products, such as quark and cheese, has increased correspondingly. In addition, various plant-based beverages and other dairy-like products have gradually risen in popularity. The supply of plant-based products has grown, and consumers have accepted them as an alternative to dairy products. This study examines what kinds of dairy products and plant-based dairy product alternatives consumers use and how they explain their product choices. Plant-based dairy product alternatives are discussed by addressing the concept of appropriation because, contrary to the case of dairy products, plant-based products are often new to their users who might have found them only over the recent years. The research method is qualitative. The data was collected by means of semi-structured interview, accompanied by stimulus photos. Ten adults from Finland Proper, Uusimaa and Central Ostrobothnia were interviewed for the research. The participants photographed all dairy products and plant-based dairy product alternatives that they bought within a week. The photo footage was then used as the basis for discussion in the interviews. According to the study, the use of dairy products and the use of plant-based dairy product alternatives are concurrent and versatile among consumers. Dairy products are chosen for their price, taste and familiarity, and they might also be bought for other people besides the consumers themselves. Reasons for choosing plant-based beverages and other dairy-like products, in turn, are their taste, health-promoting effects, consumers’ habits, interest in new products, as well as ethical and ecological reasons. Dairy products are consumed somewhat more versatilely than plant-based products, and none of the consumers replaces cheese with plant-based alternatives as of yet. The appropriation of especially oat-based products has been successful, being clearly the most preferred plant-based products among consumers.

Previous research suggests that following a vegetarian/vegan diet or lifestyle can be challenging for men due to the surrounding community and the norms of masculinity in society. The initiation and adherence to a vegetarian/vegan diet may have to be justified or excused, and on the other hand, there may be a rebellion against the norms. Due to various tensions, models of masculinity can either be consciously modified, challenged, or compensated. This study deepens the understanding of the topic by examining the own experiences of vegetarian/vegan men regarding the relationship between masculinity and diet. In particular, research focuses on how men perceive the influence of hegemonic masculinity norms in society on adopting and following a vegetarian diet. The research has been carried out using qualitative methods. The focus is on adult vegetarian/vegan men who were recruited for the study through Facebook's “Sipsikaljavegaanit” community. The data was compiled in January-February 2023 using an online questionnaire. The form included open-ended questions, in addition to which background information was collected through multiple-choice questions. The survey was answered by 251 men who define themselves as vegetarians/vegans, 206 of whom experienced that the norms of masculinity had in some way affected their diet or its implementation. The analysis focused on the responses of the latter individuals. The data was analysed by means of theory-based content analysis, with the help of Atlas.ti software. The results of the study show that the norms of masculinity had influenced the previous food behavior of many respondents, emphasizing meat consumption and reducing the consumption of vegetables. Switching to a vegetarian diet and talking about it was considered challenging for many. With the change in mentality, efforts were made to challenge the masculine norm of meat consumption. More than half of the respondents said they had encountered ridicule, joking and/or questioning of vegetarianism/veganism and masculinity. Many people found the questioning distressing, but not everyone was bothered by it, because for some, masculinity was not a desirable trait. The traditionally masculine appearance soothed the commentary on the vegetarian/vegan diet. Also, the example of physically powerful men seemed to normalize vegetarian diets for some men. Many respondents felt it was important to form their own definition of masculinity, and some men used the vegetarian/vegan diet as a tool to rebel against the norms of masculinity. Based on the results, it can be interpreted that the norms of masculinity present many men with challenges when it comes to following a vegetarian/vegan diet. The biggest challenges occurred when other men sought to question or discount those who followed a vegetarian/vegan diet. From the results, it can be concluded that traditional, hegemonic masculinity is not very widely manifested among vegetarian/vegan men, but most of them implement hybrid or alternative masculinities. Many men expand the definitions of masculinity beyond traditional notions, partly for other men as well. With this type of activity, the problematic culture of restriction between men could be changed towards a culture of support between men.

The main objective of this study is to examine the growth mindsets of first-, third- and six-graders in a southern Finnish elementary school. The other aim of this study is to examine the possible differences in these mindsets between various age groups. The purpose of the study is to examine the beliefs that the students hold about their competence, achievements and the challenges they might face. The objective on the study is to further examine the students reasoning behind their school achievements as well as their reactions to the challenges and failures that they face in school. Previous studies have shown that the growth mindset is a more positive and optimistic mindset compared to the fixed mindset when it comes to the school achievements. The growth mindset of a student is related to their perseverance, learning aspiration and more affirmative reactions to the possible challenges and failures in school. This study is a qualitative research, which was conducted by using student interviews as a research method. The research questions were based on the research themes and previous studies. The research material was gathered from one southern Finnish elementary school during the spring 2019 school semester. 13 first-graders, 15 third- graders and eight six-graders were interviewed for this research. The final research material consisted of 36 individual student interviews and it was analyzed by using theoretical based content analysis as a data analysis method. According to the results of this study, the students had a strong growth mindset that was reflected in both their way of thinking and actions. The students generally thought that a competence is a trait they can develop by working hard and studying. They also believed that them as well as the others have opportunities to grow and develop. The students in this study felt strongly about their competence in both of the following circumstances; when learning as well as achieving something. The students considered practicing and their own actions as a main reason to the school achievements, which according to the previous studies is an illustration of a growth mindset. The six-graders also brought up the importance of both their motivation and attitude towards school. The students in this study reacted positively to possible challenges and failures; according to the interviews they were task-oriented and persistent when facing challenges. In addition, in these situations they expressed to have perseverance and to try remedial actions. As a result of the interview data analysis, the students of all grades also seemed to understand that failures are a part of the learning process. According to this study, there weren’t significant/ considerable/notable differences amongst the students from the three different age groups. All of the students participating in this study considered practice, persistance and learning to be valuable factors in the learning process.

The purpose of this study was to unravel the relevance of inspiration and ideation in subjective design process. Research deals with researchers own katazome design process. Katazome is a traditional japanese stencil dyeing method. The focus of the study being on sources of inspiration and ideation method in the stencil design process. Earlier studies have shown that sources of inspiration can both broaden and constrain the idea-space. During ideation the sources of inspiration are conducted in to new ideas by using different methods. (mm. Eckert & Stacey, 2000, Laamanen & Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, 2014.) Earlier studies also describe the ideation methods as ideation support while they enable continuation of ideation (Lavonen & Korhonen, 2020, 89–90). The research assignment was to clarify; What is the relevance of sources of inspiration and ideation method in a subjective design process. The research method for this qualitative study was autoethnography. The data was collected by diary method during five ideation sessions and five designing sessions. The data, resear-cher´s diary notes and design sketches, were stored in a weblog. Researchers daily life pho-tos served as sources of inspiration and an adaptation of Osborn’s scamper-method as ideation method. The data was analysed by qualitative and quantitative methods. The study results corresbond with earlier studies. The inspiration photos acted as a major trigger in the ideation process but elemets of them also transferred into final design. At the ideation stage sources of inspiration were first chosen by using selection and then adapted by using literal, simplification, association and variation. The ideation method helped to keep the process going. Emotions played a major role in the design process. Ideation method can well be utilized in textile design. A novice designer might also benefit from reduced sources of inspiration.