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The main goal of this study was to find out what the sewing process of a garment is like and what the challenges of such a process are. Not much research has been done on sewing and it’s difficult to find out information about cognitive processes of the sewing process. Sewing is described as a hobby with several different meanings. It can be a way to relax or to enjoy life. In this study there is an interest in the working methods of the sewers, the impact of previous experience on work, the critical points of work and problem-solving processes, and the usability of the guide. The research method used in the study was the thinking aloud method in which subjects are asked to speak all their thoughts aloud throughout the experiment. Through the verbalization of thoughts, information is obtained about the subjects' cognitive processes and the content of the working memory. Three subjects participated in the study. In the experiment, the subjects had to make a dress that suits them according to Suuri Käsityö -lehti 8/2019. The material of the study was thinking aloud protocols, video material and dresses which subjects were made in the study. The most common challenges in the sewing process were related to controlling the use of the seamstress and knowing the concepts. All subjects used different seam solutions in their work, although they had the same instruction in their use. The basic principle in the work was that the more familiar the work phase was, the less instruction was used to support the work and the more one's own skills were applied in the work. Not only were the sewing instructions used to support the work, but also the picture attached to the instructions and the general instructions page of the magazine. It can be stated that the guide was adequate and covers all work steps to the extent necessary.

The purpose of this study was to find out what handicrafts and group participation mean for young girls and why the participation of the group is perceived as important. The study also aims to describe what crafts look like in social youth work and what significance it has for girls to be only among girls. Previous research has shown that group activities play a role in strengthening self-knowledge and confidence. Participation in group activities increases the young person's own activity and agency (Ståhlberg, 2019). Previous studies have also shown that making handicrafts has mental and physical effects that increase well-being (Pöllänen, 2017). The aim of the study was to find out the meanings of handicrafts, participation in a group and Girls' House activities for the girls participating in the study. The study was conducted at the Girls' House. It is an open place for all those who define themselves as girls and women. The subject of the study was the Open Handicrafts group, which met at the house once a week. The participants in the group were 14-25 years old. The researcher herself acted as a group supervisor during the study. The research material was collected using ethnographic methods by observing the group, as well as interviewing four girls who visit the house regularly. The interviews were semi-structured thematic interviews and the interviews were transcribed into text. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data with the aim of finding similarities and differences in the themes and meanings of the study. The research reveals that there is a demand and need for a place for girls. Many meanings for being among girls were found. Some of the girls felt impressed with the growth of their own identity and peer support helped them grow into women. For many girls, participating in a handicraft group was more of a daily activity than a hobby. The group was often perceived as more important than making handicrafts. The Girls' house is perceived as a reliable and safe place to get peer support from other girls and women.

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.

Objectives. The changes to Basic Education Act (624/2010), which came into force on January 2011, as well as the enforcement of the Pupil and Student Welfare Act (1287/2013) in 2014, has restructured the operation of the Finnish education system. The model, known as the support in learning and school attendance, operates on a three-tiered support system, and is based on inclusive principles as one of its goals is to include pupils with special needs to mainstream classes with additional teaching support. This study aims to investigate how the amendments have affected classroom teachers’ work tasks, workload, and well-being at work, and as well as to highlight the ways in which classroom teachers have adapted to the changes. Methods. The research approach of this study was qualitative. The data was collected by interviewing four classroom teachers using semi-structured theme interviews. The participants were selected for the study based on their year of graduation and by municipality, as they had worked as classroom teachers before the enforcement of the previously mentioned amendments, and as they all were working in schools in different municipalities. The data was analysed using a qualitative analysis of content. Results and conclusions. According to the teachers, adoption of the new support model has not created any new work tasks or responsibilities to the teachers although the changes have affected how the workload is divided between different work tasks. Majority of the participants brought up how the adoption of the three-tiered support model had increased work bureaucracy and workload, in the form of preparation of pedagogical documents, multiprofessional cooperation and cooperation between home and school. However, the teachers underlined that the model had created positive developments in teaching as well. There were major differences in teachers’ experiences regarding the changes in the work and well-being at work, as the teachers experienced changes in different areas of their work in different ways. Similarly, teachers' ways of adapting to change were different, where the results of this study can provide different perspectives on examining and developing teachers' well-being at work.

The main purpose of the study is to describe the social context of meal times and food-related routines in the Moomin books. Previous research has looked at what the Moomins are eating, but there are no studies about other dimensions of their eating. The research data was collected from eight Moomin books. One of them was a collection of short stories and the other seven were novels. The data includes all descriptions of meal times found in the books as well as scenes where food was discussed. In order to be included in the data, the scene had to include some member of the central Moomin family: Moominmamma, Moominpappa or Moomintroll. The nature of the study was qualitative and the data was analyzed using the qualitative content analysis method. Family meals were the most frequently occurring meal type found in the data. During these meals, all of the central Moomin family along with their closest friends came together at the Moomin house to enjoy the company of family and friends and to discuss the news of the day. Another common meal format was having a packed lunch to bring to one of the Moomins' trips. Participating in these trips were usually all of the Moomin family along with friends or only Moomintroll with his friends. Generally, Moominmamma prepared all the meals. The results showed that the Moomin family had routines related to food and meal times. Moominmamma was normally the one responsible for the routines. When these routines were broken, the Moomin family fell into confusion. Fortunately, this did not occur often. The study showed that the family meals and regular routines had a positive influence on the well-being of the Moomin family.

The purpose of this thesis was to disclose the current views of Finnish and English language use and development in a multiculturalising Finnish service industry company from its personnel and their views of the future changes in the use of working languages. The research is topical as the foreign workforce in the industry keeps growing and the Finnish population is becoming more multilingual. So far there has been little research on the working languages of Finnish companies, as the research has mainly focused on multinational companies. The aim of the thesis is to find prevailing differences of views about the meaning of languages in multilingual working life from a phenomenographic point of view. Views have been outlined to the themes of everyday work, foreign language development and future working language. The language choices in work situations are studied from the perspectives of language skill development and situations of communication. In the study, seven people from four different organizational areas were interviewed: workers, supervisors, manager-level supervisors, and a member of the training team. The interview material was analyzed with phenomenographic methods using the Atlas.ti software. The results of the thesis show that there are regional differences in the importance of languages in everyday work within the service industry company. In work communities, the choice of language was based on the language skills shared by the members of the community. In situations where the employee did not have sufficient skills in the Finnish language, communication was facilitated by common languages of the work community. The respondents felt that the importance of the English language in the company will increase as the share of foreign workforce in the industry increases. The employees saw the importance of English language skills increasing at the supervisor level, but at the same time they also felt that the use of the English language acted as a slowing factor for foreign workers' learning of the Finnish language in everyday work.

Aim. The idea of a Finnish-Swedish bilingual school has been a popular topic in the Finnish media since September 2011. The aim of this study was to analyse the construction of cultural identities in the discourses emerging in the debate and thus to increase comprehension of the cultural context of the debate. Identity was examined as a cultural and discursive construction in a post-structural framework. Cultural identity was defined in relation to memberships in ethnic, linguistic and national cultures. The construction of identities was examined in relation to difference and representations of otherness and, moreover, as connected to the descriptions of a postmodern society. Methods. The data consisted of 127 texts in four different newspapers and was analysed within a critical discourse analytical framework influenced by Foucault and combined with elements of Laclau's ideology and discourse analysis and Derrida's deconstructive reading. Conclusions. The link between language and identity was mainly comprehended as straightforward. Belonging to the Swedish minority was linked to an essential, collective identity that can be considered as an essentialist strategy for increasing the cohesion within the minority. Cultural identities were constructed in a discourse based on an established dichotomy, by producing difference and otherness. The dichotomy was however challenged in a discourse that stood up for bilingualism by talking back .

Aims. Finland can be described as a land of thousands of lakes. Fishing has been an important source of livelihood since the early days of settlement. However many structural changes in the society, as urbanization and industrialism, have effected the fishing culture. Migration from the rural areas brought fishing to cities, where it became a popular leisure activity. Besides self-sufficiency, also recreation has become a central reason to fish. The aim of this thesis is to look what kind of relationship is established with nature while fishing in the urban environment. Further the study attempts to explain, what kind of characteristic features fishing culture has in the city, specially Helsinki area, and which elements of sustainable development can be recognized in it. Finally this thesis asks, what kind of material and immaterial benefits one can earn by practicing recreational fishing in Helsinki. Methods. The data of this qualitative study was collected with focused interviews during late autumn 2014 in popular fishing spots of Helsinki. In total 13 local recreational fishers participated in the research, of who majority were men. The data was analysed with qualitative content analysis. The theoretical framework of this study was relying on the cultural ecological theory and viewpoints offered by the literary sources and previous research. Results and conclusions. It was found out that one could be self-sufficient in terms of fish in Helsinki, and enjoy a varied selection of self-caught fish food throughout the year. However, successful fishing in city requires a great commitment and high knowledge of fish waters. Motives behind fishing were not only material. Besides the fish itself, also social, recreational and natural aspects were significant purposes for fishing. Interviewees named mental and physical well-being as key benefits alongside the more measurable goods, like the actual catch. Surprisingly informants defined Helsinki as a brilliant fishing area. Maritime location and infrastructures of the town offered easy access to various fishing spots. This made the relationship with nature rather unique. The social features of sustainable fishing were particularly visible in the fishing culture of Helsinki.