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Previous research has shown that racism and discrimination negatively impact mental health and that students in Finland from immigrant families are more likely to report loneliness, anxiety, lack of close friendship, and poorer school belonging than their native counterparts. Furthermore, international schools, which is the empirical context of this thesis, have been criticized for being highly Western and white, leaving out important topics concerning BIPOC that would be expected to obtain an “international” education. Therefore, there is a need for more research into the lived experiences of racism of YPOC in an international school context and ways to support their wellbeing. To address this need, this thesis aims to investigate in what ways YPOC studying at an international school in the Greater Helsinki area cope with racism and how they find support. I focus on how race, racialisation, and racism affect their lived experiences and their sense of belonging, and how YPOC construct their racial and ethnic identities within white-dominated spaces. I also highlight sources of support for YPOC and how peer support is a means of supporting student wellbeing. The study was conducted using a participatory approach, with data collected through notes taken from a series of peer support group sessions I co-facilitated, as well as interviews. The planning of the research focus and facilitation of peer support group sessions took place in collaboration with a youth mental health association The data was analysed using a reflexive thematic approach to highlight themes in stories shared by the participating youth while acknowledging the value of research subjectivity. YPOC shared experiences of constantly being seen under the white gaze, being made aware of their race and Otherness in everyday life. They shared challenges with defining their identity and finding belonging and community, especially in transnational spaces. Finally, they affirmed peer support as a strategy for coping with the effects of racism, demonstrating the need for safe spaces for YPOC. This research indicates the need for contextualised mental health support for YPOC and action towards deconstructing institutional racism and Eurocentrism in the international school context.

In knowledge-intensive work, knowing and learning are integrated in numerous ways with other areas of activities. On the other hand, the work itself and workplace learning are multiform phenomena. These factors can manifest themselves as rhetoric tensions, paradoxes or gaps between public discourses, private discussions and empirical experiences of working life. The main focus of the discussions and studies on working life is often directed towards development and learning. Less attention is given to daily mundane activities and routine tasks or problems. This study is stimulated by tensions and gaps between the views of working life expressed in public debate, in the research literature as well as in the empirical experiences of employees. The study focuses on everyday working life practices, in which various phenomena from different theoretical traditions are connected to each other to form heterogeneous configurations. This study applies theoretically open and empirically based approach so that the issues of everyday working life are not shaded under dominant discussions or pre-adopted theoretical frameworks. The aim of this study is to form a conceptual model based on empirical data on what is going on in everyday working life. Classic grounded theory was used as a research method because it is a data-driven approach that produces conceptual knowledge. The data was gathered in open interviews with ten men and women of different ages who represented a variety of professional groups, educational backgrounds and work organisations. The interview data contains information about everyday working life in the form of events, experiences and thoughts such as those told by the workers themselves. The results of the study form an abstract model, which is named border faring theory. This theory is formulated on the basis of empirical data and it explains, by border and related concepts, what is going on in everyday working life. The core concept of the theory is border faring – a process that includes the steps of pressurising the border, activating the border, and manoeuvring on the arena of exposure as well as updating the premises of border faring. The border, in turn, is understood as a setting for the border faring process. The setting includes five discrete but inter-related elements: the area of preconditions, the area of supply and the area between the last remaining areas, called the arena of exposure. These areas are separated by two borders, called the border of preconditions and the border of supply. This view of the border differs from those concerning working life or workplace learning where borders are treated as single entities. The areas of preconditions and supply give border faring premises, which can be divided into themes of valuing, being and state of affairs. The border of preconditions or the border of supply can be activated in two ways: the border is opened in the direction of the arena of exposure or the border is locked. On this basis, the activation can be classified into the principles of border opening, border locking and the principle allowing both opening and locking. The features of the arena of exposure are organised as paired characteristics, and manoeuvrings on the arena of exposure are represented as typology. The aim of border faring is to seek continuity by using, searching, finding, retrieving, providing, fighting, refusing, securing, exchanging and sharing – in other words, by combining in different ways different resources of areas of preconditions and supply in various settings for border faring. In connection with the process of border faring, the setting for it will also change. The desired continuity can be by its nature, stabilising or altering. It seems that working life studies and discussions emphasise the breaking of boundaries instead of stabilising or consolidating them. The border crossings are justified by learning or development needs, even if the crossings can lead as a whole or for the future to negative consequences. Among the studies that utilise the concept of the border, border faring theory advocates the view that borders and border-related activities can be both valuable and problematic. Instruments such as border faring theory are needed for studies on workplace learning and development activities because of their indirect, unforeseen and undesirable effects. The settings of border faring apply to various participants differently, resulting in diverse border activities. Different tactics are used at the arena of exposure and various combinations are implemented, and thus a variety of outcomes are generated in terms of learning and knowledge. So, for all parties, border crossing does not necessarily always mean learning or development in the desired direction. According to border faring theory, borders are crossed for various reasons and common motives or objectives are not always a guarantee of proactivity. Borders are also maintained to ensure learning, development and task performance. Border faring is an approach to cope in everyday working life and it can be applied to the examinations of dynamics and settings of daily practices we well as interactions of working places. The model with two borders illustrates how performance can be easy or laborious, and why changes, development projects or daily routine tasks are sometimes difficult and long-lasting processes. Border faring theory presupposes neither change nor maintenance in advance as desirable for the state of affairs. To working places or communities, the theory provides a starting point for development tasks and activities to enhance reforms and tools to detect and support existing good practices. Border faring theory can be applied in addition to working life to other areas, such as formal education. To scientific research activities, the ideas and concepts of border faring theory can serve as starting points or stimuli to new studies. The concept of the border is a useful tool in working life research and its practical applications, but in the increasingly complex world of working life, the border and border-related activity are understood as a more diverse phenomenon as single borders, their characters and border crossings.

The aim of this study was to find out the meaning family has for a pupil who studies in a special class, or how important family is for the pupil's emotional life, the development of his self-confidence, freetime activities, attitudes on school, plans for further studies and his general social development. The theoretical base of this study was formed by social scientists' theories on postmodern family, which is due to urbanization and urban life style, and theories on family pluralism, the powerful effects that changes in family life have on pupils in special education, the weak self-confidence and low sosioeconomic background among those pupils and the effects of family's sosioeconomic status on pupil's willingness to get education or the theory on the accumulation of education. Study problems were set in the direction determined by these theories and in order to study the accurateness of the theories. The method used in the study was theme interview, which is sometimes also called half-structured interview. The material for the study was collected in October 1998 in a special school in Helsinki. The material contains answers given by pupils in theme interviews and background information about pupils' families, which where collected from the pupils' parents by mail. Content analysis was used to analyze the material. The study showed that it is very important to pupils' attitudes on school and their self-confidence that their families are entire and that the families give them support. The children, whose parents are interested in school education and discuss a lot about things, seem to have positive attitudes on school and good self-confidence, too. The parental support also has an effect on how the pupils spend their free time and on their hobbies, too. Obviously the families have quite an important meaning for pupils in special class, but if the families don't support them, the consequence is problems particularly for the development of self-confidence. The theory on the low sosioeconomic background among students in special education gets support from this study, but nothing can be said about it's effect on further studies. On account of the results it can be suggested that special schools must arrange occasions where the pupils' parents are clearly informed about the important meaning of their support for the pupils' studies and the development of the pupils' self-confidence. The most important sources for the theoretical background were the books written by Jallinoja, Kivinenand Rinne, Moberg, Scanzoni and P. Takala. The most important sources for the method were the books written by Hirsjärvi and Hurme and Pietilä.

Objectives. In previous research, prenatal stress has been associated not only with preterm birth and low birth weight but also with child temperamental characteristics and emotional development. There has been some variation in study methods and results across studies, study samples have been rather small, and the relationship between prenatal stress and child temperament is still not fully understood. Timing of prenatal stress has also been emphasized, but there have been only few studies of its effects on child temperament. This longitudinal study aimed to determine whether maternal prenatal stress is associated with mother- and father-rated temperament of 6-month-old infants. The study also assessed whether timing of prenatal stress or concurrent parental stress influence the associations. Methods. This study is a part of a broader, multidisciplinary Prediction and Prevention of Pre-eclampsia (PREDO) -project. The current study sample consisted of 2197 children and their parents, who were recruited from maternity clinics at weeks 12 + 0 to 13 + 6 of gestation. Mothers filled a stress-self-report questionnaire (the Perceived Stress Scale) biweekly throughout pregnancy, a total of 14 times. Mothers (n = 2197) and their spouses (n = 1235) rated temperamental characteristics of their about 6-month-old child with the Revised Infant Behaviour Questionnaire. The associations between prenatal stress and infant temperament were analyzed using linear regression, controlling for multiple perinatal and sociodemographic confounders and for concurrent levels of maternal and paternal stress. The mediation effect of maternal concurrent stress was analyzed using the Sobel test and the moderation effect using the one-way ANOVA. Results and conclusions. Higher maternal prenatal stress predicted both mother- and father-rated higher negative affectivity and lower orientating regulation, but not extraversion in 6-month-old infants. Mid- to late pregnancy stress had the strongest associations to these traits. Maternal postnatal stress moderated and partly mediated the association to negative affectivity and mediated the association to orientating regulation. Prenatal stress was significantly associated with negative affectivity only in the group of mothers who experienced lower prenatal stress. Nevertheless, even after controlling for concurrent maternal/paternal stress, the association between prenatal stress and both mother- and father-rated negative affectivity remained significant, but the association to orientating regulation remained significant only as father-rated. The results are in line with the fetal programming hypothesis and add to the growing body of literature about the importance of prenatal environmental factors in infant temperament development.

Goals: Earlier studies have shown that a low concentration of prenatal vitamin D is associated with child's psychological well-being. The connection between prenatal vitamin D level and, for example, eating disorders and neurocognitive development has been shown to exist. Child's temperament has shown to predict later mental health. It is commonly believed that temperament has roots in fetal period. However, there is no earlier research on the connection between prenatal vitamin D level and child's temperament. The goal of this study is to examine whether or not such a connection exists. Methods. This research is part of a Helsinki University Children's Vitamin D Intervention Study (VIDI). The material for VIDI has been gathered between January 2013 and June 2014 in Kätilöopisto Maternity Hospital in Helsinki. Current study includes participants with information on prenatal vitamin D levels and on maternal rated temperament at the age of one year (Revised Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ-R)) (n=839). The connection between prenatal vitamin D level and the superfactors of the temperament dimensions were examined with regression analysis with confounding variables (child's gender, mother's maternal smoking habits, mother's education, marital status, age and BMI before pregnancy). The superfactors are Surgency/Extraversion, Negative Affectivity and Regulatory/Orienting. Prenatal vitamin D level was treated as a continuous and a dichotomous variable. Vitamin D levels were measured in early and late points of pregnancy, and categories low and high were created accordingly. Cut-points for categories were ≤ 73.70 nmol/L in the early point and ≤ 59.70 nmol/L in the latter point. Also, the association between the change in prenatal vitamin D level-or it staying low during pregnancy-with the superfactors of child's temperament was examined. Results and conclusions. Vitamin D level (25(OH)D) in the early-pregnancy was associated with child's negative emotionality: a higher vitamin D level predicted a lower negative emotionality score at the age of one year when examined as a continuous variable. The connection remained statistically significant after controlling for confounding variables. Vitamin D level in early pregnancy was not associated with any other superfactors of temperament. Moreover, early-pregnancy vitamin D categories were not associated with any temperament superfactors. Prenatal vitamin D level in late pregnancy was not related to temperament superfactors, measured either as a continuous or as dichotomous variable. Also, the change in prenatal vitamin D level, or it remaining in the low category in both measuring points, had no statistically significant associations with the superfactors of child's temperament. The results are in line with the earlier findings that vitamin D level-especially in early pregnancy-is associated with the child's psychological development. The functional mechanism of vitamin D level in early pregnancy is believed to be based especially on the sensitivity periods of the prenatal development of a brain. It is possible that a low prenatal vitamin D level modifies temperament through the development of the brain-which affects disorders of psychological development. In this case, temperament can account for at least a part of the connections that have already been found between prenatal vitamin D level and psychological development. This gives important knowledge of the origin of psychological disorders.

Rugdesigner Eija Rasinmäki has produced ragrugs since 1970. She wanted to renew the Finnish ragrug so that it would be suitable also for demanding interior design. In the study the essence of Eija Rasinmäki's rugs and the changes it has experienced from 1970 to 2011 is depicted. This includes both the external composition and the message of tradition it emits. The connection between the changes in the rugs and the context where they were created is also explored. Additionally, through examining the changes in the rugs essence, the challenges with combining tradition and modern idiom are contemplated. This was a historical case study. The main material I studied consisted of Rasinmäki's rugs, photos and brochures of the rugs and the collections, the interviews of Eija Rasinmäki and the newspaper clips she has collected around the topic over the years. Other material offered by the textile factory was used as supporting material for the study. The designs of the rugs have clearly changed from 1970 to 2011. There were changes in colour, weave, texture, patterns, composition, size and shape. I divided the rugs into developmental periods according to the major design changes: Loimaa period 1970 - 1978, Early Oitti period 1979 - 1983, Success period 1984 - 1989, Recession period 1990 - 1995, Quiet period 1996 - 2003 and India period 2004 - 2011. The changes in the design were caused mainly by market and economy. They both restrict the design process and direct it by demanding efficiency and affecting customer preferences. Also the designer's own intentions behind the design process change with the spirit of the times. Tradition became a brand for Rasinmäki's rugs. The message of tradition was emitted through the material, manner of manufacturing, patterns, composition, colour and shape. There were no major changes in material and manner of manufacturing, but other elements did change causing the message of tradition to vanish in the 1980's. The problem with combining tradition and modern is their dissimilar nature, other tending to conserve, other to change. Calling the rugs tradition and ragrug binds them with a certain restrictive image, and the conflict between the product and the brand confuses the customer. An artrug may have been a better term.

The starting point for this thesis has been to develop the website Raumalace.fi which has been set up to teach the basics of bobbin-lace making for the beginners according to the traditional practice of the town of Rauma. The main goal is to find out if the website works as an independent learning material for a total beginner. In addition, I aim to analyse what the user knows after using the material available at the website and how the website could be improved. The website was tested with a group of five people using the usability engineering method of thinking aloud. The test situations were recorded with a camcorder and the material was analysed by comparing the actions and the thoughts of the different participants when they were examining the same point on the website. When more than one participant encountered problems, the situation was analysed with more detail. The challenges encountered with Raumalace.fi learning material were typical to any attempt of teaching a skill over Internet. In addition, there were problems ubiquitous to elementary-level teaching of bobbin-lace making. While the possibility for social interaction is often considered an essential part of any good web-based learning material, it was altogether missing from Raumalace.fi. A recurring question with web-based teaching is also how to keep up the motivation of the students. For many problems encountered by the participants the simple solution would have been to study the material carefully in advance. The difficulties observed in this study, such as recognizing errors and solving problems independently, are familiar for all lace-making beginners. The study shows that Raumalace.fi is fit for purpose even for a beginner to independently teach himself bobbin-lace making. With this learning material one can familiarize himself with the basics of lace making but for deeper learning more material and teaching is required. This is in line with the goals of the website. A few opportunities for improvement were also located such as clarifying the appearance of the site, detailing ambiguous instructions, introducing the possibility for social interaction, and providing the user ways to evaluate his/her own work. Additionally, part of this study included expanding the content of the website.

Purpose. The purpose of this study is to examine articles on nutrition and food choices in Kotitalous-magazine and to focus on the changes that have occurred in Finnish peoples food habits during 1952–1982. The end of food rationing in the beginning of the 1950's together with continuous increase in the food assortment created a need for information. The magazine tried to fill this need as the research period went on. The study explores how national nutrition problems; food culture and nutritional education are illustrated in articles published in Kotitalous-magazine. The pivotal message in their content, the changes of perspective in the writing and their frequency is analysed from the data. The research questions are: 1. How do the articles reflect on solutions to national nutritional problems? 2. How are changes in food culture reflected in the articles? 3. How is nutritional counselling and teaching reflected in the articles? Methodology. The data consists of Kotitalous-magazines from 1952 to 1982, which consists of 300 issues containing 1500 articles in total. Off the aforementioned articles 352 concern nutrition and nutritional choices. The qualitative analysis of the material was done by analysing the content of these articles in relation to the relevant theoretical background. Results and conclusions. At the beginning of the researched time period articles in Kotitalous-magazine instructed people how to survive deficiency diseases and the composition of right kinds of nutrition while the focus shifted more towards the preventing of new public health issues like cardiovascular diseases as the research period went on. The intake of essential nutrients, fats and sugars played a major role in the magazine articles. The change in food culture was presented in the articles as the amount and assortment of foods available increased more and more. That was when the food culture began to diversify and took on influence from for example abroad. Dietary recommendations and nutrition counselling strived to educate consumers to consume healthy food, increase vegetable intake and decrease the amount of sugars and fats consumed.

Objectives. The aim of the research is to develop a teaching simulation for basic history teaching in the framework of co-teaching and on the basis of diary material and experience. The background philosophy of learning theory is John Dewey's holistic approach to learning and David A. Kolb's (1984) model of experiential learning based on it. Following the French philosophy and literary theorist Jean-François Lyotard (1985), the current very complex and global world is well illustrated by the fragmentation of knowledge and truths. The resulting pressure for change is particularly pronounced in the everyday experiences of growing children and young people. Dewey’s educational philosophy emphasizes the connection between knowledge and action, an experiential and reflective way of learning. The importance of experience, empathy is also emphasized in the concept of learning defined in the basics of the basic education curriculum in 2014, on the basis of which the task of basic education is to grow students into confident and active actors. The purpose of the dissertation is to develop a model for the teaching of experiential history that provides keys to the treatment of both students and teachers own experiences and, through it, to the development of thinking. Methods. The teaching simulation developed in the research is based on sessions, i.e. discussion sessions, between three classroom teachers from different backgrounds. Central to these sessions is Che Guevara’s youth travel diary, whose thoughts from the reading experience are reflected in one’s own and at the same time the experiences of others. The interactivity achieved, and in particular the consensus that is a prerequisite for a functioning teaching simulation, is explored using qualitative content analysis and conversational analysis. The sessions are also supported by a thinking tool for basic history teaching based on Kolb's experiential teaching, already created in the author’s bachelor's thesis. The purpose of the teaching simulation created in the research is to expand and diversify both the student's and the teacher's perspectives on the world around them and the phenomena that affect it. Central to teaching history was getting to know other people’s experiences and mirroring them on their own. By studying the experiences of a historically and socially significant person, a microhistorical teaching method that is currently effective in teaching history was implemented, in which a stronger holistic interpretation of phenomena is sought through experience (Rantala & Ahonen 2015). Results and conclusions. The study showed that diary material can be used as a tool for basic history teaching by combining it with experiential teaching. The teaching simulation developed in the study supports the development of thinking and learning skills enshrined in the basics of the basic education curriculum in 2014, which arises intuitively from one's own experiences, not just by reasoning. With the help of a more subjective teaching simulation that supports the student's and the teacher's own world of experience, it is possible to settle into the position of another person more sensitively than before and look at their own points of view again. We cannot understand the world around us unless we understand ourselves first. A lesson can be planned based on the teaching simulation.

The educational reform, launched in Finland in 2008, concerns the implementation of the Special Education Strategy (Opetusministeriö 2007) under an improvement initiative called Kelpo. One of the main proposed alterations of the Strategy relates to the support system of comprehensive school pupils. The existed two-level model (general and special support) is to be altered by the new three-level model (general, intensified and special support). There are 233 municipalities involved nationwide in the Kelpo initiative, each of which has a municipal coordinator as a national delegate. The Centre for Educational Assessment [the Centre] at the University of Helsinki, led by Professor Jarkko Hautamäki, carries out the developmental assessment of the initiative's developmental process. As a part of that assessment the Centre interviewed 151 municipal coordinators in November 2008. This thesis considers the Kelpo initiative from Michael Fullan's change theory's aspect. The aim is to identify the change theoretical factors in the speech of the municipal coordinators interviewed by the Centre, and to constitute a view of what the crucial factors in the reform implementation process are. The appearance of the change theoretical factors, in the coordinators' speech, and the meaning of these appearances are being considered from the change process point of view. The Centre collected the data by interviewing the municipal coordinators (n=151) in small groups of 4-11 people. The interview method was based on Vesala and Rantanen's (2007) qualitative attitude survey method which was adapted and evolved for the Centre's developmental assessment by Hilasvuori. The method of the analysis was a qualitative theory-based content analysis, processed using the Atlas.ti software. The theoretical frame of reference was grounded on Fullan's change theory and the analysis was based on three change theoretical categories: implementation, cooperation and perspectives in the change process. The analysis of the interview data revealed spoken expressions in the coordinators' speech which were either positively or negatively related to the theoretical categories. On the grounds of these change theoretical relations the existence of the change process was observed. The crucial factors of reform implementation were found, and the conclusion is that the encounter of the new reform-based and already existing strategies in school produces interface challenges. These challenges are particularly confronted in the context of the implementation of the new three-level support model. The interface challenges are classified as follows: conceptual, method-based, action-based and belief-based challenges.