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(2018)Objectives. The aim of this study was to examine what kind of working life skills students had learned during their Bachelor’s level studies according to their own experiences. Working life skills are skills and abilities, which are applicable in a range of contexts and tasks and are learned while completing disciplinary content studies. According to previous studies university studies contribute to the development of students’ working life skills to some extent but they do not necessarily provide all the skills required at the labour market. The second purpose of this study was to examine what kind of learning experiences had supported the development of the students working life skills during their Bachelor’s level studies according to their own experiences. In previous studies students’ working life skills have developed especially in the instruction/courses emphasizing experiential learning. Methods. The study is based on narrative research methods and the data were collected by utilising the narrative interviews from six students at Aalto University. The interviewed students had completed Aaltonaut minor program at Aalto Design Factory during their Bachelor’s level studies. A one-question interview technique was applied in the interviews. The interviews were analysed with narrative analysis and analysis of narrative. Results and conclusions. Students reported that during their Bachelor’s level studies, they had learned working life skills related especially to social and communication skills. These skills were, for example, teamwork, oral communication and presentation skills. Students perceived that they had also learned working life skills, such as entrepreneurial mindset and innovative thinking, as well as the ability to reflect on their own learning and knowledge and confidence about their own expertise. According to the findings of this study, students experienced that basic and major studies in their Bachelor’s degrees developed their working life skills narrowly. These studies contributed mainly to their working life skills related to teamwork, information retrieval and scientific research. The students perceived that their working life skills developed especially through the learning experiences, which were based on concrete experiences. In the Bachelor’s level studies, these kind of learning experiences were mainly offered by the Aaltonaut minor programme.
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(2014)Objectives: Overweight is a common health problem in children, adolescents and adults. Its effects on somatic well-being are well known, but the knowledge of its relationship with mental health is contradictory. The connections are likely to be stronger in studies that have studied adolescents who are receiving treatment to obesity. It is important to study what kinds of risk factors there are for psychiatric symptoms and substance use in adolescence and early adulthood. This master's thesis studies whether overweight and obesity are in connection with psychiatric symptoms and substance use in adolescents and young adults who have received treatment to obesity in childhood. Methods: This study is a part of Elintavat ja luusto nuorilla (ELLU) research project. The patient group consisted of adolescents and young adults who have received treatment to severe or morbid obesity in childhood. The control group consisted of normal weight adolescents and young adults of a similar age. The study involved 42 14-19-year-old adolescents (22 patients, 20 controls) and 62 17-24-year-old young adults (27 patients, 35 controls). Information about psychiatric symptoms and substance use was collected using the Youth Self-Report (YSR) and the Adult Self-Report (ASR) assessment forms. The data was analyzed using covariance analysis, linear regression analysis and logistic regression analysis. Results and conclusions: The overweight and obese adolescents had more total problems, internalizing problems, somatic problems, attention problems and social problems. Gender was significant in social problems: overweight and obese girls had more social problems than normal weight girls, but among boys there were not differences between the groups. In young adults overweight and obesity were not in connection with psychiatric symptoms. Gender had no importance in this connection. The overweight and obese young adults had 3.77-fold increased risk of smoking compared to normal weight young adults. Overweight and obesity are thus connected to psychiatric symptoms in adolescence and tobacco smoking in early adulthood. Conclusions about causality cannot be drawn based on this study. Information about overweight's and obesity's connections with mental health and substance use may help in treatment planning. It may as well increase the desire to draw attention to overweight children and adolescents early enough.
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(2023)Financial literacy is an important civic skill that people need in everyday life and in managing their financial matters. Financial skills and financial education can be passed from one generation to another through observation and model learning. This thesis uses Bandura’s social learning theory, which helps deepen knowledge about the intergenerational financial education. The purpose of this study was to find out the means of financial education of highly educated parents and its intergenerational nature. The aim of the thesis was to find out what kind of means parents have for financial education and what kind of financial education they received in their childhood family. This research helps to understand the methods of financial education and to notice possible development directions for financial education. The study was made with a qualitative research strategy and the research method was oral history. The research participants recalled the ways of financial education they received in their childhood. Data consisted of nine interviews that were conducted by telephone. The participants were highly educated parents, between the ages of 33 and 54, and they had at least one child under 18 living at home. The data was analyzed with a theory-driven content analysis using Bandura’s social learning theory as an aid. The main result of the study is that financial education is intergenerational, but the results also showed exceptions. Parents’ financial education appeared through four themes, which were earning money, saving money, money talk and models of consumer behaviour. Parents felt that saving and earning money were the most important subjects to be taught and these were also the strongest intergenerational themes. These were used to influence the child’s attitudes and values about the money. Nowadays finance plays an important role in our everyday lives and home financial education has a big role in children’s financial skills in the future. Children adopt behavioral habits, values and skills from their parents. Parents could be given more support for their children’s financial education. It is important to pay attention to both home and school financial education.
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(2018)Despite the Finnish schooling system, which leans on the idea of equal educational opportunities, various studies have found that education is inherited. One of the best explanatory causes for this is thought to be the inheriting of cultural capitals, which is a central part of Bourdieu’s research in the field of social class. Additionally, former studies have found that cram schools inequalize students applying to universities based on their financial capitals. Regardless of the tendency to inherit education, some students whose parents are not highly educated still manage to apply and get in the university studies. In this thesis these students are called cross-generational educational risers. The objective of this thesis is to examine the reasons and background factors which encourage the cross-generational educational risers to apply to the university studies by a mixed method research strategy. These factors have been first studied via an internet survey conducted in four faculties of the University of Helsinki: educational sciences, social sciences, law and medicine. These influences to the applying process are studied using general statistics. The survey reached a total of 186 answers of which 29 were from cross-generational educational risers. Additionally, after the survey the case of one cross-generational educational riser from the faculty of law is studied and even further attention is payed to how these factors have been of influence in his case. This part of the thesis is executed through a semi-structured interview and the results are then analyzed using the phenomenological analysis. Differing from former studies in the field of inheriting education studies, this thesis detaches further away from the research tradition of social class studies and links closer to the research tradition of inheriting education. According to the survey, the greatest positive influences were found to be parents and different teachers. The lowest grade was given to the school counselor which was the only influencer to receive a grade below neutral. Of all the students from the faculties of law and medicine who answered, close to 90 % had attended a cram school before their university studies. The person interviewed, whose answers were in line with the results of the survey, also pointed out that his good grades throughout the school years and his coaches in sports were of great influence. The results of the school counselor are somewhat alarming and researchers should pay more attention to the role of the school counselor in the future.
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(2020)Environmental education takes place everywhere, not just in school. At school, environmental studies are the most natural way to implement environmental education, but in accordance with the principles of the basic education curriculum (POPS 2014), environmental education is implemented extensively in all school activities. The ideology of inquiry-based learning and field education as a way of working implement the basic principle of environmental education, ie commitment to nature. Previous research has shown that teachers are interested in implementing the principles of environmental education and field education, but there are also challenges in its practical implementation. The third sector implements environmental education outside the school and the digital material it produces is easily accessible via the Internet. The aim of my research is to find out teachers' perceptions of field education and its implementation in teaching. In addition, my aim is to find out how teachers view collaboration with the third sector or the digital material they produce. Finally, I will find out what kind of digital material the third sector provides to support field education in environmental studies. The research material was compiled by interviewing two teachers and examining digital materials provided by the third sector. Interviews were used to gain teachers’ views on field education and the co-operation with the third sector. Digital material was analyzed by a criteria based on the criteria created by the National Board of Education for e-learning materials The study confirms the results of previous studies that teachers appreciate the importance of field education in teaching environmental studies and would like to implement it more than at present. Co-operation with the third sector brought not only material and ideas but also concrete human resources to field education. A study of third sector digital material showed that the third sector produces a lot of diverse and high quality material for teaching environmental studies based on its own expertise and that its use is likely to lower the threshold for teachers to implement field education in their environmental studies teaching when they just have time to search for and find all this material.
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(2020)The purpose of this study was to provide information about the Strategy-parent training pro-gram. The Strategy-program is specifically developed for the parents of children with ADHD-symptoms. The study’s goal was to find out how parents’ experiences provides signs of pro-grams impacts. The study reflects parents’ experiences against the goals and requirements of the parent training program. This kind of reflection has not been done before. Parents’ ex-periences of the Strategy-program have been reviewed earlier in Sweden. Those included a study of the effects of psychoeducation and medical treatments, a report with pilot study and few theses. I implemented this study as qualitative study using phenomenology-hermeneutical approach. Data was collected with surveys on four Strategy-courses in autumn 2019 organized by ADHD-association. Courses were organized in Vaasa, in Heinola and in Helsinki. The survey was held in two parts. The first part was answered at the beginning of the course and the second part at the end of the course. The survey was answered by 68 parents. I analyzed da-ta with theory guided content analysis. Parents who took part of the study had positive experiences of the impacts of the Strategy-program. Majority of parents felt that the course met their goals. Parents expressed the goals for the course according to five themes. The themes were understanding, pedagogical operation models, positive interaction, conception of parenting and changes in child. Parents describe that the course change their information, knowledge, and experience of parenting positively. According the study, strategy-program responds to the goals and criteria of contents of the parent training. As so the Strategy parent training program should be considered as one of the support methods for parents of children with adhd symptoms.
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(2019)Globalization is changing and challenging our society. As a result of this change, there is also a growing possibility to develop well-functioning multilingual environments. In the future, teachers and leaders of different associations may often work in environments where two languages are used in parallel with one another. This leads us to the question, how to lead and communicate pedagogically using multiple languages? Multilingualism and multilingual schools, along with their potential, have been discussed in the Finnish media, which makes the discussion about multilingual practices relevant. This study’s aim is to examine how football coaches in a multilingual environment communicate and lead while using multiple languages. The thesis has been written in collaboration with the project UPS-HIFK, a cooperation between the University of Helsinki, FSI (Finlands svenska idrott) and the football club, HIFK. UPS-HIFK was part of a study project called “Ung på Svenska” which was financed by Kulturfonden. The study is inductive and qualitative and data has been gathered through both video and interviews. Moreover, the main participants consisted of four football coaches who were observed in their natural working environment. The coaches were also interviewed to get a deeper understanding of their experiences of the multilingual practice. The coaches’ leadership was examined through Chelladurai’s (2017) multidimensional leadership model as well as through transformational leadership theory; while the multilingual working methods were studied through García’s (2009) multilingual strategies. The results demonstrate a complex leadership role that is shaped by context, as well as players- and coaches’ characteristics. Furthermore, the coach and the environment supported the players' individual growth in many areas, including language development. The coach altered his language depending on the players' language skills and who he was communicating with. The multilingual strategies used could occasionally work as resources for the coaches’ leadership and communication. The coaches showcased a flexible and dynamic communication style that was supported by body language. Every coach had developed their own micro practice to cope in the multilingual working environment. The conditions were given, but every coach’s varying level of language skills and leadership style shaped the outcome of the praxis. The results show that a multilingual approach could be incorporated in other similar environments. However, leaders in these environments need to put effort into planning the work and language acquisition, while maintaining a positive an open mindset to reassure that the environment is pedagogical and developing for the participants.
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(2016)Objectives. The purpose of the study was to follow literacy and reading comprehension progress in a multi-cultural school in the first grade. In my research I reviewed also learning support in the form of remedial teaching. There was little information about immigrant pupils learning to read especially in southern Finland with multicultural areas. Literacy and reading comprehension are in focus, when you look at successful school careers. Previous studies have shown that the effects of literacy and reading comprehension persist after primary and secondary school. Methods. The study involved four first grade classes in one multicultural elementary school in Vantaa. One of the classes was integrated special education class. The study involved a total of 67 1st grade pupils. There were 29 Finnish pupils and 38 immigrant pupils. The data was collected during the academic year 2013-2014 with ARMI- assessment tool. Statistical methods, Kruskal-Wallis test, was used to compare the performance of Finnish pupils and pupils with immigrant background in three points of assessment in the fall, winter and spring. Results and conclusions. Finnish pupils achieved accurate reading skill faster than the immigrant pupils. The difference between the groups in reading comprehension was clear in winter. The difference between the groups and the results in winter and spring increased during the 1st class. Learning support was provided to immigrant pupils much more than to Finnish pupils. The total number was 264.5 hours during the school year. Finnish students were given remedial teaching 94.5 hours and the immigrant pupils 170 hours during the first grade. In conclusion assessment tools for immigrant pupils must be developed and normalized. The migrant pupils' reading and reading comprehension are not progressing so well as the skills of Finnish students. The difference is significant at the end of 1st class
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(2017)Objects: For the past few years there has been a lot of discussion about circumcision performed on infant boys based on religious reasons. NGOs such as Sexpo and Central union of child health care, to mention only few, reject circumcision based on religious and cultural bases. However Jewish organizations consider that the freedom of faith would be violated if circumcision would be criminalized. This thesis tries to clarify the origin of circumcision in Judaism and the importance it has in Judaism and for Jews. It also aims to explain the link between circumcision and Jewish identity. One of the main topics is human rights concerning circumcision. Circumcision does violate the immunity of child's body (TANE 2008; Sexpo 2012; Sexpo 2013; Central Union for Child Welfare 2013). Jewish agencies feel that criminalizing circumcision would be violation against freedom of faith and would endanger practicing of Judaism (Bolotowsky & Kantor 2012; White Paper 2012; Nadbornik 2015). In Judaism, circumcision can be seen as an initiation rite where baby boy is welcomed as a member of Jewish community (Eilberg-Schwartz 1994, 160; Hoffman 1996, 22; Kimmel 2001; Bolotowsky & Kantor 2012). Circumcision can be understood as socialization into the Jewish community (Goldberg 2003, 37). Methods: Qualitative methods were used to gather and analyse the data. Data consists of two discussion groups. To analyse the data I used content analysis and conversation analysis. I used an inductive method in the analysis and interpretation of data. Conclusions: Circumcision still has a strong status among the Finnish jews. It seems to have strong connection with jewish identity and upbringing. A lot of criticism arouse amongst the study participants. Circumsicion was seen as a "necessary evil" to attain certain goals, such as the aforementioned. Human rights were reflected against circumsion with contradictory feelings. The parents were aware about violation of immunity of child and irreversibility of surgery. Still human rights were seen more broadly, and there was enlargement of child's rights. For a future study it would be interesting to investigate if the difference in attitude towards circumcision between mothers and fathers could be generalized.
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(2021)Themes of environmental education have become more visible in today’s educational institutes. While the Finnish curriculum highlights the importance of education for sustainable development, and as the concern of the state of the environment rises, the school system has to do its own part in building a more sustainable future. Knowledge-based in-service training for environmental education provides teachers with the skills to upbring environmentally conscious members of society. The purpose of this study is to map the thoughts of teachers on the role of environmental education in the day-to-day school life, and their dreams and ponderings on the future of environmental education. In addition, the interest of this study is to examine the meanings the participants give to in-service training for environmental education. The participants of study consist of six elementary school class teachers. Four of the interviewees were acquired from the Facebook page of Sykli, and two others from mailing lists. The study’s material was collected by using semi-structured interviews, which were then transcribed, and the transcripts were used for making a content analysis. The participants of the study comprised of class teachers of varying backgrounds, who were connected by the participation in the Sykli’s program of environmental education. According to the study’s results, the participants saw the role of environmental education as being very significant in the context of the school, and thus hoped for it to become a bigger part of the school culture. The role of the supervisor was seen as a significant factor when examining the school’s environmental education. The participants saw the role of environmental education to grow with the increasing knowledge of the state of the globe, and some already saw the change for the better coming. The partaking in the in-service training for environmental education was seen as an extremely positive experience. Furthermore, the participants thought the in-service training had an effect on multiple different parts in their teaching practices. For example they thought their courage to put environmental education more into practice increased. The participants also reported expanded understanding of the nature of environmental education.
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Ympäristökasvatuksen rooli kuvakirjoissa : kehittävätkö kuvakirjat lukijansa ekologista lukutaitoa? (2020)The aim of this study was to find out what kind of nature picture illustrated books convey to their readers. In children’s books nature, animals and nature conservation have always been central themes. How nature has been treated and how books describe human relationships with nature has varied over time. The purpose of this study was to look at the nature picture of children’s illustrated books from a contemporary perspective. The works Kadonneiden eläinten saari (2017) and Mato ja meri (2019) were selected for analysis. In both works, environmental education and eco-criticism are clearly present and central themes. The study was conducted content-analytically. Because of the theme of the study, eco-criticism was used as a theory alongside content analysis. The aim of the study was to find out the nature picture of the works, the relationship between nature and man and the possibilities of the children’s book as an environmental educator. The works were analysed by moving from individual observations to a broader view of how environmental education is reflected in the selected illustrated books and what themes the authors of the books seek to convey to readers in relation to environmental education. As a result of the study, it can be stated that the two children’s books selected as the research topic showed a strong idea of human responsibility for their environment. With the message of both works, attention was drawn to a future where things could be better if we wanted to. The books brought up the idea that it is the responsibility of each of us and that each person’s personal contribution matters. Through these stories, both the child and the adult reader can wake up to reflect on their own choices and opportunities to influence the state of the environment.
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(2021)The aim of this study is to analyze and interpret environmental education materials by envi-ronmental organisations for early childhood education. Despite the fact that by the early childhood curriculum from 2018 the sustainable development goals and environmental edu-cation are mentioned as a part of early childhood education there are no teacher’s books to support environmental education in early childhood education. There are, however, some en-vironmental learning materials compiled by environmental organisations intended for early childhood education. In this study I will assess the overall picture regarding environmental education provided by those materials. Theoretical background of this study is based on Palmer’s (1998) model for teaching and learning in environmental education (the so-called Palmer’s tree model) and knowledge about nature connectedness and children’s participation and agency. Research material in this study consists of environmental education publications produced by environmental organisations between the years 2008 and 2020. The material consists of 12 environmental education publications – with both written and illustrated content – from five different organisations. The material was analysed by using content analysis. The results of this study show that environmental education goals are achieved only partly. The goal for education about environment as in Palmer’s model (1998) seems to be included in the materials, but there seems to be a remarkable variation how the goals for education for environment and education in or from the environment are fulfilled. Children’s role as active agents for the environment was low. Materials do not produce any holistic picture about environmental education when contrasted with the research literature. The ecological dimension about nature connection seems to be emphasized in children’s nature connection. Nature connectedness does not exist as a whole in the environmental education materials. Children’s role seems to be limited to learning by playing and participating in some activities. Children’s agency to affect to the environment has a small role in those materials. Content analysis about illustrations used in the materials confirms the same situation about environmental education and there is room for development in educational materials. In order to achieve the goals of environmental education teachers have a big role in choosing the environmental education materials to support their teaching.
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(2020)Previous studies have shown that nature enhances well-being in several ways: being in nature decreases heart rate and the feeling of stress, restores attention and increases positive thoughts and feelings. The aim of this study is to find out how environmental studies as a school subject can promote the restorative effects of nature during school days. This study aims to find out what kind of meanings does the educational material of environmental studies associate with nature, and how these materials meet the objectives related to learning environments and working methods set in the national core curriculum for basic studies (2014). Additionally, the objective of this study is to examine what kind of tools do the teacher guides of environmental studies provide for utilizing nature in teaching. This study represents the field of qualitative research. The material used in this study consisted of two compendium series of environmental studies, Tutkimusmatka of Otava Pub-lishing and Pisara of Sanoma Pro, and included their textbooks and teacher guides for grades 1 to 6. The material was analysed by using directed and conventional content analysis. The textbooks and teacher guides of environmental studies associated several meanings with nature. Above all the nature was seen as a place where to do things. The restorative effects of nature appeared in the materials of Tutkimusmatka but not in the ones of Pisara. Both compediums series emphasized the meaning themes of ‘being away from the every-day life’, ‘observation’ and ‘outdoor recreation and exercise’. The examined textbooks and teacher guides coincided with the objectives about learning environments and working methods set in the curriculum for environmental studies. In this study the curriculum objective about pupils enhancing their own well-being was examined out of nature perspective and seen as such this curriculum objective was realized only in some of the materials of Tutkimusmatka. Furthermore, the teacher guides of both compendium series provided with dif-ferent tools for using nature environments in teaching. These included exercises, excursions, events, teaching materials as well as additional information and instructions.
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(2016)This thesis is a study of film costumes in The Great Gatsby movies. Earlier research has shown that film costumes have many meanings. They carry the story forward, build the characters and act as visual elements. A costume designer collaborates with other professionals such as a director and a scenographer to create the meanings of the film costumes. According to a movie research theory, there are four concepts of time in cinema: the time of the narrative, the time when the text that the film is based on was written or published, the time when the movie was completed and the audience ºs time. The research aims to describe how the 1920s (the time of the narrative and its writing) fashion is interpreted in two different remakes of The Great Gatsby. The objective of this thesis is also to analyse how the times when the movies have been made effect costumes. I analysed the sign language of the film costume in these two remakes using the semiotic and the aesthetic method. The primary data consisted of The Great Gatsby movies from 1974 and 2013 as well as F. Scott Fitzgerald ºs novel by the same title from the year 1925. As secondary data I used articles in which the movie creators were interviewed, and film reviews. In this thesis, the leading lady Daisy's costumes were analysed in three different scenes applying fashion photograph analysis and Henry Bacon's model of four motivations. In The Great Gatsby movies, the time of making the film is manifested especially in looseness or tightness of the costumes and their shape. Also in the accessories, hair and makeup you can see traces of the time when the movie was made. There were elements both the time of the story and the time when the movie was made. Film costumes are compromises between the fashion of the time of the narrative and the film's creation. The visual hints need to be subtle enough to make the costume believable in portraying the time of the story but new enough to be interesting to the audience. It is more important to create the feeling of the time of the narrative than to copy the fashion exactly. A movie's creators construct film costume, so ultimately it represents their style.
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(2023)This article-based Master’s thesis as well as the article itself was carried out using an explorative comparative research method to investigate young people's perceptions of media literacy skills and civic engagement in digital media in Finland, Norway, and Romania. The research employed an online Media Skills Survey, which consisted of both multiple-choice and open-ended questions, targeting individuals aged 18 to 29 (N=321). Quantitative analysis of the collected data was conducted using statistical software (SPSS) to examine frequencies, percentages, and patterns of media usage and skills across the three countries. The results of our study indicate that young people in all studied countries considered communication in digital media platforms to be the most essential media skill. Additionally, common concerns were identified regarding issues such as deep fakes, fake news, and the impact of algorithms. While participants demonstrated confidence in searching and utilizing information, they displayed less confidence in responsibly producing media content. Importantly, a considerable number of young people in each studied country belief that they did not need assistance in enhancing their media skills. These findings emphasize the significance of increasing awareness regarding safe and ethical online behaviors, as well as the necessity for comprehensive media literacy education. Furthermore, this research shed light on the role of digital media and social media platforms in young people's civic engagement, revealing their active involvement in formal civic activities, participation in online debates, authoring of political blog posts, and engagement with political issues through platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube. In conclusion this study provides important insights to the academic discussion on the relationship between digital media, media literacy, and the civic engagement of young individuals. These findings emphasize the importance of cultivating responsible and knowledgeable digital citizens.
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(2018)Work well-being is receiving a lot more attention on all individual, corporate and societal levels. Well-being at work is nowadays a hot topic in workplaces and many organizations have thereby started to invest in increasing work well-being and the prevention of feeling unwell. Small business entrepreneurs are a group whose well-being at work is not paid enough attention to. This thesis examines work well-being from a small business perspective. In the beginning of this thesis, special attention is paid to the scientific literature on well-being at work. The subject of matter will be approached from three different angles. At first, work well-being will be examined as a phenomenon, what definitions it gets and what concepts it contains. After this, work well-being will be looked at from the entrepreneur's point of view, which presents entrepreneurial typologies and entrepreneurship in social context. The third aspect of the review is the specialty of small business entrepreneur’s work. This examines the impact of the special features of everyday work on well-being. The research material for this thesis will be five interviews with small business entrepreneurs. The benefit of a theme interview is in its dialogical nature. All interviews were carried out anonymously and took place in a location requested by the interviewee. Methods of discourse analysis were used in the analysis of the interviews. The review focuses on small business entrepreneurs' descriptions of well-being at work and their way of creating reality. The analysis focuses on illustrating the small business entrepreneurs’ perspective on work well-being. The analysis consists of meaning systems that were determined according to what small business entrepreneurs saw as meaningful in terms of work well-being. Within the meaning systems, deeper attention will be paid to the ways entrepreneurs describe work well-being and how they define it. The point of view of the examination was the individuality and specialty of small business entrepreneurs. The everyday life of small business entrepreneurs differ a lot from fixed pay workers and therefore work well-being is seen as a very different phenomenon. The topics of importance for small entrepreneurs' well-being at work were autonomy, risk, responsibility and the opportunity to influence.
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(2020)This thesis examines entrepreneurship education and authoritative discourse. Entrepreneurship education is an ambiguous term that is difficult to define it (e.g. Ristimäki, 2001). It divides opinions among teachers – there is no consensus on benefits of entrepreneurship education (Korhonen, Komulainen & Räty, 2012). The aim of this thesis is to refine the understanding of entrepreneurship education. The thesis is based on an idea that derives from discourse analysis where speech is seen as the construct of reality. Entrepreneurship education discourse is a part of educational discourse, and it defines people’s perception of entrepreneurship education. Members of Parliament produce authoritative speech and they talk a lot about this topic. Because of this the speeches of MPs are particularly interesting. The research material consists of 26 speeches by MPs focusing entrepreneurship education. I examine the rhetoric of these speeches through rhetorical analysis. I ask a question: “How do the MPs talk about entrepreneurship education?” In this way it is possible to refine the perception on entrepreneurship education. The rhetorical analysis shows that the discourse of entrepreneurship education praises entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education. The MPs’ discourse is mainly epideictic. This epideictic speech is based on many rhetorical devices such as ethos, logos and pathos, style, order of arguments and oppressive praise. Neoliberal discourse can be found behind these speeches. The discourse is brought out with point of departure that are generally accepted, for example equality and welfare. Rhetorical analysis provides valuable information about MPs’ attitudes towards school. Their relationship to school appears to be financial and entrepreneurial. This allows many new opportunities for future investigation.
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(2020)In my master's thesis, I examine entrepreneurship education in the context of neoliberal governmentality. I approach this phenomenon with analytics of power and governmentality developed by Foucault. My goal is to look at what kind of discursive reality is constructed in the entrepreneurship education guides for teachers, what kind of subjectivity is produced in them for students, and how governmentality appears in these, produced subjectivity. Since entrepreneurship education is seen in many studies as part of neoliberal change in education policy, I think it is appropriate to approach the topic through theory of neoliberal government as well. I selected five entrepreneurship education guides for teachers as my research material, one produced by Suomen Yrittäjät, three produced by the YES Network and one produced by the Ministry of Education and Culture. In terms of the nature and topics of my research, I chose critical discourse analysis as my research method, where it felt like a natural choice when I studied the power in discourses and governmentality that they produce. In my research material I searched discourses that were in a hegemonic position and that occur as natural truths. When I had found them, I focused my research in what kind of dominance were inside discourses and what kind of subject positions they constructed for students. I found three dominant discourses, individual, responsibility, and entrepreneurial discourses. The discourses constructed a reality in which students had to be individual and responsible, however, in such a way that individuality and responsibility appeared only as a certain kind of trait that served working life. Entrepreneurship turned out to be a requirement for the whole individual to be certain, both in terms of personality and action. The discourses built an entrepreneurial subjectivity in which students had to be rational, flexible, and moral, allowing them to automatically act correctly toward the market. The reality built by the discourses made these demands appear to the students as their best, in which case they want to implement them, that is, to control themselves. The subjectivity constructed in the entrepreneurship education guides appeared strongly to the neoliberal ideal individual, so entrepreneurship education could be seen as neoliberal governmentality.
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(2017)The aim of this study is to explore the experiences of a group of company agents who participated in a training organized by their company, from the perspective of activity theory. Activity theory aims to understand the interaction between the mind and activity, through expansive learning among other things. The subjects of the study are Vainio Oy (pseudonym) and the company agents who took part of the training. A significant amount of studies on organizational learning has been made in different contexts, including organizational management. Studies of internal training and usage of collected data within organizational learning are less frequent, though. Thus, the aim of this study is to increase information concerning the ways of development for organizational training from an activity theoretical perspective. The research is a qualitative study, and the methods used for gathering data were thematic interviews. There were eight company agents from all over Finland who participated in the interviews. All of the informants took part of the company's training. The data were analyzed by using content analysis. A phenomenological hermeneutic approach was applied during the research analysis. The study shows that the training was a success. Significance was given for teachers proficiency, given support and specific educational methods, for instance using online assignments. On the other hand the defined agenda and the company agents' expectations of the training did not meet. The company agents preferred a training with a more sales point of view. It is possible to develop the training from an activity theoretical perspective, either with the help of a process-innovation model or system innovation model. Expansive learning is only fulfilled when the activity system, i.e. the training program, is reformed so that the objectives of the training provider and the participants are integrated.
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(2022)For many people friendships are an essential part of life and can be formed from an early age. Friendships as well as peer relationships play an important role when considering children’s well-being and healthy development. The purpose of this master’s thesis was to highlight children’s perspective regarding friendships and peer relationships. The aim of this thesis was to study what friendships look like and what they include in the stories told by 7–12-year-old children. In addition, the aim was to study how friendships are formed and how to successfully gain an entry to a peer group. The data of this research consisted of 88 stories told by 7-12-year-old children. The stories were selected from a larger data which included 3500 stories and was ordered from the Finnish Social Science Data Archive. The stories were collected 1995-2005 using the storycrafting method. This is qualitative research, and the data was analyzed by data-driven content analysis. The research results indicate that children appreciate friendships. Friendships included spending time together, reciprocity and being empathetic towards a friend. There were also descriptions of negative behaviour towards a friend which emerged as aggressive behaviour and negative feelings. Friendships were formed by coming across a same aged peer, after helping a peer and by asking a peer to play together. A lonely character was able to find a friend by showing initiative or after someone else noticed they were lonely and needed a friend. Being accepted into a peer group required that peers accepted difference. Another way of gaining entry to a peer group was to become more similar with peers or to find another peer group which was similar to oneself.
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