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Objectives. This paper examines the epistemic activity of a small group of 7th grade comprehensive school pupils in a single session of innovation. The pupils work together to design and build a "smart pillow". The pupils' handicraft combines electrical engineering and sewing. The study analyzes epistemic search sequences (ESS): situations in which pupils fill in gaps in their knowledge. In these situations, the pupils ask and answer questions in an informed way. The paper explores how pupils negotiate shared epistemic expertise and knowledge construction in their interactions. The paper analyzes the verbal, gestural, and material interactions of pupils. Methods. Conversation analysis (CA) looks at interaction moment by moment. It is based on pupils' interpretations of each other's verbal and nonverbal actions. The primary data for the study is video footage recorded with a single camera and microphone, which was then transcribed. The same group of pupils was previously studied (Davies et al., 2023; Mehto et al., 2020b) using mostly theory-driven methods with focus on a longer time span of collaboration. However, CA brings the pupils' interactions into a data-driven focus that includes microanalytical study of verbal, gestural, and material activities during a single meeting. Results and conclusions. The epistemic interaction between pupils was learning oriented. The analysis showed that the pupils made progress in their work by frequently asking and answering questions (F=157). Through question-answer adjacency pairs, pupils positioned themselves as epistemically knowledgeable (K) in different ways. The analysis showed that pupils who were more frequently positioned as more knowledgeable (K+) asked more informative questions and gave more instructions. Pupils used gestures to guide their work. They used gaze to review information stored both on the prototype and a smartphone. Pupils also showed epistemic evaluation expertise with the use of modal verbs. The pupils approached craft know-how from perspectives of possibility and necessity. The most frequently used modal verbs were voida (can), pitää (must), saada (get) and kannattaa (it is worth).

Teachers' well-being at work is a common theme in public debate as well as in the research field of well-being research. Despite numerous studies and development proposals, teachers' experience of well-being at work has not increased. The development of self-leadership skills has been proposed as a new solution to teachers' weakened experience of work well-being. There is a demand for research focusing on teachers' self-leadership skills, as the topic has been studied very little both nationally and internationally. The purpose of this study is to provide new information about teachers' self-leadership skills and their importance for well-being at work. In addition, the task is to find out what challenges teachers’ self-leadership. The research material consisted of interviews with five primary school teachers. The interviews were carried out as individual interviews using a semi-structured theme interview. A phenomenographic research sample was used in the analysis of the data. According to the results of the study, teachers understand that self-leadership skills consist of organizational skills, a solution-oriented way of working and taking care of one's own self-sufficiency. The teachers considered the challenges of self-leadership to be challenges related to the job description, ignorance of self-management skills, and the effects of the rest of their lives. Self-leadership was considered important for well-being at work and was seen especially as a promoter of well-being at work. Insufficient self-leadership skills were perceived as a factor that undermines work well-being. For example, a feeling of inadequacy, was described as one the causes of weak self-leadership skills. In addition, the work community and peer support were seen important to both self-leadership and well-being at work

Objectives. The ability to show compassion has developed in humans to strengthen social relationships and to enable social functions. Compassion is conceived as a state of concern for others suffering and as a desire to alleviate it. Previous studies have determined that compassion in the early childhood education and care (ECEC) is constructed culturally and that it is dependent on the actions of the adults. This study describes how children react when they confront a crying child in the ECEC setting and explores how children take part in showing compassion to crying children. Methods. The research data was 50 hours of video footage. There was identified 27 episodes where children were crying. The children participating in the study were aged between 1-4 years old. Firstly theory-based content analysis was applied in the data and then the categories that were formed were analysed by multimodal interaction analysis. Conclusions. This study highlights the previous studies in which it was defined that compassionate acts in the ECEC are most often performed by the adults. It was determined that the children mostly continued their previous actions or gazed at the compassionate acts that were performed when other children were crying. The children could also refuse to show compassion to the crying child. The compassionate acts that the children performed were made with the support of the adults, together with the adults or independently. In this study compassion was always shown to the crying child. It should be established how to increase children’s compassion in the ECEC and how to utilize the adult’s role in it.

Sustainability transition is a multidisciplinary topic currently researched broadly. The great necessity of sustainability transition is commonly accepted, but the needed changes in different levels of society from political actions to individual behavior are still slow and inefficient. Socio-technic systems as food-, housing- and transportation systems are fundamentally built for facilitating individuals’ wellbeing in everyday life, and thus the everyday life becomes an important arena of sustainability transition. Former research agrees that many factors having different, independent influences on an individuals behavior are making it difficult to promote sustainable behavior. In this research the aim was to study how individuals explain their actions that have an impact on sustainability and investigate the differences in these arguments’ obligatority. This study utilizes qualitative research methods and narrative approach. The research material used in this study contains 73 writings originally collected in 2018 with an open invitation letter by Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden seura (Society of Finnish literature) and Talonpoikaiskulttuurisäätiö (Foundation of peasant culture) as a part of Writings about sustainable development 2018 -writing competition. Some of the writings were sorted out based on their unclearness or artistic form. The remaining 43 writings were analyzed using analysis of narratives. Narrative approach was used due to the format of the research material, but it also brought in the conception of telling as a humane way of constructing and sharing knowledge. The explanations given for the sustainable behavior were divided into ten upper classes, from which three main classes were formed. Main classes were named personal features (feelings, likings, values, health), personal resources (money, time, knowledge and abilities, personal justifications and compensations) and external factors (influence of others, environment). The difference in effect of the given explanations was named obligatority and it ranges on a scale from adaptive to unconditional. The individuals perceive many personal and external factors influencing their actions. The factors can be of differing obligatority and thus the individual sees less or more chances to change their behavior.

In Finland, children transition from pre-primary education to primary education in the year when the child turns seven years old. Children are already preparing for their schooling in pre-primary education by practising their school readiness skills. However, there is a major variation in the skill levels of pupils in the first grade of education. The concept of the readiness of the school has emerged alongside children’s individual school readiness skills, describing the school’s readiness to take in learners with varying levels of skills. As a result, the focus of the examination of children’s school readiness has increasingly shifted from the development of schools and education. This study explores the views of pre-primary and primary education teachers on the ideal and actual school readiness of children and the readiness of today’s schools to receive learners whose skill levels vary. The research data included three group interviews participated by nine teachers in total. The groups included pre-primary school teachers, class teachers and special needs teachers with experience in teaching pupils in pre-primary and primary education. The data were collected using the semi-structured theme interview method carried out via a remote connection in December 2022. The obtained data were analysed using data-driven content analysis. The school readiness skills that the teachers perceived as ideal were concerned with basic everyday skills, academic skills, fine motor skills, working skills and socio-emotional skills. Especially basic everyday skills, working skills and socio-emotional skills were considered particularly important school readiness skills. Above all, the interviewees wished that children would be able to act in a large group, taking other children into consideration. The teachers noted that there has been progress in children’s academic readiness recently, whereas there are shortcomings in their working skills and socio-emotional skills. The teachers had a positive view of the school’s readiness to take in learners with different skill levels, but they also considered the school’s resources insufficient. The current resources are inadequate to provide pupils with enough of the individual support that they need. Group sizes at schools should be made smaller and the number of adults should be higher. The teachers also considered alternative ways for starting school that would better serve the beginning of each pupil’s school path.

This qualitative research is about craft cultures of two different areas in Karelia. The aim of this research is to find out what have been the main influences on craft cultures. Areas that will be studied in this research are Raja-Karjala and the island of Seiskari in the Gulf of Finland. For the actual research footage, I will be using two aprons from the collection of Finnish Heritage Agency and The National Museum. Aprons are originally from Raja-Karjala and Seiskari. As a research method I will be using the product essence analysis developed by Marketta Luutonen in her doctoral dissertation Rustic product as a conveyor of meaning: a study of Finnish pullovers. Method includes three phases. In the first phase I wrote my first impressions from the two aprons in Finnish Heritage Agency’s Collections and Conservation Centre. My other research question is finding out the differences in these two aprons. The habitat and area’s other culture have been the biggest influences in Raja-Karjala’s and Seiskari’s craft cultures. Majority of the Raja-Karjala’s population were members of the Orthodox church which impacted life in every sector. Ritual towel käspaikka was the most characteristic craft in Raja-Karjala with its symbols and meanings in different situations. Seiskari’s isolated location in the middle of the sea and living collected from the ocean were significant factors in island’s culture. Fishing was a big part of life in Seiskari whether it was the main or side income or to feed the family. Due to fishing, weaving and fixing fishnets were in the very center of craft culture in Seiskari. Two studied aprons had differences in material, embroidery, and colors. Apron has been used for protecting clothes in different situations, but it contains many symbolic meanings of woman’s status in society throughout history. In Seiskari apron has been used mainly to protect, for example when collecting fish from nets. In Raja-Karjala and its agriculture one needed apron for protecting clothing, but apron’s symbolic meaning was perhaps more highlighted in Raja-Karjala than in Seiskari.

Objectives. The aim of the study was to find out whether there are regional disparities in the occupational wellbeing within Finnish elementary school principals. Regional differences were examined at three different levels, by Regional State Administrative Agencies, by groups of municipalities and by province. The job demands and resources model was used as the theoretical framework of the study. In the light of previous research, principals' occupational wellbeing has a significant impact on the wellbeing of the work community and of the school, as well as on school’s development opportunities and learning outcomes. It has been noticed that principals' ability to cope at work has weakened, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Finland, the goal is balanced development between regions. Methods. The data was collected as part of the Principal's Barometer in the years 2019–2022. The participants (2019: N=297, 2020: N=241, 2021: N=315, 2022: N=365) were elementary school principals from all over Finland. Occupational wellbeing was measured in the questionnaire according to the model of job demands and resources with statements related to work engagement and work burnout. All statements were evaluated on a Likert scale. The data was analyzed using analyses of variance (ANOVA) and covariance (ANCOVA) to see if there are statistically significant differences in the mean values of the regions. Results and conclusions. The study did not reveal differences between regions in principals' occupational wellbeing. However it was found that elementary school principal’s occupational wellbeing decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the recovery had not yet begun in the spring of 2022. It would therefore be important to consider how the job demands and resources of the principals' could be balanced and the occupational wellbeing get to a better level. Also with the help of research to monitor whether the principals are starting to recover from the exhaustion caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Regional research is also relevant, so that regional special features can be taken into account in social policy.

Objectives. The meanings created by the contract fire department's youth work in this thesis as told by children and adolescents in their free time and everyday life. Hobbies are one of society's means of maintaining the well-being of children and young people. Hobbies have many different aspects of an individual's well-being, such as physical, psychological, and social. The experience of community through doing things together is also an effective way to prevent marginalization among young people. Previous studies (OKM, 2019) have shown that active leisure activities are an important part of development and growth. They develop different skills, such as creating social relationships, self- development and maintaining interaction. One of the key factors of youth work is that it is done by responsible people who get along with children and adolescents. The youth work in the contract fire department teaches children and young adolescents civic and rescue skills. Through the hobby, a lifelong continuum is created where the fire department offers various tasks from alarm operations to educational activities. Methods. The data for this study was collected from the youth department of a contract fire department located in the capital region by interviewing and observing their exercises. The data consisted of interviews with six children and young people and two instructions. The analysis of the data was analyzed by using content analysis. First, the obtained results were coded, after which were classified into themes. Results and conclusions. Based on the results of the research, the contract fire municipality's youth work has different meanings for the children, adolescents and their instructors who engage in it. Through the interviews, it emerged that the young people in question consider the skills they learn to be important for society. The children and adolescents pointed out that they felt that through the contract fire brigade they had gained important useful skills that every member of society should know. Learning and teaching civic skills is beneficial both for the individual and the community. The hobby also creates an opportunity to create new social skills and practice different interaction situations. The results also showed that the children and adolescents who participated were able to use the learned skills and knowledge in their free time as well as in the school. Even though the skills were learned could not be used in everyday life, those interviewees pointed out that they are useful, for example, if you want to apply for a job in the rescue industry. The instructors, on the other hand, pointed out that youth activities in the contracted fire department are also important for the fire department, so that it remains vibrant and at- tracts new actors to the activity.

The purpose of this survey was to analyze teachers' perceptions and experiences of the current teaching model for studies in religion and secular ethics in primary school, as well as how it supports the students' identity development and learning. The goal was also to analyze whether the teachers have suggestions for changes to the current teaching model of studies in religion and ethics. Studies in religion and ethics has been a debated topic throughout the existence of primary schools. Previous research has shown that a large proportion of Finns, as well as teachers and principals, would like to see a change to the current model. Previous research has shown that students begin their identity development at a young age. Religion and different worldviews are one of the most important building blocks of identity. This means that both school and religious education have an influence on the students' identity development. The survey was conducted as a qualitative study. The data collection took place through five semi-structured interviews with teachers in Nyland. The data was analyzed using content analysis. The results showed that the majority of teachers are not satisfied with the current teaching model. The teachers believed that an intergrated teaching model, may it be secular ethics or a completely new subject, most benefits the students identity development. Arguments raised for an intergrated model were that it favors the students capacity for emphaty, morality, ethics and understanding of other people, culture and religions. Arguments that the teachers raised agains an intergrated model were that the students with minority religions could feel left out, and lose interest in their own religion.

Competitive sports are popular among young people and leisure hobby environments are recognized in the field of food education as important places for informal learning. The roles of parents and coaches are considered central in the formation of young athletes' perceptions of food. The study aimed to describe young athletes' views and experiences of eating that supports wellbeing and to analyze how young people think that the home and hobby environment support eating. This study was conducted using a qualitative research methods. The data consist of ten individual interviews with young athletes aged 13-16. The interview method was a semi- structured theme interview and the original expressions found in the data were analyzed using theory-driven content analysis. The analysis followed a three-step process, which included data reduction, clustering and abstraction. The pursuit of healthiness and a preference for home-cooked food are related to young people's eating. Eating out was very unusual, because restaurant food is not considered to meet the requirements set for an athlete’s diet. There were few species-specific differences in healthy eating in the data. According to young people, family was the most important support for eating, and family support was described by three upper categories: teaching eating practices, healthy family lifestyles, and relying on parents' knowledge. The support received from the coaches ranged from short reminders to more detailed nutrition advice. Experiences about the lack of coach support were also brought up. The results of the study shed light on young athletes’ views and experiences of the support provided by food environments. The results are important in supporting the food education of athletes, when we want to understand young people's experiences of eating that supports well-being. We still need more information about how leisure environments support young people’s eating and what kind of cooperation between different actors takes place in food education environments. Further research could focus on how sports coaches or hobby activity instructors view supporting children's and young people's eating.