Browsing by Author "Jääskeläinen, Visa"

Aims. The aim of this qualitative study was to find out about principals' and teachers' views of children's participation in schools, what kind of participatory methods the schools have used, challenges in children's participation and the factors that affect the school's culture regarding helping children to participate. The study also aimed to find out the schools' contributions in helping the students to participate in creating the schools' own curriculas during the spring of 2016. Lastly the aim also was to create a model to illustrate the factors that affect the school's culture regarding helping children to participate. Previous research and international conventions support the perception of children's participatory rights in schools. The prior studies have also researched on participatory pedagogy. Participatory pedagogy consists of the methods that bring the student as a part of his or her own learning as well as the community's learning. The research has shown that participatory pedagogy supports the children's understanding of acting in a democracy and that participatory pedagogy supports the child's feeling of self-efficacy. Participatory pedagogy also helps children to take responsibility over their own learning. Children's participation also helps them to engage in their community. Methodology. The study was conducted by interviewing three class teachers, three principals and one vice-principal. These interviewees were from four different schools. The interviews were themed interviews. The data was analyzed using the researcher's discretion in applying qualitative content analysis method. The interpretations were supported by comparing the results with theory. Results. According to the results of the study the interviewees had fairly comprehensive knowledge about participation. The schools had been varyingly successful in participatory methods depending on the school's action culture. In one school, participatory methods had been successfully developed. Children's participation regarding the school curriculas had not been very successful. It had been done mainly according to the instructions from the City of Espoo in a form of theme days. As to the factors affecting the schools' action culture the main factors were the vision in the school, engaging the teaching staff and time.