Browsing by Author "Loponen, Enni"

Children's societal participation occasionally occurs as an important topic in public debate. There has been actions for increasing children's point of view both in research and in real life operating models. The purpose of this research was to describe the picture of children's societal participation in school context painted by parliamentary debate during years 2007-2010. In this research the picture of children's societal participation in school context is analyzed, delineated and interpreted. The material used in this research were the statements used in parliamentary debate in Matti Vanhanen's second government term of office (2007-2010). There were 44 proceedings that were relevant in this research, and in those proceedings there were 104 statements that were analysed. The analysis proceeded first by categorizing the research material by using content analysis. After that categorization the research material was analysed with the methods of critical discourse analysis and different discourses describing ways of speaking about children's societal participation were formed. The process of forming the discourses was delineated by using Teun A. van Dijks macrostructures. Every discourse formed in this research was divided into micro – and macrostructures. These discourses formed together also formulated two superstructures. These two ways of speaking were reigning the picture constructed of a child as a societal participator and school as a place of participation. According to this research the picture of a child as a societal participator seemed to be rather passive. The child was seen as an object of the actions of the adults that can be influenced by interventions, also made by adults. Those interventions seemed to produce participation and agency that was highly normative. The actions of a child and his/her possibilities for participation were also found concerning from adults point of view – children were seen to be adults' responsibilities. The picture of a school as a place for participation was formed as a production facility that produces active citizens and future participators in to society. On the other hand, the ways of speaking about school were also highlighting different problems linked in school and its possibilities to produce participation. The concept of agency also arose from the results of the analysis. This concept is considered through the modality model of agency made by Jyrki Jyrkämä.