Browsing by Author "Naukkarinen, Melissa"

During the past couple of years, participation has rapidly increased in the field of educa-tion. The newest curriculum (2014) obligates pupils to participate and to raise them as active citizens who get their voice heard. Participation has been proved to increase school well-being because with this the pupils have an influence on their important mat-ters. The growing responsibility the pupils get, increases their authority. Participation should also affect young children, even though generally we might think that children in that age are not able to make decisions. The support of adults plays a major role around education and participation. This master’s thesis will concentrate on participation of ele-mentary school class, from the perspective of the eight-year-old pupils inside and out-side the classroom. The purpose of this master’s thesis is also to find out what do the pupils think about participation and is there something they would like to improve. Ac-cording to previous experiments participation is tried to accomplice by making actively sure that the pupils will be heard. Meanwhile the laws and rules of the school restrict the participation of the pupils. The material of this thesis is based on a second class of eight-year-old pupils in an ele-mentary school in Helsinki. It is done by observing their behavior during classes, breaks and on one field trip. This thesis also includes an interview of ten pupils and was analyzed by theory directed content analysis with important themes. Based on the results of this thesis, participation was found from one elementary school class, but the term participation was not familiar to the pupils. The atmosphere of the class was good and safe, and the teacher was considered as fair and helpful. In the classroom the pupils were allowed to express their own opinions, organize their desks, and have an influence on craft sessions. During recesses the pupils could choose with who they want to play with and on lunch breaks with who they want to sit with. The pu-pils experienced that they would like to have more authority in decision making and would like more presence and support from adults. The pupils would like to have influ-ence on the school lunch menu and also improve the action on recesses and lectures.