Browsing by Author "Raitala, Pieta"

The main purpose of this study was to figure out how early childhood educators describe and identify ethical education. The theoretical part of this study is about defining ethical education and its purpose and about ethical nature of educational work. The study was an interview study and the analysis method was discourse analysis. The theoretical frame of this study was social constructionism. In this study, the reality was constructed through linguistic interaction. Six workers of kindergarten took part in this study. The analysis of the study was theory-guided. By analysing the interviews five main discourses (in this study: interpretative repertoires) were formed. The five main interpretative repertoires were the following: Ethical education in day-to-day-life, Values, Personal growth as a human being, Child as an ethical thinker and Hectic modern times. After identifying the interpretative repertoires I also wanted to analyse how the repertoires are realized in education and what kind of effects they might have. The results of this study pointed out that early childhood educators described and experienced ethical education as a very important part of educational work. However, interviewees thought that there was too little discussion about ethical education. Ethical education was especially related to each educator's personal growth as a human being. The main focus of describing ethical education was on defining the ultimate purpose of humanity and education. The results of this study also showed that interpretative repertoires of ethical education were likely to be realized in everyday life as they were identified, because ethical education was strongly affected by workers' personal views and not, for example, by national curricula. There is not much earlier research on ethical education in early childhood education. However, the research findings are convergent with the earlier research on ethical education in the elementary school. This study argues that teaching is ethical by nature and the ethical dimensions of early childhood education work should be consciously emphasized.