Browsing by Author "Säkkinen, Laura"

The purpose of this study is to examine children's experiences of participation in everyday preschool life. Children’s participation is considered as an important part in legal documents regulating the field of early childhood education in Finland. However, previous studies show that child participation is poorly implemented in early childhood education. Barriers to participation have been seen as a various understanding of the concept of participation, and the lack of policies that support children's participation. Children's participation is best realized in play and small everyday moments. Instead, in situations involving children’s basic functions, routines take precedence over children’s participation. (Turja & Vuorisalo 2017; Virkki 2015; Fabric 2016) Methods. The study was conducted as a qualitative case study of one pre-school group. The study involved 19 children aged 6-7 years. The research material was collected using method triangulation. The data were collected through five group discussions of 4-5 children and observations of the group´s daily life. The children also took pictures of things they like in preschool. They shared a reason for the pictures they took. The analysis was guided by abductive reasoning. The study followed the basic principle of childhood studies; Children have their own important self-worth and a wealth of information that can only be obtained by asking the children directly (Alanen 2009). Turja's (2011) model of multidimensionality of participation was used in the analysis. Results and conclusions. Children see adults in a pre-school as limiting their activities. They believe that adults decide almost everything in preschool. In addition to supervised activities and daily routines, adult control extends also to children's free playtime. The children had useful and sensible suggestions for activities they felt needed change. The children thought that the daily rest was a function that needs to be changed. Preferably, they would remove it altogether and exchange it for play. Play was an area where children felt participated. In the play, they were allowed to decide who to play with and what to play with. The nice thing about the play is "That you can do whatever you want." The play and friends gained a lot of importance in the children’s speeches and the photos they took. The activities of pre-school education were strongly planned by adults. However, the consideration of the children's interests and the children's ideas fit within the framework of the plans. These children’s ideas, which strengthen children’s participation, engaged them noticeably. Supervised pre-school activities were fun for many children. However, it should be considered how to enable the full participation of children in early childhood education so that it also goes beyond the planning of activities.