Browsing by Subject "Icehearts"

Objectives. The underlying and starting point of this thesis is the idea of the importance, appreciation and self-esteem of girls. The study's research task is to make the girls' perception of themselves visible in the contexts of the school, Icehearts afternoon activities and art projects. The focus is on girls' own selves, but also on the girls' perception of themselves as girls, what is it like to be a girl in everyday social communities. The theoretical background of the study deals with peer relationships, gender and peer relationships, self, self-esteem, art-based working methods in research and in work with children and young people. The study also includes girls and girls' history, as well as gender roles, especially in school. Methods. Six fifth-grade girls from the Icehearts girls' team, founded in Vantaa, participated in the study. The study went together with the art project with the girls. The research material was collected through observations, survey forms and group interviews. The written material has been interpreted as narratives. Some of the answers are also shown in the graphs, and the results of the group interviews in the form of a mind map. Results and Conclusions. Narrative research does not aim at objective or generalizable knowledge, but it aims to produce local, subjective and personal information. Girls' evaluations of themselves are presented separately for each girl in their own chapters. Based on girls' replies, friends and Icehearts appeared to be important to them. The way the contexts of this research, school, Icehearts and art project, effect on the girls' selfs cannot be precisely specified. According to studies, the self is still changing during adolescence. This can be seen also in this study: selfs turned out to be variable and contextual.Girls' perceptions of themselves as girls are put together in mind maps. The girls in this study made a clear distinction between girls' and boys' behavior, "being". The traditional roles of a boy and a girl were present at least on one level. Being a girl was, however, seen very positively. The girls didn't think being a girl would cause limitations in their future lives.