Browsing by Subject "case study research"

Aim of the study. Educating students to become active citizens has become more and more common in Finnish comprehensive schools. Civic knowledge and skills training is not a separate subject in Finnish primary schools (grades 1-6). In the 2004 national core curriculum for basic education civic knowledge and skills training is integrated within the other subjects. To what extent the civic education is included in everyday teaching depends a lot on the teacher. For this reason the amount of civil education can differ a lot depending on a particular class and school. Teacher's own knowledge, skills and attitude towards civic education has a strong influence on how civic education can be seen in the classroom. The aim of the study is to find out how a class of sixth graders and their teacher from the Helsinki metropolitan area see civic education in their classroom. Methods. 25 sixth graders and their teacher from a school in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area participated in the study. This study is a qualitative case study that includes different types of research data. The research data from the teacher was collected by interview. Students had written earlier essays about democracy that used in the study. The students also answered a questionnaire with open-ended questions that included questions about their possibilities to influence in matters of the classroom. research data was analysed by using qualitative content analysis. Both theory and content based analyses were used in this study. Results and conclusions. The results shows that the teacher and the students both feel that democracy is a relevant and important issue to be considered in the classroom. The students had a very positive view of democracy and how it worked in the classroom. Although the students participation in decision making was usually limited to matters outside teaching, most students felt that they had enough influence in the classroom. Based on the results, it can be said that the teacher has with teaching successfully supported her students to become active citizens.