Browsing by Subject "demokratia"

This thesis is about determine the meaning of inclusion in Finnish education system and policies. Defining inclusion is culturally challenging, because it has its own forms in every country and every country has their own educational system with their own history in education policies. Inclusion is the latest newcomer in modern educational discourse and has not yet been generally accepted by common consent. Topic is hot potato in education field and there is a lot of demand defining inclusion in educational sciences, to deeper the understand behind it. My research is founded on valued Finnish scientific publications. My data is collected from Kasvatus- lehti, from which I picked 10 articles among approximately 400 publications. My research methods rely upon content analyse, hermeneutical and phenomenological approaches. Use of my methods require proper review of my background as a researcher to make my study credible, which can be found in this thesis. This way reader can justify my results. The results of this study made even clearer the challenge of defining the word inclusion in Finland is a challenge. Results showed that it is in clear relation to word integration, almost acting as synonym. This confusion of between different ideology and concept has big impact on educational policy, wasting time and resources on developmental projects towards inclusive education in Finland. In brief, in through my comprehensive data, inclusion in Finland would constite to be democratic, accessible and social construct, that welcomes everybody to join in multiprofessional work community, no matter their qualities or disabilities. Importance of this study is to bring definition and continue the debate about inclusive education in Finland and internationally, and how inclusive education would progress in Finnish education system.

Tiivistelmä - Referat - Abstract Aims: The purpose of the study was to examine how student participation in schools is realized and how student involvement supports the construction of the school's operating culture in accordance with the principles defined in the Curriculum 2014. Methods: The study was qualitative. The research material was collected with a questionnaire from eight teachers. Respondents were selected to participate in the study through an existing network. The questionnaire contained 13 open questions on the topic of student involvement in school. The questionnaire was implemented as an E-form. It was sent to the defendants by e-mail and accordingly it was returned by e-mail. The material was analyzed by means of content analysis in a theoryguided manner. Results and Conclusions. Pupil involvement is realized at school as student union activities, as pupils' responsibilities in the whole school community or as small opportunities for influence in everyday study situations. Inclusion is also the student's own personal school work related solutions. Pupil involvement supports the building of a school culture based on the principles of learning, wellbeing, security, interaction and democracy. Challenges to the realization of inclusion are at the individual level students whose attitude towards school work is negative or indifferent, and at the community level an (yet) undeveloped culture of inclusion that defines the whole school. The research results are consistent with previous studies insofar as inclusion has been examined from an operational perspective.

Objectives. Participation has been studied extensively in the recent years, and its relevance has been commonly recognized. Participation studies regarding elementary school have generally been aimed at studying older children, even though participation should cover all education from first to ninth grade, based on the 2014 curricula for compulsory basic education. The objective of the study is to discover how second grade children experience participation in their school environment. Recent studies show that children's participation does not occur in broad communities as effectively as in smaller communities, such as families. Some reasons for the lack of occurrence of participation have been seen as children's incompetence, teachers' lack of resources, and schools' hierarchies. Children's experiences of participation have been previously studied by Kiili (2006), Thornberg and Elvstrand (2012), Alanko (2013), Virkki (2015), and Weckström, Jääskeläinen, Ruokonen, Karlsson and Ruismäki (2017). I will be reflecting on the success of participation compared to the example that has been adapted from the standard of participation by Salmikangas (1998) and Flöjt (1999). Methods. The study is based on phenomenographic tradition of study. The material was collected by executing focused interviews and inquirie to four second grade classes in a school located in the Helsinki Metropolitan area. 56 children took part in the inquiry. Children being interviewed belonged in a student council as either regular or deputy members (n=7). Analytical methods used in analyzing the material were thematizing and narrative analysis. Results and Conclusions. The children experienced that it is easy for them to voice their opinions at school, but teachers didn't always necessarily acknowledge them. This is seen to weaken the experience of participation. Voting seemed to be a suitable way to make decisions in the class, although deliberative democracy was also brought up as a means to decision making. Having an influence in the school's affairs was important to children, and having a say was seen as potential activity due to wide use of pronoun we. The children stressed the role of their own active human agency. However, social isolation prevented the experience of successful participation. The children diversely estimated the experience of participation, and demonstrated that they are the experts of their own lives. In the future, it would be seminal to advance children's opportunities to influence, and children should be further included in curriculum planning regarding matters that concern them. My study contributed important information about children's participation experiences, and will help further develop the awareness about participation in schools.