Browsing by Subject "diskurssi"

In 2020, the government of Juha Sipilä implemented a reform in higher education. The meaning of the reform was to bring forward the starting of university studies as well as remove the need to participate in preparatory courses. The ideals of the competitive society were influencing in the backround of the reform. Instead of disappearing, the preparatory course markets will presumably transform into courses offered for even younger students at earlier stage, thus causing extra pressure to younger students. The aim of this thesis was to study high school seniors who applied to universities under the new reform. The aim was to examine how the competitive ethos affected their transition as well as how they reasoned the need to participate in preparatory courses as a part of the transition. This topic has not been researched before in this research frame, however similar studies have been conducted of students participating in preparatory courses. Former studies show that preparatory courses are perceived as a normal part of transitioning from secondary education to tertiary education. Studies also show that successful transition seems to require entrepreneurial characteristics. The research data was collected in the winter of 2020 through semi-structured interviews. Altogether five senior students, who participated in preparatory courses in Helsinki Summer University, were interviewed. The data was analysed with discourse analysis. The competitive ethos affected the transitioning strongly. The impact is evident in the notion of entrepreneurial self as well as in emphasizing the instrumental value of education. The preparatory courses give important support in the application to universities thus it’s viewed as a natural part of the transition. As a conclusion, the preparatory course market will not disappear, only transform into courses offered for even younger students. As a result of the reform, students are required to act as an entrepreneurial self in order to secure a successful transition.

The aim of this thesis is to participate in the ongoing conversation concerning home and school cooperation, in which the upbringing responsibilities are being negotiated and the relations of home and school are structured and reorganized. Home-School partnership offers an ideal cooperation model in which the parents have equal opportunities to make their voices heard. On the other hand, the idea of partnership has been criticized because the core elements of equality, trust, voluntary and participation do not consider the unequal power relations between parents and teachers. Previous research has shown that the rhetoric of Home-School partnership usually differs from the way partnership is practiced in school settings. The rhetoric emphasizes agency, activity and dynamics of the parents but when put in practice parents are usually seen as passive crowd, passive receivers of information, participants of events, volunteers and non-participating supporters. I participate in this ongoing conversation with the help of two research questions, which I approached by using the elements of discursive analysis. My research questions are: 1. What are the Home-School partnership ideals the barometer respondent parents are building in their responses, and what kind of tensions these ideals might include? And 2. What kind of parenthood is possible within these ideals? My research data consists of one open ended question of the Parents 2018 Barometer, which I interpreted as a structuralised e-form interview question. As an answer to my research questions I identified four Home-School partnership ideals. These ideals included tensions, which came apparent when parents were building their Home-School partnership with other parents of the school and when the parents were problematizing their participation in relation of trust, the school practises and the voluntary aspect of Home-School partnership. The findings of this thesis also show based on the partnership that there are a variety of possible parenthood identities to parents in these ideals which can be conflicting and challenging to each other.

Aim of the study. Literature has many positive impacts on the reader. Besides adding knowledge reading enhances social skills, adds empathy and helps to build ones self-image. Through fictitious literature like fairytales one can deal with moral problems and behavioral patterns in a safe environment. Still, every reader interprets text in his own way and both evaluates and process the meaning of it. The purpose of this study was to analyze how first graders and third graders interprets the fairytale chosen and how they evaluate fair action in this fairytale. Methods. Material for this study was collected from elementary school in Helsinki in March 2015. The story chosen for this study, The Little Red Hen, was read to ten pupils from first grade and ten pupils from third grade. Then each pupil answered to semi-structured interview. The material gained from the interviews was transcribed. This study was theory bound qualitative study and gained information was analyzed using content analysis and discourse analysis. The aim was to find out what kinds of discourses can be found in students' perceptions of the fairness of the fairy tale. Also differences between the grades were opened in the study. Results and conclusions. According to this study the third graders were further on both abstract thinking and in evaluating fair actions of the fairytale than the first graders. Still, the differences weren't big and results varied also individually. The discourses found on the material were the discourse of physical reward, the discourse of reciprocity and the discourse of social norms.

Aims: My main problems of research are: How neoliberalism is producing obediant citizens through special pedagogy? How discourse of exclusion as a apparatus power and a result of collective mentality of governing strengthens the hegemony of neoliberalism and special pedagogy? How special pedagogy as a tool of neoliberalism produces social exclusion and inequality? The aim of my study was to find out, in a foucauldian way, with the help of the speech of special pedagogists, how discourse of special pedagogy as a tool of our neoliberalistic state, produces inequality, social exclusion and obedient citizens. The structure of my study consisted on special pedagogy, theory of Foucault, neoliberalism, empirical material and the phenomenon called social exclusion which encompassed also the thematic interviews of teachers. These forementioned five elements were interacting with each other in the analysis producing new knowledge about action of discourses in our society. Methods: With digital recorder I interviewed five special pedagogists by halfstructural method. My theme was social exclusion in our society. After written down the interviews I analyzed the texts with the help of foucauldian theoretical concepts. In this way I was able to deconstruct different discourses and "naturalities". In the field of qualatative methods my method of research represented the foucauldian way of analyzing the empirical material. In this manner the producers of the speeches were seen as representatives of certain discourse. Those producers of speeches were seen, in turn, as producing and reproducing certain kind of discourse and discoursive talk. Results and conclusions: Analysis of the material engendered following results; special pedagogy produced, pathologized, normalized and categorized its objects as obediant and vulnerable monolithic subjects which were to be stored as socially excluded proletarian labour force for our neoliberalistic nationstate. Medicalization, therapization, and psy-sciences as products of neoliberalism were addressing individual "liberties". Together with the discourse of special pedagogy they created inequality and social exclusion. This was made possible by making people to believe in their individual and "innerborn" qualities instead of seeing the changing and dynamical structures of our neoliberalistic society which produce and reproduce injustice.

Earlier school text book studies (eg Tainio and Teräs 2010, Blumberg 2007; Ohlander 2010) have shown that women are underrepresented in school books, both in illustrations and texts, and the genders are represented stereotyped. The study will examine how gender in seen on pre-school education materials. The aim of this study is to determine what kind of representations, discourses and the subject positions of the gender are presented in pre-school materials. This study utilizes a feminist research method. The theoretical starting points are the social constructivist, poststructuralist theory and gender studies. The concept of gender as a social construct. The research used content analysis as well as discourse analysis and deconstructive reading. The material was used four different publishers, WSOY, Tammi, Otava and Lasten Keskus preschool integrated material packages, which contain the child's exercise book or booklet, and teacher's guide. The analysis examined the quantity of gender-specific images and gendered words and phrases, and representations of gender, subject position, and discourses, and what linguistic means had been used for representation of masculinity and femininity. Based on the results there were on average more masculine characters and words as feminine in the illustrations and stories of pre-school materials. Feminine and masculine characters representations emphasized traditional gender stereotypes, especially in external characteristics and clothing. Genders had the highest available, with the subject position of stereotypes with reduced mobility, but also other kinds of subject position was observed. The data found in the following gender discourses: difference discourse, diversity discourse and similarity discourse. The highest number occurred in the difference and diversity discourses. However, there were differences between the different materials. In some materials there were more diverse gender representations and other materials highlighted the differences between genders. Overall, the genders were represented stereotypically in the pre-school materials.

The objective of this study is to examine how young people become subjects and construct their future in the discourses of youth workshops. In current governmental and European neoliberal discussion, the youth is expected to be active, effective and straightforward in their transitions to education and employment. Furthermore, the youth outside working life and education is considered to be "at-risk" and in need of guidance and support. In this study, my objective is to examine how it is possible for young people in youth workshops to construct their subjectivity and their future by repeating and mastering the discourses available in current time. My perspective on this study is based on post-structural theories. I conducted three group interviews and one individual interview in the youth workshops. I visited two youth workshops located in Helsinki metropolitan area and interviewed 17 youngsters. As a research method, I applied discourse analysis. By discourse I'm referring to historically, culturally and socially constructed "truth structures" that allow certain ways of thinking and acting. I have applied the concepts of subject position and subjectification as my analytical tools. According to this study, young people had assimilated the idea of an education- and working life-centered society. They constructed their subjectivity in relation to an ideal citizen who is educated and in working life. In the discourses of youth workshops it was possible for young people to become subjects through a position of "non-ideal youngster", "ideal a-like youngster" and through a position where the ideal was critically and reflexively questioned. Further, as constructing their future in the discourses of youth workshops, in addition to discussing education and employment young people brought up the requirement of individuality and uncertainty. Based on the results of this study, it seems clear that according to young people, integrating into the society requires education or having a job. In the discourses of youth workshops there is not much space becoming subject in any other way. However, due to the individuality and uncertainty of young people's future constructions, the straightforward transition to education and working life is challenged and questioned.

The aim of this study is to investigate how fatherhood is perceived from the perspective of separated men. Special attention is given to the way in which these men negotiate their fatherhood after separation, and what kinds of fatherhood identities and positions are made possible, constructed, or excluded through these negotiations. In addition, the feelings which are associated with the construction of fatherhood after separation are explored. The theoretic-philosophic framework of this study discusses research into social construction of reality, parenthood and fatherhood after separation, and the various dimensions of cultural, social, and institutional contexts in which fatherhood is constructed. The empirical data of this study consists of 11 nonresident father interviews, 7 of which were conducted via e-mail. All the fathers chosen to participate had experienced some difficulties in the co-parenting relationship with the mother of their children. The theoretic-methodological approach, and simultaneously the underlying assumption covering the entire research process of this study, is discursive approach, mainly grounded in the work of Michel Foucault, and particularly his understanding of the concept of discourse: discourses are discursive practices, which are seen as not just elements of language but as multidimensional networks of relationships and rules, which combine the elements of knowledge, power, and politics in a process of constructing subject positions and identities. The analysis revealed that separated men construct their experience of fatherhood negotiating discursively in a relationship with various intertwined practices, which are conceptualized as: 1) discursive practices of gendered parenthood, 2) cultural narratives, categories, and stereotypes of fatherhood and masculinity, 3) economic-juridical practices of shared parenthood, 4) institutional discourses and practices of family professionals, and 5) practices of everyday parenting. Gender (particularly exclusive mothering), the emphasis on the economic-juridical parenthood, the power of the family experts and professionals to define and evaluate parenthood, and the relationship with the mother of the children are seen as significant factors in opening or closing fatherhood possibilities after separation, and leading to diminishing fatherhood, and the fathers locating themselves in the position of the "other", not a mother. Three categories of context bound fatherhood identities or positions were formed on the bases of the fathers' interviews: excluded fathers, fathers holding out, and survivor fathers. Negative and conflicting feelings, particularly frustration, are stressed in constructing fatherhood after separation. Positive feelings and experiences are mainly associated with the time actually spent with the children, and with the fact that it also gives the fathers an opportunity to realize their own kind of parenthood separate from the mother of the children.