Browsing by Subject "gender"

In my research I examined violence in secondary school from the point of view of the students. I asked, how the students themselves defined violence. I focused on who was considered to be someone who has information on the phenomenon or power to define it. In previous research it has been reported that mundane, everyday violence has been studied less than extreme acts of violence. In my research, I drew attention to the mundane aspects of the phenomenon and what it is at its limits. I tried to determine why some things were named violence, when others were not. In my research I regarded violence as gendered, since I wanted to study the phenomenon as a structure rather than as attached to specific individuals. In my understanding, violence and power are inseparably linked. Therefore I chose to approach the phenomenon from the perspective of a feminist theory. Key concepts in my research were violence, gender, school and agency. I used feminist ethnography as a method to both produce and analyze the data. In feminist ethnography it is essential to interact as respectfully as as possible with the people who are being studied as well as to maintain a critical attitude toward knowing and the hierarchies related to knowledge. The ethnographer tries to understand the world of the people she studies by participating in it. In feminist ethnography attention is drawn to power relations as well as in the intertwining differences. The data consist of field notes and interviews. For two weeks I observed the school days of the students of one seventh grade in one school located in the Helsinki metropolitan area. My observation covered classes, breaks and meal times, but I did not follow the students if they left the school grounds unless the classes were held there. I interviewed 17 of the 18 students in the class, in pairs or individually. Half of the interviews were done individually and the other half in pairs. There were 12 interviews in total. According to my research, the student's status in the social hierarchy, their position regarding the norms in the society and the discourses related to violence or bullying in society were some of the factors that influenced the way the students defined violence or were affected by it. Violence in school appeared to be so normal that often it was not even noticed or regarded as such. An atmosphere was maintained actively where the possibility of violence was always present. The teachers used the threat of violence as a resource to emphasize their message. Gendered structures were also entwined with the normalization of violence. Violence or the threat of it was linked in particular with the correct representations of masculinity. In addition to gender other differences affected how it was possible to be present in school and how violence could be defined or used as a resource. According to my research, racism, homophobia and gendered structures limit the students' agency. The students seemed to be struggling to understand situations from other person's points of view and to understand the consequences of their actions. On the other hand, the teachers did not seem to understand the students' perspective. I too shared the difficulties with identifying and naming violence. My conclusion is that even though no one is able to distinctly define violence, it is not to be accepted. Based on my research, violence should always be intervened, despite the difficulties of defining it.

Targets. The study examined the educational choices of upper secondary school students. It focused on the educational choices of upper secondary school second-year students, factors influencing those choices, and their connection to a student's background information (parents' education, gender, school achievements). Furthermore, adolescents' readiness to make educational choices was examined as well how high their educational goals were set and whether education had instrumental or intrinsic value for the. The rational choice theory emphasizing an individual's own choice (Elster 1989) and the reproduction theory emphasizing the influence of social structures on educational choice-making (Bourdieu 1986;1995;1998) formed the theoretical background of the study. Methods. 111 second-year students from seven upper secondary schools in the capital region participated in the study. Research data was collected by an electronic questionnaire. This quantitative study was examined by using statistical methods. The data was analysed with statistical analysis program SPSS. The data was evaluated by using factor analysis, cross tabulation, chi-square test, t-test, the Kruskall-Wallis Test, Crobach's alpha, the nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test, and descriptive statistics. Results and conclusions. It was concluded in the study that four factors have an impact on educational choices, the most important of which were the variables depicting personal interest. In this study background information had no connection to the argumentation concerning the educational choices. The study showed that an upper secondary school steers an adolescent's educational goals strongly towards academic studies and university. The parents' education or gender had no relevance on educational level goals whereas school achievements had an impact on educational choices. The better the school achievements, the more likely the student applied for a university. The study indicated that the upper secondary school students' readiness to make educational choices at the end of their second school year is not sufficient yet.

Previous studies (Eidevald 2009, Lappalainen 2006, Odenbring 2010, Värtö 2000 and Ylitapio-Mäntylä 2009) have shown that early childhood educators have different attitudes towards girls than towards boys. In this study I examine gender and equality in child day care in Finland. The study is a multimethodic feminist and educational study. It has been conducted using content analysis as well as aspects of ethnographical research, conversation analysis and discourse analysis. The research material was collected in a Helsinki nursery school where I spent three days observing and videotaping three educators working with a group of children aged 3–5 years. I also carried out interviews with the educators. The analysis focuses on the educators’ verbal interaction with the children and their thoughts on gender and equality and how these have been taken into account in the early childhood education practices. In verbal communication I paid particular attention to the way the educators praised the girls and boys. I also examined which gendered expressions were used. In addition, I analysed two phenomena which were shown in the empirical material: boys and technology and a girl who on a few occasions was left almost entirely without attention. I divide the data from the interviews into two themes: the educators’ thoughts on girls and boys, and their views on the nursery school’s gendered and equality practices. I was also interested in finding out the educators' opinion of the way the children's parents collaborate with the nursery school. The analysis shows that the educators praise boys more than girls. Praise content and structure were also different when praising boys than when praising girls. The results confirmed earlier research findings on gendered practices in early childhood education. The interactions strengthened the view that technology belongs to boys. The girls were expected to be more independent in, for example, dressing and undressing situations. In the interviews the educators described boys more active and girls as more skillful in tasks requiring precision. They mentioned also that nowadays fathers get more involved in the collaboration with the nursery school than before. Although the educators opinion was that the nursery school promotes equality, a detailed analysis shows that equality doesn’t exist in all early childhood practices. Further studies on gender and equality are definitely needed in the field of early childhood education.