Browsing by Subject "haasteet"

The special education reform and development to support in learning and school attendance has resulted in major changes in the job description of Finnish special education teachers (SET). The distribution of resources to schools has also changed. Previous researchers have found a lack of resources in special education. Teachers also experience a lack of time in their work. To date, barely any quantitative research has been conducted on the challenges SETs face in their job in Finland. The aim of the study was to answer two questions: (1) What challenges do special education teachers find to have the biggest effect on their job? (2) Was there a connection between certain background variables and the teachers’ experiences of these challenges? All persons working as SET from early childhood education to secondary education were considered suitable respondents. The responses were collected via electric questionnaires. The first research question was answered by compiling the questionnaire answers and comparing their answers based on the means and frequencies. The second research question was answered using multivariate methods (one-way analysis of variance, Kruskal-Wallis test, two-way analysis of variance, t-test, Post Hoc test, Analysis of Simple main effect). In the questionnaire, SETs (N = 339) assessed how much each challenge affected their work. Judging by the responses, SET’s find that their work is affected by the expansion of their work as well as excessive differences between municipalities. In addition, several answers related to the inadequacy of time received high values in the responses. Because of this, SETs feel that collaboration does not work well enough and that there are not enough resources for supporting students. Students’ individual characteristics and behaviour is also considered challenging. Of the background variables, the level of education clearly distinguished the respondents most effectively. The SETs also experienced challenges in different ways depending on the age group they were in charge of. The experience with special education and the job title had an impact as well. Differences were also found based on the method of education and the population of the municipality the teacher worked in. However, the effects accounted for by these factors were small. The study also found synergies between variables. These included synergy between the level of education and the professional title, as well as the professional title and the education route. However, the effects of these factors were also small. On the other hand, no connection was found between experiences of the challenges and the teacher’s overall teaching experience.

With the amendment to the Act on Upper Secondary Education that came into force in 2019, students have the right to receive special needs education in upper secondary school, which is why the need for upper secondary school special education teachers will increase in the future. In the last decade, there have been only little research on special education in upper secondary schools in Finland. The purpose of this study was to find out the work assignment of upper secondary school special education teachers and the challenges they experienced in carrying out their work. The aim of the study is to look at high school special education from the perspective of high school special education teachers and to create an overall picture of what kind of tasks the job description of a high school special education teacher consists of and what kind of challenges they face in their work. This is a qualitative study, where was interviewed six high school special education teachers who worked in three different municipalities. The research material was collected through semi-structured thematic interviews, which were analyzed using content analysis. Based on the results of the study, the job description of special education teachers consisted of three broad areas, which were collaboration, student support, and written work. In the job description of a high school special education teacher, the most employment-related tasks emphasized issues related to supporting reading difficulties, making reading statements and writing learning support plans. The most challenging things for high school special education teachers were the lack of resources and time in their work, as well as the ambiguity of their own job description. According to special education teachers, these results show that current resources are not sufficient to provide ongoing and adequate support in upper secondary school. In order to organize special education in upper secondary school, clearer frameworks would also be needed to make the provision of support more uniform and equal in every upper secondary school throughout Finland.

Objectives. Multilingualism will become more and more visible in schools with immigration. According to the forecast, by 2030, one in four residents of the Helsinki region will speak a foreign language, ie speak their first language other than Finnish, Swedish or Sámi. This means that at least one in four school-age children speaks more than just their school language at home. The diversity of students' language backgrounds must also be taken into account in school teaching. Research has been conducted on the challenges and opportunities of multilingualism in basic education from the perspective of teachers and schools, among others. The perspective of children and young people who speak Finnish as a second language, ie multilingual, has received less attention. The aim of this study is to bring the student’s perspective on the topic, as they themselves are best placed to tell about their own multiplicity in terms of both the challenges and opportunities involved. Methods. The study examines the challenges and opportunities of multilingualism from the student’s perspective. Research has three needs, which are research need, supporting the development of multicultural schools, and increasing understanding of multilingual students. The extract of the study was a qualitative case study, the material of which has been collected through semi-structured thematic interviews. The material was collected by interviewing three young people who speak Finnish as a second language. Interviewees were selected for the study based on their multilingual backgrounds. Content analysis from data sources was used as the data analysis method. Results and conclusions. According to the interviewees, linguistic challenges arose in learning Finnish, studying in another language and especially in reading comprehension and language fluency. The challenges experienced in the school environment were strongly related to situations that were perceived as difficult to adapt to. The potential for multilingualism in this study was not combined with teaching at all. Multilingualism was perceived as an empowering factor in maintaining friendships, an important part of one's own identity and a tool for self-expression. Although summaries of young people’s responses could be made, despite the similarities, young people’s experiences of the challenges in primary education varied widely. The research provides information and increases educators ’understanding of what issues should also be addressed when encountering a multilingual learner.

The aim of this study is to find out, describe and interpret the novice classroom teachers' perceptions of the challenges they encounter in their job in the elementary school and how they cope with them. The main research question is: what kind of professional challenges and coping methods novice classroom teachers have at the beginning of their career. To help answer this question there were two subquestions: which factors are challenging at the beginning of the career according to novice teachers and which factors help coping with the challenges and, therefore, help the novice teachers at their job. The gap between the university studies and the actual work, the induction phase of a novice teacher and the challenging nature of the profession from a novice teacher's perspective have all been previously studied and the studies have proven that the induction is hard and strenuous on the novice. The previous studies as well as my own experience as a novice teacher formed the theoretical context and basis for this study. The material for this study was gathered from seven novice classroom teachers who worked in the Helsinki region and who had experience in teaching no less than one and no more than three years. I interviewed each novice teacher individually. I analyzed the interviews with the help of content analysis based on previous theories. I looked for themes in the interviews: what kinds of challenges and coping methods were mentioned. The interviews provided information on which factors are considered challenging and which support the novices' work and how. Novice teachers mentioned multiple challenges at the beginning of their career. Some of the challenges overlapped with each other and they concerned the number of different tasks and roles a teacher has, the pupils, the work community and the difficulties in collaboration, the everyday aspects of being a teacher, the school practices, teaching, the community outside the school, and the collaboration with parents. The coping methods and factors supporting the work concerned a well-functioning work community, peer support, pupils and their parents, the balance between work and free time, the novice's own attitude, and feeling that the work is meaningful. A few factors, for example the work community and the pupils, were in some cases a challenge and in other cases something that supported the novices in their work. The results of my study could be utilized in the induction phase, making it easier, and at the final stage of the university studies, when the teacher students are being prepared to start their teaching careers.