Browsing by Subject "kansalaiskasvatus"
Now showing items 1-6 of 6
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(2014)Objectives: In my thesis, I studied the fourth, the fifth and the sixth graders views about the conceptions of the influence at school. In the thesis it was also surveyed what kind of matters the pupils wanted to influence at school. Furthermore, it was studied what kind of influencing skills pupils thought they have. The theory part of the thesis consisted in an overview to the children's and youth's different kind of needs for participation as well as an overview to the curriculum system which forms the base of the school work was studied. In addition, in the theory part of the thesis the democracy expressed at school and the awakening of the children's interest in civic matters were studied. Methods: The thesis was a survey-research and structured questionnaires were used when information was collected. The research group consisted of 112 pupils who studied at the fourth, the fifth and the sixth grades in the primary school situated in the Southern part of Finland. The data was analyzed with the quantitative research program SPSS. At first different numbers such as averages and standard deviations were examined and after that factor analyses were used. Correlation examination was also used. Results and conclusions: The results showed that the pupils had a positive image about their own influencing skills and they trusted their own opinions. They felt that it was important to have influence on they own matters as well as on the common matters at school. However many of the pupils felt that they didn't have possibilities to influence what happens at school during the school day. In addition, the pupils didn't want the teachers or the headmaster to decide solely how the work at school was carried out. The things that the pupils wanted to influence the most were the lunch and the snack at school, the seating arrangement in the classroom, the visits carried out at school and the optional subjects. According to the results it's possible to draw a conclusion that the pupils' participation at school is necessary. The pupils value the possibilities to take part in and seem to understand that it is needed them to contribute themselves so that it is possible to enjoy more the time spend at school. It's also possible to draw a conclusion that although the possibilities to participate are valued there is a lack of real enthusiasm to participate. This is why it seems that there is a need for different kinds of ways to participate since the current ways to participate at school lack to motivate many pupils. Also the work of student body needs to be improved since many of the pupils didn't want to participate to the work of student body although they thought the work done by the student body was important.
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(2019)The aim of this study was to find out teachers’ visions about citizenship and civic education and Yrityskylä’s role in it. Citizenship education was reformed in 2014 when new curriculum was introduced. The reform brought a new subject, social studies (yhteiskuntaoppi) to fourth and sixth graders. Active citizenship has been the ideal kind of citizenship education in the world, including Finland, for a quite long time and social studies aim to raise students to be “active, responsible and industrious citizens”. As part of citizenship education most of the sixth graders participate to Yrityskylä’s learning concept. Students will attend 10 lessons at school to study about working life, economy and society before visiting Yrityskylä’s learning environment for one day. Yrityskylä is a learning concept where students’ act as an employees, citizens and consumers in a simulated society. Data was collected by interviewing six teachers who participated with their students to Yrityskylä and one retired class teacher during spring 2018. One interview was a two persons’ group interview and the rest were individual interviews. All interviews were carried out as theme interviews. The data was transcribed and analysed by using theme analysis. Based on theme analysis altogether six themes were formed. According to the teachers the citizenship concept contained four themes: social skills, self-leadership, economic skills and critical thinking. In the teachers’ view Yrityskylä’s role as a part of citizenship education was to teach students generally about citizenship and produce citizenship education itself. Teachers’ visions about citizenship correspond to the ideal of active citizenship and is very similar to the curriculum’s aims and contents. Yrityskylä is seen as an important part of school’s citizenship education. That it also provides students with concrete understanding about citizenship. Furthermore, it is a place where students can practice citizenship skills and learn more about citizenship and being a citizen.
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(2013)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.
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(2017)Recent international comparative studies have shown that the participation of the Finnish school children is weak. At the same time young citizens' social passivity has been an issue in the public debate. Research findings indicate that methods of civic education has been mainly adult organized. That is why the new National Core Curriculum (2014) highlights strongly student's agency and participation. Uutisluokka Project was started to promote children's social participation in media. This research studied children's agency and participation in that project. Children have chosen topics based on their personal interest and produced news shared in the social media and YLE websites. Children rarely get an opportunity to shape images of childhood produced by public media. However in the Uutisluokka project children themselves were shaping the discourse of childhood and constructed their own version of it. The audiovisual research data consisted of news reports and texts created by children, published in the Internet. Six media texts were taken in to a closer analysis. Content analysis was used as a research method and as a starting point which opened up possibilities thinking data with theory. The research question was how resistance was constructed in children's media texts. This study was based on sociologically oriented childhood studies where the participation was approached from the child's perspective. In children's texts multidimensional image of a child citizen was produced. Critical citizenship manifested as a resistance towards adult control as well as a need for protection. Resistance was manifested both implicitly and explicitly. As news reporters children commented critically on several school practises and the way school was run. Personality came out in these texts more than in every day school life. Responsibility, that The New National Core Curriculum highlights, was performed well. However, the role of autonomous self-guided student was also questioned. The ability of schools to apply current data on social issues was criticized. News reports functioned as a starting point of dialogue between children and adults. Power positions at school did not always allow equal discussion but the reporter role gave the children new subject positions. Finally, this study summarizes the practises that support or hinder children's agency at school. It's important that children may define their own citizenship. In public discussion there has not been room for that even though children's participation has more and more become a responsibility instead of a right.
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(2021)Student boards aim to increase children’s participation and develop democratic competencies needed for active citizenship. However, not much research has been done on young children’s experiences on this topic. Previous studies suggest that use of representative democracy structures within school context provide students elected to the board with a space to practice e.g. negotiation skills. This qualitative case study aims to investigate the experiences of children elected to the student board government, focusing on the agency and participation narratives produced by the children, and instances of democratic competency. Research material was collected via questionnaire consisting of five open questions and a multiple choice section to examine the reliability of the answers. The study was partaken by nine students from a school actively developing their student board. All students were 4th or 5th graders elected to the student board either during the semester in which material was collected or the previous year. The material was analyzed and themed by qualitative content analysis. Themes were studied in the light of participation and growing into active citizenship discourses found from previous research. The children perceived the student board as a space where they have permission to speak out about school matters, be heard and partake in collective decision making. They viewed social skills and the ability and courage to express opinions and ideas as cardinal strengths and competencies. These skills are both needed and learned while being a member of the student board. The school democracy practiced by the student board appeared as a cooperative negotiation typical to deliberative democracy with the goal to advance common good. On the other hand, the student board appeared as a separate space from everyday school life the other students aren’t very interested in. Thus, social participation in the school community might not fully come true, and the agency in the context of the student board might not intertwine with other areas of life despite the skill-developing experiences it offers.
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(2012)In my thesis, I studied the conceptions of the teachers who supervise school councils in primary schools. The purpose of this study was to examine the aims of school councils, how the aims are actualised, and how the school councils are organised and enhanced at the school level. The concern about the social passivity of children and the young has been raised to public discussion after the millennium. School councils have been considered to be a solution for decreasing social passivity. School democracy has not been a popular topic since the 1980 s, but during the 21st century, it has become more popular, and nowadays, many primary schools have their own school councils. Nevertheless, school councils have not been a popular research subject. In this study, the perspective to school world is societal, and the supervising teachers' conceptions are reflected to democracy, participation and citizenship education using the writings by Dewey, Freire and Biesta. The research data was collected from ten thematic interviews. The interviewees were ten teachers from Espoo, who were responsible for supervising the school councils at their schools. The interviews were analysed using research methods typical for a phenomenographic study. According to the study, the teachers are mainly very satisfied with school councils. School councils were considered to be such places in which pupils learn useful knowledge and skills. In addition, the teachers thought that school councils enhance the communality of schools as well as the participation of pupils. The role of school councils as an organiser of events was considered to be very strong. Via school councils, pupils have been able to affect schools' equipment and conventions, for example, the equipment that can be used during breaks, and school catering. Even though school councils were considered very positive, the interviewed teachers found many things to improve. For example, the teachers thought that pupils and teachers should be more active. In addition, it was considered that even though school councils provide a model of democracy and active citizenship, the pupils' possibilities to impact matters at their school were only minor. School councils were considered to be led by teachers and coordinated from above. School councils could be improved by shifting the focus on school democracy from school councils to classrooms. In classrooms, every student would have an opportunity to learn useful knowledge and skills and to gain experience if they could impact matters at school.
Now showing items 1-6 of 6