Browsing by Subject "lapsen osallisuuden tukeminen"

Objectives. The aim of this study was to describe in which ways child’s participation is seen in round-the-clock daycare centres’ preschool action plans. Preschool action plans are documents supplementing preschool curriculum. The starting point of the study was to find out how child’s participation is supported within the frame of reference of preschool. The need to this kind of research rises from childrens’ right to be heard about matters that concern themselves. The rights of the child are based on the Constitution of Finland (1999) and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). In preschool this means all the activities included in the child's preschool day. The study examined how child’s participation is generally demonstrated and, in particular, from the point of view of learning, in round-the-clock daycare centers’ preschool action plans. Previous studies point out that child’s participation is seen as multidimensional phenomenon. Methods. The research was initially data-oriented. The data of the research consisted of preschool action plans of all six round-the-clock daycare centres in Helsinki. These were public documents and they were collected from the daycare center's own web sites. The study is qualitative by nature and the data was analyzed by using content analysis. The material was treated as a single entity and the action plans were not compared. Results and Conclusions. According to the research results, all action plans described child's participation in many different ways. The action plans described hearing of the child and his or her initiatives, the methods for hearing, the atmosphere related to hearing, the child's ability to influence and the child's learning from the point of view of participation. From the research results it can be concluded that adults in pre-school groups are aware of the factors affecting child’s participation. The results confirm the earlier views that the phenomenon of participation is multidimensional. The results also show how adults in preschool are aware of the child's right to be heard, influence and participate in his or her own community.