Browsing by Subject "lapsinäkökulmainen tutkimus"

Objectives. The purpose of the study is to study the experiences of 5–6-year-old kindergarteners from swimming school. The study is interested in what kind of experiences children have from swimming school, how they describe their own swimming skills and what significance play plays in swimming school. The theoretical background of the study is built on three main themes. Initially, pre-school children are treated as mobile, physical activity, motor development and learning, basic motor skills, exercise skills and motivation in children's exercise. The next big theme is swimming lessons and the concepts that are central to it. Finally, we turn to experience as a phenomenon. The study has a self-reflective approach. Methods. Twelve children aged 5 to 6 years participated in the study. The group of children was from a kindergarten in South Helsinki. The research material was obtained through participatory observation and an individual interview. I myself work as a teacher in a swimming school group. The analysis of the research interview material was performed by phenomenological and narrative analysis. Results and conclusions. Children’s experiences of swimming school varied according to their previous experiences in the water. They also felt, for example, that different things were nice and not nice things at a swimming school. Most of the children felt that they had learned to swim during swimming school. The children were motivated towards the swimming school. This was evident in their interest in training, and their motivation also emerged in the children's speeches. The importance of free play in the swimming school was highlighted in the children's interviews as well as during the swimming school period. Time must be left for free play, even if it is a guided swimming school. Free play was important for the children and learning also takes place during it. In general, good teaching and differentiation as well as individualization are emphasized in swimming lessons.

Aim and background. This research aims to give a voice for children in the field that studies children's participation. Many studies have primarily used adult's views on participation and studied how this kind of participation is practiced in children's communities. These assumptions often miss children's complex and variable views of participation in their different environments. The aim of this research is to create a better understanding of the phenomenon of children's participation in school and scouting and guiding. By studying two environments this research tries to open children's views about participation as a phenomenon that children experience differently in their diverse social contexts. In this way the phenomenon is studied more widely and attempted to understand it as a part of children's lifes everywhere, not just at school. By creating the phenomenon of participation as children see it aims also to give better understanding about how to evolve children's participation both in school and scouts and also in the educational research. Methods. The research material was collected in the spring of 2017 in semi-structured interviews with five 5th graders who were also scouts. Every interviewee was interviewed twice: once at the scouts meeting place about scouting environment and once at school about school environment. Before the interview the children filled out a short sheet about how they feel about the interview and how much they know about certain concepts (for example local group or student council) they were to be asked about in the interviews. Every interview included a storycrafting assignment aimed to make the social encounter more equal between the researcher and the child. The research was carried out as a phenomenographic analysis. Conclusions. According to the results children experience both scouts and the school environment to be child centered communities, though are in fact separated from the decision-making processes. In both environments children participated in the decision-making only in certain places that were specifically meant for them. These places do not penetrate the decision-making of the communities but only include a part of it. Based on the analysis children saw their role in the decision-making and participating mainly to be sufficient and fair. They did not see that children could nor needed to have a bigger role as members of studied communities. Whereas children had some expectations towards school as an enabler of children's participation in society, scouting was not seen to have a similar role. Scouting was seen as a friendlier environment that allows children more freedom than school or other environments. The results show that there is a need for qualitative research about participation of children also in other environments than schools. Studies about participation of children also need more understanding about how children themselves experience participation so that the results would be more compatible in the light of the theoretical understanding of participation

Objectives. The objective of this master’s thesis is to examine child’s role in Chinese family structure by reflecting through children’s stories. The motivation for the thesis originates from increasing multiculturalism in societies, which is conveyed to encounters with children from different backgrounds. International story crafting provides information about the lives of people living in different environments (Karlsson, 2014, 123, 118, 123), that is used as medium to increase understanding of role of a child in China which in general is poorly known and understood (Haw & Kankaansivu, 2015, 11). According to Alanen (2009, 12, 22–23), public debates worldwide have raised concerns about shortening of childhood or, at worst, its early end. However, in these discussions, the primary focus has been around child’s inner circle such as parents and teachers instead of the child itself. The involvement of children and their own voices have largely been underheard (Alanen, 2009, 12, 22–23) and therefore the purpose of this thesis is to get an understanding of child's position in a family through children's voices and stories. Methods. This thesis is qualitative research where which is conducted by using content analysis as the research method. The objective the content analysis was to outline main themes which are analyzed in detail in the thesis. The literature consists of 38 stories made by Chinese children which have been collected in a kindergarten in Hunan Province, China in 2010. The children ranged from 3 to 5 years of age. Eighteen stories were collected from 5-year-olds, seven stories from 4-year-olds, and eight stories from 3-year-olds. The story crafting was conducted in Chinese, and the stories were translated to Finnish in 2011–2012. In story crafting method, an adult records a story told by a child just as the child has told it (Karlsson, Lähteenmäki & Lastikka, 2019, 37). Results and conclusions. The role of mothers was highlighted in the children’s stories. Mothers acted as a cook, caretaker, and authority. Fathers were mentioned only in four stories. Studies in China have found that the role of the father in raising children is minor (Wu, An & An, 2013, 304, 310) and in the light of the literature study, it appears that fathers have been overshadowed by mothers. Siblings and grandparents played also lesser roles. Playing with parents came up as a common activity. Compared to Western childhood, childhood in China is short and it is evident that the childhood in terms of fairy tales and play often ends at the start of school (Manninen, 2016, 103–107.). Fear of abandonment came across as a general emotion in children’s stories in relation to the family. There are an estimated 200,000 “left behind children” in Hunan Province, meaning that parents have moved to cities in pursuit of a better life (Suomen lähetysseura, 2021). The importance of childhood should thefore be acknowledged as valuable period of life.

The aim of this study was to investigate children's well-being by using the principles of child perspective research (Karlsson and Karimäki 2012). The purpose was to hear children's voice and listen to children's perspectives about their well-being in schoolyard. This study is part of the project "Children tell of their well-being - who listens?" TelLis, project number 1134911). The project is led by Liisa Karlsson. In the project the aim is to gain a new understanding of children's lived and experienced well-being by listening to children's narratives of well-being. I analysed 38 photographs and 38 stories that children had told by using the Storycrafting Method. The study was qualitative. Based on the results, it was found that following factors influence on children's well-being in schoolyard: possibility to act and play, cosy environment, friends, possibilities to influence, feeling of safety. The results show that following factors prevent children's well-being in schoolyard: restrictioning of play and action, untidy and unsuitable environment, problems in peer relationships, the lack of possibilities to influence, insecurity and dangerousness.

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.

Tiivistelmä - Referat - Abstract Objective: The aim of this article-type master's thesis was to examine agency of pupils in primary school during phenomenal learning. this is article-type master’s thesis is a study of child perspectives. The aim of the study was to study what kind of agency occurs during a phenomenal learning process. Students’ views and experiences of phenomenal learning were studied as well. Research concerning student’s agency during phenomenal learning process is limited. Previous research refers that there is still a resistance in school that limits the possibility for students to act as active agents of their teaching and learning environment (Mameli ym. 2020). Methods: The data of the study were collected by observation and thematic interviews with students (n=24) and a teacher at a school in Southern Finland. The students were asked to describe their experiences and views of phenomenal learning and how their agency occurs during this learning process. The data were analyzed using theoretical content analysis. Results and conclusions: The results showed that pupils’ agency occurred individually and collectively within a group or within the whole class and instructed by the class teacher as well. During phenomenal learning process pupils have to take more responsibility than in teacher-centered environment. Learning during the phenomenal process occurs by peer learning. Teachers at the school were providing pupils opportunities to agency during phe-nomenal learning and also during teacher centered learning process. The article “The agency of pupils’ in primary school during phenomenon-based learning process” is to be published in Journal of Educational Change.

Goals: This study examines different meanings of preschool environment through pictures children have taken, and by children's stories associated to these pictures. The study committed to multidisciplinary childhood study approach which sees children as competent active actor in their own right and as a constructor of their own childhood. Theoretically the study focuses on studies of child perspective, children's geographies, and meanings. The study assumes that preschool environment appears differently to children that it does to adults, and that adults should pay more attention to how the preschool environment appears to children. Methods: The study is a part of Academy of Finland research project "Children tell of their well-being - who listens? Listening to children's voices and receiving their stories" (TelLis project number 1134911) The project is led by Adjunct professor Liisa Karlsson in University of Helsinki. Material for the study is collected from a Kouvola-area child safety project. The project focused on children's point of view. As part of the project children photographed places they considered nice or boring in their preschool environment. The children were then asked to tell about the pictures using a method called Storycrafting. The pictures and stories were used as information source by the experts from different fields who participated in this project. Pictures and narration materials produced by 28 preschoolers are analysed in this study. The material consisted of 40 picture and story combinations. Method of the study was a qualitative study and the material was analysed using content analysis. Results and conclusions: Four significant dimensions were found from the material: operation, social interaction, play, and aesthetic character. The study found that meaningful environment for children is cosy, and offers different activities, social interactions, and also possibility to play. The pictures taken by the children and the stories they relate to them contain information which helps to understand how children react to their environment and how they take advantage of affordances environment produce. The results of this study can be utilized by the experts who are working among children and design environments for children.