Browsing by Subject "lapsuustutkimus"

Aims The aim of the Vesisankarit project is to encourage children in practicing their water skills around the year. The project offers materials to teachers and parents and provides them with tools in teaching water skills to children. In this master's thesis I investigate, firstly, how schools carry out Vesisankarit events and how the participants experience them. Secondly, I study what forms of symbolic capital the participants mobilize in the event. My third focus point is interviews conducted with the participants about their thoughts concerning their swimming and water rescue skills. The theoretical framework of the study is based on childhood research, the concept of functionality of children and Pierre Bourdieu's different forms of symbolic capital. As this thesis is the first study of the Vesisankarit project, my aim is also to generate general idea of the project in order to encourage teachers and parents, for example, to carry out their own projects of similar kind. Methods The data is collected from five different Vesisankarit events carried out in the Helsinki metropolitan area. The data was gathered using ethnographical methods. I participated and observed each event. I also interviewed pupils in small groups after the events. I carried out 14 interviews in total and participants consisted of 20 boys and 26 girls of age 8-12 years old. Results and conclusions To successfully carry out a Vesisankarit event it requires an operational culture from the school that supports functionality. Also the organizer has to be motivated over the subject. To carry out the event requires a lot of team work among all the organizers and pupils. Most of the participants got positive experiences out of the event. They generally thought that the skills taught and learned at the event were important skills to master in the future. The most popular tasks were the ones where pupils got chance to operate actively with others. Different forms of capital used by participants were mainly capitals learned from prior experiences and through hobbies. Most of the pupils who took part in the interview told that they have been going swimming with their parents or grandparents. The swimming lessons given by schools were criticized for being too formal. Swimming was experienced by the participants as a social event a moment to have fun with your friends and family.