Browsing by Subject "luova toimijuus"

The aim of this study is to explore a composing process as a way to support children’s creative agency in Early Childhood Education (ECE) settings. The research assignment is to describe, theorize and analyze a composing process in ECE. The research questions are to find out how does the composing process appear in ECE and what factors in the teachers action support children’s creative agency. Based on earlier research, creative and musical activities enhance children’s over all growth, development and learning. The role of teachers is seen important when supporting children’s creative agency. Creative agency as a concept is still new, and earlier studies have raised a need to develop creative and musical activities in ECE. New research and methods are needed to develop abilities to support children’s creative agency. This teacher inquiry was implemented as a qualitative action research, in a group of 5-6-years old children, in an ECE center in Helsinki. Children participated in eight composing workshops that were recorded. The data consisted of seven recordings with 12 children participating in a composing process. The data was analysed as theory-driven content analyzes. The findings of this study show that a composing process can be seen as collaborative practice, where encouraging atmosphere and observing children’s initiatives are key elements. The factors that support children’s creative agency in the teachers action can be divided in two: factors concerning the interaction between the teacher and the children and factors concerning the planning, implementation and evaluation of the activities. Creative agency can be supported by breaking the authority between teacher and children and by planning and changing the activities based on children’s needs and hopes. Based on these results, teachers can support children’s creative agency with they’re own action and a composing process is one possibility to do so.