Browsing by Subject "oikeustoimi"

In this thesis I researched an alternative approach to support the creation of a peaceful atmosphere for learning in a school context. I visited the Democratic School X in Berlin and interviewed both students and adults of the school community. The focus of this study was the Judicial Committee of the Democratic School X, which is a judicial system within the school. I wanted to find out what kind of meanings the judicial committee was given, what its function was in the school and how well it was working according to the participants of this study. The aim of this study is to bring a new perspective into the discussion about the restlessness in Finnish public schools in the form of a democratic approach of a judicial committee, that is possible to be organized by the cooperation of students and teachers. This research is qualitative, and the method to gather research material was by conducting interviews. I interviewed altogether 9 persons - 4 of whom were adults and 5 students of the school - all were members of the school community of the Democratic School X. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed using data based content analysis. The main results are that the meanings that were given to the judicial committee of Demokratische Schule X, had the following themes: equality, safety, peace, shared responsibility and justice. The function of the judicial committee at the school is to support equality, safety, peacefulness, order and democracy. The judicial committee was experienced to function mainly well, however it is also subject to pressure to evolve and there is also the desire to develop it further to meet the needs of the school community better.