Browsing by Subject "osallisuuden tukeminen"

Especially in recent years, student participation has come to the fore and at present participation is part of the operating culture of Finnish primary school. Student participation and supporting it are in the center in the curriculum (2014). Students’ participation has significant magnitude. It is essential in building safe atmosphere, and when students can participate in considering about implementations methods and operating methods, their motivation and results of actions are better. Supporting students’ participation reflects also in the prevention of bullying and exclusion. Although student participations significance is recognized, Finnish primary school has shown flaws in terms of the right to participation. Students’ participation takes mostly place in formal structures that are provided by adults, and students’ influence in school is minimal. Teachers are in important position to enable student’s participation in school, and teachers need to understand students’ participation in terms of it to actualize. The purpose of this master’s thesis is to examine what is the impact of student participation and how can it be supported according to teachers. Furthermore, purpose of this master’s thesis is to bring forth and examine the possible challenges that teachers experience when supporting student participation. The material for the thesis was collected by interviewing five teachers. Four of them worked as classroom teachers at the time of the interview and one as a resource teacher. The data was analyzed using theory directed content analysis. According to the results of this thesis the teachers felt that the students’ participation is important. In addition, the teachers felt that the students’ participation influences school motivation, the experience they can influence and be heard and feeling of belonging to the community. According to the teachers, students’ participation can be supported with many ways and approaches. These included, for example, having conversation with students and hearing their opinions at school, involving student in planning and teacher reducing his own speech and giving space to the students’ voices. In the interviews, the teachers brought up various issues that they have experienced as challenge for supporting student participation. These included, for example, deficiency in teacher education, attitudes against participation, lack of resources and teachers’ challenges in managing.