Browsing by Subject "qualitative and narrative study"

In this study we investigate the concepts of courage according to Finnish students of different ages, how the conceptualization of courage develops in different age-groups, how the thin boundary between courage and foolhardiness appears in the students' interpretations, and how one can learn courage. The emphasis is on students' own life-world phenomena experiences and interpretations. Our unique data consists of applied storycrafting interviews with 6 to 7-year-old preschoolers and school essays written by students in age groups of 11 to 12, 15 to 16 and 16 to 18-years. The data has been collected in southern Finland. The study is a qualitative study with a narrative approach and phenomenography. Applying both data-driven and theory-driven content analysis, we have classified our findings from different age-groups into four main categories: (a) the role of fear in courage, (b) the concepts of courage as physical, psychological, social and moral courage, (c) the development of conceptualization of courage through age and (d) the thin boundary between courage and foolhardiness. The emphasis is on describing and interpreting students' concepts and conceptualization of courage and relate our findings on the umbrella conceptualization of courage by Rate et al. (2007). We also view students' interpretations on how courage feels like and what emotions are related to it, wether they think that courage can be cultivated and what it is that students think enables one to learn courage. Social context and relationships of students in different ages emerge as important factors on their reflection of courage.