Browsing by Subject "yhteistyö"

The purpose of this study was to describe the experiences of special needs teachers and classroom teachers in the integration of students with special needs into general education and the teachers' cooperation. The term integration is used from special needs students who studies partly in a general classroom with peers. The pre-integration form is segregation, where students are isolated from other students, and the post-integration form is inclusion, where the school adapts to the needs of the pupil. The aim of the study is to find out how integration is implemented in today's schools and how classroom teachers and special needs teachers perceive the benefits and challenges of integration in everyday school life, and thus the implementation of inclusion and related cooperation. The study was qualitative research. The interview was attended by three special classroom teacher and classroom teacher pairs who implemented integration. The data was collected as a semi-structured thematic interview and analyzed by theory-guided content analysis. According to the research teachers defined integration in more dimensions than in the previous definitions of integration. Integration was also thought as a transition from general education to special education. Teachers saw the benefits of integration as factors that can be utilized by the individual student in need of special support, while challenges were seen in organizing integration. According to the research as a benefit the teachers mentioned the increase in the pupil's social skills and as a challenge they mentioned physical learning spaces, as well as the teacher’s communication. Teachers attitudes for inclusion were mainly reserved as inclusion was seen as a means of saving. Some teachers felt that studying in general education was not suitable for everyone. Based on the results of the study, the teachers were pleased with their collaboration. The benefits of cooperation were mentioned more than the challenges. For integration or inclusion to take place, teachers should have a common understanding of teaching and a desire to develop their own activities. The school's resources also influence the organization of special needs education.

Every year children with intensified or special support transition to school. Usually, these children transition to general education classes. According to previous studies the transition between preschool and primary education is a significant moment for all children which affects future school success. Also, according to previous studies collaboration between teachers during the transition is important for the successful transition. For the children with special needs the transition often appears to be more challenging than to others, so they need special attention during the transition. The purpose of this master’s thesis was to examine the collaboration between preschool teachers and primary school teachers when children with special needs transition from preschool to first grade. The aim of this study is to find out what views and experiences preschool teachers and primary school teachers have about collaboration in the transition phase of children with intensified or special support. The research data was collected by interviewing eights teachers and using theme interviews. The data consisted of interviews with four preschool teachers and with four primary school teachers. This study was a qualitative study, and it was based on phenomenography. The interviews were analyzed using content analysis. According to the results the teachers implemented collaboration differently. However, the collaboration often increased when a child with special needs transitioned to school, in which case the teachers held an information transition meeting. The visit to school was the second most used form of collaboration. The teachers recognized the importance of collaboration for the teacher, the child with special needs and the child’s family. The desire and activity of the teachers, resources, instructions, management support and the physical location of the preschool and primary school were significant factors that influenced the implementation of the collaboration. Collaboration was usually implemented rarely, and its implementation varied between teachers and cities. The varying implementation of collaboration sets children with special needs in an unequal position during the school transition.

The aim of this study was to find out experiences of day care and school workers about collaboration with families during the process of making a mandatory report to child welfare. Workers in day care and school are obligated to report to child welfare if they start having concerns about a child's or his/her family's wellbeing. Along with the changes in legislation preventive services and earlier help for families are being emphasized. As a result the amount of mandatory reports to child welfare from the services close to child such as day care and school have increased. Collaboration with the family is often part of the process of making the mandatory report. Despite of that there is still very little we know about it. The purpose of this study was to examine, how families react to the concern and discussion about a mandatory report introduced by day care or school workers and also what is the workers' professional role in the collaboration with parents during that process. The data of this study is part of the data of Lastensuojelun kehittämis- ja tutkimushanke (LaskeTut 2013–2015) about the process of mandatory reporting. The data consists of 11 focus group interviews carried out in maternity and child welfare clinic, early childhood education, school, and specialized medical care. The data was collected during the spring of 2015. For this study two interviews from the workers of early childhood education and two interviews from the workers of school were chosen for the analysis. In total 13 cases about the process of mandatory reporting were introduced by the interviewees. The data was analyzed with mean content analysis. The results of this study showed that discussing about concerns and mandatory report is an emotional situation for families. The reactions of families changed depending on the cases, but four styles of reactions were found that could be distinguished from each other. They did not rule each other out but one style was always emphasized in the situations. In some cases families reacted positively and were understanding about the concern and a proposition of mandatory report. In those cases the discussions about the concerns were constructive and the concern became shared regardless of which one the worker or the parent first mentioned it. Parents who had difficulties on accepting the concern or the proposition of a mandatory report introduced by worker showed negative reaction. Those parents also showed anger and aggressive behavior towards workers. In some cases the reaction of parents changed suddenly from negative to positive or vice versa. Different views between parents and workers, parents diminishing the concern or ending the collaboration showed denial of the concern. In those cases parents did not see the reason for mandatory report. Workers' professional responsibility on collaboration with family during the process of mandatory reporting emerged from workers' experiences in addition to families' reactions. These responsibilities create the basis for collaboration with family. Workers felt they have a responsibility of thinking the child's best in all situations even if it would complicate the collaboration with parents. Bringing up the concerns was also considered part of their professional obligation. In addition workers of school discussed and listened the child's version of the concern and the situation of the family. Workers also tried to support parents in their challenging life situations by giving advices. Collaboration with family during the process of mandatory reporting evoked strong feelings in workers. However workers were aware of their own position and responsibility of controlling their personal feelings and keeping their actions professional. Based on the results of this study collaboration between family and workers from day care and school during the process of mandatory reporting includes some challenges and requires personal and professional views to meet.

The aim of the study was to find out negotiation experiences between the parents of co-parenting arrangements. The research problem is how the cooperation is built in co-parenting arrangements through negotiations and what kind of actions co-parents do to make the family form to continue. These co-parenting arrangements are based mutual agreement and the child’s biological parents and their desired partners are committed to raising the child together, without an intimate or romantic relationship between co-parents. The negotiation is understood as a combination of verbal communication and actions between the parties and the goal is to accomplish joint understanding. Parenting in these families has been found to be thoughtful and well planned. The research was carried out using qualitative research methods. The research group included the parents in co-parenting arrangement families who have already have a child. The data was collected through a semi-structured thematic interview. Three persons were interviewed, two of them defined themselves as mothers and one as father. Interviewees were acquired through social media, researcher contacts, and the snowball effect. Two interviews were conducted face-to-face and one remotely on video. The data was analyzed by data-driven content analysis. The analysis suggests that in the co-parenting arrangements family was established based on the similarity of parents’ wishes and values. The biological mother’s home had the most decision-making power. Parents tried to find potential problems and eliminated them in advance or made changes in their actions when the problems arose. Lack of arguments was understood as smooth and well working co-parenting. According to the study, the biological parent’s bond with the child is considered special and the role of the biological mother is the least negotiable. The negotiations are related to building cooperation in the co-parenting arrangements families. Research shows that in these family’s co-parents consciously construct their cooperation from the time they first met. If some of the parents has life changes it also affects other co-parent’s daily life and their roles. Therefore, the society should be able to provide support for these families to build their co-operation that considers the specificities of the family.

The purpose. The purpose of the reseach was to study the experiences of immigrant parents about cooperation with kindergartens in Helsinki. Very little research has been done on this topic in Finland, so my research questions are focused on a fairly wide research field. The background literature focuses on the prevalence of immigrant families in Finnish kindergartens, how the Early Childhood Education Act and the national Early Childhood Education Plan guide and enforce co-operation with parents, and why kindergartens should seek open and confidential co-operation with immigrants. In addition, I have presented the social psychology theories, such as the cognitive categorical schemas, prejudiced attitudes, stereotypes, intergroup relations, social identity and ethnic identity. Methods. The data corpus of this qualitative research consists of five thematic interviews. I interviewed five parents, two fathers and three mothers. Four of them had lived in Finland for less than five years. I found them from three different kindergartens. They had an experience in total of nine different kindergartens in Helsinki. The data corpus has been analyzed using the thematic-analysis method. I analyzed data corpus first time with a data-based orientation, to answer the first research question; second time I analyzed my data corpus with a theory-based orientation, to answer the second research question. Theory-based analysis was premised by the social psychology theories, which were presented in the third chapter. Results and conclusions. According to the parents' experiences, kindergartens had not taken into account their different needs in collaboration with them. However, an interpreter was ordered for annual discussion sessions and start-up discussions. The time while parents were not able to speak in Finnish, they practically did not have the opportunity to communicate with the kindergartens' educators on daily bases. It seems that being able to communicate in Finnish language has become a condition that allows and encourages the inequalities and isolation of immigrant parents. Finnish speaking skills should be a technical problem in itself, but it is used as a pretext for exclusion. Meeting the needs of this early age education customer group is a very timely problem. I think that the necessity for new arrangements and new cooperation structures are the responsibilities of the party who provides the services.

In my thesis I examined multiculturalism and how it is manifested in the work of kindergarten teachers and classroom teachers. My research questions are, firstly, how the teachers speak about multiculturalism when describing their work, and, secondly, how they describe their co-operation with multicultural families. As the surrounding society becomes increasingly multicultural, kindergartens and schools do the same. This requires teachers to be proficient in multicultural education, which puts their multicultural competence in an important role. Furthermore, multicultural education involves all children, not merely minorities. If there are structures that fail to support the multicultural kindergarten and school environment, and thereby equality on a more general level, changes should be made. For this thesis, I interviewed three kindergarten teachers and four classroom teachers. The method chosen was a narrative interview, in which the interviewees are asked to describe their experiences in a narrative form. In the narrative analysis I examine what has happened, who participated in the events, and what the speaker’s role was. The teachers experienced multiculturalism as such an integral part of their daily work that to separate it from other activities was occasionally challenging. Mainly, multiculturalism presented itself as a positive phenomenon. However, sometimes it created challenges. Respecting the child’s own cultural background was not always possible, or the teacher did not have enough knowledge of the different cultures or the families. The teachers felt it was important to listen to the child who tells about his or her culture. The problems involving language learning created the need for individualized instruction and thus added to the teachers’ workload. If the parents’ Finnish skills were poor or lacking, the amount of co-operation with them ended up decreasing. Otherwise co-operation between the schools and the families was often described positively, although building trust might have required more interaction than it would have if the family had been Finnish. Enough support and correct resources should be paramount when multicultural education is involved.

Studies have shown that cooperation between families and teachers should be a respectful dialogue, focusing on the healthy, growing child. Sometimes, however, various matters impede the success of cooperation, or even interrupt it completely. The purpose of this study was to explore how cooperation with families change after a child welfare notification is filed considering the point of view of kindergarten and class teachers. There were two research questions: (1) How does cooperation with families change after a child welfare notification is filed? - by the point of view of kindergarten teachers (2) How does cooperation with families change after a child welfare notification is filed? by the point of view of class teachers. This research was conducted as qualitative research. Semi-structured interview forms were used to collect data and interviews were answered by three kindergarten teachers and three classroom teachers (n = 6). The data were collected in winter 2017 and content analysis method was used for the analysis of the data. The study results showed that after a child welfare notice was filed there were no important differences in the opinions of both kindergarten and the class teachers regarding changes in cooperation with families. It was evident that the kindergarten and class teachers both considered that cooperation decreased or communication even momentarily stopped completely after the child welfare notification had been filed. However, as time passed of the submission of the child protection notification, cooperation improved and became like the past or even improved compared to the past.

Objectives. The study on costume has mainly focused on the work and the artistic process of the costume designer. Realizing the design in collaboration with the costume designer and the costume maker has remained mostly unstudied. The aim of the study was to investigate the various forms of collaboration between the costume designer and the costume maker during the costume making process. The study also aimed to understand the factors that influence different forms of collaboration and to examine how they enable and promote productive collaboration. Methods. The data for the study was collected by interviewing four costume designers and four costume makers between May and August 2017. The interviews were carried out as semi-structured interviews, which best correspond to focused interview. Interviewees were chosen for their education and long work experience in the profession. The transcribed interviews were coded in atlas.ti with theory- and material-oriented approach. Qualitative analysis of the coded data was executed with thematic categorizing. Results and conclusions. The study shows a wide range of variation in the collaborative process both in terms of quantity and quality. Many factors influence the collaboration. These include professional expertise, attitudes towards work and the collaborators, the settled and personally preferred work methods, as well as the level of familiarity between the collaborators, communication between them and mutual respect. The production process itself, schedules and resources, management, division of work and atmosphere in the wardrobe also have an effect on the collaboration. Preconditions for productive collaboration consist of several factors, but self-respect and the appreciation for one’s collaborator seem to be the most significant, alongside positive, flexible and professional attitude.

Objective of the study. The objective of this study was to find out what kind of cooperation with teaching assistants is ideal from a teachers' point of view. Furthermore the research covers teachers' experiences about teaching assistants' roles and status. In addition, the study compared how teachers and school assistants perceived the ideal of cooperation as well as the role and role of the assistants by using previously collected material. Methods. The study was conducted in spring 2017 by interviewing four teachers. All the interviewees worked at the same school in Southern Finland. Two of them worked in general education and two of them worked in special needs education. Their work experience was between five and thirty-five years. The data was analyzed by a qualitative content analysis. The previously collected material was collected in spring 2015 for the Bachelor's Thesis. It included four interviews of school assistants' who worked at the same school as the teachers. Conclusions. The teachers experienced that ideal cooperation requires explicit common rules, clear roles, interaction, trust in another and commitment to the work. The school assistants underlined target-oriented teamwork and the need for teacher's guidance more than the teachers. Both the teachers and the teaching assistants wanted more time to discuss. Both professions admitted that they have some hierarchy between them in some situations, but they also felt as equal colleagues. Hierarchy was not considered only as a bad thing either. The teachers underlined, that the most important thing in school assistant's job is to support the pupils. Both the teachers and the school assistants admitted that even though a school assistant gets plenty of responsibility at their job, all of the teachers can't make most of the assistant's potential. The school assistants had to suffer more lack of appreciation than the teachers. Luckily they also got respect for what they did at work.

Educational partnership is a working concept introduced in 2003 for the Finnish early childhood edu-cation services. The objective of my research is to study how early child-hood educators describe in their talks cooperation with parents in the context of educational partner-ship. I try to answer to the following questions by analyzing mutual shared cultural concepts used by the educators to structure their daily actions: What is the role of educational partnership in respect to the nature of their relationship with parents, their subject position, scope of their work, objectives of their work and their agency? I collected the research material by means of group interviews carried out in eight day-care centers located in the metropolitan area. The methodology of the research is based on social constructionism and discourse analysis. The analysis is qualitative, material based, detailed analyses of the early childhood educators discourse. The educators described their work through efforts towards equality with parents as well as occupational and professional expertise. Working as equal partners with parents means balancing between conflicting ways of working, thus a change in the professional and expert-focused way of working. The aim to support the growth and development of a child was viewed mainly through the aspects of structure of day care, parental, family, customer orientation and interaction. In the educational partnership talk seems not to have much room for the pedagogy deliberation when the language resources are directing educators attention away from child. Working according to the ideal of educational partnership was interpreted as a change to the early childhood care whereby the customer- and help-oriented as well as unofficial and trust-building cooperation has got foothold. Thus, the educational partnership gives room for expansion of the tasks of the workers. The contextual factors were seen as limiting as well as enabling aspects of educators agency. The responsibility of the education and interfere to the activities of parents was seen problematic, limiting the agency of the workers. On the other hand working as partner was seen as acceptable way to get access to the educational questions concerning families.