Browsing by master's degree program "Muuttuvan kasvatuksen ja koulutuksen maisteriohjelma"

Multilingualism is an inherent characteristic of human societies around the world, which is continuously reinforced by recent societal events such as migration or globalization. Yet educational contexts have only recently started to dedicate more attention to multilingualism in education. Education systems still fail to fully recognize and value multilingual learners’ competences, sometimes resulting in language-based exclusion. To address this, the present study examines the issue of continuities and discontinuities in terms of language use, between familial and educational contexts in multilingual contexts. Special attention is also given to language attitudes and ideologies, to investigate their impact and influence on linguistic practices. With the help of a sociolinguistic questionnaire giving insights into language ecologies in educational and familial contexts, a cross-cultural comparative analysis is conducted along with an in-depth analysis of one situation of languages in contact. This in-depth analysis addresses the educational policy level, questioning how policies can establish bridges to build continuity with the familial domain. The findings suggest that diverse situations occur across different sociocultural contexts. Nevertheless, some similarities emerged in the analysis, revealing that certain educational contexts promote continuity with the familial domain to a certain extent, while others do not promote continuity at all. Language attitudes and ideologies have a strong role on language practices and can contribute to the maintenance and vitality of certain languages, or jeopardize others. The in-depth analysis of one contact situation suggests that, in this context, the educational policy level attempted to promote some continuity, putting emphasis on mother tongue education and the development of multilingual competences for children. Nonetheless, explicit references to promote continuity between familial and educational contexts in terms of language use was missing. In addition, several sources pointed to the challenges of implementing such educational policies due to practical constraints such as the lack of qualified teachers or of a sufficiently high number of pupils participating in these initiatives. The analysis confirms that sociolinguistic questionnaires focusing on eliciting information on the ecology of languages can be a valuable source of data for education and policy-making. Although not designed for educational purposes, the data provided extremely insightful information. Therefore, this thesis highlights that tailored sociolinguistic questionnaires can represent a rich source of information for evidence-based policymaking. Overall, this study acknowledges the advancement and positive consideration given to multilingual education in different sociocultural contexts, and at different educational levels. However, more efforts are needed in order to meet multilingual learners’ needs, provide equitable chances and promote social justice in education. Reconsidering multilingualism not only as a right but also as a richness for individuals and society is a concrete example of the goals ahead. This study thus concludes by pleading for more action at all educational levels and beyond, to promote truly inclusive multilingual education and contribute to the important endeavor of changing education.

Objectives. Research revealed that the Covid-19 pandemic caused stress (Cooke et al. 2020). Whether or not this also applied to principals in Finland will be tested in this study. This study discovers in what way there is a difference in the self-reported as well as the physiological stress of Finnish principals between 2019 and 2020. Researchers have found a connection between stress and social support among principals (Beausaert et al., 2016; Upadyaya et al., 2021). This thesis investigates in what way there is a connection between self-reported and physiological stress of 2020 and the experienced help and support for the Covid-19 procedures. Based on previous studies by Upadyaya et al. (2021) and a someway similar investigation by Beausaert et al. (2016), the hypothesis was that the dataset will reveal a connection between stress and social support. The research questions of this study are: 1. In what way do the principals’ physiological and self-reported stress levels for 2020 differ from 2019? 2. In what way is there a connection between principals’ self-reported as well as physiological stress and the experienced help and support for the Covid-19 procedures? Methods. All the physiological, as well as questionnaire data that are used in this study were collected in 2019 and 2020 by Katariina Salmela-Aro’s research group at the University of Helsinki. The physiological data was retrieved with Firstbeat’s device: Bodyguard 2. In this study, a selection of questionnaire data, and SDNN values that were retrieved during working time (8 a.m. till 5 p.m.) and sleeping time (midnight till 6 a.m.) have been used. Results and conclusions. The self-reported scales of “Cognitive Stress Symptoms”, “Stress” and “Somatic Stress Symptoms” between 2019 and 2020 were analysed as well as the physiological data. A significant result has been found only in the cognitive stress symptoms. Surprisingly, cognitive stress symptoms decreased in 2020, compared to 2019. A significant connection between the self-reported stress of “Cognitive Stress Symptoms”, “Stress” and “Somatic Stress Symptoms” with the experienced help and support of the Covid-19 procedures from Guardians of pupils/students have been found. As well as a significant connection between self-reported “Stress” with the experienced help and support of the Covid-19 procedures from the State level. The physiological data recorded during the night correlated significantly with ‘’Guardians of pupils/students’’, ‘’Municipal education board’’ and the ‘’State level’.

The aim of this study is to examine parents' beliefs on what impact Covid-19 has had on our young children's physical activity. With the term young children, I refer to children aged from one to six years old. The research questions for this study are the following: 1. How do parents view the impact Covid-19 has had on children's physical activity? 2. What kind of change in the child’s physical activity can be seen? 3. Is there a change in the child’s attitude towards physical activity? In the chapter physical activity some background on how children master physical movements will be presented. The chapter contains children’s physical development, as well as benefits and the needs for physical activity. Physical development and physical activity go hand in hand, developing physically often leads to the child becoming more physically active. In the chapter Covid-19 and everyday life, viewpoints on how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected young children’s everyday life and especially physical activity are examined. The Covid-19 pandemic led to activities organized for families with children, such as story-time in library, music-play at the library/church and family café etc. stopped to decrease the spreading of the Covid-19 virus. A short complete lockdown took place in the beginning of spring 2020, where early childhood centers closed, and only parents/guardians who could not stay at home with their children had the right to bring their child to early childhood education. The parents that had the opportunity to stay home with their child were offered online early childhood education via the early childhood education center that they normally attend to. How much activities were sent out depended on the early childhood centers approach and beliefs (Hilppö, et al. 2020; Nurhonen et al. 2021). However, it was decided later that early childhood education centers remained open during the pandemic, and children were offered everyday life as normal as possible. Even though, early childhood education centers opened, the Covid-19 restrictions still existed (Nurhonen et al. 2021). How these restrictions were followed depended on the family. With the use of questionnaire, that were sent out to early childhood education centers and parent-child activities I have tried to get a view on how parents view the impact Covid-19 has had on young children’s physical activity. Has the pandemic affected young children’s physical activity? What are the parents’ beliefs? and how well with Covid-19 going on can children be physically active? I collected 103 answers from the questionnaire. Looking at the collected data I have also tried to see how and what attitudes towards physical activity children have. Do they enjoy being outdoors, physically active and has this changed during the pandemic? What can be concluded from this study is that even though the Covid-19 pandemic has been going on for 2 years it has not, according to the parents of the children, affected young children's physical activity that markedly. The children of this study seem to be as physically active as before the Covid-19 pandemic. This study is only a sample of a specific number of people, trying to explain how Covid-19 has affected the daily lives of children. Further study is needed to fully understand the changes made by Covid-19.

This study investigates the critical role of peer relatedness and loneliness on student motivation post middle school transition, an age where peer influence becomes increasingly significant. While previous research has established that students' social environments significantly impact their motivation, there is a gap in understanding how peer relatedness specifically affects learning motivation, particularly during the transition to middle or secondary school. This study analysed longitudinal survey data from 1482 middle school students in Helsinki. Through Structural Equation Modelling, four latent variables were analysed. Students’ sense of peer relatedness and loneliness in their first year of middle school was used as latent variables to predict their sense of curiosity and schoolwork engagement in the second year of middle school. This study found that student’s sense of peer relatedness in their first year of middle school was a predictor for their curiosity and schoolwork engagement in their second year. Loneliness was not found to be a predictor for curiosity or schoolwork engagement. Results of this study suggests that the concept of peer relatedness and loneliness needs to be viewed as more than opposites when investigating their relationship in educational research context.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the topic of the teacher as a person in ECEC teacher education. Previous research has shown that pedagogical practices are dependent on science and socio-political and economic trends but also subjective to interpretation by the individual teacher. According to Gallas (2010), just like researchers, teachers are never entirely objective. Personal beliefs, values and views influence a teacher's pedagogical work. Awareness and reflection not only as improving pedagogical practices for better results but also as rethinking one’s own motivations behind pedagogical choices and socio-emotional competences can have a profound effect on a teacher’s professional identity (Virmani et al., 2020). Research suggests that a holistic approach to teacher education (Körkkö, 2021; Klein, 2008), of building an inner perspective of the student’s own self, helps future teachers’ work practices. The research questions of this study look at how the teacher as a person is acknowledged and how the personhood of the teacher is supported in ECEC teacher education. To answer the research questions, an analysis of the curriculum for ECEC teacher education at the University of Helsinki was conducted. The method used was Discourse analysis with Bakhtin’s Dialogic theory as a theoretical framework. The results of this study suggest that the topic of the teacher’s personhood is sporadically present and rarely supported. The teacher as a person is meaningful when related to professional development. In general, the curriculum gives an impression of the teaching profession as normative and prescriptive, focused only on child-centred results. Leaving the person out of the professional in the curriculum could lead to teacherhood being seen as a technical occupation. Taking the personal aspect under consideration, on the other hand, could shed more light on teacher burnout and job dissatisfaction.

The objective of this master’s thesis was to discover preschool teachers’ experiences with using music as an educational tool during preparatory Finnish language lessons. Language is a tool that helps humans connect with each other and their surroundings in a meaningful way. It is especially important for children who learn through play and interactions with others. Teachers and their pedagogical choices are in key position in supporting second language learning. Music has been found to be beneficial to second language learning. The significance teachers place on music as an educational tool can be observed by defining how and when they utilize music during language teaching sessions, and how they justify its use. The aim of this qualitative study was to discover personal motivation and experiences with using music as a teaching tool. Since the objective was to acquire the most valuable research results possible, the participants were chosen based on their personal knowledge and experience with using music during preparatory language teaching lessons in preschool. Seven qualified teachers were interviewed through semi-structured face-to-face interviews that were conducted in the summer of 2023. The participants all reported having had very positive experiences with using music as a teaching tool and having noticed significant benefits it has on second language learning. Participants had observed music impacting different areas of language learning, such as vocabulary recall, pronunciation, rhythm of language and sentence structuring. The impact was described as significant by the participants, which reflects findings of prior studies. Teachers valued its influence on supporting functions of learning such as memory, motivation and focus. Previous experiences with music seem to influence how comfortable teachers are with starting to implement music into their curriculum, and that support from colleagues has a vital role in encouraging its use. Having a teammate who has a strong background in music education was a key incentive that encouraged them to start utilizing it in their work, as it allowed new teachers to witness the effect music can have on language learning.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the experienced primary school teachers' implementation of the key characteristics of project-based learning (PBL) in South Korea. Six key characteristics of PBL were used in this study as the theoretical framework. The characteristics are driving questions, learning goals, scientific activities, collaborative activities, using digital tools, and creating artefacts. The other focus of this study is analysing the challenges that the teachers faced when implementing PBL. The study had two research questions. The first one examined how primary school teachers in South Korea implement the key characteristics of PBL, and the second one focused on what kinds of challenges they have when applying PBL. The data were collected by semi-structured online interviews of seven primary school teachers. Their project plan documents designed and implemented by the teachers were used as additional data. The collected data were analysed with qualitative content analysis mainly in an inductive way. The main findings are that the experienced teachers in South Korea employed PBL as follows: the teachers (1) designed PBL based on the curriculum and the students' interests, (2) tried to reflect the students' opinion, (3) created a PBL environment, (4) had the students practice related skills, (5) facilitated the students' learning, (6) designed collaborative work, (7) utilised digital tools, and (8) gave an opportunity to showcase the results of the learning. The study indicated that the teachers faced challenges such as managing time, ambiguity, and diversity. The teachers also described several challenges related to student engagement, collaborative work, lack of skills, resources, school support, and teacher expertise. These results confirm earlier research in other countries. The results and suggestions of the study can provide new insights of experienced teachers’ PBL implementation to teachers, schools, and curriculum developers wishing to implement PBL in classrooms. The findings revealed the strategies of PBL implementation, the need to guarantee teacher autonomy more in the curriculum and need of training for teachers’ professional development.

Aims. The aim of the present study was to investigate how Chinese high school students’ psychological needs frustration in physical education courses relate to their school achievement, which was reflecting by the change of physical fitness test results. According to the concept of Self-Determination Theory (SDT), humans have three fundamental needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Previous studies have shown that satisfying psychological needs lead to positive outcomes, while thwarting psychological needs cause negative outcomes. This research links Chinese high school students’ psychological needs frustration to their school achievement within PE context, which was conducted to assess the stability of school achievement in physical tests over time for students with different needs frustration groups. Methods. 518 students (274 male, 244 female) from three Senior High Schools in Beijing completed an online questionnaire during school days. Two-Step Cluster analysis in SPSS was used to group students into homogeneous clusters based on their scores for psychological needs thwarting. A mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out to measure the between-group and within-group differences. Results and conclusions. Three distinct psychological needs profiles were identified: high frustration (20.3%), moderate frustration (54.6%), and low frustration (25.1%). For school achievement, it was discovered that students who reported high levels of frustration received the lowest grades in both high school entrance exams and current exams, whereas those who reported low levels of frustration received the highest grades. The mixed ANOVA results showed a significant difference in physical test scores between entrance exams and current exams, indicating a decline in physical performance over time across all three identified profiles. Overall, this study contributes to our understanding of the complex interplay between psychological needs fulfilment and academic performance, which could inform future research and interventions in this field.

Objectives. The development of a strong ethnic identity is crucial for minority students throughout their school years. A sense of invisibility and stereotype threat may develop in the absence of a strong identity. Therefore, a rich representation of ethnicity is essential to the development of ethnic identity. This study aims to determine how minority representation is reflected in Finnish school textbooks, particularly how minorities racialized as non-white are depicted through the images found in textbooks. As earlier reports and research show that students from immigrant backgrounds perform lower than students from non-immigrant backgrounds and meaningful representation is important to avoid stereotype threat, it becomes important to examine how minorities are represented in Finnish textbooks used by all students. Methods. A content analysis was conducted to gain a greater comprehension of how minorities are portrayed in Finnish middle school textbooks which affects the development of ethnic identity. To gain insight into how students may perceive the presence of minorities in their textbooks, I examined 227 images found in several textbooks from the two main Finnish textbook publishers. Based on the variables set out, representation was categorized into categories of social hierarchy between the majority racialized as white and minority racialized as non-white found in the textbooks. Results and conclusions. Overall, the representation was 76 % for the majority racialized as white and 23.4% for the minority racialized as non-white. The greatest disparity in representation between majority and minority backgrounds was observed among professionals and academics, with the majority background appearing 80% more than the minority. On the other end of the social ladder, 'peasants' from minority backgrounds were represented more than those from majority backgrounds. The research indicates that textbooks do not give a full account of the varied backgrounds of minority students, which can have a detrimental effect on their ethnic identity and result in a sense of invisibility and stereotype threat.

Teacher’s job burnout has been a global concern in recent years, especially during the covid pandemic. To reduce their burnout, job crafting is proposed as a key factor for teachers. Yet previous empirical research has found inconsistency findings between job crafting and burnout. In some studies, job crafting was found to exacerbate instead of reducing the burnout. The current thesis aimed to address this issue from a multi-dimensional perspective. Moreover, basic psychological needs were added as mediators to uncover the mechanism behind the paradoxical relationships between job crafting and burnout among teachers. For those purpose, 726 teachers (Age mean= 39) from China were surveyed online and reported valid responses during 2022. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Model (SEM) with three dimensions of teacher job (i.e., exhaustion at work; cynicism toward the meaning of work; the sense of inadequacy at work) and four dimensions of job crafting (i.e., increasing social job resources; increasing structural job resources; increasing challenge job demands; decreasing hindering job demands). The present study revealed a suppression effect that obscured the genuine correlation between job crafting (i.e., increasing social job resources, increasing structural job resources) and burnout. Furthermore, the findings contribute to job crafting and burnout relationship by indicating that “decreasing of hindering job demands” may induce burnout cynicism, while “increasing challenge job demands” effectively diminishes burnout (the sense of inadequacy at work). Additionally, the augmentation of “increasing structural job resources” is identified as a catalyst for teacher burnout, manifesting in forms such as heightened work exhaustion and cynicism towards the meaning of work.