Browsing by study line "Varhaiskasvatus"
Now showing items 61-80 of 96
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(2023)Aims. The purpose of this study was to investigate how repertoires of practices around grief construct in the daily separations between the child and the parent during the first weeks after starting in kindergarten. The aim was to accumulate knowledge of the repertoires of practices around grief that are constructed in interactions between the child and the staff members. There has been a growing number of studies addressing grief as a socially constructed phenomenon but there is a need for more research concerning grief in early childhood education and during the transition into out-of-home day care. So far it has been proven that there are certain repertoires of practices to be seen in context of separations that demonstrate how a grieving child is encountered in kindergarten. Methods. This study was conducted as a qualitative content analysis. The research data were 14 narratives describing how a 1.5-year-old Leo arrives to the kindergarten and undergoes a separation from their parent to stay with one of the staff members. These narratives were analyzed by content analysis using a specific method of dialogical thematic analysis. Results and conclusions. The kindergarten staff used repertoires of practices such as compassionate and comforting touch and speech when confronting a grieving child. They either tried to direct the child’s attention to the separation and the grief caused by it or to the surrounding environment and events. The child engaged in repertoires of practices such as expressions of grief, trying to hold on to the parent and either objecting the comforting adult or accepting the offered comfort. The repertoires of practices were connected to each other and often manifested together either consecutively or simultaneously. Based on the results it can be stated that a grieving child is not left alone with their grief and that the child is confronted in a gentle and comforting manner during the separation. Respectively, the child was able to express their grief and to either object or accept the comfort the staff member offered. The study shows different repertoires of practices around grief that can be recognized in the reoccurring daily separations and leads us to discuss how we could draw more attention to the repertoires of practices around grief in the early childhood education field, both in practice and in research.
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(2023)Objectives. A child's cry can be recognized as an everyday phenomenon in early childhood education. Although responding to a child's cry is recognized as an adult's professional duty in early childhood education, there has so far been little scientific research about the matter. Previous research has shown that the lap is a significant resource both when dealing with a small child in general and in comforting situations in early childhood education. The purpose of this study was to deepen the understanding of what kind of resource a teacher’s lap is when encountering a crying child and in which contexts the lap interaction is constructed. Methods. This qualitative interaction study was carried out by observing video material and analysed by using multimodal interaction analysis. The research material was a partial material (5 h 26 min 47 s) from a video material filmed in a kindergarten in 2016, from which 14 crying episodes were located for analysis. The participants in the data were a group of children under 3 years old, where at the time of the research there were 13 children, 3 members of the educational staff and one assistant Conclusions. The results showed that the lap had a versatile function in encountering a crying child. The lap served as both a comforting, holding close and activating space. The function of the lap was constructed in relation to the reactions of the crying child, the group of children, and the ongoing activity. With the results, the lap appears as a dynamic space that thus serves several purposes in the face of crying. The construction of the lap’s function is above all the result of the negotiation between the crying child and the adult who is facing it. This result can be seen as highlighting the child's active agency in an interactive and emotional situation. The results of the study can enable the development of interaction practices in early childhood education.
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(2021)The exclusion starts during early childhood. A child’s withdrawal from their peer group has been associated with social exclusion that has implications for the child’s social and cognitive skills as well as overall well-being. Peer relationships and positive interaction with peers are central to children’s learning. Socially withdrawn children are at risk of being excluded from the social dimensions of peer activities. This thesis examines socially withdrawn children in Finnish early childhood education and especially the effects social withdrawal has on the child’s learning, emotions and physical activity. In addition, the effects of the withdrawn children’s social and self-regulatory skills and need for pedagogical support are examined. Research data was gathered using the Progressive Feedback method. Observations were conducted in 2,651 kindergarten groups from 19 municipalities in Finland from September 2017 to February 2021. The observation data included 201,951 observations of all activities in early childhood education between 8 AM to 4 PM. Observed children’s skills were assessed by the educational staff and children’s basic information (such as age and gender) were included. Quantitative multivariate methods were used to analyse the data. It was found that children’s social withdrawal occurs usually during free play indoors and outdoors. Routine activities included children’s social withdrawal in early childhood education settings as well. Withdrawn children usually had no focus in their activities or they were observed playing with toys. The child’s withdrawn orientation was characterized by low levels of involvement and physical activity as well as neutral and negative emotions. The impact of the peer group was found to be central to the child’s learning and well-being and supporting the withdrawn children in their efforts on joining the peer group activities is an important priority in developing early childhood education practices.
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(2024)Several studies have been carried out in Finland on the leadership of early childhood education and care centres, which have highlighted problems, challenges and shortcomings in leadership. In this thesis, two sub-studies were used to address this issue. First, the literature review collected the studies published between 2013 and 2023 and found in a Finnish database, and the problems and challenges they presented. The problems were classified into five categories: ambiguity and lack of definition of tasks and job descriptions, leadership of self, leadership of others, structural problems of leadership, and organizational problems. The second part of the thesis looked at the ways in which discussion between actors at different levels of the organization (the 'organizational council') can contribute to finding solutions to previously identified problems. Based on the results of the literature review, three thematic platforms were put together to facilitate the discussion. Employees, officials and a representative of the political decision-making level of a large Finnish city's early childhood education and care organization were invited as discussants. Within the framework of the action research, the interest was in the suggestions for development that were put forward in the discussion. Most of the suggestions for improvement were made by the political level. A discursive analysis of the data traced the paths along which the conversation followed after the development proposals were made. The analysis looked at both the discourses that enabled development work and those that stabilized problems. Four different discourses emerged, which were called the path open to the proposal, the path closed to the proposal, the crossroads and the by-path. From a development perspective, the crossroads emerged as the most important path, as it contained a reflection on one's own agency and the need for development in general. In this way, the concept of the crossroads develops existing theory on the nature of development discourse in organizations. The thesis also provides further insight into the barriers to development discourse. One of the most interesting suggestions for development in the data was the desire for more interaction between policy makers and professionals working at different levels of the early childhood education and care organization, so that at the main stage the Board has a more complete picture of the everyday life of the day-care centres and the regions and the situations which have influence on them. However, efforts to increase the impact of the interaction between the two sides of the table mostly led to a closed path in the discussion. Despite the obstacles to development talk, the organizational board proved to be a good way to promote interaction between different levels of the organization and to provide opportunities to influence decision-making, according to the data in this thesis. It also served as a good way to increase the knowledge of the discussants about the research-based knowledge of leadership in early childhood education and care.
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(2020)This study is a case study of Taika Kultsu, the cultural education plan for early childhood education and care in Tuusula. The aim of my thesis is to find out whether the staff feels that the new plan is a useful document and tool in their own work, receiving support for the implementation of cultural and art education in the daycare centre's everyday life. Efforts have been made to make the plan easy to use and concrete. Previous studies by the National Centre for The Evaluation of Education (Karvin) have revealed uneven quality of art education (2019) and the fact that the documents guiding the activities of early childhood education and care remain at a very abstract level (2018). In the framework of this thesis, I aim to describe the multidimensionality of art education, reflecting on art education as part of cultural education, and to highlight the importance of art for the child and the comprehensive development of the child. The concreteness of the guiding documents, its need and level have been considered in several studies. In the theory section, I looked at concreteness from the perspective of the individual's sense of autonomy and, more broadly, the realization of common goals. The data was collected in May 2020 using an electronic questionnaire sent to the entire Tuusulas early childhood education and care staff, approximately 310 persons. 42 responses were received. Like theory-controlled content analysis, the analysis was carried out in combination with the qualitative and quantitative data obtained. Quantitative data were at the level of average and type values, as the small number of respondents did not allow comparison between different groups of respondents using statistical methods. The new plan had received a positive reception and was found useful. It had been used as a support for the brainstorming, planning and evaluation of operations. Taika Kultsu could be judged better as a whole from the perspective of cultural education than from the perspective of an individual art species. There were still few things to develop. This was partly caused by the coronavirus epidemic, which affected the number of respondents and the content of the responses. Taika Kultsu's plan was introduced at the beginning of 2020, and the changed conditions in the spring did not allow us to familiarize yourself with the plan or carry out the activities as desired. The results of this thesis will be taken into account in the development and updating of Taika Kultsu. On the basis of the results, it could be said that concreteness and consideration of locality in the document were considered useful and facilitate ideas, planning, evaluation and diversification. The presentation of the plan is easy to use. The plan clarified the concept and goals of cultural education and presented the possibilities of local cultural offerings. However, setting and implementing common goals requires more debate, as it was not always considered sufficient. The bindingity of this new plan must also be further defined. In municipalities that consider the preparation of their own cultural education plan and its form, the results can be used as user experiences from a document that strives to be very concrete and to put its content into practice.
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Tapaustutkimus esiopetusikäisten lasten osallisuuden toteutumisesta päiväkodin oppimisympäristöissä (2022)Aims. This study examines the involvement of pre-school children in early childhood learning environments. The theoretical framework of the study is examined in the light of previous research data on inclusion, but also in terms of key concepts related to inclusion. The study also examines learning environments and participation in learning environments in various documents on early childhood education, international agreements, and the Early Childhood Education Act. The aim of the study was to find out how pre-school children perceive their involvement in the physical learning environments of kindergarten and what perceptions they have about the design, construction, and modification of these environment. Previous research has highlighted how children’s participation in play is realized, especially in free play. This study seeks to examine whether a child’s involvement in the design, construction, and modification of these learning environments is realized. Methods. The study is a qualitative case study based on guided tour rounds in kindergarten pre-school learning environments. The rounds were conducted as an open group interview where children were allowed to guide the research according to what they said about the environments. The material was collected in 5 rounds, a total of 34 pages of spelled text. The material was analyzed by theory-based content analysis. Results and conclusions. Based on their experiences, children’s inclusion appeared varied and ambiguous. The children were familiar with their learning environment and the activities that take place in them. They had ideas and suggestions for changes to the facilities, and they rightly brought them up. However, the realization of inclusion was dependent on the adult, and it was ultimately the adult who determined the framework for the realization of inclusion. The results of the study also showed the children's personal experiences, as the results showed a variety of experiences of inclusion.
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(2019)Physically active lifestyle begin to develop early in childhood, and thus, it is important to know factors behind it. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between temperament dimensions and physical activity in a sample of Finnish preschool children. The first research question was whether there is an association between temperament dimensions and physical activity (examined as overall and intensity-specific physical activity). In addition, the interaction of children`s age and gender in the aforementioned associations was examined. The second research question was whether there is an association between temperament dimensions and meeting the physical activity recommendations. The data of this study were collected in 2015-2016. Participants were 697 Finnish children aged 3 to 6 years. Temperament was assessed using a parent-reported questionnaire (the Childhood Behavior Questionnaire, very short form), and three broad temperament dimensions were constructed: surgency, negative affectivity and effortful control. Physical activity was assessed using ActiGraph -accelerometer. The data analysis methods were quantitative. The association between childhood temperament dimensions and physical activity were investigated with Pearson correlation coefficient and linear regression analyses. The effect modification of age and gender was investigated by including an interaction term in the linear regression analysis. The association between temperament dimensions and meeting the physical activity recommendations was investigated with logistic regression analysis. All linear and logistic regression analyses were adjusted for potential confounders. There was a positive association between surgency and physical activity, whereas effortful control was negatively associated with physical activity. Accordingly, surgency had positive association whereas effortful control had negative association with meeting physical activity recommendations. There were no significant associations observed between negative affectivity and physical activity or physical activity recommendations. Moreover, age or gender were not effect modifying factors in the associations between temperament dimensions and physical activity. This study showed that it is important to pay attention to the children`s different temperaments while supporting the development of the physically active lifestyle in early childhood.
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(2020)The purpose of this study was to survey parents' concerns in their and their children’s behavior. The aim was also to evaluate how the temperament of parents and children is related to the challenges of everyday life. This study also clarified the types of meeting points and connections between parent and child temperament. The aim is to provide information on the meaning of temperament and to develop an understanding of the temperament behind the behavior. There were four research questions: (1) What are the parents' concerns about their own and their children behavior? (2) What are the temperament characteristics of parents and children? (3) What are the intersections between the temperaments of parents and children in everyday challenges? (4) Which temperament features are highlighted in the everyday challenges? The theoretical framework contained temperament, parenting support, and previous research of these. The study used pre-collected data from the Silmu Parenting platform owned by the University of Helsinki. The data includes Rothbart's temperament surveys and parents also had the opportunity to answer an open question about the everyday challenge. The data included parents N=22, grandparents N=1, toddlers N=20 and infants N=3. The data was analyzed qualitatively by content analysis and quantitatively by IBM SPSS Statistics 25 by looking at means and standard deviations. The study was a multi-case study. Parental concerns about their children's behavior were related to restlessness, dressing, social situations, aggressive behavior, disobedience and defiance, anxiety, attention, eating, sleeping, transitions, impulsivity, and impatience. In the study, parents had more negative emotional expression than their children. Examining the intersections provided more detailed information on the encounter between parent and child. According to the results, similar temperaments of parents and children may present everyday challenges as well as different temperaments. The parent's negative affect in emotion added to the perceived negativity in many everyday challenges. For both parents and children, feelings of discomfort, frustration and sadness became high factors in everyday challenges. In children, high impulsivity, activity and low reaction prevention emerged in particular as temperament features. Parents possessed a great deal of sensitivity and were thus sensitive to challenges in their daily lives. When the parent had both high negative affect and orienting sensitivity, resilience tolerated the child's impulses and rapid reactivity, caused the parent to quickly develop anxiety, discomfort, sadness, and frustration. Parenting plays a significant role in shaping a child's temperament. Because of the vulnerability of child’s temperament, it is especially important to consider understanding the importance of temperament in supporting parenting.
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(2022)This study aims to reveal how executive functions are related to early numeracy skills. Several articles have been published in this respect. The present one focuses on just two executive functions, inhibition and switching, and two early numeracy skills, counting and numerical relational skills. The study wants to determine how the accuracy and reaction time in inhibition and switching tasks correlate with the counting and numerical relational skills in four-year-old preschoolers, and if there is any general latent condition under which these relations are modified. The participants of this study are 4-year-old preschoolers (N=189) from preschools in the Helsinki Area (N=21), Finland. They have done two different tests that have been used to gather the data. A digital version of the Flanker tasks (modified from Fan, et al. (2002)) has measured inhibition and switching accuracy and reaction time. The Early Numeracy Test (Aunio, Hautamäki, Heiskari, & Van Luit, 2006) has measured the preschoolers’ performance in counting and relational skills. The data has been quantitatively analysed with SPSS and R. A correlation analysis has been performed to understand how the variables are related (calculation of Spearman’s rank correlation). A latent profile analysis has been run using the mclust package, to see if there could be extracted any latent variable that could drive the correlation in different directions. The main results reveal that accuracy in inhibition and switching tasks have a weak to moderate positive correlation with the successful use of counting and relational skills in 4-year-old preschoolers. Reaction time seems to be a variable whose implications change depending on the participants’ EN-performance, as visible in the latent profile analysis. However, there have not been yielded any robust conclusions about the existence of latent variables.
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(2022)Some previous findings suggest the effectiveness of physical activity (PA) on children's cognitive outcomes. Studying preschool PA enables to understand children’s considerable part of daily PA and to examine its relation to other skills specifically within preschool context. Early numeracy (EN) refers to young children’s mathematical proficiency, including relational and counting skills, as in understanding and operating with quantities, number relation, classification, and the concept of numbers. EN skills are shown to strongly predict later mathematical competence and academic achievements. Thus, it is important to study and support the development of children’s EN skills. However, previous research has mainly focused on school-age children, while research in early ages is scarce. No previous studies have used device-based measurement of PA with an individual test of EN to understand the associations between young children’s preschool PA and EN performance. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between PA during preschool hours and EN performance in children aged 4 to 5 years. More specifically, the following research questions are addressed: 1) How are PA intensity levels during preschool hours associated with EN performance in 4- to 5-year-old children? 2) What kind of profiles regarding PA intensity levels during preschool hours and EN performance can be identified among 4- to 5-year-old children? The sample consisted of children (N = 95, Mage = 4.6) attending preschools in Helsinki, Finland. PA was measured during 5 consecutive preschool days using hip-worn accelerometers, while EN performance was assessed using Van Luit and colleagues’ (2006) Finnish Early Numeracy Test. The data is analysed using quantitative research analysis. To answer the first research question, correlation matrix is performed to reveal relation between the variables of interest. For the second research question, latent profile analysis is used to identify children’s profiles according to their PA data and EN test scores, while the differences in profiles are compared using ANOVA. The results of the correlation analysis revealed no significant correlation between PA level during preschool hours and EN scores in children of ages 4 to 5 years. Latent profile analysis identified three profiles of children with high, medium, and low PA, whereas EN performance did not significantly differ among the profiles. In conclusion, while the results show significantly different amounts of PA among children during preschool, the main finding of the current study is in line with previous research, suggesting no direct relation between preschool PA and EN performance. Further research controlling for other factors that may influence the results is needed to examine how variation in PA level is related to EN performance in preschool.
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(2022)Objectives. The purpose of this article- based master´s thesis is to study the connection between the years children spent in early childhood education and care (ECEC) and their social behaviour. The research problems were formed based on the fourfold table of social orientations by Jyrki Reunamo (2020) and the research material. In this research I decided to concentrate on the years children spent in ECEC because earlier research concerning children´s social behaviour is often focused on the quality of ECEC. This research presents one perspective to the social debate about how ECEC affects children´s growth and development by describing how the years spent in ECEC affect children´s social orientations and their main object of attention and contact. Methods. The data used in this research is a part of already existing research material collected within the Progressive Feedback project. The data was collected by observing children in ECEC units in 2017- 2021. About 200 specially trained ECEC professionals performed the observations. The research data includes 20 457 observations of 972 six-year-olds from 360 child groups in 18 municipalities in Finland. The material was analysed with IBM SPSS Statistics 27 programme with crosstabulation function using the years of attendance in ECEC, social orientation, child´s main object of attention and contact, closest social child contact and child´s gender as variables. Results and conclusions. According to this research, the years children spent in ECEC have a connection to their social orientations and their main object of attention and contact. The longer the children had been in ECEC, the less adaptive behaviour was observed. The children that had been in ECEC for under a year were observed to be less participative than other children. Dominant orientation increased the longer the children had been in ECEC. The children that had been in ECEC for over four years aimed their attention more rarely to non-social objects and adults. These same children aimed their attention more often to several children than their peers that had spent fewer years in ECEC. The years spent in ECEC seem to affect girls´ and boys´ social orientations and main object of attention and contact differently. The results could be useful when political decisions concerning ECEC, for example the two year-long pre-primary education, are made. The article The years children spent in early education in relation to their social relations and objects of attention is supposed to be published in European Early Childhood Education Research Journal (EECERJ)
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(2023)Previous studies have shown that the importance of diversity is to encounter a person with multiple characteristics, where intersectionality affects them by taking into account the factors that produce differences and their mutual relationships (Kulttuuria kaikille, 2023; Olive, 2015). Otherness is a complex phenomenon (Dervin, 2015), where the diversity of the Other is not seen. The Other is not seen as an independent and versatile actor, but rather placed in the position of an object (Dervin & Keihäs, 2013). The purpose of this thesis is to critically examine discourses of othering in opinion pieces related to early childhood education. I study the topic with the help of the following subproblems: what kind of discourses of otherness appear in opinion pieces and who is defined as an Other in opinion writings. The theoretical background of the research is built from studies dealing with diversity, intersectionality, and otherness. The thesis was carried out using a qualitative research method and the research material was produced through opinion pieces from newspapers including Kaleva, Turun Sanomat, Aamulehti, and Helsingin Sanomat. Opinion pieces were collected from between the years 2017–2021 and from pieces in which othering related to early childhood education and care appeared. After a critical examination, the research material consisted of a total of 41 opinion pieces and discourse analysis was used to analyze the material. The discourses expressing othering were disadvantage, segregation and immigration back-ground, the child's individual need for support, minority religions and worldviews, a foreign-language, special diets, gender roles, parents' weak labor market position and the conflict between the supply and demand of early childhood education services. Along with the dis-courses expressing otherness, I also answered the latter subproblem, who is defined as an Other in opinion pieces dealing with early childhood education. The research results revealed direct othering and the perspective of an awareness of otherness, in which something was recognized as discriminating or othering. Structural otherness also appeared in the research results. Judging from the research results, the factors embodying otherness are spread over a wide area and thus, from the point of view of intersectionality, create new categories embodying otherness.
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(2021)The purpose of this study is to describe how and with whom children share the observations they do during science education and how the physical environment of the kindergarten and the research tools appear in the interaction. The aim is to produce new information on early childhood science education from a socio-cultural perspective in the institutional context of early childhood education. Learning by inquiry is a major method in the basics of the Early Childhood Education Curriculum (2018). Based on previous research, early experiences in science education and scientific language use form the basis for learning science at a later age. In this study science education is viewed in a sociocultural frame based on the theories of Lev Vygotsky. Science and research are social activities involving certain social conventions, and in science education children learn to understand these conventions. In this study, observation refers to how, according to Howes, an individual directs his or her attention to a phenomenon of interest to him or her. Observation is an interesting topic to study, because it’s a central part of learning and science education. The sharing of findings is approached within the socio-cultural perspective of learning, and the interaction in kindergarten is viewed as an institutional interaction. The research is qualitative research. The video material of the study was collected as part of the Joy of Learning Multiliteracies (MOI) project. Data was collected in Finnish day-care centers, and the research subjects were 5-6 years old. Multimodal conversation analysis was used as the analysis method. The analysis utilizes the three focuses of Rogoff’s sociocultural analysis, with particular attention to contextual and interpersonal processes. Based on the results, children share observations during the research phase of science education by speaking, demonstrations, and moving research tools, as well as combinations of these ways. Joining the sharing of observations was demonstrated by gaze, speech, or both. Children experienced observations with each other and adults, but most of the interactions related to sharing observations were between children. The active participation of adults appeared to be a factor in increasing interactions concidering observations. The physical environment of the kindergarten as well as the institutional practices appeared in the research activities to be partly limiting factors for the interaction related to observation. Based on the results in early childhood education during science education research activities, the interaction related to observations can be supported by modifying the learning environment and the active participation of the teacher.
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(2023)This research is about the forms of power within the three herra Hakkarainen picture books created by Mauri Kunnas and the affects and emotions they convey. In particular, attention was drawn to the use of power of the main character. The widespread popularity of herra Hakkarainen picture books, both in Finland and internationally, emphasizes their research significance, as illustrated books mirror the social and cultural values of our society. The importance of images of the picture books as a social commentator has been emphasized as they bring out cultural information. Picture books were studied on the basis of hermeneutic philosophy, and the research method was discourse analysis. This approach enabled focus on the use of the language and its importance in the formation of social relationships. The links between language and cultural contexts were at the core of the research. The results of the study revealed that herra Hakkarainen picture books reflect the complex relationships of power and the impact of emotions and affects in social context. In particular, herra Hakkarainen picture books humorous approach to questioning social norms was highlighted. This research opens a new perspective on how illustrated literature can influence perspectives of the world and understanding of emotions of the children. In conclusion, this research shows a significant role in of illustrated literature as a social communicator and emotional educator. It also emphasizes the need for criticism in emotional education and in understanding power relations in societal texts.
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(2023)The purpose of this research is to find out how irreligiosity is presented in pedagogical material made for pre-primary education’s and early childhood education’s worldview education. Both National Core Curriculum for Pre-primary Education (2014) and National Core Curriculum for ECEC (2022) require that the personnel in Pre-primary education and ECEC discourse on irreligiosity as a part of worldview education. The aim of this thesis is to determine how irreligiosity is externalized as a worldview and how it is to be taught in pedagogical materials. The research questions are: 1. How irreligiosity is externalized in pedagogical materials for worldview education? 2. To what kind of teaching about irreligiosity do the pedagogical materials direct to? The research was conducted as qualitative research using theory-based content analysis. Irreligiosity is an extensive phenomenon and quite abstractive. Therefore, the selected methods were used to find a concrete way to define the irreligious nature of the materials. Michael Grimmitt's (2000) theory of learning about and learning from religious education and Ninian Smart's (1996) dimensions of religion were selected as theories guiding the content analysis as it was possible to describe irreligiosity and learning related to it through those theories. Learning materials that are openly available on the internet and that have dealt with the contents of irreligion in a way that meets the research criteria have been taken into consideration. The learning materials included for example posters, calendars, and theses. A total of nine learning materials meeting the criteria were collected. In the data irreligiosity was presented as a rule simplified. All the dimensions of irreligion were represented in the materials, most common of which were the dimensions of ritual or practical and experiential or emotional. The dimensions of doctrinal or philosophical, mythic or narrative as well as ethical or legal were left to less attention. The materials primarily led to learning about irreligiosity but there was also learning from irreligiosity in four materials in the form of tasks that lead to discussion. Three of the materials included both learning about and from irreligiosity. Only one of the materials relied solely on information from irreligious people.
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(2023)The aim of this study was to survey whether early childhood education professionals (early childhood childcare workers, teachers, special education teachers and social workers) use playfulness in their work, how they assess their own well-being at work and how playfulness is connected to their well-being at work, and whether there are differences in responses between professional groups. In addition, I wanted to find out how playfulness and well-being at work are connected. Play and playfulness are often associated with children, so there has been less research on adults. However, play and playfulness are both important part of the working day of early childhood education professionals, and the pedagogy used in early childhood educa-tion is largely based on these. Playfulness in adults has been found to be connected to various aspects of life, such as sociability and stress tolerance. Proyer's (2015) structural model of playfulness is used as the background theory of playfulness. In the field of early childhood education, well-being at work has previously been studied mainly from the perspective of early childhood education teachers, so in this study I wanted to examine other professional groups as well. Well-being at work was examined by Aho's (2011) survival path and Kangas and colleagues’ (2022) research. Although there has been little research into the playfulness and well-being at work of people working in early childhood education, a connection has been found between these two phenomena. The purpose of this quantitative study was to analyze the data collected with an electronic questionnaire using the SPSS 28 Statistics program. For the survey, the sub-areas of playfulness (other-directed, lighthearted, intellectual-creative, and whimsical playfulness) and the sub-areas of well-being at work (self-development, community spirit of the work community, holistic outlook on life and external support, and meaningfulness of work) that emerged from the theory base were operationalized into measurable variables. Variables measuring different sub-areas were combined into sum variables. The research started in the original research community was continued due to the low response rate in four early childhood education-related groups on social media. The survey received 166 responses from three professional groups: early childhood childcare workers, teachers, and special education teachers. Differences between professional groups were examined using the Kruskal-Wallis test and the connection between playfulness and well-being at work using Spearman's rank order correlation. According to the study, early childhood education professionals use playfulness in their work quite well (mean 3.94). According to the results, all aspects of playfulness are used, some more than others. Statistically significant differences were found between professional groups, especially in the whimsical playfulness. According to this study, the well-being at work experi-enced by early childhood education professionals is moderate (mean 3.61), with the community spirit of the work community supporting well-being at work the most. However, there was no statistically significant difference between professional groups in the variables of well-being at work. As could be assumed from previous studies, a statistically highly significant connection was found between playfulness and well-being at work
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(2021)Aims. Time pressure is part of working life. The term of time pressure is widely used but the meanings that it includes are often left unclear. According to the sociocultural framework, time pressure is an organizational or cultural way of act that individual transfer into their own way of act and comprehend by being in an interaction with others. According to Finnish working life studies the time pressure in work life has increased especially in communal field, in social and healthcare and educational fields particularly. Employees own perceptions have often left in minor role. The aim of this research was to study early childhood education employees’ perceptions of the time pressure in work. In public discussion, the field of early childhood education has been characterized by time pressure and hectic working culture, but the perceptions of the employees have been left unnoticed. The aim of the study was to give voice to the employees in early childhood education to talk about the time pressure in their own work. The aim of this study is to survey the perceptions that early childhood educators give to the time pressure in working life. Methods. This study is a phenomenographic study. There were 101 employees of early childhood education that participated in this study. Employees participated by answering the internet questionnaire that I had send to two early childhood education communities in Facebook. The final research material included answers to eight open questions and four case-study questions, all together approximately 1300 individual answers. Results and conclusions. The results of this study included variations of perceptions that early childhood education employees have towards time pressure in work. Results included time pressure as a way of acting, as a part of work structures, as a problem of work environment, as a conflict between the values and the reality in working life, as a threat to ones wellbeing and as a relation towards the child group. The perception about not having a time pressure in work included the tranquillity as basic value, as a structure, as being depended of individual, as bending in casual work, as the size of the child group and as an unprofessional acting. The time pressure and a lack of time pressure were percepted as being in relation to own acting but also as structurally and communally responsible phenomena. There is a need of arrangement of early childhood education field and job descriptions. Also, the field of early childhood education deserves more valuation from the employees themselves but also in a public discussion.
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(2022)The purpose of this study was to elucidate the discourses of early childhood education staff enabling the participation of children with special education needs (SEN). The research questions were which interpretive repertoires can be identified in the reports describing the activities of early childhood education staff about children with SEN, what interpretive repertoires can be identified in the reports describing the own activities of early childhood education about enabling the participation of children with SEN in the reports. Previous research has shown that early childhood education staff play a key role in enabling participation. Methods. The study involved 28 volunteer early childhood professionals from different professional groups. The research request was presented in Facebook's groups for early childhood education professionals and on the researcher's own Facebook page. Participants were asked to write about a situation in which they had enabled the participation of a child in need of support. The writings were called reports. The research was based on social constructionism and the method was discourse analysis. The discourse analysis was used to interpret how the early childhood education staff talked about participation, children with SEN, and their own and other workers` subject positions. Results and conclusions. Various interpretive repertoires of children with special education needs could be identified in the reports of early childhood education staff. These were the repertoire of diagnosis, descriptive support, proportionality of challenges, neutral, supportive- interpretation repertoire. Repertoires of early childhood education staff about participation were partly tense. So, while describing ways to enable participation, they also describe other employees’ ways to enable participation which may be different. Strong repertoires of participation interpreted in early childhood education staff reports included the right to participation vs. exclusion, special pedagogy vs. non-use of special pedagogical methods, child-orientation vs. adult-orientation, multidimensionality vs. one-dimensionality. Children received different subject positions in these interpretive repertoires, which were the subject positions of the assisted vs. independent actor, the participant vs. the outsider, the successful vs. the unsuccessful. In conclusion, the need for continuing education of ECE- staff, which has emerged in previous studies, is still relevant. The multi-professional discussion on the involvement of early childhood education staff should increase in the daily life of early childhood education in order to better enable the equal participation of all children.
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(2022)The present study investigated the state of occupational well-being of early childhood education directors through their own experiences during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. In particular, the demands and resources affecting the work of the directors were identified. The theoretical framework of the research consisted of describing the dimensions of occupational well-being, leadership in early childhood education, and the effect of the progression of the coronavirus pandemic on early childhood education in Finland. The research was conducted as a qualitative study where early childhood education directors’ experiences of occupational well-being were examined through content analysis. The data used in this research was collected during the Korona tuli kylään –project. In the present study, only the thematic interviews of the Korona tuli kylään –project were investigated. 23 directors from three different municipalities, Helsinki, Vantaa and Tampere, participated in the interviews. The material was analysed using theory-guided content analysis based on the Job demands and resources –model of Demerouti et al. (2001). Directors in early childhood education identified greater amount of job demands than resources in their work during coronavirus pandemic. Due to the situation caused by the pandemic, the main demands included changes in the job description, increased workload and inadequate allocated working hours. Lack of support, emotional demands, conflicting instructions, and transition to remote work were also considered as demands, and the recovery experiences gained were not seen as sufficient. Interestingly, directors identified similar categories as resources in their work. Many of the factors affecting to the directors’ occupational well-being can be seen as resources when successful and demands when they are unsuccessful. In particular, the different support structures at work and the support received from colleagues and from the deputy director were seen as the most important resources during the coronavirus pandemic. Recovery and coronavirus-induced stagnation in activities during leisure time, as well as the possibility of working remotely were also seen to have a positive impact on occupational well-being. Additionally, clear instructions as well as the vast experience of the early childhood education director were considered to have supporting effect during the pandemic.
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(2022)The purpose of this article-based master's thesis is to increase information about the well-being of early childhood education (ECE) leaders at work during the pandemic (COVID-19). The study maps leaders' experiences of supporting and challenging practices and work methods. There is barely previous research on the work well-being of ECE leaders. Perspectives related to coping at work have come to the fore eminently with the pandemic. According to previous studies during the pandemic, leaders' work well-being has been especially burdened by the increased workload. The support received from the work community and ECE organizers has promoted their work well-being during the pandemic. The data were collected with an electronic questionnaire in February 2021, and it is part of a larger survey of the University of Helsinki (Korona tuli kylään). 654 respondents from 120 Finnish municipalities participated in the study. Open questions related to work well-being were analysed by using theory-based content analysis. In the classification was used a work well-being model based on resources and innovative learning. The results showed that work-related factors, such as increased workload and challenges of human resource management most often burdened leaders' work well-being. Factors connected to the work community, such as experiences of receiving support from the work community and peer support from colleagues, most often sustained work well-being. In addition to this, the actions of the ECE organizer to provide the resources related to doing the work. Along with that, clear operating instructions often supported the leaders' ability to cope at work. When talking about challenging factors, the uncertain conditions prevailing in society due to the pandemic were emphasized. Those were reflected in the leaders' experiences of their own work well-being. Society as a classifying factor is a new dimension in relation to the model of well-being at work used in the analysis. Based on the results, it is necessary to strengthen the division of management responsibility and collegial cooperation, without forgetting the importance of the working community, to support leaders' ability to cope at work in conditions such as a pandemic. In addition, the production of clear operating instructions and joint policies by the organizer of ECE is particularly important in challenging times. The amount of work and demands should be moderated during turbulent times and more time should be given for human resource management. The study brings significant additional confirmation to previous research data on ECE leaders’ coping at work and clarify perspectives related to their well-being at work, especially during the pandemic. The results can be used in the development of a leadership culture that considers the ability of ECE leaders to cope even in challenging times. The article “Factors that support and challenge early childhood education leaders’ work well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic" is to be published in the "Työelämän tutkimus".
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