Browsing by Author "Holmberg, Marika"

The purpose of this qualitative study is to find out whether the aims of Finnish peer support services, set by Mannerheimin lastensuojeluliitto, are met in a school in Espoo. 12 first-graders and nine fifth-graders were individually interviewed for the study, and the purpose was also to see if the views of first-graders and fifth-graders differed from each other. The interviews were semi-structured and done at the pupils' school. Afterwards the interviews were transcribed and analysed with a content analysis. The three main aims for peer support services are supporting communality, supporting the pupils' growth and supporting the national curriculum. These aims were divided into smaller parts. The results section shows that peer support services are met mostly with a positive attitude, but not all the goals were successfully fulfilled. Supporting communality seemed to have the best success, since the pupils spent most of their time together playing different kinds of games in bigger groups. This made it possible for the smaller pupils to learn not to exclude anyone in their games. Supporting the pupils' growth had been partly successful too, by teaching the smaller pupils all kinds of games or school rules and by acting as though in the role of a bigger sibling. The curriculum came in to the picture with the older pupils teaching the younger ones reading or maths, but also by showing them how to treat everyone nicely and with respect. However, especially the first graders thought there hadn't been enough time to spend with their peer supporter, and many of the relationships between the pairs were not as close or mutual as would have been ideal. Some of the fifth-graders kept on playing their favourite games – football, mainly – while at the same time not taking into account the first-graders' hopes. There weren't great differences between the first-graders' and fifth-graders' views: the biggest ones seemed to be the first-graders' hopes for more time together and the fifth-graders' more detailed stories about the time spent. The transcript covered all the interviews as whole and transparency was taken care of throughout the study, which contribute to the quality and credibility of this research. There was no hypothesis in this study and I did my best to maintain an open mind while interviewing and analysing the results. Then again, some of the older students may have responded in ways they thought were suitable for the occasion instead of being completely honest. However, I feel that the study gives a reliable description of the peer support services in the school and hopefully helps to develop them further in the future.