Browsing by Author "Inkiläinen, Satu"

Objectives. Participation has been studied extensively in the recent years, and its relevance has been commonly recognized. Participation studies regarding elementary school have generally been aimed at studying older children, even though participation should cover all education from first to ninth grade, based on the 2014 curricula for compulsory basic education. The objective of the study is to discover how second grade children experience participation in their school environment. Recent studies show that children's participation does not occur in broad communities as effectively as in smaller communities, such as families. Some reasons for the lack of occurrence of participation have been seen as children's incompetence, teachers' lack of resources, and schools' hierarchies. Children's experiences of participation have been previously studied by Kiili (2006), Thornberg and Elvstrand (2012), Alanko (2013), Virkki (2015), and Weckström, Jääskeläinen, Ruokonen, Karlsson and Ruismäki (2017). I will be reflecting on the success of participation compared to the example that has been adapted from the standard of participation by Salmikangas (1998) and Flöjt (1999). Methods. The study is based on phenomenographic tradition of study. The material was collected by executing focused interviews and inquirie to four second grade classes in a school located in the Helsinki Metropolitan area. 56 children took part in the inquiry. Children being interviewed belonged in a student council as either regular or deputy members (n=7). Analytical methods used in analyzing the material were thematizing and narrative analysis. Results and Conclusions. The children experienced that it is easy for them to voice their opinions at school, but teachers didn't always necessarily acknowledge them. This is seen to weaken the experience of participation. Voting seemed to be a suitable way to make decisions in the class, although deliberative democracy was also brought up as a means to decision making. Having an influence in the school's affairs was important to children, and having a say was seen as potential activity due to wide use of pronoun we. The children stressed the role of their own active human agency. However, social isolation prevented the experience of successful participation. The children diversely estimated the experience of participation, and demonstrated that they are the experts of their own lives. In the future, it would be seminal to advance children's opportunities to influence, and children should be further included in curriculum planning regarding matters that concern them. My study contributed important information about children's participation experiences, and will help further develop the awareness about participation in schools.