Browsing by Author "Jalomäki, Satu"

In this study, the images of the future of the craft education are painted. The future is the result of the current situations and the choices made based on them. The future cannot be known in ad-vance, but it is possible to analyse and anticipate it by means of the wishes, probabilities and opportunities. The starting point of this study was the question of what kind of role the craft education will play in the future. The aim of this study was not to predict the future, nor to determine what sort of the craft and the craft teaching should be in the future. Instead, the purpose of the study was to analyse what kind of futures the craft education can be facing. The study also sought to find out if the subject's name affects how its future is seen. The research material in this study consisted of two parts. First part of the material was collected from students at the craft teacher education of University of Helsinki using the method of empathy-based stories (MEBS) during the spring 2018. The Association of Craft Teachers surveyed its members in early 2018. One section of the survey dealt with the future of the craft as a subject. The answers of this section formed the second part of the research material. The analysis was done with theory-guided content analysis which is one of the qualitative research methods. A desired future for craft education is a situation where hand skills are appreciated, and handicrafts is a popular hobby. Teaching resources have increased, teaching is genuinely multi-material and focuses on the complete craft processes and sustainable use of materials. New phenomena support the craft education and the roles of teachers get new forms. Positive images of the future were considered probable, but likewise, it is likely that hand skills will not be appreciated in the future, and craft education will become superficial or even completely disappear from elementary school. A possible, but undesirable, and unlikely future is the future where craft teachers are no longer needed, and only few have the skills for handicraft. Next, these future images must be transformed into scenarios. It is important to describe the measures that will make it possible to move towards the desired future. The name of the subject did not affect how its future was described, although the number of respondents was so small that it is impossible to make generalized conclusions.