Browsing by Author "Mäkinen, Riikka"

This qualitative study approaches the professional agency of art pedagogues in the inclusive early education settings. The aim of this study is to find out: 1) what kind of interpretative repertoires are constructed in the speech of art pedagogue teacher, and 2) how these repertoires represent the art pedagogue´s possibilities for supporting the child’s learning and growth. In the previous studies we can see that the artistic interventions have positive effects on child’s learning and to the culture of work and learning environment. In the previous studies the changes are seen challenging from the point of view of professional agency. This study focuses on the written texts of six (N=6) art pedagogues as informants. The text-based material was collected from six kindergartens, during 10 months in the first year of art education in early educational settings in research project of Taikava, that took place in 2014—2016 in the city of Vantaa in Southern Finland. Additional material consisted of six edited articles that were written to the final report of Taikava project. This study is based on the production of meaning, approached by social constructivist and discourse analytic frame. The theoretical frame of professional agency by Vähäsantanen, Paloniemi, Hökkä & Eteläpelto (2017) assisted the discourse analysis, narrowing theoretically the specific definition of the context of professional agency in the speech of art pedagogues. This research answered the first question with three key repertoires: 1) The repertoire of a strong professional identity 2) The repertoire of contradictions 3) The repertoire of collaboration. Based on the identification processes of the key repertoires, the second question was answered: the main results of this study consist of three dimensions: The professional agency of the art pedagogue in the early educational setting was effective on the supportive acts of care, growth and learning of children based on the core values of art pedagogical approach: the val-ues of empowerment and well-being. Circumstances, the conflict of professional roles, and the lack of co-constructed feedback of work created contradictions and conflicts. Acknowledging and amplifying the art education needs active collaboration. Based on the results of this study it is reasonable to re-consider the iteration of work in early education and focus on the issues of management and leadership of early education. We need more research on art education of early years and on arts-based interventions in the early educational and inclusive settings.