Browsing by Author "Olkkonen, Hanna-Leena"

Finnish elementary school has been the solid foundation for Finnish education for decades. While the elementary school's name has stayed the same it has still been in a continuous process of change. Our elementary school is a time-related institution that changes and evolves together with the curriculum, teachers and pupils, and the prevailing culture. The environment and the people living in it are always interacting with each other and together they create a social or relational space. The school building and its surroundings are a special social space. The relation between people and the school makes the building a school and turns the people into teachers and pupils. Despite the fact that the school is an important social institution that has been created especially for children and their learning, there have been few studies about school from the children's perspective. This study aims to find out what is the social space of school like for pupils. How do the pupils display physical or social space in their photographs and texts? How does power divide between teachers and pupils? What kinds of feelings do the pupils attach to the photographs and texts they produced? The study involved seven sixth-grade pupils. They photographed their own school days for four consecutive days. After each photograph the pupils filled out a questionnaire in which they reported things regarding the photograph such as who was in charge at the time and how did the pupil feel at the moment. The study consisted of 122 photographs and texts related to the photographs. The material was analysed with the Collier & Collier visual content analysis. The study showed that the pupils photographed the school's physical rather than social space. Most pupils took photographs of different teaching aids such as text books on their desks. Social space was displayed in photographs taken during recesses when the pupils were playing with their friends. The pupils took very few photographs of the teachers. The most common answer to the questionnaire's question about who is in charge was "the teacher" though in many cases said question was left unanswered. This means that the pupils did not really pay attention to the teachers' use of power. The most common feelings of pupils during school hours were joy and tiredness.