Browsing by Subject "authenticity"

This thesis examines Finnish upper secondary school English teachers’ practices and beliefs regarding authenticity and autonomy in the EFL classroom. The aim of the study is to find out how EFL teachers promote experiences of authenticity and learner autonomy in the classroom and this way create connections to students’ use of English outside school. The study is also interested in English teachers’ attitudes towards authenticity and autonomy as well as the teachers’ support for students’ Extramural English use. Research on EFL learners’ Extramural English use has reported of a gap between formal and informal language learning settings, and this thesis investigates the applicability of experiences of authenticity and learner autonomy in bridging this gap. The data of the study consists of qualitative classroom observations and interviews with English teachers. Four upper secondary school English teachers participated in the study. Three lessons were observed from each teacher, which adds up to twelve observed lessons in total. The observations focused on the teachers’ motivational practice and teaching materials. In addition, semi-structured retrospective interviews were conducted with the teachers after the classroom observations. Qualitative content analysis was applied to both sets of data to describe the teachers’ practices and attitudes towards authenticity and autonomy in language learning. The data analysis shows that while the teachers used a variety of motivational strategies to promote authenticity and autonomy in the classroom, each teacher also had their preferred motivational practices that characterised their teaching. Comparing the classroom observation data and the interview data revealed a connection between the teachers’ practices and their definitions and attitudes towards authenticity in language learning. While the teachers considered authenticity and autonomy important in language learning, they perceived promoting them in class as difficult due to constraints such as available time and materials. Authenticity and autonomy were promoted in the classroom mostly by using strategies of teacher discourse, which aimed at arguing for the relevance or purpose of the learning tasks and connecting the learning to students’ everyday lives. Interestingly, the teachers were not especially keen on supporting their students’ Extramural English practices and questioned whether students desire experiences of authenticity and autonomy at all in school. The results of the study shed light on the complex relationship between formal and informal language learning settings from the EFL teachers’ perspective.

The objective of this pro gradu thesis is to examine how the Fair Tourism Project of the Association of Small-Scale Banana Producers of El Guabo (Asoguabo) has been constructed. This study examines the construction of the project from two different angles: First, how and why Asoguabo has diversified from banana production to tourism; and second, what kind of image has been constructed of the project through marketing, and how have the imageries used in fair trade marketing been adopted in the construction of fair tourism. The theoretical framework for the research consists of the ideas of nueva ruralidad, new rurality, which deal with changes in rural areas. Tourism has changed over the last few decades, and tourists are increasingly looking for real and authentic travel experiences. Simultaneously, tourism has been commodified by emphasising certain features of sustainable development, and especially in the developing world, tourism is often marketed under the brand of alternative, community-based, or ecotourism. As a new concept, fair tourism has joined this wide variety of different brands, and this thesis discusses the project of Asoguabo from the point of view of fair tourism. This thesis is a case study on the Fair Tourism Project of Asoguabo, and it is based on fieldwork of one month in Ecuador in January 2010, as well as on the author's previous experiences from Asoguabo. The data consists of 21 semi-structured qualitative interviews with sixteen informants, most of who were closely related to the Fair Tourism Project. Apart from the interviews, data were collected through participant observation and content analysis of the promotion materials of the project. This thesis shows how the Fair Tourism Project faces a number of challenges before it can achieve its objective of creating additional income for Asoguabo. The research shows how the project mainly benefitted those few members of the association, who work in the project as guides. These guides profit directly from the project by obtaining small additional income, by growing their social capital, and by getting an opportunity to learn through participating in different courses, for example. The results of the research also show how communication problems between the different actors in the project exacerbate the information flow and consequently activities of the Fair Tourism Project. These problems also increase the levels of uncertainty about the project among the farmers of Asoguabo. In addition, the thesis shows that, to some extent, similar imageries are being used in the marketing of the Fair Tourism Project as in the marketing of agricultural fair trade commodities. However there are surprisingly few producers portrayed in the promotion material and pictures of European tourists are often at the centre stage.

In the second millennium, the number of blogs, alongside with other user-generated content has grown explosively all over the globe. In Finland, blogs have a strong foothold in the genre of lifestyle media. Bloggers have become independent media entrepreneurs and they have also been employed by media companies. Lifestyle blogs and women’s magazines intersect in many respects. One of the most important intersections is their readership. Many magazine readers read blogs and some have also replaced magazine reading with blog reading. The aim of this study was to find out why the reader’s relationship with lifestyle blogs is different from her relationship with women’s magazines and what implications this may have for the future of lifestyle media. The field of lifestyle blogs has thus far not been widely researched and very little is still known about the reading practices of blogs. In this thesis I compare the reading of blogs with the reading of women’s magazines. I study the role of the blogosphere by examining previous literature about women’s magazines, user-generated content and blogging as a phenomenon. I examine the reader-relationship of blogs from the point of view of journalistic professionalism, in the sense that it applies to women’s magazines; as well as authenticity, a concept previously associated with representations of ordinary people in the media. For my empirical analysis I have conducted a reader-study of the readers of the Finnish Costume magazine. The participants of my study were females from 16 to 32 of age. I employed a set of mixed methods to study the relationship that these readers had with blogs and magazines. My main findings in this study were that the reading of women’s magazines is motivated by the professionalism of magazine journalists whereas lifestyle blog reading is motivated by the perceived authenticity of the blogger. As such, blogs and magazines appear to fulfil two different functions. I also discovered that some of the reading practices previously associated with magazines have been transferred as such to blogs but some of them have been highlighted or reshaped by the reading of blogs. A key implication of this study is that blogs and magazines remediate each other and reshape the expectations that readers have of the lifestyle media genre.

This thesis is an ethnographic study about rap, rock, and metal scenes in today’s Tehran. The study takes off from hip-hop scholars Pennycook’s and Mitchell’s proposition of hip-hop as “dusty foot philosophy” which is rooted at local dusty ground while articulating philosophies of global significance. This study aims to examine what kind of spaces are these dusty streets in Tehran and how does Tehran’s urban landscape inform music making and music aesthetics. This study focuses on how notions of belonging, space, and place have been expressed by rappers and rockers both in their music making and their embodied use of urban spaces. Followingly it will observe how urban realities, urban space, and geographical segregation are perceived, challenged, and reclaimed through their craft. The study asks how underground musicians are debating questions of authenticity that have risen along music’s localization, and how musicians strive for artistic legitimacy which would verify their street credibility both within their local music scenes and wider society, as well as within global music community. The study is based on an ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Tehran between 2012 and 2014. This is a multi-sited ethnographic research and employs phenomenological approach to analyse subjective and embodied experiences in the urban space. Methodologically it is based on participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and email interviews. The study includes dozens of rappers, rockers, and metalheads, most of whom are young male between 19 and 35 both from lower-class and middle-class backgrounds. Few of the musicians are young female as well. This thesis is a contribution to Iranian popular music studies and to our understanding of everyday realities of Tehrani rappers and rockers and music life in the city. It aims to shed some light to the ongoing democratization of music production which is rapidly changing the demographics of Tehran’s underground music scene. The study aims to underline that Tehran’s underground music scene is a heterogeneous space consisting of musicians from different socioeconomic backgrounds and genres having diverse and contradictory aspirations, music aesthetics, and styles. Accordingly, it applies intersectional approach which helps to grasp multiple experiences within the same and shared social space. The study aims to problematize the persistent understanding of underground music scene as inherently subversive and emancipatory space, and argues that individual musicians don’t have an equal access to these allegedly “emancipatory” spaces nor equal opportunities to make a professional career out of music. Furthermore, it is argued that this highly politicized understanding might do more harm than good for underground musicians who are considered defiant against their own aspirations. The study argues that the spatial surroundings of rap and rock scenes look very different. While rock and metal musicians mainly gather, rehearse, and record indoors, rappers have more visibly taken over public spaces by gathering and battling at different urban locations around the city. The study concludes that socioeconomic background and gender affects to a great extent in how musicians experience public sphere and musical spaces and how they move in them. Simultaneously, the study aims to show that global hip-hop discourse that privileges “ghetto life” and hardships in life can be self-empowering narrative for rappers from lower-class families, mainly from south Tehran which has been historically perceived as poor, traditional, conservative, and backward. The study argues that the democratization is gradually going beyond rap music as well, and there exists increasingly more rock and metal musicians from low-income and religious families. The study concludes that music is a powerful tool for constructing self-identity and demanding social and cultural change. Ultimately, the study aims to show how conscious Tehrani musicians are pushing for wider cultural and global change by telling local philosophies of global significance.