Browsing by Subject "opettajan strategiat"

Dialogue on children's wellbeing has significantly increased over the past few years. The research focus has been on subjective wellbeing, with the individual's own experiences as the main concern. The focus in this case study is on the child's voice, or discovering how well or poorly children were heard at kindergarten meetings, where they discussed photographs that they had taken. The child's voice in this context refers to the child's own experiences and perspectives narrated by himself/ herself. In my study, I focus on listening to the child through participation. I concentrate on observing how listening and participation were realized in semi-structured interactive situations within a kindergarten group. In addition, I pay attention to any factors that contributed to the child's voice being heard. In my research, children's participation is observed from a sociocultural perspective. The research data was collected in a kindergarten group, whose activities are based on positive pedagogy. The aim of positive pedagogy is to support the child's overall wellbeing, emphasizing children's own initiative and involvement in their surroundings. This pedagogical faction that has recently gained popularity specifically pays attention to children's individual, meaningful experiences, and on positive feelings that the children can process and share in a familiar community. The study represents a child-focused research approach, in which children are direct providers of data. The actual research data consists of filmed interactive situations, in which the children narrate the experiences they have documented. A detailed analysis, applying Harry Shier's model (2001) on the pathways to participation and discourse analysis, was conducted on reflection discussions among five children. The children's participation in this study was multilevel: the children's roles were not only passive, but active when their views were taken into account. Three significant factors that contribute to children's voices being heard emerged in the study. Strategies of teacher, various tools used in activities, and other children appeared to affect participation and listening in reflection discussions. A conclusion to be drawn from the study is that cultural tools and other people have an effect on how the child's thoughts and opinions are presented in discussions.