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The purpose with this study is to see how some kindergarten teachers are working with the theme children’s feelings and acting out behavior. The theory part is supported by the law, the national regulatory documents and scientific literature within the field. The thesis will also go deeper into the fundamental of the low arousal approach. This study is a qualitative study where the material is collected by an interview with four randomly picked kindergarten teachers. The interview questions are semi-structured and my informants have got the interview questions beforehand. The analysis of the material has been made by looking for similarities and differences between the informants’ answers. Through the analysis of the databases it did appear that the informants were thinking that the theme feelings is an important, but hard subject. The informants were largely working in the same way, but there were some differences though. One of the conclusions in the study is that kindergarten teachers perhaps could need more support and in-service training within this theme, in order to get the tools that are needed in order to work and support children’s emotional development in the best possible way.

Barn har genom tiderna på ett naturligt sätt ställt frågor om liv, död, förluster och andra typ av livsfrågor. Olika teorier och tidigare forskning om hur barn förhåller sig till och hanterar olika fenomen i sin omvärld visar att barns livsfrågor är viktiga på flera sätt, barn utvecklas och deras unika livsåskådning bildas med hjälp av livsfrågor. Vuxnas förhållningssätt kring barns livsfrågor har en stor betydelse för hur barnen vill och vågar ställa olika typer av livsfrågor. Barns livsfrågor är ett relativt outforskat område inom småbarnspedagogiken men viktigt, detta gjorde att mitt intresse för pedagogers uppfattningar om barns livsfrågor och vilka är pedagogers arbetssätt kring barns livsfrågor vaknade. Mina egna erfarenheter av barns livsfrågor har gett mig osäkerhet, rädsla och försiktighet för hur jag som pedagog ska hantera barns olika livsfrågor, detta är också en orsak till att detta ämne blev intressant att studera. Eftersom intresset för föreliggande studie är att ta reda på pedagogers erfarenheter kring barns livsfrågor blev ansatsen i denna studie kvalitativ. Jag fick möjligheten att åka på nordiskt studentutbyte till Norge för att samla data inför studien. I studien deltog tre lärare som samtliga arbetar inom småbarnspedagogiken. Intervjuerna var semistrukturerade, de bandades in och transkriberades senare. Analysmetoden är innehållsanalys. Resultaten visar att informanterna är insatta i vikten av livsfrågorna inom småbarnspedagogiken. Informanterna hade erfarenheter om många livsfrågor och de ansåg att det är en del av vardagen. Resultaten visar att besvarandet av barns livsfrågor inte är simpelt. Det är en hel del aspekter pedagoger ska ta i beaktandet då de svarar på barns livsfrågor. Informanterna berättar att de fått bra stöd i svåra situationer, men i krissituationer kunde det vara meningsfullt med en utomstående expert som kunde hjälpa pedagoger och barn genom svåra situationer och diskussioner.

The purpose of this thesis is to provide an introduction to the subject of children’s stress in child care settings. The paper discusses the neuropsychological foundation to stress, as well as what this implicates for the educator’s work on reducing stress in child care settings. The research questions were as following. 1. How does the stress system work in a child? 2. How can the educator use current research on stress to help children improve their stress management skills and reduce stress in child care settings? The method that has been used in this thesis is a narrative literature review. The thesis arrives at the conclusion that educators need to broaden their knowledge on how the stress system works in a child. The thesis also identifies which aspects of the child care setting and the educator’s working method that are importiant in reducing children’s stress. The thesis argues that there is need for a working method that is more conciously focused on reucing stress.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore children´s perception of their possibilities to participate in and influence the daily activities and their learning in preschool. This study emphasizes the children´s perception by exploring the phenomenon from the children´s perspective. The theoretical background focuses on influence and participation as concepts, democratic rights and factors that have an impact on children’s possibilities to be able to affect the daily activities and their own learning. The study´s empirical part was executed as a qualitative interview with preschool children. Ten preschool children participated in the interview and the interviews were conducted in pairs at the preschool. The research approach for this study is phenomenographical, because I wanted to research children´s perceptions of their influence and participation at preschool. The study shows that children perceive limited possibilities to affect the daily activities of the preschool. An interesting result is that children perceive that it is mainly the educators who decide at preschool and that free play is the only activity in which the children feel that they can decide freely what to do. In the results differences in perceptions of the possibilities in the free play emerge since some children consider that they can decide independently while other children consider that they can decide almost independently. It is found that the children have a possibility to affect the planned daily activities to some degree. Though it is entirely depending on if the educators offers the children the opportunity. The results show that most of the children perceive that they can affect their own learning, with help from their own dedication the children can get assistance in learning.

The aim of this thesis was to investigate how kindergarten teachers experience daycare start. Within the Swedish speaking daycare in Helsinki, the work is based on the "With the eyes of children" approach. This working model addresses following questions; how do kindergarten teachers perceive home visits, how do they experience the soft landing period in daycare and what thoughts do they have about the self-care model. The theoretical part focus on theories associated with the self-care model, previous research and hence emphasize national governing documents. A qualitative research method was used in this study and data was collected by using a semi-structured interview. Three kindergarten teachers participated in the study and the interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed. The results reveals that kindergarten teachers perceive the self-care model as one of the most important tools in the field. Home visits are seen as an important trust building link between families and teachers and therefore are home visits perceived to deepen the relationship between the teacher, parent and child. Soft landing as a method creates a safe foundation for a child to start daycare as the child and teacher already have a connection with each other. Some improvement suggestions concerning the soft landing method are addressed. One improvement suggestion could be to clarify parents’ participation in the self-care model. Additionally was pointed out, that a self-caregiver at the daycare start, is quite tied up and that the self-care model does not always work out in the best possible way. This means that as a self-caregiver you have to be flexible and be able to adapt the self-care model in a neat way.

The purpose of this thesis was to find out what kind of experiences recently graduated kindergarten teachers have about developmental pedagogy and how they can practice it in activities with children. The study brings up kindergarten teachers attitudes to developmental pedagogy, its advantages and disadvantages, as well as how they use it in practice, if they do. The theoretical frame concentrates on where the developmental pedagogy theory has arisen from, what it involves and also discusses developmental psychology’s association to developmental pedagogy. It also emphasizes what the national regulatory documents consider about children’s development and learning, as well as previous research about developmental pedagogy. The study was qualitative and based on interviews. Four recently graduated kindergarten teachers participated in the study, which work both in municipal and private kindergartens in the metropolitan area of Helsinki. The interviews were executed individually at the respective teachers work places. My research approach is phenomenological. The results show that the teachers have a positive attitude towards developmental pedagogy and they find it to be a good tool for successful activities in the kindergarten. Developmental pedagogy enriches the child’s learning and the child constitutes understanding for its surrounding world. However, developmental pedagogy is very time-consuming and it assumes that all the colleagues share the same perspective on children and work similarly.

The aim of this thesis is to find out how early childhood teachers experience well-being in the working community in the field of early childhood education and care, and how well-being can be promoted. This thesis helps to increase understanding of what early childhood teachers experience as a healthy working community. In addition, the thesis contributes to knowledge about how well-being can be promoted within a work team. The background to this thesis is changes in society, the new legislation that implies changes in daily activities of early childhood education and care, which bring new challenges to early childhood teachers. In this thesis, the following research questions are central: How would early childhood teachers define a well-functioning work community in early childhood education? In what ways can well-being be promoted? The theoretical point of departure in this study is psychosocial work environment, work culture and leadership. The methodology used in this thesis is qualitative research methods with a phenomenological approach to describe four respondents’ perceptions of well-being in the working community, in two different day-care centres. This, to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon this study focuses on and to gain an idea of how early childhood teachers perceive their everyday work life. The result of this study shows that communication has a central role in a healthy working community. Other important factors are social support, cooperation, evenly allocated work, sufficient human resources and leadership.

Mål. Barn med utmanande beteende har rätt till lämpligt stöd i verksamheten för småbarnspedagogik. Pedagoger inom småbarnspedagogik förutsätts ha yrkeskompetens nog att bemöta dessa barn. Syftet med denna avhandling är att jämföra olika metoder för att bemöta barn med beteendeproblematik samt att betona vikten av förebyggande arbete för att undvika utbrott. De metoder som kommer undersökas är lågaffektivt bemötande och CPS-metoden. En utgångspunkt för avhandlingen är vikten av medvetet bemötande i samspelet med barn med beteendeproblematik och i situationer där barn agerar utåt. Metoder. Avhandlingen är en litteraturöversikt gjord baserad på litteratur och vetenskapliga studier i lågaffektivt bemötande och CPS-metoden. Materialet för forskningsdelen består av sju vetenskapliga artiklar som valts enligt specifika sökord via forskningsdatabaser. Resultat och slutsatser. Att bli bemött på ett lågaffektivt sätt eller med CPS-metoden minskade symptom på beteendeproblematik hos barn och unga. Arbetet med metoderna gjorde att personalen agerade mindre kontrollerande och restriktivt. Båda metoder visade sig vara fungerande för att stödja barn i utvecklingen av sociala och emotionella färdigheter och exekutiva funktioner. Pedagogen har en viktig roll i att stödja barnets utveckling och att förebygga beteendeproblematik. Barn med beteendeproblematik, och specifikt utåtagerande beteende, gynnas av att bli bemötta med lågaffektivt bemötande och CPS-metoden.

The purpose of this thesis is to study how pupils are treated in physical education classes, how the treatment can affect gender equality during classes and how the pupils perceive themselves. Previous research shows that teachers' subconsciousness about their own view of gender and practice can be part of shaping and reproducing gender differences in physical education. Furthermore, previous research has revealed stereotypical beliefs that boys to nature are more suitable for sports than girls. Boys' performance is considered to be the norm for physical education and girls differ from this norm due to their gender. This study aims to analyze PE teachers' attitudes towards gender equality in physical education classes using the following research questions; (1) how does student interaction take place in physical education? and (2) in what way is gender equal education promoted? The thesis is based on a systematic literature review. The research material consisted of nine peer-reviewed articles from eight different countries. The material was found using keywords and keyword combinations from different databases and the material was analyzed through a content analysis. The results of the literature review show that teachers interact with pupils in physical education both verbally and through their practice. There were clear differences in teachers' way of interacting with girls and boys in the way they communicated, how frequently the communication took place and, in the attention paid to achievements. The results also point to scarcity in equality in physical education due to a lack of competence among teachers and teachers' unawareness about their own view of gender and how it affected their own actions.

Aims. This study is built on the researcher’s own experience as an exchange student. The research material was the researcher’s self-kept diaries during the exchange year. The aim of this study was to analyse the content of these diaries and to examine the nature of intercultural sensitivity found in them. The intercultural sensitivity is part of teacher’s profession. Multicultural educator’s competence specifically underlines cultural awareness and ability to interact interculturally sensitively. According to previous research both professionalism and intercultural sensitivity of a teacher develop reflectively. This study examines the orientations of M. J. Bennet’s Model of Intercultural Sensitivity Development (DMIS) in the diaries. The study is a self-reflective learning process according to J. Mezirow. Methods. The research material consists of private diaries kept by the researcher during the school year 2004 — 2005. The diaries are a biographical narrative, which was written during a stay at a zulu-family in South Africa. The research material was analysed by the method of content analysis and theory based content analysis by M. J. Bennett’s DMIS. The diaries were construed as a description of a critical event, which the exchange student year was. The subjective basis of this study made it relevant to apply J. Mezirow’s theory of Transformative Learning for critical reflection’s and meaning perspectives’ part. Results and conclusions. There were three main themes discovered in the diaries: the challenges with adjustment, the life style and the growth process. Both ethnocentric and ethno-relativistic orientations of Bennet’s DMIS appeared in the research material – host family mainly ethnocentric and self mainly ethnorelativistically positioned. The challenges related to intercultural sensitivity development were clearly marked in the diaries. A self-reflective study such as this one takes a form of a learning process which concludes more specified under- standing and better consciousness of one’s own intercultural sensitivity.