Browsing by Title

The framework of the study was the support of the agency of immigrants as a part of the acculturation and integration process. The theories on agency in the background of the study have handled agency as a possibility to influence the course of events and as a part of the exercise of power, as an individual resource and as a way the individual continuously moulds the surrounding structures within their limitations and without being their passive victim. In previous research the visibility and exercise of agency was conceived as planned and meaningful work, self-conscious will to learn the language and the development of the individual with the support of the group. The function of the study is to examine what kind of meaning the adult education centre’s work can give to the agency of the immigrant and how agency can be seen to be supported in the work they do. The material of the study was three pieces of interviews of the experts in education of the immigrants at the adult education centres. The interviews were collected as thematic interviews while the research strategy was qualitative. Content-based content analysis was the research framework and the material was analysed through content analysis. The results of the study were the meaning of motivation in independent studies as part of exercising agency, developing of knowledge, skills and comprehension as part of expanding the limits of agency. The learning of the adult education centre’s students was best supported by student-based teaching methods, diverse course offering and the guidance and tranquil atmosphere provided by teachers. Learning can be seen to support the strengthening of agency with the immigrant students. The received results could be used in planning and evaluating the integration training of immigrants.

In the recent years, the focus of studying folk costumes have mainly been practicality and selection criteria. The aim of this study is to look further into how they are viewed today, and what thoughts are associated with them. In the recent years, folk costumes have not been studied from this point of view in the context of modern era. This study has been structured into three research questions: What are the meanings associated to folk costumes today? What kinds of hopes and goals is towards folk costumes? How the position of folk costumes is experienced in 2017? The objective of this study is to better understand the approaches and thoughts that are associated with folk costumes today. Answers to the former questions of study were sought by interviewing four people in the midst of the folk costume industry and building on an understanding of their experiences with folk costumes. Two of the subjects are artisans in the folk costume industry, one is a handicrafts teacher, and one an active wearer of folk costumes. The interviews were constructed as theme interviews, and the material was analyzed using narrative analysis, focusing on each subject’s experiences. The main components that rose in the interviews were both tradition and maintenance of heritage and ancestresses; aesthetic and ecological values; the relevance of the studied costume as a whole; the significance of knowledge related to the attitudes towards the costumes; and the subjects’ enthusiasm to folk costumes and sharing their knowledge and appreciation. The analysis uncovered that the subjects’ experiences were quite similar to one another. Some possible reasons for this might be a “bubble” of folk costume enthusiasts, and the tight community that has been formed around the topic. Both aspects came up in the interviews several times. The study uncovered folk costume enthusiasts’ values, thoughts and knowledge, that the mainstream might not be aware of. These sources may be useful in the objective of this study in furthering the appreciation and bettering the position of folk costumes.

Mål. Tidigare forskning har ifrågasatt autonomins positiva effekter och visat att självständigt arbete har lett till brister på stöd och socialt samspel i arbetslivet. Avhandlingens syfte är att kartlägga hur anställda i kunskapsarbete upplevde de reella effekterna av hög autonomi i sitt arbete. De relevanta faktorerna är i denna avhandling välmående, motivation, gemenskap och effektivitet. Metoder. För denna avhandling intervjuades fyra personer som arbetar med kunskapsintensivt jobb. Intervjun var en semistrukturerad tematisk intervju som analyserades enligt nyckelord och teman utgående från relevanta faktorer som framträder i tidigare forskning. Resultat och slutsatser. Informanterna upplevde autonomins effekter generellt positivt, men effekterna upplevdes också vara mångfacetterade. Chansen att påverka arbetets innehåll och arbetstid ansågs ha flera positiva effekter, men de verkade förverkligas bara tillsammans med god kommunikation, gemenskap och förmåga till självstyre. Informanterna upplevde att samma dimensioner av autonomi kan ha både positiva och negativa effekter beroende på situationen. Intervjuerna gav delvis stöd för tidigare forskning som ifrågasätter autonomins linjära positiva effekter samt Arbetshälsoinstitutets utlåtande om moderna arbetslivets farhågor. I denna avhandling kom vissa teman och nyckelord fram som delvis belyser autonomins effekter, men de individuella och strukturella stödbehoven och eventuella underliggande mekanismer bakom effekterna blottades inte.

Goals This study examines how and why people writing blogs find that the most recent Finnish nutritional recommendations are harmful. Blogs create an opportunity for anyone to write their own opinions and to react quickly to current topics. It also seems that bloggers can easily obtain the status of an expert, and this way enables them to spread their own opinions and attitudes, without any scientific research supporting their claims studies or arguments. Methods The research is qualitative and uses theory-driven content analysis. The material collecting was based on a predetermined timeline. Whit this timeline as a guide, 10 blogs with 11 different posts were choosen. Five of The writers were women and six were men. By analyzing the blog posts this study tries to find out reasons why the writers feel the nutritional recommendations are bad or even health threatening. The material was processed through analysing and thematizing the contents. The study focuses solely on opinions written in a negative tone. Results and conclusions The reasons for bloggers to criticize the nutritional recommendations range very widely. However, it became strongly evident that the writers forget the basic rules of scientific argumentation and focus mainly on limited set of research results. They also present impossible demands for the authors of the nutritional recommendations and accused scientists and the National Nutrition Council conspiracy. The above mentioned things are typical for denialism. Home economics teachers should have a good understanding of false specialist associated with food and nutrition. It is important for teachers and researchers of home economics science to identify different strategies of denialism. Identifying strategies that are used to spread false information can help fight against them and to raise awareness of genuine scientific knowledge.

Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on selvittää, millaisia visuaalisia representaatioita isähahmoista esiintyy 2000-luvun kotimaisten lastenkirjojen kansikuvissa. Toisin sanoen pyrin tutkimuksessa selvittämään sitä, miten ja millaisena isähahmo kuvataan nykypäivän suomalaisten kuvakirjojen kansissa. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan kansikuvien isähahmojen ulkoista olemusta, toimintaa ja roolia. Lisäksi kiinnitetään huomiota hahmojen mahdollisiin tunteisiin ja vuorovaikutukseen sekä isyyttä kuvaaviin symboleihin. Aineistoksi valikoitui viisi 2000-luvulla julkaistua kotimaista lapsille suunnattua kuvakirjaa, joiden kansikuvissa esiintyy isä. Isän tuli olla teoksissa ihmishahmo ja hänellä oli kunkin kirjan tarinassa merkittävä rooli. Aineistoksi valitsin lopulta viisi ensimmäistä löytämääni, kriteerit täyttävää teosta. Tässä laadullisessa tutkimuksessa on hyödynnetty osittain aineistolähtöistä, osittain teorialähtöistä sisällönanalyysiä. Tutkimus pohjaa valmiiseen semioottisen kuva-analyysin teoriamalliin, mutta pääpaino on aineistossa. Kuvia analysoitaessa tutkijan omat tulkinnat sekä henkilökohtaiset näkemykset ovat suuressa roolissa, sillä kuvia katsotaan aina jossain määrin tulkitsijan omien kokemusten kautta. Tutkimuksen teoriaosuudessa olen määritellyt lastenkirjallisuutta, kuvakirjoja, semiotiikkaa sekä isyyttä. Tutkimus tuo esille sen, että isähahmojen kuvaukset nykypäivän suomalaisissa lasten kuvakirjoissa ovat moninaisia, joskin myös yhdistäviä tekijöitä isien representaatioista löytyi. Isät kuvattiin aineiston kansikuvissa yleisesti hyvin positiivisesti. Kuvien isät osallistuivat lasten tekemisiin, auttoivat lapsia, näyttivät heille esimerkkiä sekä olivat vastuullisessa roolissa. Isät osoittivat kuvissa halua suojella ja tukea lastaan. Isien ja lasten välillä oli havaittavissa vahvoja tunnesiteitä. Negatiivisena pidettäviä representaatioita ei aineiston kuvista oikeastaan löytynyt.

Traditional Finnish hand knitted woolen socks are usually very similar in construction: they all have the same reinforced flap heel. Today, when sharing of knitting instructions and ideas with other enthusiasts is easier than ever, thanks to social media, there are countless alternatives for knitting the heel. Using a reinforced knit doesn’t seem to be so important anymore. In this study four different knit structures usually found in woolen socks heel are compared on abrasion and pilling resistance. Also, the effect of the fiber content and price of the yarn in abrasion and pilling resistance is compared. Three reinforced knits were compared to plain stockinette knit; traditional reinforced knit, Eye of Partridge knit and two-colored pinstripe knit. Three different wool blend yarns were compared to 100 % wool. Two of the wool blends were similar in fiber content (75 % wool, 25 % polyamide), but very different in price. Two similar samples were knitted in all four knit structures with all four yarns. Samples were rubbed with martindale-device until a hole occurred. Weight loss and pilling of the samples were measured every 20 rubs. Reinforced knits were compared to stockinette knit and wool blends to 100 % wool. The two polyamide-wool blends were compared to each other to investigate if the price of the yarn effected on its quality. The study showed that the reinforced knits weight loss percentage was smaller than stockinette knits, but that they were less resistant to pilling. Hole occurred first in the Eye of the Partridge knit and last in the traditional reinforced knit. Polyamide-wool blends were considerably more resistant to weight loss and breaking than 100 % wool but less resistant to pilling. Nettle-wool blend was more resistant to weight loss than 100 % wool, but less resistant to breaking and pilling. Of the two polyamide-wool blends the more expensive yarn lasted 15 % longer before breaking than the cheaper yarn. It also was more resistant to weight loss and pilling, As a conclusion, the fiber content is more important to abrasion and pilling resistance than the knit structure. To achieve a long life-cycle for machine washable polyamide-wool blend socks it is more important to consider other factors than the knit structure of the heel. Those factors could be for example appearance and fit, or any other factor that makes the product more significant to its user.

The aim of this research was to clarify how crafts and doing things by hands are utilized and what kind of in-fluence they have in physical rehabilitation especially in Cerebrovascular accident (CVA) patience´s occu-pational therapy. There are very few researches available related to craft´s effects for physical health because almost all ear-lier researches have been concentrated on the mental influences when doing things by hands. In this re-search the idea was to study possibilities of the crafts concentrating mainly on less studied physical rehabili-tation without forgetting mental side which also has a strong connection to the subject. Based on that two main questions were set for the research 1) What kind of effects doing by hands has in the physical rehabili-tation? 2) How the use of hands is utilized in occupational therapy? I collected my data by interviewing two occupational therapists, who have made a long career in rehabilita-tion and used crafts to support and help their work. The interview was carried out as a theme interview based on the questions which came up into my mind when collecting theoretical background for my re-search. Before the interviews I divided all questions to four themes: rehabilitation and CVA (cerebrovascular acci-dent), occupational therapy, crafts in therapy and art therapy. The research method was qualitative data analysis. I felt it necessary to define research questions more de-tail before thematisation, to make it easier to divide subjects under the right research question in the analysis of the data. After that all received answers related to each research question were grouped in themes. Doing things by hands and crafts have a lot of both, physical and mental effects on people. It all starts from inside of a person´s head and via that it reflects to physical functions. Especially, empowering emotions, like the joy of doing things, passion, motivation and a feeling of own capability were noticed to be important fac-tors in physical rehabilitation. Furthermore, doing things by yourself leading to better development of hands functionality was considered important. Upper limb rehabilitation is in the center of occupational therapy because human needs hands in everyday life. The use of hands is utilized in occupational therapy both in casual tasks and via crafts. Target is also to improve motor functions and movements of the person under rehabilitation. When applying the functionality practices are combined to some interesting actions when rehabilitation happens without paying any special attention to that. Functionality can also be applied by using certain type of auxiliaries when also working with physically disabled person come easier. The most important tasks of the Occupational therapists are to find customer´s spontaneity and will to do things, to make people feel good and fulfil their dreams.

Purpose of this thesis is to outline decisions made designing the physical learning environment of Koulu school -concept, and further develop its elements for humanitarian work and disaster relief. It also seeks ways to take advantage of local materials and craftsmanship. Previous studies have shown that physical learning environment can improve learning results, serve to direct towards more interactive learning methods and increase overall well-being. Engaging local communities in school’s day-to-day operations develops life skills and helps normalize everyday life in difficult circumstances. Thesis was implemented as survey, which was targeted at Koulu school team members. Survey collects tacit knowledge that has accumulated within the team and structures this know-how into practical solutions to further develop Koulu school -concept. Survey was conducted online using Helsinki university’s eLomake -service and six responses were received. Data was analyzed qualitatively using theory-driven content analysis, with physical elements of Koulu school’s learning environment as analytical framework. A short action research was conducted at Za’atr refugee camp to complement the survey. According to respondents the best elements of learning environment were shade cloth and wall of blackboards. These created comfortable atmosphere and allowed for flexible room layouts. Floor cushions were considered adaptable and promoting social equality. Respondents also suggested that physical elements of learning environment should be further developed more reliable, considering difficult and often primitive circumstances of humanitarian relief work. Thesis also concludes that Koulu school’s physical learning environment, as well as processes and instructions should be developed towards craft methods. Using local materials and craftsmanship engages local communities to the school and helps making processes more flexible and robust. In order to support this, elements of learning environment should be simplified, and instructions be developed in order to meet the needs of humanitarian work.

This research seeks to clarify the factors that promote learning in craft lessons, the needs for support, and the factors behind them from the perspective of craft teachers. I also get acquainted with how craft teachers experience the realization of three-level support in the context of craft. For this research, three craft teachers who teach in comprehensive schools, were inter viewed. The interviews were conducted remotely due to the prevailing covid-19 pandemic. The implementation of the research is guided by a qualitative phenomenographic approach and the themes that emerge from the theory. After transcription, the interview material was analyzed by means of phenomenographic analysis, and the results of the study have been presented in descriptive categories specific to phenomenographic analysis. The results also present a three-step support model based on the experiences of craft teachers. The aim of this research is to describe the forms of support used by craft teachers and the factors that promote the provision of support in craft lessons. The results resulted in four categories of description that were collectively constructed from teachers ’perceptions are; work community support, diversity of teaching, safe adult and a functional learning environment. Teachers identified various ways to promote support, such as collegial support, variations in differentiation, materials and tools, the use of different group work and peer support, the importance of student knowledge in identifying support needs and the role of one's own role in earning students trust. Teachers had differing views on the implementation of the three-step support model in craft classes. A collective understanding of the forms of support used by teachers is built in the results to give an indication of how teachers apply different levels of forms of support in their work

The aim of this thesis is to outline the strengths of craftivism as a means of activism and political participation. The investigative function consisted of describing, analyzing and interpreting themes that had emerged from the podcast Poliittisia pistoja. My intention was not to formulate widely applicable hypotheses of the phenomenon , but to gain diverse information on the subject and to understand craftivism as a current phenomenon. The thesis is a qualitative case study, where a conversation on craftivism published as an internet podcast functions as the source material. The utilized analytical method belongs to the sphere of content analysis, where the source material is analyzed and transcribed largely based on the source material. Six main themes emerged from the source material: 1) the facilitation of political agency, 2) consolation, empowerment and regulation of feelings, 3) diversity, 4) visual impact and volume, 5) performativity and emotional argumentation, 6) doing things the other way. The result of this study is a narratively intact text body, where craft is examined from the perspective of self-expression, activism and political participation. By studying craft as a channel for expressing opinions and participating in societal affairs, it was revealed that the strengths of craftivism as a means of activism were related to, among other things, the accessibility, diversity and visuality of craftivism and how craftivism enables the creation of new subject positions and political spaces. According to the source material it was also possible to vent feelings and thoughts of political grievances into the compositional and material craft process. Craftivism leading to functional products and processes, such as intimate and political cross-stiching or performative protest, is connected to historical, cultural and sosioeconomical meanings, which are addressed in this thesis.