Browsing by Author "Alatalo, Niko"

The goal of this study is to solve how three different fifth-graders, from Helsinki, experience their own opportunities to influence in their own local community. In this study the strongest local community which rises is school community. But I have been trying to process pupils’ hobbies, friends and their home as well beside the school and how the pupils influence in those local communities. The study is timely because of a new subject, social studies, which is starting in elementary schools in fall of 2016. One of the goals is to solve how these fifth-graders see this new subject and part of its contents now in spring of 2016 before it’s starting in the fall of 2016. A research problems are following, how elementary school fifth-grader experience its own opportunities to influence its own local community, how active fifth-grader is to influence in its own local community and how elementary school fifth-grader experience to be heard in the local community-based issues in decision-making. I will interview three fifth-graders and trying to get interviewed pupils who have some kind of a background of being a part of some team or organization. I will analyse a results by using content analysis method. I am trying to parallel the results of levels of an influencing and involvement in local communities to former theories about interactions between kids and adults in decision making. The study found that pupils had different views about influencing in the local community depending what was meant with a local community. In a school community pupils experienced their own chances to influence weak. While at home or with friends pupils experienced their chances to influence just natural part of day to day routines. All these things together create an understanding of pupils’ activity of trying to influence in their local communities. Level of activity is strongly dependent of what was meant about local community.