Browsing by Author "Syrjäläinen, Noora"

The purpose of this study was to explore how the participation fulfills in kindergarten based on the experiences of children. The study was also about exploring how the participation in kindergarten occurs based on the stories of children. In earlier studies the fulfillment of participation has mainly explored by interviewing the educators. Here however the children’s point of view will be ignored. Therefore the motivation to this study was to explore what do children themselves think about the fulfillment of their participation. In earlier studies has occured that the participation of children mainly takes its place only during the free action, usually in play. The study was conducted as a literature review. The research material consisted of four earlier studies: three master’s thesis and one doctoral thesis. In every one of these the fulfillment of children’s participation was explored based on the experiences of children. The material was analyzed by using a theory-driven content analysis. The analysis was guided by Shier´s (2001) Pathways to Participation. As main conclusions on this study it’s possible to state that the children felt that their participation was fulfilled during the free action, usually when they were playing. The participation occured in a way that the children got by themselves decide what, where and with who they play. The children also felt that they sometimes had a chance to choose the most pleasing from certain alternatives. What comes to the planning the children felt that they didn’t had a chance to influence on it. The children weren’t always aware of their influencing and they felt that they would like to be involved in decision making and influencing on the activities in the kindergarten. According to Shier’s Pathways to Participation the participation was fulfilled complitely only on the first level, which was about to be heard. The children felt that they were heard in the kindergarten. The rest of the levels on Shier’s Pathways to Participation fulfilled either only partly or not at all.