Browsing by Subject "opettajan vaikutus"

The aim of this study was to perceive a possible connection between a pupil's educational path based on a family background, teacher’s effect and the pupil’s agency by studying each topic separately. Previous studies have shown that education tends to be inherited, and that the child's family background and living conditions maintain the cross-generational continuity of education. The studies also prove the importance of the teacher in the pupil’s life and in the formation of the pupil’s self-perceptions. Agency occurs both in the educational and socio-political speech, and in the study of learning and has been given a substantial value in the national core curriculum for basic education 2014. Agency often refers to individual’s or community’s change-oriented activity in social constructions. Different studies and fields of research define agency in somewhat different ways, but based on several studies, both the developmental and situational nature within agency are emphasized. The study was carried out as a descriptive literature review. The source material consisted of Finnish and international literature. The differences between social classes, which were used in describing educational pathways and the teacher’s effect, often appeared as explanatory factors in the study material. The concept of agency, often described as complexed, was defined based on previous studies. According to the results of this study, the pupil's background influenced the educational path through the typical characteristics of social class, the teacher effect was meaningful in the life of a pupil through the formation of self-perceptions, and the agency was, indeed, seen as a factor in the choice of educational path, for instance, through self-efficacy. In conclusion, the study draws the possibility of a connection between teacher supporting the development of agency and the pupil's choice of educational pathway when the pupil's family background does not provide all the support the pupil needs for an educational path that differs from the ones in the family background.