Children's agency accords with the principles emphasised by the Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations in Convention on the rights of the child. UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Geneva. Retrieved from, https ://www.ohchr .org/EN/Profe ssion alInt erest /Pages /CRC.aspx, 1989). This study focuses on children's opportunities for agency in first grade of a Finnish primary school. The research explored how children's agency was evident in photographs taken by 16 children on their school experiences and discussions with the researcher about the photographs. A phenomenological approach was used in the analyses to identify four themes in the data: the social order of school; teacher's pedagogical tools; break times; and learning new skills. In the school context, the children's agency seemed to require continuous balancing between the children's freedom and adults' power and authority. Pedagogically, the results imply that the adults who work with children can listen closely to children's voices in order to strengthen opportunities in classrooms and to support children's sense of personal agency. The study challenges teachers to consider how classroom practices may divide or categorise some children and how these practice may reduce children's participation, contribution and agency.
This article focuses on children’s perspectives of belonging to a place, in this case a Finnish preprimary school setting. This study explores “place-belonging” in photographs originally taken by the children in their preprimary school activities. “Photo-telling” was applied as a methodology to link narrative and visual approaches. The research data consist of 13 children’s photographs and group discussions, in which the children viewed the photographs with the researcher. The study shows that children’s belonging in the preprimary school was intertwined with various elements of the setting, including the people, activities, materiality, and institutional and cultural practices. The findings show how the children can make places of their own and contribute to the setting, how they build their own places, and how these places and associated structures affect the children’s actions. Play allows the children to gain familiarity and attachment to places, materials, and peers, hence building a sense of belonging to the preprimary school as a setting. Children’s photographs and storytelling activities provide educators with a significant means to support and understand children’s perspectives on place and belonging.
The study draws on a relational and intersectional approach to young children’s belonging in Finnish educational settings. Belonging is conceptualized as a multilevel, dynamic, and relationally constructed phenomenon. The aim of the study is to explore how children’s belonging is shaped in the intersections between macro-, meso-, and micro-levels of young children’s education in Finland. The data consist of educational policy documents and ethnographic material generated in educational programs for children aged birth to 8 years. A situational mapping framework is used to analyze and interpret the data across and within systems levels (macro-level; meso-level; and micro-level). The findings show that the landscape in which children’s belonging is shaped and the intersections across and within the levels are characterized by the tensions between similarities and differences, majority and minorities, continuity and change, authority and agency. Language used, practices enacted, and positional power emerge as the (re)sources through which children’s (un)belonging is actively produced.
What is good after-school childhood like? How do children perceive their daily rhythm? This study answers the following questions: 1) How are children's daily rhythms structured according to children's descriptions? 2) How do children's autonomy and participation manifest themselves in children's daily rhythms? and 3) How do children describe their encounters with others during their daily rhythm? This study applied phenomenological approach. 12 Finnish third-graders participated in this research. The data were collected in the form of photos that children took themselves and the researcher's discussions with children. The role of after-school time was discussed as a part of children's daily rhythm. The study showed that after-school childhood can be viewed from many points of view. Being alone after the school day can increase children's autonomy and represent time when children can act freely and voluntarily. However, it does not make the time spent together with parents any less important.
Artikkeli tarkastelee lasten osallisuutta mahdollistavia ja estäviä tekijöitä esiopetuksessa. Tutkimusaineisto koottiin yhden päiväkodin esiopetusryhmässä, ja tutkimukseen osallistui 13 lasta. Aineisto koostuu neljästä ryhmäkeskustelusta, jotka käytiin lasten ottamien valokuvien pohjalta. Tutkimuskysymys on, mitkä tekijät mahdollistavat ja estävät lasten osallisuutta esiopetuksessa. Ilmiötä lähestytään lapsuudentutkimuksen viitekehyksessä Giorgin fenomenologisesta metodologiasta käsin. Tutkimustulosten pohjalta lasten osallisuuden kannalta merkittävää esiopetuksessa oli yhteinen leikki vertaisten kanssa. Lasten osallisuus näkyi kuitenkin jännitteisenä ilmiönä, jossa ovat yhtä aikaa läsnä pakon ja vapaaehtoisuuden elementit. Tutkimustulosten mukaan kasvattajilla oli keskeinen rooli siinä, miten he mahdollistivat tilojen ja materiaalien hyödyntämistä lasten yhteisessä leikissä ja toiminnassa sekä miten he osallistuivat itse lasten leikkeihin ja toimintoihin. Artikkelin lopuksi pohditaan, miten tutkimuksen tuloksia voitaisiin hyödyntää kasvatustyössä sekä kasvattajia koulutettaessa.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.