What is after-school childhood like? Children’s descriptions of their daily rhythms

Abstract

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.

Place, Peers, and Play: Children’s Belonging in a Preprimary School Setting

“…In the current study, phototelling was selected as a methodology linking narrative and visual approaches, enabling us to combine children's photographic and storytelling activities. As in prior research, we assume that photo-telling can reveal issues in children's lives that might otherwise go unnoticed by adults (Einarsdottir, 2007;Kinnunen & Puroila, 2016;Kyrönlampi et al 2014). Photo-telling enables us to capturing related feelings about photos and the dialogical interactions that occur among children, photographs, places, and researchers.…”

What Are Good Leaders Made Of? Finnish School Children’s Descriptions of Leadership

“…Narrative research provides an opportunity to peep into the children's world and understand their experiences (Kyrönlampi, Uusiautti, & Määttä, 2014). When students write narratives, they might be able to express themselves more openly than in an interview situation in which the adult always somehow defines the child's position (Engel, 1995).…”

“…This was also one of the challenges in this study, too: how to find and reach the children's experiences and opinions? In all phases of the study, it was important to bear in mind the pursuit of hearing the children and respecting them as research participants (Kyrönlampi, Uusiautti, & Määttä, 2014).…”