Many studies have highlighted the importance of community and cooperation in inclusive education. However, traditionally, teachers are trained to manage their classes alone. Along with the aspirations of inclusive education, there is high pressure to develop school cultures that are more communal and to reorient school personnel’s work, making it more collaborative, in order to meet the diverse needs of all students. In this research, we explored and compared the collaborative ways in which teachers supported their students in four schools in Austria, Finland, Lithuania, and Poland. As a conceptual framework, the research utilized theories of interprofessional teamwork. The researchers applied a theory-led thematic analysis to the research data. The main findings indicate that collaborative action needs to be an essential part of teachers’ work in an inclusive school. The schools and teachers implemented both proactive and reactive ways of constructing an inclusive pedagogy when they supported their students.
Climate change is a global concern, and the need to address it is urgent. Therefore, climate change education has been developed in recent years. Meaning making, coping strategies, and solution-oriented climate education tasks enable and maintain hope for positive results with regard to climate change. However, there is still uncertainty as to how students’ knowledge of climate change mitigation measures affects their attitudes. In the present study, elementary and secondary students in Finland (n = 950) responded to an online questionnaire. A principal component analysis, a hierarchical regression analysis, a correlation coefficients, a t-test, and a Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance were used for the analysis to understand what kind of hope students had towards climate change and how their knowledge and optimism regarding climate change affected their hope. The data revealed that the students had a relatively high constructive hope rather than denial hope when it comes to climate change. Additionally, this hope was not built on a minimisation of climate change. The results indicated that the significant predictors for climate change mitigation were gender, climate change knowledge, and constructive hope. A typology of student positions with regard to climate change is introduced as conclusions.
4 April 2020 in International Journal of Heritage Studies
This article explores how game jams, a rapid collaborative game production format, can work to support the revitalisation of Indigenous self-narratives in the context of Sámi culture. The study focuses on the Sami Game Jam, an event designed and carried out in the Northern Finish Sámi community in Utsjoki, in February 2018. Using an ethnographic method including participatory observation, video interviews with Sámi participants, and textual video game analysis, the study first discusses the event design, and how the creation of Sámi themes and priorities created constraints for game design. The variety of themes selected for the jam reflects the diversity of concerns present in contemporary Sámi society, and the need to reflect them in media. Secondly, we address the process of collaborative game development to explore current Sámi experience in a dialogic, open-ended way. Finally, we discuss the games created during the game jam, and how their design translate Sámi themes into playable artefacts. Based on the findings, we conclude how game jamming as a cultural practice can be appropriated for the purpose of sustaining intangible cultural heritage.
This research describes the rules and ways of forming playgroups in the children’s peer culture. The data were obtained through observation by videoing children’s activities in various play situations. The data were analysed through ethnographic thick description by using microanalysis and participation framework. The analysis was focused on who could participate in play and what kind of behaviours inhibit participation. In addition, children’s actions in order to get in play activities were observed as a part of the children’s peer culture. To become included, four various methods were noticed: (1) Prowling the play activities; (2) Nonverbal communication; (3) Abstaining from critiquing; and (4) Showing enthusiasm and worming one’s way to play with a toy. Furthermore, tattlers, emotionally incompetent, or dominating children were not accepted in play activities. This research provides information and increases understanding about children’s behaviours and how to guide their emotional skills development.
30 August 2018 in Early Child Development and Care
This research focused on narcissistic homes as described by adult daughters of narcissistic mothers. The definition of narcissism reveals the problematic behaviours of narcissists (e.g. blaming, manipulation, nullification, and self-sufficiency to hide one’s own low self-esteem). How do these affect upbringing? How do children of narcissistic mothers describe their childhood? The research participants consisted of 13 women who wrote widely about their childhood in the shadow of their narcissistic mothers. They all had taken therapy when adults. This was a narrative research. The data brought up three childhood narratives: incompetent childhood, isolated childhood, and denied childhood. The elements and contents of the narratives are partly overlapping but provide a multidimensional picture of upbringing by narcissistic mothers. Many children felt being without support by health care, education, or social service agents and had difficulties defining their selfhood and identity. This research provided new information and means to support the biased mother–child relationship.
What is the role of educational psychology in the development of sustainability education? In this editorial article, we argue that human happiness and life satisfaction could be the keys to positive education and adapting to pro-environmental behaviors. We discuss the perspective of sustainable happiness education being the guiding principle of sustainability education. Sustainable happiness education can provide a means to educate people about ways of considering their own well-being and that of others simultaneously, while keeping in mind the sustainability aspect of their actions.