Aims. Student’s participation is one of the most important aspects in primary school. Participation means that students’ views and opinions are being heard and considered, and that they have a say in matters concerning them. Students should also be involved in matters and choices in their schools. Student participation should be encouraged and supported. Student’s participation has been researched in regular classroom setting but not in distance education. Due to the Covid-19 situation in March 2020 schools were closed and studying in classrooms changed to distance learning at homes. The aim of this study is to research teachers’ views on student participation in distance education. Harry Shier’s and Johanna Kiili’s theories of children and student participation are being used in this study. Methods. This study is a qualitative research made with the theory-based analysis of the content method. The research data was collected from teachers who participated in distance teaching during school years ¬2019–2020 and 2020–2021. The data was collected from February to April in 2021 using e-forms, which asked teachers to describe their views on student participation during distance education. 19 teachers participated in this study. Results and conclusions. The participation in distance education did not differ much from classroom learning. Teacher’s saw the importance of taking student’s views into account and their freedom to make choices during both distance learning and classroom learning. The sense of community in participation was decreased during distance education. The use of information and communication technology provided new ways to participate. The students who were less likely to speak in classroom had more chances to have their voice heard during distance education. There were different kinds of learning environments for students during distance education since studying did not happen in classrooms. Those students’ who were self-determined were able to benefit from the participation in distance education. Those who needed more support during studying faced more challenges during distance education. The teachers utilized their knowledge and information about their students in different ways during distance education.

Objectives The national core curriculum which is drawn up by the Finnish National Agency for Education emphasizes student social engagement. However, social engagement is not defined in the national core curriculum. In the research literature social engagement has been associated with other similar concepts such as agency, empowerment and participation. This study aims to thematically code and interpret class teachers thoughts and opinions on student social engagement. Methods In this study four class teachers who were per se interested in social engagement were interviewed on the subject individually. Research material was transcribed word by word and analyzed with content analysis. Results and discussion Four themes were found in the research material: taking students individual opinions to account, possibility to influence, sense of community and active agency. Teachers also highlighted that especially with younger students there are some necessary limitations to student social engagement. According to the interviewed teachers, the effect these limitations have on student social engagement will gradually diminish when the students mature or when mutual trust increases.

Supporting pupils’ participation and the active membership of the community are part of the key principles of the national core curriculum. The curriculum aims to create structures that support children’s participation in the school community and encourage cooperation with oth-er public and private actors. Participation as a concept can be complicated to define. Gener-ally, participation is defined as a voluntary process by which people influence the decisions that affect their lives. Therefore, participation has a great impact on individual’s wellbeing. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantees the right for children to express their views and right to participate in the decisions considering them. The purpose of this thesis is to clarify how pupils’ participation occurs in the nature school education and in what ways participation is supported. The research subjects were three primary school classes in two different nature school visits. The research material for this thesis was collected by observing the nature school visits and by interviewing pupils in small groups. The gathered observation notes and voice recordings were analysed with qualitative content analysis. The pupils’ participation was affected by the school culture of their class and the offered op-potrunities of free expression in the nature school. As its best, activities performed in small groups encouraged pupils to take responsibility for their group and lead to spontaneous ob-serving of the environment. Additionally, possible unequal dynamics of the group negatively affected participation. The nature school’s activities were designed and run by adults, but the pupils were active participants. Pupils did not want more options for decision-making but were open to share some ideas with the adults. The nature school has a solid foundation and possibilities to support and increase pupils’ participation.

Involvement is a phenomenon that interests the researchers at the moment also in the context of a leadership. Involvement research in the early childhood education is focused on the involvement structures and possibilities of small children. At the moment shortage of the competent teachers and practical nurses and their commitment to the long-term work relationship however brings us back to the basic questions of leadership; how to lead involvement? The theoretical frame of this study is based on contextual model of leadership (Nivala 1999) which sees the early childhood leadership and the early childhood substance inseparable. I also use the theoretical frame of involvement created by Finnish National Institute of Health and Welfare that define involvement as closely related to the intrinsic motivation, possibility to have an affect to your surrounding environment and benevolence. My research task was to find out how early childhood education leaders experience leading involvement. What experiences they had about competence, distributed leadership and challenges that related to the industry? The study was qualitative and was based on phenomenological methodology which reach for the subjective experiences of the individuals. As a data I used the themed focus group interview material that was collected in the Eduleaders project training. Method of analysis was the theory-guided content analysis. In the results competence became a key factor in leading involvement. Leadership competence meant both common leadership skills and the ability to lead early childhood substance. Important were also the professional skills of the working community, teachers and practical nurses and their ability to work autonomously. Leading involvement was also based on functional distributed leadership that called for workable structures as well as the teacher´s competence in leading their teams and distributed pedagogical leadership. Early childhood leaders also saw joint leadership between leader- leader and teacher-teacher as a functional leadership structure in the future that may increase the experiences of deeper involvement. The challenges of leading involvement were the resources related to work as well as the current change in the operational culture, which challenged the definition of job descriptions and the involvement of a multi-professional work community. In the future the leaders hope for more innovative working style, experimentation and autonomy in relation to the mission of the early childhood education.

The function of this study is to find out what kind of discourses of participation can be found in a middle school student counsil meeting. The purpose was to study what kind of positions do the students take and give to others in interaction when participating in decision-making, and also to find out what kind of environment of participation do the students build around them through speaking. The base theory in this study is a viewpoint of participation as an experience of an individual and sosio-constructional understanding of reality as made up of social interaction. The research method was qualitative case study. The data collecting method was observation by way of videotaping. Analysing method was discourse analysis. In this study there was 12 participants age 13-15 who were part of a student council functioning in their school. In the student council meeting that I recorded the students discussed what could be done improving on students wellbeing in school. In the meeting there was a discourse of institution including understanding one's role primarily as a source of information. Students saw strick frames for their functioning in school system set from above. They also saw their relations to teachers through a role differentiation of supervised - supervisor. They also sustained an institutional image of the school including gloominess of the school building, lack of funds and discomfort during lessons. They were not willing, or capable, to question this image of school. There was also a youth-discourse including the pressure to fit in and underlining one's freedom to choose their lifestyle.

Tutkielmassa syvennytään siihen, miten ulkomaalaiset tutkinto-opiskelijat kokevat osallisuuden yliopistoyhteisöön. Tämän pohjalta avataan, minkälaiset tekijät vaikuttavat ulkomaalaisten tutkinto-opiskelijoiden hyvinvointiin ja sitoutumiseen yliopistoyhteisössä. Kiinnostuksen kohteena on opiskelijoiden oma toiminta yhteisössä. Kysymykseksi nousi myös, millaisia seurauksia osallisuuden tavoittelusta yliopistossa on. Tutkimuksella on tarkoitus haastaa yliopistoyhteisöjä miettimään, mitä he kansainvälistymisellä ja inkluusiolla tarkoittavat ja kuinka sitä voidaan edistää. Aineisto kerättiin haastattelemalla kahtatoista Aalto-yliopiston ulkomaalaista tutkinto-opiskelijaa. Tutkimus toteutettiin konstruktivistisen aineistolähtöisesti. Laadullisesta aineistosta muodostettiin havaintoja kuvaavia kategorioita ja kehitettiin malli kuvaamaan osallisuuden prosessia yliopistossa. Tutkimuksen teoreettisessa viitekehyksessä hyödynnettiin opiskelijoiden sitoutumisesta tehtyä tutkimusta, itseohjautuvuusteoriaa ja näiden yhdistämiseen käytettyä osallisuuden käsitettä. Tulokset antavat kokonaiskuvaa ulkomaalaisten opiskelijoiden osallisuuden kokemuksista. Tähän vaikuttaviksi tekijöiksi havaittiin ympäristöön sopeutuminen, sosiaaliset verkostot, yliopistotoiminta, kohdatut asenteet, sosioekonominen asema sekä kielellisen saavutettavuuden kysymykset. Nämä saattoivat niin edistää kuin haitata osallisuuden kokemusta. Esille nousi myös, kuinka ulkomaalaiset opiskelijat itse tavoittelevat osallisuutta. Tätä varten hyödynnettiin asennoitumisen, mukautumisen, hakeutumisen ja vaikuttamisen strategioita, joiden onnistunut käyttö edisti osallisuuden kokemusta, mutta toisaalta väärin käytettyinä ne haittasivat sitä. Tutkimuksen tuloksissa nousee etenkin kriittistä näkökulmaa ulkomaalaisten opiskelijoiden osallisuuden mahdollisuuksiin. Tutkimus tekee ymmärrettäväksi ne prosessit, joiden myötä ulkomaalaiset opiskelijat ovat kokeneet suomalaisia enemmän osattomuutta ja loppuun palamista. Tulokset esittävät, kuinka ulkomaalaiset opiskelijat kokevat erityisiä haasteita suomalaisessa yliopistossa ja yhteiskunnassa toimimisessa. He joutuvat näkemään erityistä vaivaa haasteiden ylittämiseksi, eikä heillä ole välttämättä samalla lailla resursseja niiden ratkomiseen kuin suomalaisilla opiskelijoilla. Tämän voi nähdä tekevän heidät erityisen haavoittuvaisiksi niille haasteille, joita opiskelijat voivat yliopistossa opiskelunsa aikana kokea. Tutkimustulosten avulla voidaan tunnistaa niitä epäkohtia, joihin tarvitsee jatkossa kiinnittää enemmän huomiota.

Digitalisaation seurauksena on syntynyt uudenlainen taloudellisen ja sosiaalisen yhteistoiminnan muoto, alustatalous. Alustataloudella tarkoitetaan digitaalisia palveluja, jotka ovat internetissä eri toimijoiden käytössä. Alustataloudessa eri toimijat luovat, tarjoavat ja ylläpitävät tuotteita ja palveluita verkkoalustoilla. Alustatalouden keskeisin toimija on verkkoalusta. Verkkoalustoilla viitataan digitaalisiin toimijoihin, jotka yhdistävät henkilöitä eri tarkoituksissa. Verkkoalustat voivat mahdollistaa hyödykkeiden myyntiä, kommunikointia tai vaihdantaa. Hyödykkeiden myynnin mahdollistavia alustoja ovat esimerkiksi eBay ja Amazon. Kommunikointialustoja ovat esimerkiksi Twitter ja Snapchat sekä tavalliset keskustelupalstat. Vaihdannan mahdollistavia alustoja taas ovat esimerkiksi Uber ja Airbnb. Lisäksi alustat kattavat myös muita toimintoja, kuten hakukoneiden tarjoamisen ja sovellusten jakelun. Alusta mahdollistaa käyttäjien välisen interaktion, osallistumatta esimerkiksi hyödykkeen siirtämiseen osapuolelta toiselle siten, että hyödyke välissä olisi alustayrityksen omistuksessa. Verkkoalustojen ominaisuudet aiheuttavat ongelmia alustatalouden ja voimassa olevan oikeuden yhteensovittamisessa. Alustojen ylläpitäjät toimivat välittäjän roolissa, minkä vuoksi niiden oikeudellista asemaa voi olla hankala määrittää. Varsinainen palvelun tai hyödykkeen tuottaminen ja tarjoaminen tai muu interaktio tapahtuvat alustan käyttäjien välillä, joten alustojen ylläpitäjät eivät itse suorita sääntelyn kohteena olevaa toimintaa. Alustojen omaksuma välittäjän rooli aiheuttaa haasteita myös alustojen rikosoikeudellisen vastuuaseman määrittämisessä. Alustoilla on mahdollista tehdä rikoksia siinä missä reaalimaailmassakin. Verkkoalustoilla tehtäviä rikoksia ovat esimerkiksi toisen yksityisyyden ja kunnian loukkaaminen sosiaalisen median alustalla, kiihottaminen kansanryhmää vastaan ja tekijänoikeuden suojaaman aineiston oikeudeton levittäminen keskustelualustalla sekä olemattoman tavaran myynti petostarkoituksessa kaupankäyntialustalla. Myös huumausainerikollisuus hyödyntää verkkoalustoja. Huumausainekauppaa käydään internetissä sitä varten perustetuilla verkkomarkkinapaikoilla. Ylläpitäjätaho tarjoaa digitaalisen alustan, joka yhdistää huumausaineiden myyjiä ja ostajia. Huumausaineiden verkkomarkkinapaikat voidaan pääpiirteissään jaotella kahteen eri alustatyyppiin, keskustelualustoihin ja kaupankäyntialustoihin. Tässä tutkielmassa pyrin lainopillista tutkimusmetodia hyödyntäen selvittämään, voiko alustan ylläpitäjä joutua vastuuseen alustalla tapahtuvista rikoksista. Tarkastelen ylläpitäjän vastuuta erityisesti huumausaineiden verkkomarkkinapaikoilla, tarkoituksenani selvittää miten alustan ylläpitämistä huumausainekauppaa varten tulisi rikosoikeudellisesti arvioida. Kummankin tutkimuskysymykseni tarkastelussa yhdistyvät tunnusmerkistönmukaisuus, rikosvastuun yleiset edellytykset, sekä vastuuvapaus. Verkkoalustat voivat tietyin edellytyksin saada sähköisen viestinnän palveluista annetun lain mukaisen vastuuvapauden alustalla olevan lainvastaisen materiaalin osalta. Mikäli vastuuvapaus ei tule sovellettavaksi, rikosvastuun kohdentumista ylläpitäjiin arvioidaan rikoslain perusteella. Ylläpitäjä voi joutua tekijävastuuseen ainakin kiihottamisrikoksesta. Muiden tunnusmerkistöjen perusteella tällaista välittäjäroolin omaavaa ylläpitäjää on vaikea asettaa tekijävastuuseen. Sen sijaan ylläpitäjä voidaan katsoa alustan käyttäjien rikoskumppaniksi tai avunantajaksi alustan käyttäjien tekemiin rikoksiin. On myös teoreettinen mahdollisuus sille, että ylläpitäjä voi joutua vastuuseen lainvastaisen aineiston poistamisen laiminlyönnistä. Huumausaineiden verkkomarkkinapaikat eroavat laillisista alustoista siten, että ne ovat jo lähtökohtaisesti perustettu laitonta toimintaa varten. Koska alustan ylläpitäjä ei missään vaiheessa osallistu huumausaineiden käsittelyyn tai käytä määräysvaltaa huumausaineisiin, ei alustan ylläpitäminen vaikeuksitta täytä huumausainerikoksen tunnusmerkistöä. Sen sijaan menettelyä on mahdollista arvioida esimerkiksi avunantona alustojen välityksellä tapahtuneisiin huumausainerikoksiin.

The purpose of this study was to find out how fifth graders understand and define participation. Previous studies have demonstrated gender-based differences in children's degree of participation in school. Experiences of participation have also declined between 2019 and 2021, according to the THL (Finnish institute for health and welfare) School Health Promotion study. The purpose of this study is to describe, analyze, and interpret by using practice architecture theory, how students define participation in school and whether there are differences in the experiences of girls and boys. The study was conducted as an action research in a fifth-grade class in Vantaa. Photographs of different lessons were taken and later used to interview the students. These images were utilized both in individual interviews to activate the student's memory and in the group interview. A total of 13 students participated in the interview phase. The collected material was analyzed using Kemmis' (2008) theory of practice architectures, in which the answers were classified into three categories: 1) cultural-discursive arrangements, 2) physical, economical and material arrangements, and 3) social-political arrangements. These three categories together formed the preconditions for participation. The students’ definition of participation emphasized the social dimension of participation, especially the relationship with peers. Pupils reported experiencing participation especially when working with their classmates. The definitions of participation were classified into four categories: 1) a sense of belonging 2) being heard 3) a positive feeling, and 4) an active role in class activity. Gender-based differences were discovered, especially when students selected photographs in which they felt they had experienced participation. The students also described par-ticipation in different words: the boys emphasized that they got to decide, and the girls emphasized that they had been heard. The results suggest that the social dimension of participation, which includes a sense of belonging, relatedness and positive social interdependence, is central to experiences of participation. This dimension should therefore be taken more into account in teaching. This work demonstrates the necessity and importance of providing sufficient and equal opportunities for participation for girls and boys. These opportunities are crucial in determining how students both perceive and actively engage in school activities.