This article explores university students' interpretations of peer sociality in the context of academic studies. The study draws on thematic interviews with Finnish students (n = 28) representing two sets of study fields (humanities and human sciences, and technological sciences) in three regional Finnish universities. The study applies a…

Defending peers who have been bullied is often thought to put defenders at risk of becoming victimized themselves. The study investigated the concurrent and prospective associations between defending and (peer- and self-reported) victimization, and examined popularity and classroom norms as potential moderators. Participants included 4085 Finnish…

The purpose of this case study was to understand what kinds of emotions university teachers experience in teaching, how these emotions influence the way the teachers experience their pedagogical competency and being and developing as a teacher, and how they reflect on their teaching and teaching-related emotions. Data were collected via…

In this study, we argue that touch is a way of producing gender in preschool and our aim is to explore different kinds of matters that intersect with gendered touch practices in this context. Our theoretical starting points draw on the performativity of gender and the discursively constructed touch practices of early childhood educators. We…

In the field of critical bullying studies, norms and normality have been used to explain bullying in a manner that challenges the mainstream conceptualising of bullying. This study concentrates in a more detailed way on how normality and not-normality are connected to bullying and how the students define not-normality as a reason for bullying. I…

The article explores developmental tensions in Finnish adolescents' accounts of their different worlds. By understanding tensions experienced by students, educators can develop their pedagogical practices to address those tensions. Building on cultural-historical activity theory, we analysed 12 interviews of 8th graders, focusing on their…

Many sociologists have called for analytical rigor in the study of narrative while maintaining that narrative should be viewed as a form of social action. We argue that the narratological "story-discourse" distinction together with "positioning theory" provides a theoretical basis for such rigor. In narratology,…

This study describes how students initiate and manage transitions between activities during group-work. Audio and video recordings were collected in secondary school mathematics lessons (6 x 75 min) based on student-centred learning and the idea of minimal teacher instruction. In these lessons, the students were given the responsibility to…

The study investigated a developmentally sensitive group, emerging adults going through a critical post-secondary educational transition in tandem with the first wave of the COVID pandemic in Finland. The participants (n = 330) were surveyed initially during their first year in secondary education, and again during the pandemic, right after their…

The Finnish education system is based on equity, and the basic education act emphasises the inclusion and full participation of all pupils in education. Social participation of SEN students is a key issue favouring inclusive schools. Thus, SEN pupils' experiences of social participation indicate how inclusion policies work in practice. This study…

The core theme of this article is the emerging tension between the egalitarian discourse that increases the general aspiration of people to become more educated and actual admission constraints. A desire to attend a university and not being allowed to (i.e. non-admittance) is a loss that can potentially result in an anomic condition. Anomie theory…

This international study compared motivational tendencies among pre-school children from Israel, Finland and the Netherlands. Teachers were asked to rate students' behaviours during semi-structured tasks using the Child Behaviour Motivational Scale (CBeMo) which measures task orientation, task avoidance, and social dependence. Motivational…

The study presented in this article is part of a larger study called Progressive Feedback (blogs.helsinki.fi/orientate), which is an early childhood education and care (ECEC) research and development project. The aim of this article is to find out: (1) how children's tested creative thinking abilities, fluency, originality and imagination…

The present study aimed to investigate the associations between teachers' observed emotional support and social competence among Finnish pre-schoolers (6-year-olds). The quality of emotional support was observed using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System Pre-K in 47 preschool classrooms twice across the preschool year. Teachers rated children's…

Children's ability to establish peer relationships is an important issue in early childhood education. Making and maintaining friendships fosters children's social skills development. This longitudinal study examines the transitivity, mutuality, and stability of five- and six-year-old children's peer relationships over one preschool academic year.…