Kaarina Määttä – författare

What is childhood like in Finland? What kind of practical solutions have been created and evaluated that aim at both providing good childhood experiences and supporting children’s positive development? What practices aim to prevent child exclusion from regular education and social experiences and to foster children’s healthy development in emotional, social, and behavioural terms? This book considers the reality of childhood in Finland. It discusses the realisation and evaluation of early childhood education and addresses aspects of research and practice concerning children under the age of 10. It examines the growth and development of young children, how learning and teaching are organised, practices of rearing children and the state of child care in Finland.Contributors represent a variety of universities and sub disciplines in the science of education and focus on perspectives of children’s well-being, special viewpoints of early childhood education, care, and research in Finland. This book was originally published as a special issue of Early Child Development and Care.

What is success at work and why is it important? How do top workers describe their success? How can work, community, leadership, family, or home and school promote success? Success at work is often associated with career-oriented individuals who sacrifice other areas of life to achieve highly in the workplace, but success can also be defined in other ways. It can consist of feelings of knowledge, competence and accomplishment, stemming from an inner drive to work well and create an expression of mastery. This book focuses on employees who have been rewarded for their skills and expertise. Based on the authors’ in-depth research into the phenomenon of success at work, this book provides a positive human-strength based approach to success and offers a fresh viewpoint to the modern, demanding and hectic work life. Drawing from the theory of positive psychology and outlining new theoretical ideas including work motivation, career orientation, work characteristics, and positive states of work, success is described as a combination of multiple elements which include other areas of life. The book is illustrated throughout with case studies from employees, and it will ignite thoughts about what success at work is and can be, and how to recognize factors which enhance or hinder success in varying contexts.Considering a variety of data, this book will appeal to researchers and academics from the fields of work and organisational psychology, positive psychology, career counselling and coaching.

What is success at work and why is it important? How do top workers describe their success? How can work, community, leadership, family, or home and school promote success? Success at work is often associated with career-oriented individuals who sacrifice other areas of life to achieve highly in the workplace, but success can also be defined in other ways. It can consist of feelings of knowledge, competence and accomplishment, stemming from an inner drive to work well and create an expression of mastery. This book focuses on employees who have been rewarded for their skills and expertise. Based on the authors’ in-depth research into the phenomenon of success at work, this book provides a positive human-strength based approach to success and offers a fresh viewpoint to the modern, demanding and hectic work life. Drawing from the theory of positive psychology and outlining new theoretical ideas including work motivation, career orientation, work characteristics, and positive states of work, success is described as a combination of multiple elements which include other areas of life. The book is illustrated throughout with case studies from employees, and it will ignite thoughts about what success at work is and can be, and how to recognize factors which enhance or hinder success in varying contexts.Considering a variety of data, this book will appeal to researchers and academics from the fields of work and organisational psychology, positive psychology, career counselling and coaching.

What is childhood like in Finland? What kind of practical solutions have been created and evaluated that aim at both providing good childhood experiences and supporting children’s positive development? What practices aim to prevent child exclusion from regular education and social experiences and to foster children’s healthy development in emotional, social, and behavioural terms? This book considers the reality of childhood in Finland. It discusses the realisation and evaluation of early childhood education and addresses aspects of research and practice concerning children under the age of 10. It examines the growth and development of young children, how learning and teaching are organised, practices of rearing children and the state of child care in Finland.Contributors represent a variety of universities and sub disciplines in the science of education and focus on perspectives of children’s well-being, special viewpoints of early childhood education, care, and research in Finland. This book was originally published as a special issue of Early Child Development and Care.

This book is a pioneering work. It discusses special characteristics of the education of Sámi people, an indigenous people living in Northern Europe. The book provides a comprehensive study of indigenous school research and special features of Sámi education including problems and opportunities that teachers and pupils confront daily. The purpose of this book is to support the realization of indigenous peoples’ education based on their own cultural premises. New, reformative pedagogical models and culturally sensitive teaching arrangements that could enhance Sámi education are the focus of the book. It is aimed at everyone who is interested in indigenous peoples’ educational conditions and is based on the authors’ research cooperation in the field of Sámi education.

Love is the most important resource of every human being’s life. The authors examine what kind of roles love might have in different phases of life. They discuss how love makes life more meaningful and enjoyable. However, there are still love-related themes that are not so easy to discuss or accept. This book provides research-based analyses about the different roles of love including forms that have aroused contradictory feelings and prejudices, such as falling in love in the old age and love in people with intellectual disability are discussed. The book serves as a textbook for studies in psychology, education, and other fields in human sciences.

This book introduces research and solutions tested in schools with students with intellectual disabilities, socio-emotional difficulties, and extreme illnesses. It also provides extremely talented students’ opinions on best teaching practices. In addition to students, the authors aim to bring out voices of their parents, teachers, and other people supporting them. The book serves people working with questions of special education: practitioners, researchers, and teachers and students in the field of special education worldwide. The authors present successful study processes which are secured by caring interaction, flexible, and student-centered teaching and multi-professional collaboration. The elements of caring education are the guiding principles of new special education.