Many rural village schools have closed over the years, both in Sweden and internationally, because of urbanisation, centralisation and the quest for efficiency. This study shows the impact of two school closures in the rural area of Ydre, south-east Sweden, and describes the reactions of children and families concerned. The aim is to analyse what rural village schools mean for everyday life and how such meaning is based on time-spatial everyday stories. How the children and families view the school closures emerges in the time-geographic perspective, on their own terms, given their opportunity to demonstrate how they use different time-space components. This was studied by interviewing and sketching mental maps with 28 pupils of various ages, and by interviewing and drawing up weekly time schedules with 12 families. This also enabled the analyses to be extended, using the time-geographic conceptual framework, and in particular the interplay between structural changes and individuals’ day-to-day lives, and the interconnections between school and private life, to be clarified. One conclusion is that a school is no mere teaching venue. It is also a key meeting place for children, part of community life and a space for social networking and daily decision-making: a local community hub for the children and their parents alike. When a local school closes and the pupils need to travel further for schooling elsewhere, it affects their travel and activity patterns and social networks. Children’s drawings express their perceptions of place, time and distance. This study shows that the locations where children spend time and have their social networks, as well as how and how often they travel on particular routes, are crucial for their assessment of distance, both temporal and spatial. Describing the value of the closure-threatened school, parents express concern about their local village. They stress the importance of the village school, which they regard as excellent, unique and a resource for the family, but also for the community as a whole. Thereby, they highlight their hope that their community will be attractive to visitors, and also to themselves, the residents. The threats of closure upset them and provoke discussions on how to sustain a living countryside. Studies of children’s and families’ experience of school closures pinpoint the complexity of rural life and show it in a more human-centred, everyday light. Since children are absent from the municipal closure procedure, views of children’s participation are also discussed.

The concept of personal vision refers to teachers&#039 / ideal perception of education (teaching and learning, classroom management and educational implications for the society). Teacher&#039 / s personal vision is how he or she wants these dimensions to be. This case study analyzed personal visions of teachers at a rural primary school and investigated the effects of the school context on teachers&#039 / personal visions. The data were collected from ten teachers through utilizing the semi-structured interview method. The researcher analyzed the obtained data through cointent analysis. The results of the study revealed that teachers&#039 / visions considered education as a lifelong process involving a student-centered, democratic classroom environment where learning differences were given importance to / and meaningful learning and process evaluation were highlighted. According to the teachers, this educational process would lead a democratic society where science, moral values and citizenship values prevailed. The results also showed that the school context was not supportive for the teachers to achieve their visions.

This diploma work describes educational trial in small village school in the context of inclusive education. It is focused on teaching united classes and teaching pupils with special educational needs. Theoretical part contains characteristic of small village schools, describes their historical evolution, typical features of teaching and position assistant of teacher in these schools. In the following subsections are determined special learning disabilities, theirs causes of origin and regulars pedagogical intervention. And then is focused on theme of inclusive education. Targets of practical part were to find experiences of teachers at small village schools, to choose ideal didactical methods and organizational forms, which are suitable for differentiation and individualization in the teaching, after that to make a proposal of methodical support, that to verify in practise and to evaluate its. KEYWORDS Small village schools, inclusive education, special learning disabilities

Abstract This dissertation reports the arrangement of pre-school education to children in small schools. There are experiences about pre-school education from over thirty years, but the time for extensive arrangement of pre-school education is only beginning with the year 2001. In the theoretical part 1 I study the historical formation of small schools, their school politics and pedagogy, and how the arrangement of pre-school education is associated with them. Furthermore, there is cultural analysis by comparing the working of Finnish women, the arrangement of day care and the equality of women with the rest of Europe, also the school success tests of children. I study the quality of arrangement of pre-school education with the help of a model made of teaching quality elements by Helakorpi (1993). In the empiric part 2 I analyse opinions of administrative authorities, parents, teachers and children. This research was carried out in four phases during years 1999-2000 and I got back 2271 questionnaires. The meaning of factor analysis was to outline the phenomenon and give support to the interpretation of my own theoretical knowledge and practical work. There is similarity between arranging pre-school teaching and elementary education in the19th century to children in the country, who have been in a worse situation than those living in urban areas. Above all, parents appreciate free transport to school as a form of regional equality. In pedagogy, we should be aware of our identity: it's a big country with a small population. That is why multi-age teaching and the learning of children at different ages should be studied and developed more generally. In questionnaires, the answers of different groups varied only slightly. Administrators, parents and teachers emphasised the teaching of manners, while children together with their parents laid stress on the importance of play and atmosphere. Playing outdoors and having a good environment were appreciated, but international relations and information technology were not seen as important elements in pre-school education. The task of education is to raise children into humanity. We should see pre-school age as a significant period of life. It deserves proper attention that we already give to the education of teachers and the development of our day care system. International tests on children's basic skills have given results that support our approach. Finland should by no means copy other European countries in developing pre-school and elementary education. We face the challenge of exploiting all the expertise there is in day care, pre-school education, social administration and school administration, also involving local decision making. Teachers need further education, especially on children with special needs, more practice of interaction skills, and co-operation with parents. School administration should give resources and time for this co-operation. In further studies we could develop co-operation of homes and school with the help of an activity analysis. The using of an evaluation model in municipality case studies, interviews of the different groups and follow-up studies after the establishment of pre-school education give many interesting possibilities for further studies. / Tiivistelmä Väitöskirjani tehtävänä on selvittää pienten koulujen esiopetuksen järjestämistä. Esiopetusta on järjestetty Suomessakin jo yli kolmekymmentä vuotta, mutta laaja esiopetuksen järjestämisen aika kuusivuotiaille on vasta aluillaan vuoden 2001 alusta. Teoreettisessa osassa 1 tarkastelen pienten koulujen historiallista kehittymistä, koulutuspolitiikkaa, pedagogiaa ja esiopetuksen järjestämistä osana koko koululaitosta. Vertailen Suomen naisten työssäkäyntiä, päivähoidon järjestämistä ja naisten tasa-arvoa muuhun Eurooppaan, samoin lasten koulumenestystuloksia. Esiopetuksen järjestämisen laatua tarkastelen Helakorven (1993) esittämästä opetuksen laatuelementtimallista kootun mallin avulla. Empiirisessä osassa 2 analysoin hallinnon edustajien, vanhempien, opettajien ja lasten käsityksiä esiopetuksesta. Toteutin tutkimuksen kyselylomakkeilla neljässä vaiheessa vuosina 1999-2000 ja sain yhteensä 2271 palautuskirjettä. Faktorianalyysien tehtävänä oli jäsentää ilmiötä ja antaa tukea teoreettisen tiedon ja oman praktisen työkokemuksen pohjalta laaditulle tulkinnalle. Esiopetuksen järjestämisessä on samankaltaisuutta 1800-luvulla maaseudun lapsille järjestetyn alkuopetuksen kanssa: maaseudun lapset ovat olleet opetuksen saamisessa huonommassa asemassa kuin taajamien lapset. Syrjäseudun esioppilaille tulisi antaa kuljetusetu erityispalveluna erityisesti vanhempien mielestä. Suomen pitäisi tiedostaa selkeästi oman identiteettinsä perustekijät eli suuri maa ja pieni väestö. Siksi yhdysluokkaopetusta ja eri-ikäisten lasten oppimista yhdessä pitäisi yleensäkin tutkia ja kehittää enemmän. Esiopetukseen suhtautumisessa eri ryhmien vastaukset eroavat vain vähän toisistaan. Hallinnon edustajat, vanhemmat ja opettajat korostavat käytöstapojen ja tapakasvatuksen tärkeyttä. Lapset korostavat ulkoleikkiä ja yleensä leikkiä sekä ilmapiirin merkitystä samoin kuin vanhemmat. Kansainvälisyyden ja tieto- ja viestintätekniikan opetusta ei nähdä tärkeiksi alueiksi esiopetuksessa. Koulutuksen tehtävä on ihmisyyteen kasvattaminen. Esiopetusikää pitäisi vaalia omana ikäkautenaan. Suomessa onkin satsattu opettajien koulutukseen ja päivähoidon kehittämiseen, ei lapsen varhaiseen koulunaloitukseen. Oppilaiden myöhemmät koulumenestystulokset tukevat Suomen linjan säilyttämistä, eivät muiden Euroopan maiden matkimista. Hallinnollisesti esiopetuksen johtamisen keskeinen haaste on päiväkodin johtajien sekä koulutoimen ja perusturvan esiopettajien asiantuntemuksen laajempi hyödyntäminen sekä paikallisuuden huomioon ottaminen. Opettajat tarvitsevat täydennyskoulutusta erityisesti erityispedagogiikassa, vuorovaikutustaitojen harjoittamisessa ja vanhempien kanssa tehtävässä yhteistyössä. Yhteistyöhön tulisikin saada resursseja ja aikaa hallinnolta. Jatkotutkimusvaiheessa voisi puolestaan toimintatutkimuksen avulla kehittää kodin ja koulun yhteistyötä. Arviointimallin käyttö tapauskohtaisissa kuntatutkimuksissa, eri ryhmien edustajien haastattelut ja seurantatutkimus esiopetuksen järjestämisen vakiintumisen jälkeen tarjoavat mielenkiintoisia jatkotutkimusmahdollisuuksia.

Title: Swimming level of pupils of urban basic schools and village basic schools Objectives: The aim of this work is to ewaluate the records of the monitored records of input and output values of the swimming level of children of younger school age in compulsory swimming lessons at primary school. The basic criterion for the assessment will be whether the children will complete swimming lessons as part of their education at a city school or a village school. The results will be monitored in children of different classes and boys and girls. Methods: In this work, I used a mixed type of research, in which I used both qualitative and quantitative research of this problem. The qualitative part of the work is based on the study of available literature, respectively the study of printed and electronic sources. The qualitative part is based on the examination of the material, teaching records from teachers at the swimming school Aquasvět Chomutov. Data obtained from these materials were analyzed using descriptions, graphs and tables. The researched data were collected during the school year 2018/2019. The evaluation of the documents took place in 2020. Results: The result shows that there is no significant difference between the performance of urban primary school pupils and rural primary school pupils....