Finnish Arts and Crafts education: Student's remarks on everyday school practise.

In Finnish basic education (primary school) arts and crafts education includes four mandatory subjects: visual arts, music, crafts, (textile and technical work) and physical education. Each subject has it's own objectives and contents, and they include compulsory and optional courses. If the Finnish basic education curriculum will be read and analysed as a cultural statement, the arts and crafts education appears to have a strong influence on the whole education system and thinking in Finland.

The key pedagogical idea is based on active, experiential and socio-constructivist learning. Arts and crafts have a long historical background as school subjects in Finland, and they support the idea of holistic learning and metacognitive skills.

The broader research project "FACE"(Finnish Arts and Crafts Education) explores students' perspectives in arts and crafts education. In this subproject, Students’ voices, we research student’s video documentation of their own remarks and findings about these subjects. The main research question is 'what do students tell in and about arts lessons?'. The focus is on arts lessons of the sixth grade studies (students from 11 to 12 year olds). Subjects involved into the project are visual arts, crafts, music, and dance (as optional studies). Students were asked to videotape their arts and crafts lessons during one week. This learner-centred method emphasized students as choice makers – they were not instructed to videotape any certain phases or situations during lesson. In the data analysis focus were not only on students’ talk and content, but also on their ways of using camera, making choices and showing phenomena.

We assumed digital pictures and videos bring more authentic view from teaching and learning situations. In this age group students are familiar with using mobile devices, and they are used to visual and audio-visual narratives and communication. The mobile devices served here as ´an eye and ear in the hand´. We are particularly interested in what students are telling through this media about every day arts and crafts education.

The Finnish curriculum reform (National Core Curriculum for Basic Education 2016) highlights the role of students’ own culture in teaching learning processes. The new curriculum supports also the principle of bringing your own devices (BYOD) for the first time of Finnish education history. The planning of this research project is inline with these aspects of the new curriculum.

The theoretical framework of this study arises from the studies of participatory culture, collaborative actions and visual culture (e.g. Carrie et al., 2009; Jenkins et al., 2006; Plowman, Stephen & McPake, 2010; Villi 2010; Gaby 2010).

Carrie, J., Davis, K., Flores, A., Francis, J. M., Pettingill, L., Rundle, M. & Gardner, H. (2009). Young People, Ethics, and the New Digital Media: A Synthesis from the GoodPlay Project. MacArthur Reports. Retrieved from http:// mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype= 2&tid=12009 Gaby, D. 2010. Camera phone images, videos and live streaming: a contemporary visual trend. Visual Studies 25 (1), 89-98. Jenkins, H., Clinton, K., Purushotma, P., Robinson, A. J., & Weigel, M. (2006). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Retrieved from http://digitallearning.macfound.org/atf/ cf/%7B7E45C7E0-A3E0-4B89-AC9CE807E1B0AE4E%7D/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF Plowman, L., Stephen, C. & McPake, J. (2010). Growing up with technology. Young children learning in a digital world. New York: Routledge. Villi, M. & Könkkölä, S. 2011. Kuvallisten päiväperhosten lento: Kamerapuhelinvalokuvaus ja muutokset valokuvan kulutuskäytännöissä. Kulutustutkimus 2011 (1), 52–75.