Center for Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research

Anna Pauliina Rainio, Lic.Ed., Doctoral Candidate

Email: anna.rainio@helsinki.fi
Tel.: +358 9 191 44288

Postal address:
Center for Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research
P.O. Box 26 (Teollisuuskatu 23)
FIN-00014 University of Helsinki

Current Activities

The working title of my ongoing dissertation research is:

"Lionhearts of the Playworld: An Ethnographic Case Study of Children’s Agency and its Development in Play Pedagogy"

In Finnish: "Leijonamieleksi leikkimaailmassa: Etnografinen tapaustutkimus toimijuudesta ja sen kehityksestä leikkipedagogiikassa "

The current time calls for a recognition of children as active subjects in their lives. Our school system however, has been slow in moving into this direction. Teachers face a dilemma how to promote children’s agency while simultaneously fulfilling various curricular objectives and managing large groups of pupils through the school day. My dissertation analyzes this challenge in the context of play pedagogy.

In school year 2003–2004 I conducted an ethnographic case study in an age-integrated elementary school classroom with children from four to eight years old and a multi-professional teacher team. The group follows the methods of narrative learning and play pedagogy developed by Pentti Hakkarainen and Gunilla Lindqvist. My empirical focus is on a video-data collected from a play pedagogy project "Brothers Lionheart Playworld" that was set up in the class.

The broad research questions were the following:

1) What forms of agency are available to or developed by the pupils within the narrative activity?
2) What kind of teaching positions are available to or developed by the adults within the narrative activity?

In Finnish:
1) Millaista toimijuutta juonellinen konteksti mahdollistaa ja tuottaa oppilaille?
2) Millaista opettajuutta juonellinen konteksti mahdollistaa ja tuottaa?

In the empirical part of my dissertation I analyzed from different angles how the collectively dramatized play mediated (Vygotsky, 1978) the adult-child relation in the classroom and the way children manifested their agency in the activity. I also discuss the challenges and constraints that the playworld pedagogy faced, having to solve the contradiction between agency and control (Rainio, 2008).

Currently I write the conclusion part for the dissertation. In it I have a more theoretical interest in trying to understand how development to an agentive subject is related to the way children interact with each other and with adults in the institutional settings of school, and in a play pedagogical setting in particular. My general theoretical framework is based on cultural-historical activity theory, stemming especially from work on children’s play and development. Methodologically I draw from interaction analysis and discursive psychology.

I am part of an international playworld-research group, see:

http://lchc.ucsd.edu/Projects/playworlds.html

Short Biography

Currently I work on completing my dissertation.

2006-2007 I worked as an assistant of education in the Department of Education in University of Helsinki.

In 2003-2006 I was a Doctoral Student in Finnish Graduate School of Education (FIGSEL) and worked in the Center for Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research.

In 2004 I received my licentiate degree from the Faculty of Education, University of Helsinki.

In 2001-2002 I worked as a researcher in the developmental work research project “Knowledge Work Laboratory” (lead by Prof. Yrjö Engeström) in the Jakomäki middle school.

I conducted my licentiate thesis as a part of the Jakomäki project. I examined middle school teachers’ discourse about their daily work in the classroom. I analyzed the ways teachers in their talk construct possibilities and obstacles for change and development of their school practices.

I received my master's degree in 2002 with education, moral & social philosophy and sociology as my main subjects.