Essay topics and literature

What is a essay?

An es­say is a short pie­ce of wri­ting on a to­pic re­la­ted to the cour­se, whe­re you have se­lec­ted the app­ro­ach and for which you have got­ten the te­ac­her’s app­ro­val. An es­say is not a the­sis and it does not have to cre­a­te new know­led­ge on the to­pic but show ex­per­ti­se ac­qui­red from sour­ce li­te­ra­tu­re. Ho­we­ver, an es­say dif­fers from a sum­ma­ry as the pur­po­se is to pro­du­ce an in­de­pen­dent text on the se­lec­ted to­pic ba­sed on a num­ber of sour­ces. Your pers­pec­ti­ve and opi­ni­ons are va­lu­ab­le but re­mem­ber to al­ways jus­ti­fy them ca­re­ful­ly. The most im­por­tant cha­rac­te­ris­tic of an es­say – the in­di­vi­du­al voi­ce – does not mean free stre­am of cons­ci­ous­ness as it is a scien­ti­fic text, but a well-re­a­so­ned ana­ly­sis ba­sed on sour­ce ma­te­ri­als and li­te­ra­tu­re and the ref­lec­ti­ons ri­sing from them.

A good gui­de­li­ne is that you can com­ment on the li­te­ra­tu­re and have a dis­cus­si­on with it, a kind of a di­a­lo­gue. An es­say shows ex­per­ti­se on the to­pic and an un­ders­tan­ding and com­mand of the sour­ce ma­te­ri­als.

In eva­lu­a­ti­on of the es­say, at­ten­ti­on is paid to how well the to­pic is nar­ro­wed down, com­mand of the cour­se con­tents, ne­at­ness of the layout, gram­mar, and the out­li­ne and struc­tu­re of the es­say. For the eva­lu­a­ti­on of the con­tents, it is also con­si­de­red how well the ar­gu­ments and in­terp­re­ta­ti­ons have been jus­ti­fied. Ple­a­se, read es­say inst­ruc­ti­ons ca­re­ful­ly be­fo­re you start wri­ting and also check the for­mat of the es­say be­fo­re re­tur­ning the es­say for eva­lu­a­ti­on. Eva­lu­a­ti­on sca­le is Pass/Fail.

Essay 1

The cour­se starts with an int­ro­duc­ti­on to what the fa­mi­ly is to­day, to the fa­mi­ly as a so­ci­al ins­ti­tu­ti­on and sys­tem, and to the dif­fe­rent trends and pers­pec­ti­ves in fa­mi­ly stu­dies. Be­fo­re you start wri­ting the as­sign­ment, ple­a­se ca­re­ful­ly read the wri­ting gui­de­li­nes and ma­nu­als.

Using the li­te­ra­tu­re pro­vi­ded, wri­te an an­no­ta­ted pa­per with a pers­pec­ti­ve you can choo­se from the fol­lo­wing three the­mes (i.e. choo­se your own the­me):

  • fa­mi­ly in the con­text of clo­se re­la­ti­ons­hips
  • the­o­re­ti­cal app­ro­ac­hes and re­se­arch trends con­cer­ning the fa­mi­ly
  • the fa­mi­ly from a gen­der and ge­ne­ra­ti­o­nal pers­pec­ti­ve
  • fa­mi­ly as a di­ver­se com­mu­ni­ty

Wri­te your re­port by choo­sing one work from the li­te­ra­tu­re be­low. The length of the pa­per should be 3–5 pa­ges wit­hout co­ver page. The li­te­ra­tu­re should ap­pe­ar in the pa­per.

Literature:
  1. Al­len, K. A. & Hen­der­son, A. C. 2017. Fa­mi­ly The­o­ries: Foun­da­ti­ons and App­li­ca­ti­ons.

OR

  1. Go­lom­bok, Su­san 2015. Mo­dern Fa­mi­lies: Pa­rents and Child­ren in New Fa­mi­ly Forms. Camb­rid­ge Uni­ver­si­ty Press.

 

Essay 2

You can choo­se the to­pic of the se­cond as­sign­ment of the cour­se in­de­pen­dent­ly from the fol­lo­wing op­ti­ons:

  1. The role of the fa­mi­ly in a child’s growth and de­ve­lop­ment
  2. Pa­ren­ting, pa­ren­ting prac­ti­ces and re­sour­ces
  3. Fa­mi­ly sup­port and edu­ca­ti­o­nal coo­pe­ra­ti­on

You can furt­her de­fi­ne your own pers­pec­ti­ve on your cho­sen to­pic, e.g. you could look spe­ci­fi­cal­ly at pa­ren­ting as a fat­her­hood is­sue, or fo­cus on mul­ti­cul­tu­ral fa­mi­lies, fa­mi­lies with child­ren in need of sup­port, pa­ren­tal stress and its re­la­ti­on to child­ren’s growth and de­ve­lop­ment, how to sup­port fa­mi­lies and pa­rents ef­fec­ti­ve­ly, etc. 3. You can wri­te a mini the­sis, for examp­le by col­lec­ting ma­te­ri­al from ar­tic­les in the press on your to­pic and re­vie­wing them in the light of the sour­ce li­te­ra­tu­re.  Thus, tit­le your es­say your­self!

In ad­di­ti­on to the re­fe­ren­ces, use sta­tis­ti­cal ma­te­ri­al (links and sour­ces be­low) and lec­tu­res in your es­say!  The es­say is 10 pa­ges in length, exc­lu­ding co­ver page, tab­le of con­tents, sour­ces and ap­pen­di­ces. You can use our re­a­dy-made es­say temp­la­te as the ba­sis for your es­say. Again, ple­a­se read ca­re­ful­ly the inst­ruc­ti­ons for wri­ting your es­say and for ci­ting sour­ces.

You can base your es­say on li­te­ra­tu­re, inc­lu­ding books, ar­tic­les and re­ports. If ne­ces­sa­ry, you can also use ma­te­ri­al from on­li­ne links. The­re should be at le­ast 6 re­fe­ren­ces from books and ar­tic­les- part, and 2 re­ports.

 Literature:

First:   Cur­ri­cu­lums and laws con­cer­ning edu­ca­ti­on

Se­cond:

Topic 1. The role of the family in a child’s growth and development

  1. Nie­mi, P., Nur­mi, J.-E., Lyy­ra, A.-L., Lerk­ka­nen, M.-K., Le­po­la, J., Pos­ki­par­ta, E., & Poik­keus, A.-M. 2011. Task avoi­dan­ce, num­ber skills and pa­ren­tal le­ar­ning dif­fi­cul­ties as pre­dic­tors of poor res­pon­se to inst­ruc­ti­on. Jour­nal of Le­ar­ning Di­sa­bi­li­ties, 44, 459–471.
  2. Lerk­ka­nen, M.-K., & Pa­ka­ri­nen, E. 2021. Pa­ren­tal Trust in Te­ac­hers and Child­ren’s In­te­rest in Re­a­ding and Math: A Lon­gi­tu­di­nal Stu­dy. Eu­ro­pe­an Edu­ca­ti­on, 53(3–4), 152–167.
  3. Kha­no­lai­nen, D., Psy­ri­dou, M., Si­lins­kas, G., Lerk­ka­nen, M.-K., Nie­mi, P., Poik­keus, A.-M., & Torp­pa, M. 2020. Lon­gi­tu­di­nal ef­fects of the home le­ar­ning en­vi­ron­ment and pa­ren­tal dif­fi­cul­ties on re­a­ding and math de­ve­lop­ment ac­ross Gra­des 1–9. Fron­tiers in Psyc­ho­lo­gy, 11, 577981.
  4. Kha­no­lai­nen, D., Ko­po­nen, T., Ek­lund, K., Ge­ri­ke, G., Psy­ri­dou, M., Lerk­ka­nen, M.-K., Aro, M., & Torp­pa, M. 2023. Pa­ren­tal inf­lu­en­ces on the de­ve­lop­ment of sing­le and co-oc­cur­ring dif­fi­cul­ties in re­a­ding and arith­me­tic flu­en­cy. Le­ar­ning and In­di­vi­du­al Dif­fe­ren­ces, 105, Ar­tic­le 102321.
  5. Kha­no­lai­nen, D.,Sal­mi­nen, J., Ek­lund, K., Lerk­ka­nen, M.-K., & Torp­pa, M. 2022. In­ter­ge­ne­ra­ti­o­nal trans­mis­si­on of dys­le­xia: How do dif­fe­rent iden­ti­fi­ca­ti­on met­hods of pa­ren­tal dif­fi­cul­ties inf­lu­en­ce the conc­lu­si­ons re­gar­ding child­ren’s risk for dys­le­xia? Re­a­ding Re­se­arch Qu­ar­ter­ly, 58(2), 220–239.
  6. Lan­ki­nen, V., Läh­teen­mäki, M., Kal­jo­nen, A. & Kor­pi­lah­ti, P. 2020.  Fat­her–child ac­ti­vi­ties and pa­ter­nal at­ti­tu­des in ear­ly child lan­gu­a­ge de­ve­lop­ment: the STEPS stu­dy.
  7. Nei­to­la, M. 2018. Pa­rents as Te­ac­hers and Gui­des of Their Child­ren´s So­ci­al Skills. Jour­nal of Ear­ly Child­hood Edu­ca­ti­on Re­se­arch 7(2), 392–414.
  8. Ris­ti­kari, T., Meri­kuk­ka, M. & Hako­vir­ta, M. 2018. The sig­ni­fi­can­ce of ti­ming and du­ra­ti­on of so­ci­al as­sis­tan­ce re­ceipt du­ring child­hood on ear­ly adult out­co­mes. Lon­gi­tu­di­nal and Life Cour­se Stu­dies 9(3), 312–326.
  9. Si­lins­kas, G., Vil­ja­ran­ta, J., Poik­keus, A.-M., & Lerk­ka­nen, M.-K. 2022. Ma­ter­nal ho­me­work app­ro­ach and ado­les­cents’ aca­de­mic skills: The me­di­a­ting role of task va­lu­es. Fron­tiers in Edu­ca­ti­on, 7, Ar­tic­le 999128.
  10. Kiu­ru, N., Laur­sen, B., Au­no­la, K., Zhang, X., Lerk­ka­nen, M.-K., Les­ki­nen, E., Tol­va­nen, A., & Nur­mi, J.-E. 2016. Po­si­ti­ve Te­ac­her Af­fect and Ma­ter­nal Sup­port Fa­ci­li­ta­te Ad­just­ment af­ter the Tran­si­ti­on to First Gra­de. Mer­rill-Pal­mer Qu­ar­ter­ly, 62 (2), 158–178.

Topic 2. Parenting, parenting practices and resources

  1. Sork­ki­la, M., & Au­no­la, K. 2020. Risk fac­tors for pa­ren­tal burn­out among Fin­nish pa­rents: The role of so­ci­al­ly presc­ri­bed per­fec­ti­o­nism. Jour­nal of Child and Fa­mi­ly Stu­dies, 29 (3), 648–659.
  2. Zar­ra-Ne­zhad, M., Vil­ja­ran­ta, J., Sa­ja­nie­mi, N., Au­no­la, K., & Lerk­ka­nen, M.-K. 2022. The im­pact of child­ren’s so­ci­o­e­mo­ti­o­nal de­ve­lop­ment on pa­ren­ting sty­les: the mo­de­ra­ting ef­fect of so­ci­al withd­ra­wal. Ear­ly Child De­ve­lop­ment and Care, 192:7, 1032–1044.
  3. Ma­li­nen, K., Rön­kä, A., Sevón, E., & Scho­e­bi, D. 2017. The dif­fi­cul­ty of being a pro­fes­si­o­nal, a pa­rent, and a spou­se on the same day: Dai­ly spil­lo­ver of workp­la­ce in­te­rac­ti­ons on pa­ren­ting, and the role of spou­sal sup­port. Jour­nal of Pre­ven­ti­on and In­ter­ven­ti­on in the Com­mu­ni­ty, 45 (3), 156–167.
  4. Beck­mey­er, J. J. et al. 2020. Fa­mi­ly ma­na­ge­ment prac­ti­ces and po­si­ti­ve youth de­ve­lop­ment in step­fa­mi­lies and sing­le‐mot­her fa­mi­lies. Fa­mi­ly Re­la­ti­ons, 69(1), 92–108.
  5. Rön­kä, A., Ma­li­nen, K., Met­sä­pel­to, R.-L., Laak­so, M.-L., Sevón, E., & Ver­ho­ef-van Dorp, M. 2017. Pa­ren­tal wor­king time pat­terns and child­ren’s so­ci­o­e­mo­ti­o­nal well-being: Com­pa­ring wor­king pa­rents in Fin­land, the Uni­ted King­dom, and the Net­her­lands. Child­ren and Youth Ser­vi­ces Re­view, 76, 133–141.
  6. Sevón, E. 2015. Who’s Got the Po­wer?: Young Child­ren’s Po­wer and Agen­cy in the Child-Pa­rent Re­la­ti­ons­hip. In­ter­na­ti­o­nal Jour­nal of Child, Youth and Fa­mi­ly Stu­dies, 6 (4–1), 622–645.
  7. Si­kiö, R., Siek­ki­nen, M., Ho­lo­pai­nen, L., Si­lins­kas, G., Lerk­ka­nen, M.-K., & Nur­mi, J.-E. 2017. Ma­ter­nal pa­ren­ting sty­les, ho­me­work help, and child­ren’s li­te­ra­cy de­ve­lop­ment in lan­gu­a­ge mi­no­ri­ty and Fin­nish-spe­a­king fa­mi­lies. Eu­ro­pe­an Jour­nal of Psyc­ho­lo­gy of Edu­ca­ti­on.
  8. Roth, S. & Fal­det, A.-C. 2020. Being a mot­her of child­ren with spe­ci­al needs du­ring edu­ca­ti­o­nal tran­si­ti­ons: po­si­ti­o­ning when ‘figh­ting against a su­per­po­wer’. Eu­ro­pe­an Jour­nal of Spe­ci­al Needs Edu­ca­ti­on, 35:4, 559–566.

Topic 3: Family support and educational cooperation

  1. Läh­teen­mäki, M., Ha­ky­e­mez-Paul, S. & Pih­la­ja, P. 2019. For­mal and in­for­mal sour­ces of pa­ter­nal sup­port in ear­ly pa­rent­hood. Ear­ly Child De­ve­lop­ment and Care.
  2. Ha­ky­e­mez-Paul, S., Pih­la­ja, P. & Sil­ven­noi­nen, H. 2018. Fac­tors af­fec­ting ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tors’ views and prac­ti­ces of pa­ren­tal in­vol­ve­ment. Jour­nal of Ear­ly Child­hood Edu­ca­ti­on Re­se­arch.
  3. Abela, A. & Walker, J. 2013. Contemporary Issues in Family Studies : Global Perspectives on Partnerships, Parenting and Support in a Changing World. Wiley Blackwell. (e.g., Part two)
  4. Sev­can Ha­ky­e­mez. P., Pih­la­ja, P. & Sil­ven­noi­nen, H. 2018. Pa­ren­tal in­vol­ve­ment in Fin­nish day care – what do ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tors say? Eu­ro­pe­an Ear­ly Child­hood Edu­ca­ti­on Re­se­arch Jour­nal,
  5. Vla­sov, J. & Hu­ja­la, E. 2017. Pa­rent-te­ac­her co-ope­ra­ti­on in ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­ti­on – Di­rec­tors’ views to chan­ges in the USA, Rus­sia, and Fin­land. Eu­ro­pe­an Ear­ly Child­hood Edu­ca­ti­on Re­se­arch Jour­nal (EE­CERJ), 25(5), 732–746.
  6. Uusi­mäki, L., Yng­ves­son, T.E., Gar­vis, S. & Har­ju-Luuk­kai­nen, H. 2019. Pa­ren­tal In­vol­ve­ment in ECEC in Fin­land and in Swe­den. In S. Gar­vis et al. (eds.). Nor­dic Fa­mi­lies, Child­ren and Ear­ly Child­hood Edu­ca­ti­on, Stu­dies  Child­hood and Youth.
  7. Heis­ka­nen, N. et. al. 2019. In­ter­tex­tu­al Voi­ces of Child­ren, Pa­rents, and Spe­ci­a­lists in In­di­vi­du­al Edu­ca­ti­on Plans. Scan­di­na­vi­an Jour­nal of Edu­ca­ti­o­nal Re­se­arch, 36–53.
  8. Orell, M. & Pih­la­ja, P. Coo­pe­ra­ti­on bet­ween home and school in the Fin­nish Core Cur­ri­cu­lum 2014. Nor­dic Stu­dies in Edu­ca­ti­on 2020; 2: 107–128.
  9. Thomp­son, I., Wil­lem­se, M., Mut­ton, T., Burn, K. & De Brüi­ne, E. 2018. Te­ac­her Edu­ca­ti­on and Fa­mi­ly-School Part­ners­hips in Dif­fe­rent Con­texts: A cross Count­ry Ana­ly­sis of Na­ti­o­nal Te­ac­her Edu­ca­ti­on Fra­me­works Ac­ross a Ran­ge of Eu­ro­pe­an Count­ries. Jour­nal of Edu­ca­ti­on for Te­ac­hing.
  10. Alan­ko, A. 2018. Pre­pa­ring Pre-ser­vi­ce Te­ac­hers for Home-School Coo­pe­ra­ti­on – Exp­lo­ring Fin­nish Te­ac­her edu­ca­ti­on prog­ram­mes. Jour­nal of Edu­ca­ti­on for Te­ac­hing, 44(3), 321–332.
  11. Ave­rill, R., Met­son, A. & Bai­ley, S. 2016. En­han­cing Pa­ren­tal In­vol­ve­ment in Stu­dent Le­ar­ning. Cur­ri­cu­lum Mat­ters, 12, 109–131.
  12. Böök, M. L. & Pe­rä­lä-Lit­tu­nen, S. 2015. Res­pon­sa­bi­li­ty in Home-School Re­la­ti­ons: Fin­nish Pa­rents Views. Child­ren and So­cie­ty, 29(6), 615–625.
  13. Helgøy, I. & Hom­me, A. 2017. Inc­re­a­sing Pa­ren­tal Par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on at School Le­vel: A ’Ci­ti­zen to ser­ve’ or a ’cus­to­mer to steer’? Nor­dic Jour­nal of Stu­dies in Edu­ca­ti­o­nal Po­li­cy.
  14. Ah­to­la, A., Tu­ru­nen, T., Björn, P. M., Poi­ko­nen, P.-L., Kon­to­nie­mi, M., Lerk­ka­nen, M.-K., & Nur­mi, J.-E. 2015. The con­cor­dan­ce bet­ween te­ac­hers’ and pa­rents’ per­cep­ti­ons of school tran­si­ti­on prac­ti­ces: A so­lid base for the fu­tu­re. Scan­di­na­vi­an Jour­nal of Edu­ca­ti­o­nal Re­se­arch.
  15. Kuu­si­mäki, A.-M., Uusi­talo, L. & Tir­ri, K. 2021. Pre­dic­tors of Pa­ren­tal Con­tent­ment with the Amount of En­cou­ra­ging Di­gi­tal Feed­back from te­ac­hers in Fin­nish Schools. Educ. Sci. 2021, 11, 253.

In ad­di­ti­on of for­mer ar­tic­les you can find ot­hers (not ol­der than 10 ye­ars): e.g, here https://www.jyu.fi/fi/hank­keet/alku­por­taat-seu­ran­ta­tut­ki­mus

Fa­mi­ly, Edu­ca­ti­on and Coo­pe­ra­ti­on 5 ECTS2024-202530.5.2024