An Attractive School-Age Educare—Free Choices as Expanded or Limited Agency
Abstract
:1. Introduction
Previous Research
2. Childhood Sociology Methodological Foundation
3. Materials and Methods
Analysis Process
4. Results
4.1. The School-Age Educare Needs a Place
T: What is the best place for leisure time?
C: I think a little differently, but if I have to be completely 100%, I probably actually like the climbing wall.
C: I like to swing with my friends.
C: You know, where we have our recess activities [outside].
T: Some special rooms perhaps?
C: Does the gymnasium count as a room?
C: On the grass, because there you can practice gymnastics with your friends.
C: Outside is the best place.
T: Is there any material or room/environment that you miss during your leisure time?
C: A computer room!
C: A playroom!
C: … that we get rooms that we can stay in that are only rooms for leisure time. And even more toys and more games that you can play on the TV (Smartboard).
C: It’s fun to draw and stuff, and I draw quite a lot, but we need to get better pens, more erasers, more pens, pencil sharpeners, and more rulers.
C: I also think it’s fun to draw, but we need to buy more markers, because many are very bad and there aren’t very many of each color.
C: Soccer goals, they are so broken. And the sand toys, they’re broken.
C: Many more soccer balls, because the ones we have are worn out, and I want better ones that are not flat.
C: We wanted our own playground with only fourth and fifth graders and our own adults and premises.
C: [It was] good to split the younger kids’ leisure time and the older kids’ leisure time, so you didn’t have to be with the little ones.
C: Playing with the toddlers is not fun.
4.2. The School-Age Educare Needs Committed Staff
C: I like all the fun activities that the adults initiate.
C: …and that there are different activities so that there is a little bit of everything possible you can do.
C: When we made broomstick horses.
C: Games decided by the adults.
C: When we got to make our own obstacle courses.
C: Our cycling outings to the mountain bike course.
C: Our mini-game tournaments!
C: It’s fun at leisure time if you have an activity, because then you get to do more things.
C: Yes, then you get to do a little what you want.
C: I also think it’s fun when there are activities. Then you can take the opportunity to do it, because there are always days when there are no activities.
C: [I like] the drop-in gym, because you can decide for yourself if you want to join.
C: That you can choose freely, do more difficult things, and adapt outings and activities.
C: I think it’s a lot of fun hanging out with friends, because that way you can find things to do.
C: …to play soccer and be with friends.
C: …playing on the swings with [my two friends], because it’s fun to do things with them. Because they’re my best friends and it’s fun to swing.
C: On Thursdays we always had “your own choice”. Then you had nothing to do, but it’s more fun when you [teachers] get some games started.
C: It doesn’t seem to work to be outdoors, if you have nothing to do.
C: [I wished] we did more, because sometimes it was just that you had to be outside.
C: Because sometimes you would have this “free stuff”, and then you would just sit and paint and had nothing to do.
4.3. The School-Age Educare Needs to Encompass the Unexpected
C: I liked barbecue Fridays and when we took the ferry over to the island.
C: I think it’s fun when we have snack time outside. We usually get waffles sometimes. On Valentine’s Day we get to do things. Sometimes we get chocolate brownies.
C: When everyone brings bikes and we ride down to a beach like we did last year.
C: A video-game tournament with Super Mario, we’ve had that. But we can have more, like Lego Masters.
C: Water fights.
C: Have a soccer tournament!
C: We should have popcorn and ice cream and watch a movie.
C: You can ask a soccer team or an indoor hockey team to be able to come here. So that you can practice different sports.
C: I wish we had gone to more things. That we did a little more sometimes.
C: Take a bus to the zoo.
C: Take a bus to the swimming pool.
5. Discussion
6. Conclusions and Implications for Practice
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Ackesjö, H.; Wernholm, M.; Krasniqi, M. An Attractive School-Age Educare—Free Choices as Expanded or Limited Agency. Educ. Sci. 2024, 14, 937. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14090937
Ackesjö H, Wernholm M, Krasniqi M. An Attractive School-Age Educare—Free Choices as Expanded or Limited Agency. Education Sciences. 2024; 14(9):937. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14090937
Chicago/Turabian StyleAckesjö, Helena, Marina Wernholm, and Mergim Krasniqi. 2024. "An Attractive School-Age Educare—Free Choices as Expanded or Limited Agency" Education Sciences 14, no. 9: 937. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14090937
APA StyleAckesjö, H., Wernholm, M., & Krasniqi, M. (2024). An Attractive School-Age Educare—Free Choices as Expanded or Limited Agency. Education Sciences, 14(9), 937. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14090937