Finnish Education Research Articles

Trust in Finnish Education: A Historical Perspective

This article analyzes the origins of generalized trust in Finnish society and how this relates to trust in education. The study was based on a historical analysis of the role of education in building a Finnish society and nation state. The author discusses the development of a Nordic welfare state and analyzes the relationships between generalized trust and education from the perspectives of democracy, corruption, egalitarian attitudes, wealth, and culture. A reflection was performed of the relationships between generalized trust, school autonomy, and the professional autonomy of teachers.

Implementation of a National Teacher Education Strategy in Finland through Pilot Projects

The implementation of a teacher education strategy in a decentralised Finnish education system is analysed. Altogether, 31 pilot projects, involving teacher educators from all universities, were funded to support the implementation of the strategy and professional learning of autonomous teacher educators in the context of the strategy. In this mixed-methods research, the directors and active partners of the pilot projects were asked how they perceived the characteristics of the pilot projects that have been recognised as supportive for the implementation of the strategy. The directors were also asked to evaluate the impact of the projects. The projects have supported the achievement of the strategy’s aims. Research and goal orientation, active learning, collaboration, contextualisation and reflection were emphasised in the pilot project activities. Common goal setting and evaluation of the pilot projects should be emphasised more in the implementation of the strategy.

Finnish student teachers’ ideas of outdoor learning

ABSTRACT A reformed national curriculum has introduced transformative and sociocultural learning elements to the Finnish education system. In addition, sustainability and outdoor education remain pressing issues for Finnish educators. We conducted a content analysis of the views of outdoor education held by student teachers enrolled in first-year sustainability and outdoor education courses in Finland (n = 46). The goal was to identify the learning environments and pedagogical ideas of student teachers. The student teachers emphasised the role of nature in outdoor education and identified locality as an important learning environment. Their surrounding environments included both built and unbuilt environments. The teaching methods they wrote were appropriate outdoor education, active learning, participatory learning, making observations and multidisciplinary learning especially for sustainability issues. Notably, technology and digitalisation were not emphasised in the results. Overall, the student teachers had a strong preliminary knowledge of outdoor learning spaces and clear visions for conducting outdoor education.

Setting Individual Goals for Pupils with Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities—Engaging in the Activity Area-Based Curriculum Making

The activity area-based curriculum model (AACM) is used in the Finnish basic education to support pupils—most of whom have profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD)—who could benefit more from skills that advance independent life coping. Existing studies have concentrated mainly on the Individual Education Plan (IEP) goal-setting process for pupils with milder disabilities than PIMD and have consistently demonstrated significant barriers in the process. This study explores the collaborative IEP goal-setting process for pupils with the AACM. Sixty-five Finnish special education teachers using the AACM participated in the study. Semi-structured interviews were analysed with thematic network analysis. The groups involved in the IEP goal-setting process were divided into main and side mediators. The main mediators were described as significant collaborators with important knowledge of the pupil, while side mediators rarely participated in the process. The special education teachers appeared to be leading the collaboration and were positioned in the middle of the main and side mediators. Further research should focus on the implementation of parents’ collaborative positions. Furthermore, practices and methods should be developed to reinforce the positions of group home staff, special education teacher colleagues and pupils with the AACM or PIMD themselves.

Revisiting universalism in the Finnish education system

The aim of the article is to revisit the principle of universalism and analyze how it has changed in the legislation on compulsory education by asking: how are different characteristics of universalism emphasized in the basic education legislation and parliamentary discussion (in 1968, 1982 and 1997)? The analysis portrays the varieties of universalism within the comprehensive school, produced by the four instruments used to govern education (legislation, economy, ideology and evaluatory). According to the analysis, the foundation of the comprehensive school system in the 1960s was laid on uniform content and aims at the ideological level, emphasizing equality of education. The 1980s was a transition phase between ‘old’ and ‘new’ universalism, when instruments of legal and economic governance enabled the expansion of universalism and increased costs. Simultaneously, the aims of the comprehensive system and its contents were increasingly set at the local level. We conclude that the ‘new’ comprehension of universalism in the 1990s entailed issues such as the rise of the evaluation of education, local economy of education and individualism.

What can we learn from the PISA research about the factors and parameters affecting the success of student achievements in mathematics? A Comparative study between Israel and Finland.

"Abstract. There is a crisis of many years in Israel in the subject of mathematics learning. In the last PISA tests, conducted by the OECD during the last ten years, Israel is placed 39-41 among all the countries participated the research. It was also found that all the years Israel ""won"" to be one of the first three countries with the highest grade distribution among all the countries and economic entities participating in general and among OECD countries in particular. In addition, it was found that rate of Israeli students who fail the mathematics test is one of the highest in the organization countries. The goal of this research is comparing students’ achievements in the Israeli education system and in the Finnish education system, which is considered a system with excellent achievements in mathematics and low-grade distribution rate in general and in mathematics grades in particular. This comparison is aimed to identify the Israeli education system's problems and learn the lessons to improve it. This article discusses the question what is the main success factor in mathematics in Israel compared to Finland according to the 2015 PISA test results and what can be learned from this difference? In this paper I have based on my research findings in which I analyzed the correlation between the PISA questionnaires and student achievement in mathematics."

The definitions of health care and social welfare informatics competencies

Digital transformation is changing the ecosystem and at the same time professionals’ competencies worldwide. Minimising health care and social welfare costs while increasing citizens’ health and well-being is challenging. Technology and digital tools play an important role in reaching this goal. However, there are inequalities concerning technology, and this has many impacts. Digitalisation brings challenges not only to health care and social welfare professionals but to citizens, too. Working with or using services in digital environments demands new skills. This has social and ethical impacts, e.g. how is equal access to services ensured. Health and social care professionals should have different competencies to respond to this, such as societal competencies. The purpose of this article is to describe how the definition of competencies in health care and social welfare version 1.0 (developed in the national SotePeda 24/7 project) was finalised as the final version 2.0 for Finnish healthcare and social welfare education by experts’ evaluation. Data was collected through an electronic questionnaire administered to selected experts (N=140) during January 2020. The number of experts who responded to the study was 52. These experts (social and health, business and IT) work or have worked in tasks related to the digitalisation of social and health care. The questionnaire was based on version 1.0 of the definition of digital competencies of health care and social welfare informatics. The questionnaire was mainly quantitative, but it also included open-ended qualitative questions. The experts agreed to a large extent on the version 1.0 definition, but some adjustments were made to the definition based on our study. The resulting definition is intended for use in the planning, implementation and evaluation of health care and social welfare education, but it can also be used for polytechnic education. The aim is to develop the digital skills of educators, degree students and in-service trainees in a multidisciplinary way (social and health, business and IT) to meet the needs of working life.

Kompetencje kluczowe w zakresie wychowania fizycznego w fińskiej podstawie programowej z 2014 r. dla edukacji podstawowej

The article presents an overview of transversal competencies through the prism of physical education. The main component of the study was an analysis of the National Core Curriculum 2014 for Basic Education in Finland. Analyses of the curriculum began with a literature review on changes in the Finnish curriculum, especially transversal competencies. The next step was to concentrate on the curriculum and to identify how issues of physical education were solved. The problem method was used, including the study of documents concerning educational change. The article uses primary rather than secondary sources. In order to present physical education from a Finnish perspective, the following research questions were formulated: 1) What tasks are included in the curriculum? 2) What are the strengths of the physical education curriculum? 3) What role does the national curriculum play in the global success of Finnish education in the 21 st century? To sum up, the national curriculum plays a major role in the global success of Finnish physical education in the 21 st century and prepares global citizens who are able to live in the contemporary, globalised world.

Legitimations of Finnish education export – exploring the plurality of guiding principles

ABSTRACT This paper explores the legitimation of Finnish education export (EE) activities linked to higher education institutions. As a small non-English speaking country with only recent involvement in the EE market, Finland provides an underexplored context to consider the legitimation of overseas, fee-based educational services from the perspective of EE providers. In this qualitative case study comprising two Finnish EE endeavours, we draw on convention theory to argue that the legitimation of education export is based on multiple roles of such export, not just on generating revenue for the provider institution. We show that legitimations are linked to multiple guiding principles, illustrated in our data through five themes: education for the future generations, competing institutions, localisation of education activity, project-oriented activity, and Finnishness of education export. Due to the plurality of principles, the legitimation process of EE among internal and external stakeholders includes more variation than the seemingly important market-driven logic would suggest, even if this logic has been in focus of the national higher education policy over the past decade.

Promoting Well-Being of Children at School: Parental Agency in the Context of Negotiating for Support

This study describes how parents experience their role in enhancing the well-being of their children and what this reveals about parental agency in the context of collaborations between home and school. In Finland, schools are among the most important environments for delivering services to children. The goal of this study is to bring into focus the parental dispositions in multi-agency interactions based on their experiences and to make sense of both their successes and the barriers they face. The Finnish education system aims to develop itself according to the inclusive principles. However, the inclusive school culture is still a work in progress. The parental agency and positions in collaboration with school personnel are ambivalent, and there are several assets and barriers that affect their ability to participate fully in discussions about the well-being of their children at school. In this article, the parental positions are connected to situations where they negotiate the process of collaborative planning of support for the learning and well-being of their children in the school environment. Participants are 13 mothers and one couple, mother and father. Their experiences are analyzed qualitatively via interviews and the concept of agency, a sociological concept that refers to the mutual relation between a culture or structure and the opportunities of human agents to interact within the given contexts. The results reveal qualitative differences in the experienced parental agency. The parental agency is connected to the given opportunities, and the key role in making the agency possible in the schools is given for the teachers. Behind everyday practices, there are deeper questions about the parental positions and their value in collaboration.

Global Demands – Local Practices

Gender equality is a global aim that has been presented in numerous documents. However, teacher education programs in many countries still lack sustainable strategies for working towards gender equality in education. Working successfully in this area may promote more sustainable practices in schools to reach gender-fair societies. The Nordic countries are known for pro-active gender policies and they provide interesting cases for investigating achievements and struggles in the field. The purpose of this article is, from an international comparative perspective, to explore the rationales and practices when working with issues of gender equality in Finnish and Swedish teacher education and to reflect on related concepts. We describe, analyse and compare local practices, theoretical frameworks and challenges by revisiting gender and teacher education research and equality projects from the 1980s up to today. The comparative methodology chosen facilitates understanding examples from two neighbouring countries, illustrating different ways to develop policies and strategies. Local actors not only follow global claims to work with gender and equality in teacher education but also play an active role and contribute to these discourses. Our study suggests that gender equality cannot be achieved overnight; appropriate strategies need to be negotiated constantly in specific national and institutional contexts at universities and teacher education institutions.

The Last Educational Change in Finland – its Dimensions and Multiliteracy Teaching

This article reveals the educational change in Finland in the context of multiliteracy. Multiliteracy is one of the seven transversal competences introduced by the Finnish basic education curriculum reform between the years 2012 and 2016. School multiliteracy is developed through cross-subject studies with the usage of particular language. There are involved various texts during teaching to prepare well-educated global citizens who are able to to overcome obstacles of the contemporary world and to follow the global changes in a job market. Multiliteracy helps prepare a global citizen with the skills of global lingua franca.

Differential inclusion through education: Reforms and spatial justice in Finnish education policy

The paper studies the changing spatial rationalizations of Finnish education policy with a particular focus on upper secondary education, which has gone through significant reforms in recent decades. The fostering of social and spatial equality has long represented the cornerstone of Finland’s Nordic welfare state education system. The establishment of a widespread network of educational institutions also formed an important means of building social and territorial cohesion in the country. Since the late 1980s, Finnish education policies have turned towards neoliberal ideals, underlining economic rationalizations, individualization and flexibility. Also, education policy has come to play an increasingly important role in the constitution of the knowledge-based economy and embedded spatial restructuring. The paper scrutinizes recent state upper secondary education reforms from the perspective of spatial justice and its scalar dimensions, underlining the consequential juncture of choosing between upper secondary education paths. It is shown how the rationalization of Finnish education policy differentiates places, favouring urban over rural, and produces particular citizen-subjects: while general upper secondary education forms a site for producing skilled and globally minded citizens, vocational education prioritizes the availability of regional workforce and the prevention of youth marginalization. Rather than providing equal opportunities, it is argued that the dual-path Finnish education policy reinforces spatial differentiation and the differential inclusion of citizen-subjects in the knowledge-based economy.

Seeking understanding of the textbook-based character of Finnish education

ABSTRACT This article provides a critical exploration of the textbook-based character of Finnish educational culture. The opening section points to the need to recognize and better understand the role of textbooks in Finnish education. The next section outlines how and why textbooks have become a characterizing feature of Finnish educational culture before addressing different ways in which pupils and student-teachers are socialized into textbook-based practices of schooling. The later sections critically consider the importance of textbooks as part of Finnish education, as well as the implications for educational research, the ongoing development of Finnish education and in particular teacher education. This study suggests that a more clearly explicated understanding of text-based educational cultures is needed to better understand the character of Finnish education and to broaden the lens for theorisations of, as well as practices within, education.

Exploring Vocational Education Students\u2019 Visions of a Successful Transition to Working Life from the Perspective of Societal Belonging

The emphasis on paid employment is strong in Finnish vocational education. However, the world of work is changing and becoming more insecure. Many researchers have expressed concern about the impact of these uncertainties on employment opportunities for young people. This paper discusses vocational education students’ possibilities for societal belonging in their transition to the changing labour market in Finland. It explores the students’ visions of a successful transition to working life and a decent life after this transition. The qualitative data were collected by organising six functional workshops for vocational students (58 participants). In the conclusion, the paper argues that in the vocational students’ visions, paid employment constitutes an important definer of their societal belonging. Furthermore, it demonstrates how strongly the traditional ideals of worker-citizenship fostered in vocational education influence the meanings the second- and third-year students ascribe to societal belonging. The paper suggests that this issue needs to be critically examined in view of the changing labour market. The question is whether vocational training is able to guarantee graduating young people a realistic opportunity to build their belonging to society while at the same time to responding to the needs of the labour market.

Quality Program Life Cycle Sebagai Model Diklat Pengembangan Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Berbasis Riset

Pendidikan dan pelatihan kejuruan (vokasi) berbasis kompetensi keahlian memainkan peran kunci dalam mempromosikan daya saing dan kemakmuran ekonomi. Namun, di Indonesia sebagai Negara yang memiliki bonus demografi dan Negara maritim belum menjadi prioritas untuk mengembangkan sumber daya manusia yang tangguh untuk mengelola kekayaan wilayah laut hal ini tercermin dalam kurikulum vokasi yang tidak pernah direkontruksi mengikuti perubahan lingkungan eksternal. Jenis penelitian ini adalah journal research dengan methode kualitatif ekplanasi. Mengintegrasikan teori konsep model kuwalitas pendidikan dan pelatihan Finlandia, teori pilihan siswa untuk menentukan pilihan perguruan tinggi serta teori konsep model pendidikan dan latihan siklus hidup maritim dari Eropa. Penelitian menghasilkan konsep model kebaharuan Quality Program Life Cycle. Quality Program Life Cycle adalah model pendidikan vokasi yang mengutamakan kualitas (perekrutan, pendidikan, pelatihan dan pendampingan) secara berkualitas (taruna, dosen, karyawan/staff, pelatihan) dengan program yang terukur, tansparan dan akuntabilitas dengan keterlibatan penuh institusi/lembaga, mahasiswa dan perusahaan sebagai perputaran (Life Cycle) secara berkelanjutan. Penjelasan dimensi, konsep, operasional dijelaskan lebih lanjut dalam penelitian ini.

Geography Curricula Objectives and Students’ Performance: Enhancing the Student’s Higher-Order Thinking Skills?

This paper centers on to evaluate whether and to what extent the learning objectives of the geography curricula emphasize students’ higher-order thinking skills (HOTS), and whether students are capable of answering to HOTS-questions by using the Finnish upper secondary geography education as an example. The revised Bloom’s taxonomy was used as a framework for the content analysis. The findings show that geography has the potential to enhance students’ HOTS, but students experience difficulties when answering to HOTS-questions. The results could be used to evaluate the desired thinking skills and knowledge dimensions in geography education for to enhance students meaningful learning.

Future jamming: Rhetoric of new knowledge in Finnish educational policy texts

The future is rarely problematised in education even though it is self-evident in everyday schoolwork and present also in the management of education. However, we should understand how different future visions influence our understanding of education. In this paper, we apply rhetorical analysis and study how the future of education is rhetorically constructed in Finnish policy texts. Also, we analyze the special characteristic of Finnish future visions, which are based on the idea of Finnish education being top-notch. We focus explicitly on the idea of knowledge and its future relations in school education. In our data, the current school is rhetorically contrasted with the future one. This hastens the need to modernize Finnish school system. This view is reinforced by the needs of the economy and working life. Pathos is frequently used as a rhetorical strategy. Finns are warned about remaining in the past and obliged to change their education immediately. Future visions of Finnish education seem to be limited only to positive aspects.

“We need to make our voices heard”: Claiming space for young people’s everyday environmental politics in northern Finland

Recent years have seen a critical shift in young people’s political participation, as young people around the world have mobilized to demand greater climate actions. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork that consist of participant observation and 47 qualitative interviews with 15–16-year-olds residing in rural and urban areas in northern Finland, the paper contributes rural, regional and mundane perspectives on the topic of young people’s environmental politics. The paper sheds light on the myriad of ways in which young people practice environmental politics and construct their environmental citizenship and also discusses young people’s political action in relation to the friction and resistance their participation stirs up in the local communities. Although promoting active citizenship is a stated goal of the Finnish education system, young people’s active participation in mundane and local environmental politics is not always embraced in local communities. The paper argues for better recognition of and support for young people’s everyday environmental politics and for youth participation as a way to spark wider social, cultural, and political change.

EXPERIENCE OF STUDYING THE FINNISH EDUCATION SYSTEM THROUGH THE EYES OF UZBEKISTAN

The article highlights the in-depth study of the Finnish education system, which has long been a world leader in the provision of quality and effective education, as well as education and training in Uzbekistan. In the process, a number of issues were covered, such as the effective use of modern educational technologies and the creation of a quality and effective education system, the appropriateness and usefulness of using world educational standards as an experiment.