Suchergebnisse

Taking complexity as an epistemic starting point, this article enhances understanding of dynamics in higher education. It also reviews the relevant literature on path dependency, complexity research, and studies of political change and contingency. These ideas are further developed with reference to the political situation and political possibilities as concepts. It is claimed that the key issues in understanding irreversibility on a system level are institutional change and politicisation. It is deduced from two case studies in the Finnish context that founding new institutions created bifurcations in both. Then again, the politicisation for disbanding existing institutions has proved rather futile. The key findings are that the choices in higher education politics increase the complexity of the system, and that many of the choices made are irreversible for reasons to do with contingency. ; Peer reviewed

Since the introduction of PISA, the OECD has become an increasingly powerful player in education governance and policy within its member countries, as well as elsewhere. It has also become evident that education systems scoring well in the exam have become sources for policy and practice borrowing for other countries. For example, Finnish teenagers' consistent success in the PISA exam has kept the Finnish education system in the limelight of international attention for a number of years. This essay provides critical observations regarding politicisation of PISA results from a Finnish perspective. Using Finnish teacher education, as well as quality assurance and evaluation as examples, we argue that Finnish education system has developed within a particular place and time, through political processes that are not replicable in different political contexts. ; Desde a introdução do Programa PISA, a OCDE tem se mostrado um organismo cada vez mais poderoso no que diz respeito à administração e a políticas educacionais, tanto entre seus países-membro quanto nas demais nações. Também é fato que sistemas educacionais com bom desempenho neste exame transformaram-se em modelos de políticas e práticas educacionais para outros países. Por exemplo, o constante êxito dos adolescentes finlandeses no PISA tem mantido o sistema educacional deste país no centro das atenções mundiais há alguns anos. Este artigo apresenta algumas observações críticas relacionadas à politização dos resultados do PISA, sob um ponto de vista finlandês. Ilustrando com exemplos do próprio sistema educacional finlandês, além de avaliações qualitativas, nosso argumento é que o sistema educacional da Finlândia desenvolveu-se em local e época muito particulares, por meio de processos políticos que não podem ser replicados em outros contextos.

This article provides a comparative analysis of recent governance reforms in both Finnish and Portuguese higher education institutions (HEIs), following the OECD's recent reviews of both countries' tertiary education systems. While in the case of Finland the major problem was identified as being a lack of entrepreneurialism, Portugal was considered to lack effective, strategic higher education planning as well as innovative, flexible and responsive HEIs. The review teams pointed to common issues, despite different country contexts. As they recommended very similar solutions for reforming the legal status of universities, this encouraged national governments to undertake reforms according to their specific needs. By pinpointing problems, the OECD was seen to play an important role in this process and its recommendations proved to be close to the ideas of new public management. ; Peer reviewed

We engage in a transdisciplinary trial attempting to understand a societal paradigm slide we call the thickening modern. It is a reaction to the modern way of thinking that attempts to cope with the challenges presented by 'postmodern' changes. We deliberate the role of rationalism in two political discussions we see as instances of the thickening modern: decision making in religious communities in a secular society and quality in education. In both cases there is a shift to a postmodern ontological uncertainty yet an attempt to epistemologically cling to modern rationality. We sketch a research agenda that would allow understanding beyond the intensifying rationalism of the modern. ; acceptedVersion ; Peer reviewed

Introduction -- Part 1: Politics, policy, teachers and edu-business -- Municipal governance of comprehensive education: The emergence of local universalisms -- Finland's ministry of education and culture in the light of its working groups -- A progressive force in Finnish schooling?: Finland's education union, OAJ and its influence on school-level education policy -- Finnish quality evaluation discourse: Swimming against the global tide? -- Ecological sustainability and steering of Finnish comprehensive schools -- Unmentioned challenges of Finnish teacher education: Decontextualisation, scientification and the rhetoric of the research-based agenda -- Teachers' expectations and expectations of teachers: Understanding teachers' societal role -- Businessing around comprehensive schooling -- Co-operation of edu-business and public schooling: Is the governance of education in Finland shifting from the public sector to networks?- Part 2: Equity, inequality, and the challenges of diversity, language and inclusion -- "Three bedrooms and a nice school" — Residential choices, school choices and vicious circles of segregation in the education landscape of Finnish cities -- Pupil selection and enrolment in comprehensive schools in urban Finland -- Everyday life in schools in disadvantaged areas -- Divided cities — Divided schools? School segregation and the role of needs-based resource allocation in Finland -- The significance of socioeconomic background for the educational dispositions and aspirations of Finnish school leavers -- Controversies and challenges in the history of gender discourses in education in Finland -- Rainbow paradise? Sexualities and gender diversity in Finnish schools -- Racism in Finnish school textbooks: Developments and discussions -- Saami language online education outside the Saami homeland — New pathways to social justice -- Education of pupils with migrant backgrounds: A systemic failure in the Finnish system? -- Negotiated, given and self-made paths: Immigrant origin girls and post-compulsory educational transition in Finland -- Language education for everyone? Busting access myths -- Rethinking Finland's official bilingualism in education -- Religions and worldviews as "the problem" in Finnish schools -- Inclusion in Finland: Myths and realities -- Exclusively included? Finland's inclusion success story and hidden dual system of mainstream and special needs education -- Student disengagement in Finnish comprehensive schooling -- Part 3: Epilogue -- The Foundations of Critical Studies in Education in Finland.

This open access book provides academic insights and serves as a platform for research-informed discussion about education in Finland. Bringing together the work of more than 50 authors across 28 chapters, it presents a major collection of critical views of the Finnish education system and topics that cohere around social justice concerns. It questions rhetoric, myths, and commonly held assumptions surrounding Finnish schooling. This book draws on the fields of sociology of education, education policy, urban studies, and policy sociology. It makes use of a range of research methodologies including ethnography, case study and discourse analysis, and references the work of relevant theorists, including Bourdieu and Foucault. This book aims to provide a critical, updated and astute analysis of the strengths and challenges of the Finnish education system.

"The question of quality has become one of the most important framing factors in education and has been of growing interest to international organisations and national policymakers for decades. Politics of Quality in Education focuses on Brazil, China, and Russia, part of the so-called emerging nations' BRICS block, and draws on a four-year project to develop a new theoretical and methodological approach. The book builds a comparative, sociohistorical, and transnational understanding of political relations in education, with a particular focus on the policies and practices of quality assurance and evaluation (QAE). Tracking QAE processes from international organisations to individual schools, contributors analyse how QAE changes the dynamics in the roles of state, expertise, and governance. The book demonstrates how national and sub-national actors play a central role in the adaptation, modification, or rejection of transnational policies. Politics of Quality in Education will be of great interest to academics, researchers, and postgraduate students engaged in the study of comparative and international education, as well as educational policy and politics. It should also be essential reading for practitioners and policymakers."--

The extent to which education is nationally or internationally directed is a recurring debate in comparative education. The debate circles around the role of the nation state in the globalizing world. The authors address these questions by focusing on networks of knowledge and expertise in Finland's national core curriculum reform (2014). The findings of the chapter demonstrate that education policy making is more complex than the simple dichotomy of local and global. "Global" has the power to produce evidence but the "local" possesses the ability to select the evidence and adjust it to meet the national needs. National experts play a central role in this process: it is particularly their ability to explicate international comparative data that was considered as "expertise" in the reform process. ; publishedVersion ; Peer reviewed

Dynamics in Education Politics: Understanding and Explaining the Finnish Case introduces a new theoretical framework characterised as Comparative Analytics of Dynamics in Education Politics (CADEP). Albeit the topicality of comparative research is obvious in the current era of global large-scale assessment, with its concomitant media visibility and political effects, comparative education is still suffering from certain methodological deficits and is in need of robust theorisation. Focusing on relational dynamics between policy threads, actors and institutions in education politics CADEP seriously considers the phenomena of complexity, contingency and trans-nationality in late-modern societies. In this book CADEP is applied and validated in analysing the "Finnish Educational Miracle" that has been attracting attention in the educational world ever since they rocketed to fame following the PISA studies during the 2000s. This book will open up opportunities for mutual understanding and learning rather than just celebrating the exceptional circumstances or sustainable leadership. Areas covered include:The analytics of dynamics in education politicsThe dynamics of policy making and governance The dynamics of educational family strategiesThe dynamics of classroom culture It is vital for humankind to be able to learn from each other's successes and failures, and this applies in education, too. This book is thus a valuable read for anyone interested in the education system and wanting to shape the learning environment.

With its focus on relational dynamics the Comparative Analytics of Dynamics in Education Politics (CADEP) will seriously take up the challenge of unravelling the complexity, contingency and trans-nationality that characterise educational systems of late-modern societies. Applying the theoretical concept of dynamics we aim to resuscitate a specific social field of education to scrutiny through the analysis of relations between the main actors and institutions, and the essential discursive formations and practices along the dimensions of time (historical continuation), space (local, national, regional and global) and level (micro/actors, meso/institutions and macro/structures). The main idea is that the fluidity and movement of a specific policy field of basic education are relative, but reflect the intertwinement of the dynamics from at least four focal perspectives: education policy-making, education governance, family educational strategies and classroom cultures. We present some results on each perspective drawing on the Finnish case. ; Peer reviewed

This title is published in Open Access with the support of the University of Helsinki. ; Dynamics in Education Politics: Understanding and Explaining the Finnish Case introduces a new theoretical framework characterised as Comparative Analytics of Dynamics in Education Politics (CADEP). Albeit the topicality of comparative research is obvious in the current era of global large-scale assessment, with its concomitant media visibility and political effects, comparative education is still suffering from certain methodological deficits and is in need of robust theorisation. Focusing on relational dynamics between policy threads, actors and institutions in education politics CADEP seriously considers the phenomena ofcomplexity, contingency and trans-nationality in late-modern societies. In this book CADEP is applied and validated in analysing the "Finnish Educational Miracle" that has been attracting attention in the educational world ever since they rocketed to fame following the PISA studies during the 2000s. This book will open up opportunities for mutual understanding and learning rather than just celebrating the exceptional circumstances or sustainable leadership. Areas covered include: The analytics of dynamics in education politics The dynamics of policy making and governance The dynamics of educational family strategies The dynamics of classroom culture It is vital for humankind to be able to learn from each other's successes and failures, and this applies in education, too. This book is thus a valuable read for anyone interested in the education system and wanting to shape the learning environment.