Continuing Professional Development of Teachers in Finland

Yongjian Li, Fred Dervin

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9783319957944
• eBook ISBN: 9783319957951
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Adult Education

This book examines continuing professional development (CPD) of teachers in Finland. As one of the best-performing countries in terms of education, the Finnish education system is often revered and held up as an example to follow. However, the authors argue that CPD actually constitutes the Achilles' heel of this 'miraculous' system, demonstrating that in fact it is a victim of contradictory discourses and actions among decision-makers, teacher educators and practitioners. Including extensive interviews from CPD providers, teachers and other educational actors, the authors critically discuss the 'wonders' of Finnish education, in the process debunking various myths created both inside and outside Finland. The authors also call for a new approach to comparative and international education. Based on over 20 years of experience in Finnish education, this pioneering book will be of interest and value to students and scholars of Finnish education, continuing professional development and international education branding more generally.

© The Author(s) 2018

Yongjian Li and Fred DervinContinuing Professional Development of Teachers in Finlandhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95795-1_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction: Contextualizing Teacher Continuing Professional Development in the ‘Miracle’ of Finnish Education

Yongjian Li¹ and Fred Dervin²

(1)

School of Education, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

(2)

Department of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

Yongjian Li (Corresponding author)

Email: [email protected]

Fred Dervin

Email: [email protected]

End Abstract

Finland is known for its equal basic education. We are proud of it. The centenary of the Finnish story is a narrative of a nation that, throughout its history, has expanded access to education and built equal opportunities. (Finnish Minister of Education Sanni Grahn-Laasonen 28 February 2018)

• Now I want to live in Finland…
• I should have gone to school in Finland.
• The education system there is also brilliant, we have so much to learn from a society that places importance on equality and happiness .
• I am tired of hearing about the Finns.
  (Comments on Finnish education found randomly online in 2017)

When the Greek hero Achilles , who was the bravest, handsomest and greatest warrior, was born, it was foretold that he would die young. His mother dipped him in a magic river that would offer him invulnerability to counter the spell. However, she held Achilles by the heel, preventing it from being protected by the river. One day, he was killed by a poisonous arrow lodged in his heel. Today the expression “Achilles’ heel” refers to “an area of weakness, a vulnerable spot” (Oxford English Dictionary, 2016).

This book examines the Achilles’ heel of one of the top performing countries in education, according to such world rankings as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) studies, the OECD Better Life Index Education, the Global Competitiveness Report 2016–2017 of the World Economic Reform, and the current doxa (commonsense) on international and comparative education: Teacher Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in the small Nordic country of Finland (population: 5.4 million, 2017).

According to Olli Luukkainen, Director of the only Teachers’ Trade Union in Finland (Opetusalan Ammattijärjestö, OAJ), which represents over 120,000 teachers from early childhood teachers to university lecturers:

Our system of continuing education and professional development for teachers is not good enough. It differs too much from one part of the country to another and one group of teachers to another. Teachers in vocational schools, for example, have much better support for continuing education than do primary teachers. (OECD 2011: 126)

The country has been revered worldwide for its ‘miraculous education’ (Niemi et al. 2012) and has become ‘mythical’ (Dervin 2013), being presented in somewhat simplistic ways. For example, this is how one company, attached to several Finnish universities and selling Finnish education to the world, talks about it:

All over the world, people are talking about “the Finnish phenomenon”. People wonder how Finland can consistently top international student performance rankings, while placing an unwavering focus on every child’s well-being.

The Finnish education system is a diamond that has been carefully ground and polished for decades. It began with the zeal and determination of Finnish people to push themselves to succeed – a dream that generation after generation worked at until it came true.

One thing Finns realised is that success in education can only be achieved by working together and making the most of everyone’s resources. This is how an equal education system was created.

The resounding success of Finnish education is evidenced by superb international results such as high PISA rankings.

The wonders of this ‘diamond’ are often attributed to Finnish teachers, who are said to be the ‘best teachers in the world’—even if one cannot agree universally on what this actually means. In her answers to parliamentary questions to the Finnish government about education in early 2018, the Minister of Education put it this way:

We have the best, highly educated teachers in the world who are appreciated by society and who, compared to other countries, have an exceptionally broad pedagogic freedom. (…) Our teachers do an excellent job in schools.

As we shall see in this book, teachers’ CPD in the Nordic country is somewhat a victim of contradictory discourses amongst decision makers and practitioners. In many cases it appears to be a mystery and a problematic aspect of education, although it should be central to teacher preparation . While working on this study, we have had to do ‘detective work’ as information about CPD is scattered and often inconsistent in Finland.

Motivated by the mantra of ‘the best education system in the world’, hundreds of ‘pedagogical tourists ’ have visited Finland in search of the ‘miracle of education’ (Niemi et al. 2012), especially in relation to Initial Teacher Education (ITT) at university, which lasts for 5 years, leading to a Master’s Degree. Overly positive discourses on ITT have led to the establishment of ‘Finnish education export ’ to the world (Dervin 2013; Schatz 2016a).

Finland’s Miracle?

In international comparison, according to surveys by the World Health Organization, WHO, Finnish schoolchildren are not very enthusiastic about going to school (…). Salmela-Aro and her research team have found that many young people experience a lack of meaning concerning school and their own studies (Salmela-Aro 2017). According to their research, almost one half of schoolchildren do not see school as meaningful at the end of elementary school. (Huhtala and Vesalainen 2017: 60)

According to Egginger (2013) the current interest in Finnish education is not new if one looks back in history. As such, during the World Fairs of 1889/1900 Finland, which was then a Grand Duchy of Russia before its independence in 1917, was already presented as some sort of a ‘miracle’. A Finnish school had been set up in Paris with a teacher and Finnish pupils enacting reading activities for the audience (Egginger, ibid.). Finnish education was already said to be efficient, modern, and equalitarian at the time.

These ideas are still reflected in Finland’s top position in many world rankings: The Sustainable Society Index (2016), first in human wellbeing; The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report (2015, World Economic Forum), safest country in the world; The Global Gender Gap Index (2016, World Economic Forum), one of the most equal countries.

The Fourth of December 2001 marked an important date for Finland. This is when the results of the first Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) of the OECD were released. Finland came first, which put the country on the world map for many years and earned the country the status of ‘educational utopia’. According to the ‘global ambassador’ and ‘guru’ of Finnish education, Pasi Sahlberg, who started working in Australia in 2018:

This [was] a very new situation for Finns. Ten years ago, before 2002, we were very rarely asked to go anywhere so now if somebody wants to hear stories from Finland we… you know I wanna go… because I also understand that this is not gonna last forever that at some point we will be taken over by somebody else then all these things will be nice memory. (Pasi Sahlberg, Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education, March 2012, our transcription)

The triennial international survey, PISA , aims to evaluate education systems worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students in reading, mathematics and science at the end of basic education. Around 510,000 students from 65 countries participate in the assessment . PISA has managed to establish an increasingly strong and mediatised ‘comparative turn’ amongst educational systems around the world, where top systems attract attention and become models for others (Grek 2009).

According to the OECD (2013: 6) Finland is among the most equitable countries as far as PISA performance of 15-year-olds is concerned. System-level policies are said to assure equity for students. And the Nordic country has both a large percentage of top performers and a smaller-than-average proportion of low performers.

Finnish Basic education (see Fig. 1.1) includes nine years of compulsory schooling with a voluntary tenth year. Education is free, and textbooks and a daily meal are provided. Early intervention and individual guidance and support are seen as keys to ensuring that no one is left behind. At upper secondary level, instruction and school lunches, as well as health care are provided free of charge, but students are required to obtain their own textbooks and they may also be charged for other learning materials. It is important to note that all families receive child benefit from public funds for each child aged under 16, which aims to cover specific costs relating to raising children. This is provided regardless of parents’ income, which, in a sense, can lead to inequity (some families get even more capitals). In addition to such benefits, those receiving special needs education are also entitled to assistant services, other pupil welfare services and special aids (Sahlberg 2011).

Fig. 1.1

Finland’s system of education, from the National Agency for Education

Finland’s investment in education is similar to the OECD average, with 5.7% of Gross Domestic Product (OECD 2017). Basic and general upper secondary education institutions are funded by the state and local authorities. Municipalities receive funding according to the proportion of population (number of municipal residents aged between 6 and 15) and its socio-economic status. Municipalities decide how to distribute funding for education (OECD 2013: 16). In 2017 there were 311 municipalities in Finland. Sahlberg (2018: n.p.) insists on the diversity of municipalities and thus the multifacetedness of Finnish education:

Since each municipality has very different regulations, the autonomy of the corresponding schools varies greatly. For example, in some municipalities schools have the right to hire teachers, while in some teachers are recruited by the government. In some municipalities, principals can decide some minor bonuses they pay to teachers, and in some municipalities, the power to pay all wages comes from the government.

Therefore, there is a common misunderstanding when discussing Finnish education internationally. People think Finnish education system is unified. However, in fact, education in Finland is very diverse, not the same everywhere. That is also why I often tell international colleagues that we should go out and see how different communities in different situations and with different needs in Finland.

Although Sahlberg offers an interesting critique of discourses about Finnish education globally, it is important to ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction: Contextualizing Teacher Continuing Professional Development in the ‘Miracle’ of Finnish Education
• 2. Framing CPD to Understand and Explore the Finnish Context
• 3. Finnish Initial Teacher Education and CPD
• 4. Data and Methodologies
• 5. Providers: Offerings and Critiques
• 6. Teachers’ Views on CPD
• 7. Paratexts to CPD: Decision Making, Leadership, Teacher Education and Project Work
• 8. Conclusions
• Back Matter