Education, Work and Life

In this chapter, I will study the relationship between education and working life from a few viewpoints. First, I will examine how everyday working life has changed and how education has to change. Second, I will depict how the practices of both education and the working world can and should be researched in terms of the theory of practice architectures. Third, I will come back to reflect on the relationships between work, education and life. The work that people do has increasingly been immaterialized. Working life has been detached from material production which is more and more automated and robotically driven. According to a Swiss professor Schwab (2015, 2016), we have already moved int…

The Induction Phase as a Critical Transition for Newly Qualified Teachers

This chapter addresses the issue of becoming a teacher, with the induction phase as a critical transition from initial teacher education to the lifelong professional learning of teachers, and mentoring as a tool of support. It presents newly qualified teachers’ views on initial teacher education and discusses the need for fostering the connection between teacher training and the induction year. New teachers’ views on teacher induction and mentoring are based on research findings in Finland and other Nordic countries. Another important question addresses how initial teacher education can facilitate the metamorphosis of a student teacher into an autonomous teacher. The new teachers’ experienc…

Between facts and norms: action research in the light of Jürgen Habermas's theory of communicative action and discourse theory of justice1

Abstract An emphasis on democracy is typical of action research. Therefore, theories of modern democracy can be applied within the field of school development through action research. According to Jurgen Habermas, the promotion of democratic will formation requires the promotion of free and rational communicative action that is as free from manipulation as possible. Under ideal communicative conditions, consensus is achieved dialectically through the force of a better argument. The principles of rational argumentation have been developed in detail in Habermas's publications on discourse ethics and in The Theory of Communicative Action. He has recently developed his approach in a book entitl…

What is Educational Praxis?

This chapter explores the question “What is educational praxis?” based on a review of theoretical and empirical research undertaken by the Pedagogy, Education and Praxis (PEP) international research network over the past decade. A book series produced by the network in 2008 explored this very question in relation to a range of educational sites and national contexts. Six key themes emerging from this work were outlined in the first of the books in the series, Enabling Praxis: Challenges for Education. In short, the themes concerned agents and agency; particularity; connectedness; history; morality and justice; and praxis as doing (Kemmis and Smith in Enabling praxis: challenges for educatio…

VERME2 testaa : kokemuksia vertaisryhmämentoroinnin soveltamisesta

Tässä julkaisussa kerrotaan vuosina 2017–19 toteutetun Verme2-hankkeen tuloksista. Se oli yksi Opettajankoulutuksen kehittämisohjelman kärkihankkeista, jotka käynnistettiin pääministeri Juha Sipilän hallituskaudella (2015–19). Hanke on jatkanut mentoroinnin kehittämistä aikaisemmin muodostuneessa valtakunnallisessa verkostossa, joka on soveltanut vertaisryhmämentorointia Suomessa vuodesta 2010 alkaen. Verme-verkostossa ovat olleet mukana kaikki suomalaiset opettajankoulutusta järjestävät yliopistot (8) ja ammatilliset opettajakorkeakoulut (5), ja sitä on koordinoinut Koulutuksen tutkimuslaitos. Lisäksi verkostossa on ollut kuntia ja koulutuksen järjestäjiä, jotka ovat osaltaan vastanneet ve…

The ‘spirit of the times’: Fast policy for educational reform in Finland

This article examines the nature of neoliberal influences upon educational policy making in the Finnish education system in recent times. The article draws upon key policy documents, government reports, journal articles and media articles about reforms in the early childhood, basic/compulsory school and vocational education and training sectors to evidence these processes. Analytically, these reforms are understood as instances of what has been referred to as ‘fast policy’. Methodologically, we draw upon principles of zeitgeist analysis to reveal the features and effects of these fast policy influences as they relate to educational provision in Finland. These features and effects include i…

Learning to survive amidst nested crises: can the coronavirus pandemic help us change educational practices to prepare for the impending eco-crisis?

The ongoing ecological crisis and the more recent Coronavirus crisis challenge the grand narrative of Enlightenment that human beings are ‘masters of nature’. For millennia, human social learning has allowed Homo sapiens to outpace most of our competitor creatures and live a comfortable life, but this competitive success has resulted in cataclysmic failure for the ecosystem. However, people’s unique ability to learn gives us hope that we can overcome the nested crises, or learn to live with them. What is required is not more knowledge, but instead, collective learning to change practices, institutionalized in educational processes. Drawing on the theory of practice architectures, this paper…

Opiskelijan oppiminen työelämäyhteistyössä : pedagoginen näkökulma

Understanding mentoring of new teachers: Communicative and strategic practices in Australia and Finland

Kohti kestävää toivoa

Teaching and the dialectic of recognition

Abstract In this article, the processes of recognition within education are discussed. Frequently, recognition is reduced to polite behaviour or etiquette. Another narrow view of recognition is, behaviouristically speaking, to regard it as mere feedback. We claim that authentic recognition is a different matter. Receiving recognition, as Charles Taylor has put it, is ‘a vital human need’. Educational practices are in many ways associated with the processes of recognition. In this article, we develop Axel Honneth's three-level theory of struggle for recognition. Subsequently, we introduce our ideas of positive and negative circles of recognition. At the level of the community, a positive cir…

Action research as narrative: five principles for validation

Along with the narrative turn in social sciences, the quality of research has become a more and more intricate issue. Action research reports are often narratives, located in the context of the evolving experiences of those involved. In this paper, the problem of quality in action research narratives is addressed, and some principles for assessing the quality of narrative research reports are proposed. The issue is explored both at a theoretical‐conceptual level and through a number of practical cases from the narrative‐biographical research project TeacherLife. As narrative researchers, the authors are not willing to accept an extremely relativistic stand. They argue the need for conceptua…

Koronakriisi? Ei, tämä on ihmisyyden kriisi

Täsmäratkaisuja kestävään tulevaisuuteen : suosituksia planetaarisen hyvinvoinnin tukemiseen poliittisessa ohjelmatyössä

Peer reviewed

Toimintatutkimus, tarinat ja opettajaksi tulemisen taito : narratiivisen identiteettityön kehittäminen opettajankoulutuksessa toimintatutkimuksen avulla

Voiko ihminen oppia viisautta?

Three orientations for understanding educational autonomy: school principals’ voices from Australia, Finland, and Jamaica

This paper reports on the findings from a multi-site case study conducted in Australia, Finland and Jamaica which explored the conditions that enabled and constrained the autonomy of school principals. Systematic data collection was carried out in the form of interviews of school principals and the data was analysed using a qualitative approach. The analysis indicates that: (1) school principals’ practices are prefigured by the peculiarities of historical trajectories and ideological traditions enmeshed in schooling sites; (2) these prefiguring arrangements in turn influence varying realisations of autonomous decision making practices across national sites; and (3) even in the expression of…

Peer-group mentoring as a tool for teacher development

Abstract: Peer-group mentoring (PGM) is a new model designed to support the professional development of teachers in Finland. This study examines the experiences of mentees participating in PGM and potential differences in the experiences of teachers in general education and vocational education. It also addresses the mentees perceptions of the results of PGM with regard to the professional, personal and social dimensions of professional development. Quantitative research methods were used. An online survey was completed by 69 teachers in general education and 47 teachers in vocational education (n = 116). The results showed that the participants saw PGM as an important tool for professional…

Slow Science: Research and Teaching for Sustainable Praxis

Our purpose in this essay is to examine the nature and significance of what can be called the slow science movement within the contemporary discussion about higher education and scientific research. In broad strokes, slow science can be considered a humble, global and mainly virtual academic underground movement. peerReviewed

Action research and narrative inquiry: five principles for validation revisited

The article continues the discussion of the five quality principles proposed by Heikkinen, Huttunen, and Syrjala, published in 2007 in Educational Action Research. In the present article, the authors reconsider the five principles: historical continuity; reflexivity; dialectics; workability; and evocativeness. These five principles are critically examined from two viewpoints. First, the authors discuss comments on the quality of the principles published in Educational Action Research, referring to contemporary discussion within the philosophy of science. Second, they review some empirical action research reports in which these principles have been applied. The authors point out some problem…

Työ, oppiminen ja digitalisaatio : tutkimus kehittämistyön tukena

Philosophical and Youth-Studies Perspectives on the Participation Imperative

In this article we analyse the concept of participation. The analysis is informed by both quantitative and qualitative youth studies conducted in Finland. To analyse different aspects of participation special emphasis is placed on the migrant young seeking asylum. Young can be seen as sometimes engaged and disengaged from the existing forms of participating. The results of the youth studies also show that there seems to be a gap between representative democracy and the peer-group-based forms of participation of the young. To analyse in detail how this gap can be understood, the theory of recognition developed by Axel Honneth is used to pinpoint different arenas of participation. Honneth’s l…

Ope ei saa oppia : opettajankoulutuksen jatkumon kehittäminen

Ammattikorkeakoulu toisin ajateltuna

Ammattikorkeakoulujen lakisääteisessä tehtävässä korostuvat työelämän tarpeisiin vastaaminen, alueellinen kehittäminen ja yhteistyö elinkeino- ja muun työelämän kanssa. Laki kehystää toimintaa mutta jättää tilaa tulkinnoille. Pohdimme tulkintoja tiedosta, osaamisesta, tutkimuksesta ja ammattikorkeakoulun yhteiskunnallisesta tehtävästä.
 Perustamme tarkastelun antiikin filosofin Aristoteleen klassiseen erotteluun tiedon muodoista ja saksalaisen kriittisen yhteiskuntafilosofin Jürgen Habermasin teoriaan tiedon yhteiskunnallisista intresseistä. Rakennamme kaksi lähestymistapaa ammattikorkeakoulutukseen, tutkimukseen ja ammattikorkeakoulun yhteiskunnalliseen tehtävään: rajattu ja laaja näk…

Professional expertise, integrative thinking, wisdom, and phronēsis

This chapter examines adult thinking from the perspective of professional expertise and phronēsis, that is, practical wisdom. It first describes differences between experts and novices, and presents three conceptualisations of the development of expertise. This is followed by an analysis of the form of adult thinking referred to as integrative thinking, and phronēsis. The relationship of these two with expertise is examined. The analysis shows that professional expertise requires holistic thinking involving the ability to integrate or conciliate various and even conflicting perspectives in order to find new solutions to problems. Furthermore, the role of emotions and ethical reflection is e…

Miksi (ei) APA?

Inter-generational learning of teachers: what and how do teachers learn from older and younger colleagues?

Abstract: This paper examines how and what teachers learn from their older and younger colleagues. Data were gathered from interviews and written reports from 27 Belgian and Finnish teachers. Thematic qualitative analysis was used. The results revealed differences in what teachers learn from older and younger colleagues. Teachers reported learning innovative teaching methods and ICT skills from younger colleagues, whereas practical information, classroom management skills, self-regulation and community building were learned mainly from older colleagues. Attitudes regarding teaching and different ways of being a teacher were learned from both younger and older colleagues alike. Similarities …

Understanding Mentoring Within an Ecosystem of Practices

The aim of this article is to introduce an ecosystemic approach to mentoring, inspired by the theory of ecologies of practices (Kemmis, Edwards-Groves, Wilkinson, & Hardy, 2012). It is suggested that relationships between practices and their environment resemble in many ways the relationships between natural organisms and ecosystems. From this perspective, mentoring is understood as a social practice that exists in the midst of other social practices and derives its essential qualities and its existence from its relation to other practices. The theory of ecologies of practices is based on the conception of practices as ‘living entities’. From the perspective of ecologies of practice, pr…

Viisas opettaja elää hetkessä - ja ikuisuudessa

This is my truth, tell me yours: some aspects of action research quality in the light of truth theories

Abstract In this article the authors introduce some aspects of various truth theories in the context of action research. The traditional ways of determining quality are based on the correspondence theory of truth, which, in their view, conflicts with the basic assumptions of action research. The pragmatic theory of truth seems to be clearly represented in the world of action research. In their opinion, other theories of truth can be productively applied as well. In addition to the classical theories of truth – the correspondence theory, the coherence theory and the pragmatistic view on truth – they discuss the truth as ‘aletheia’ (a Heideggerian view on truth), as Habermasian consensus and …

Integrative Pedagogy in Practicum

The chapter introduces a model of integrative pedagogy in teaching practicum within a Finnish context. The aim of this action research project is to integrate educational theory and practice in teaching practicum with a view to promote student teachers professional autonomy. In the Integrative Pedagogy Model, theoretical knowledge, practical skills and self-regulation (reflective and metacognitive skills) are merged. The empirical part of the chapter is based on the content analysis of the experiences of students and their supervising teachers. The results show that an exceptional sense of community is being achieved in this kind of teaching practicum.

Kasvatusta ilman kehyksiä

acceptedVersion Non peer reviewed

Critical educational praxis in university ecosystems: enablers and constraints

Universities serve several important functions in society today through research, education, and community engagement, not least helping people to live meaningfully in society, and helping to create a world worth living in. A kind of practice that seems particularly important in fulfilling such responsibilities is critical educational praxis, a social-justice oriented, educational practice/praxis, with a focus on asking critical questions and creating conditions for positive change. Yet, the contemporary university is not exactly a niche for critical educational praxis. There are many practices and arrangements within higher education that make the enactment of critical educational praxis v…

The Transformation of Learning: From Learning Organizations to a Landscape of Ecosystems

Mentoring of Newly Qualified Teachers in the Educational Sense

The importance of lifelong learning in teachers’ professional development has become increasingly topical issue globally. In teaching, especially the transition from education to occupation seems to be more challenging compared to other fields. It is evident that under the rapidly changing circumstances teachers’ professional knowledge has to be constantly renewed, and especially in the phase of transition from teacher education to working life, new approaches are needed. peerReviewed

Miten muuttaa käytäntöjä ihmisen ja luonnon kannalta kestäviksi? : ekososiaalinen sivistys käytäntöarkkitehtuuriteorian valossa

Aikamme suurin haaste ei ole luotettavan tiedon puuttuminen vaan toimintatapojemme muuttaminen. Kasvatus ja koulutus ovat ratkaisevia, jotta käytäntöjämme voisi muuttaa sosiaalisesti ja ekologisesti kestävämmiksi maapallon ekosysteemien ollessa kriisissä. Tässä artikkelissa hahmotellaan käytäntöteoreettista näkökulmaa kestävän elämänmuodon edistämiseksi kasvatuksen ja sivistyksen avulla. Ratkaisuksi ongelmaan on ehdotettu ekososiaalisen sivistyksen lisäämistä. Perinteinen tulkinta sivistyksestä on kuitenkin ongelmallinen sen ollessa kognitiivisesti painottunutta, abstraktia ja ihmiskeskeistä. Ehdotamme sivistyksen tulkintaa, joka painottaa käytäntöjen ontologista ensisijaisuutta. Huomio koh…

Finnish model of peer-group mentoring: review of research.

This article reviews research on the Finnish model of peer‐group mentoring (PGM). The theoretical foundation of the model is based on the constructivist theory of learning, the concept of autonomy in teaching profession, peer learning, and narrative identity work. The model has been disseminated nationwide in the educational sector to promote professional development of teachers and educational staff, mainly in primary and secondary education, but also in early childhood education and higher education. The thematic review is based on 46 peer‐reviewed publications about PGM in Finland in 2009–2019. Research has focused on the following main themes: (1) general aspects and characteristics of …

Developing pedagogical practices under umbrellas of different colours

The aim of this article is to introduce different ways to conceptualise approaches aimed at improving practices by combining practitioners’ professional work and research. In historical terms, the oldest of these approaches is action research which was introduced in the 1940’s. Thereafter, approaches combining practical work with academic aspirations have been conceptualised in a number of ways, such as design research, translational research, developmental work research (DWR) and practitioner research, and their numerous versions and combinations. Secondly, the purpose of this paper is, from a philosophical and theoretical perspective, to examine the relationship between theoretical and pr…

Maailman parhaat opettajat ovat itsenäisiä, mutta eivät itsekkäitä

Conceptualising and contesting ‘fast policy’ in teacher learning: a comparative analysis of Sweden, Finland and Australia

In this article, the authors refer to key national policies, and associated politics, in the Swedish, Finnish and Australian contexts, to reveal the key discourses that characterise how ongoing tea...

Running a hybrid: mingling in-service and pre-service teachers in peer-mentoring groups

his study examines a hybrid form of the Finnish Peer-Group Mentoring (PGM) merging student teachers and in-service teachers of different career stages in group meetings facilitated by an educated mentor. Experiences of the in-service participants were studied by interviewing them, and the data were analysed through thematic analysis. Four main themes were identified: 1) Enjoying group activities, 2) Personal professional development, 3) Attaching to the professional community and 4) Developing the teacher profession. The study shows that the hybrid model of peer-group mentoring enables opportunities for teacher learning that benefit both schools and teacher education institutions. peerRevie…

A response to Petro Janse van Vuuren's ‘Meeting the mentor: the role of the teacher-director in engineering a Hero's Journey for participants in an educational drama workshop series’,Research in Drama Education(9.2)

In her article ‘Meeting the mentor: the role of the teacher-director in engineering a Hero's Journey for participants in an educational drama workshop series’, Petro Janse van Vuuren writes about h...

Polyphony in the classroom: reporting narrative action research reflexively

In this article we will present a reflexive way of producing a narrative analysis on teaching and learning that involves all participants of the pedagogical process. Our theoretical contribution rests on the concept ‘lived pedagogy’, adapted from Max van Manen's term ‘lived experience’. Like van Manen, we start by asking the key question of phenomenological–hermeneutical research: what is the nature of the phenomenon as meaningfully experienced? For us, the phenomenon is the pedagogical relationship; the interaction between the people involved in the pedagogical process. Thus, we will present how lived pedagogy is researched through the narratives told by the teacher‐researcher, the student…

Mitä jos oppimisen ekosysteemit yleistyvät?

1990-luvulla puhuttiin verkostoista. Internetin laajeneminen ja yleistyminen maailmanlaajuiseksi www:ksi oli silloin vielä uusi asia, niin kuin ylipäätään automaattinen tietojenkäsittely. Jotkut yhteiskuntatieteilijät maalailivat verkostoyhteiskunnan tuloa. Suomessa ”verkostoyhteiskunta” tuli laajemmin julkiseen keskusteluun, kun Manuel Castells hahmotteli Kestävän kasvun malleja 2013 yhdessä Pekka Himasen kanssa Valtioneuvoston toimeksiantamana. Internet mahdollisti tiedon, informaation, jakamisen entistä nopeammin entistä laajemmalle, jopa globaalisti. nonPeerReviewed

Kohti reflektiivistä katsomuskasvatusta

Tässä artikkelissa käsitellään reflektiivisyyttä katsomuskasvatuksen kontekstissa filosofisista ja teoreettisista näkökulmista. Katsomuskasvatus tulkitaan tässä laajasti: se kattaa elämänkatsomustiedon ja uskontojen opetuksen lisäksi kaiken kasvatuksen, joka tukee katsomuksen muodostumista ja identiteettityötä. Reflektiivinen katsomuskasvatus asettuu vastakohdaksi indoktrinatiiviselle kasvatukselle, jossa pyritään iskostamaan tietynlaiseen oppiin tai uskomusjärjestelmään perustuva ajattelutapa oppilaiden mieliin. Reflektiivisen katsomuskasvatuksen tarkoitus on antaa lapselle ja nuorelle välineitä määritellä identiteettiään ja maailmankuvaansa. Artikkelissa esitetään uusi reflektiivisen kats…

Student teachers' experiences of participating in mixed peer mentoring groups of in-service and pre-service teachers in Finland

This article examines from the student perspective a new Finnish model of teacher development that uses the peer group mentoring (PGM) method for combining pre-service and in-service teacher education. Reflective reports of student teachers (N = 19) who participated in PGM were analyzed using the phenomenographic method. The results show that students' experiences varied from considering the activity as (1) a coffee break or (2) peer-support, to seeing it as (3) identity construction or (4) a way of participating in a professional community. In further development of the model more emphasis should be placed on the integration of theory and practice. peerReviewed

Mentoring of new teachers as a contested practice: Supervision, support and collaborative self-development

Abstract This article examines contested practices of mentoring of newly qualified teachers within and between Australia (New South Wales), Finland and Sweden. Drawing on empirical evidence from a variety of studies, we demonstrate three archetypes of mentoring: supervision, support and collaborative self-development. Using the theory of practice architectures, we show that (1) these three forms of mentoring represent three different projects: (a) assisting new teachers to pass through probation, (b) traditional mentoring as support, and (c) peer-group mentoring; and (2) these different projects involve and imply quite different practice architectures in the form of different material-econo…

Ammattikorkeakoulu toisin ajateltuna : osaaminen, sivistys ja tiedon intressit

Ammattikorkeakoulujen lakisääteisessä tehtävässä korostuvat työelämän tarpeisiin vastaaminen, alueellinen kehittäminen ja yhteistyö elinkeino- ja muun työelämän kanssa. Laki kehystää toimintaa mutta jättää tilaa tulkinnoille. Pohdimme tulkintoja tiedosta, osaamisesta, tutkimuksesta ja ammattikorkeakoulun yhteiskunnallisesta tehtävästä. Perustamme tarkastelun antiikin filosofin Aristoteleen klassiseen erotteluun tiedon muodoista ja saksalaisen kriittisen yhteiskuntafilosofin Jürgen Habermasin teoriaan tiedon yhteiskunnallisista intresseistä. Rakennamme kaksi lähestymistapaa ammattikorkeakoulutukseen, tutkimukseen ja ammattikorkeakoulun yhteiskunnalliseen tehtävään: rajattu ja laaja näkemys. …

Constructing a pedagogical practice across disciplines in pre-service teacher education

In this paper we report a qualitative case study of a teaching intervention in which a pre-service subject teacher pair planned and conducted a course integrating Finnish language and ethics in a multilingual setting. Audio-recorded planning sessions and interviews including learning diaries were analysed using qualitative content analysis to identify the dynamics of collaborative cross-curricular pedagogical practice development and pedagogical language knowledge. The analysis revealed tensions in crossing the boundary between language and content knowledge. The study suggests that when creating cross-curricular practices, student teachers benefit from longer-term processes and theory-base…

Articulating the Practice Architectures of Collaborative Research Practice

This chapter explores a collaborative practice of comparative data analysis through the researching activities of four researchers from Australia and Finland. We interrogate the ontological and empirical reality we experienced while engaged in a practice of analysing narrative data on mentoring. In this chapter, we are not reporting on the outcomes of our analysis of mentoring practice; instead we focus on our collaborative engagement, articulating the practice architectures of our research practice. This collaborative research practice was pre-figured by: (1) philosophical traditions instituted through a theory of practice architectures; and (2) normalised practices of researching mentorin…

A Brief History of the Peer-Group Mentoring Model in Finland: Struggling for Space in a Contested Niche

The aim of this article is to introduce and reflect on the development of mentoring in Finland as implemented in the form of the Peer-Group Mentoring (PGM) model. Firstly, the main characteristics and principles of the PGM model are introduced, after which experiences from implementing the model are analysed based on a literature review. We examine the following research questions: (1) How have the mentoring practices of newly qualified teachers developed towards the PGM model within the educational ecosystem in Finland? (2) How has the PGM model found its relational space (‘ecological niche’) in this ecosystem? and (3) How has PGM been experienced by mentors and mentees in terms of profess…

Mentoring of newly qualified teachers. A bilateral comparison between Germany and Finland

Mentoring stellt in der Begleitung von in den Beruf einsteigenden Lehrpersonen eine international gängige Praxis dar. Ausgehend von theoretischen und empirisch fundierten Annahmen wird in diesem Beitrag der Ansatz der practice architectures genutzt, um Formen des Mentorings in Deutschland und Finnland im Hinblick auf länderspezifische Verständnisse vom Berufseinstieg von Lehrpersonen und deren Professionalisierung zu untersuchen. (DIPF/Orig.) Internationally, mentoring is a well-recognized practice in supporting newly qualified teachers. Based on theoretical and empirical understanding, this paper compares mentoring practices in two countries: Germany and Finland. The theoretical framework …

Mentoring and Induction in the Nordic Countries – Some Introductory Remarks

What is ‘good’ mentoring? Understanding mentoring practices of teacher induction through case studies of Finland and Australia

Mentoring is a practice widely utilised to support new teachers. However, in locally formed systems, the practice of mentoring is conditioned by traditions and arrangements specific to the site. To understand ‘good’ mentoring, these local arrangements cannot be ignored. In this article, the theory of practice architectures is employed to make explicit the prefiguring arrangements of mentoring practices in Finland and NSW Australia. The findings suggest that mentoring practices are shaped by their ontological specificity and this makes reproducing mentoring practices in different sites problematic. Explicating the prefiguring architectures of practices is critical to understanding the contes…

Designing education democratically through deliberative crowdsourcing : the case of the Finnish curriculum for basic education

In Finland, curriculum design is allegedly carried out through a deliberative process that involves various stakeholders, interest groups, experts and ordinary citizens. To facilitate participation in curriculum design, online crowdsourcing has been applied. The objective of this study is to explore to what extent the design process of the latest Finnish national curriculum for mathematics was open, democratic and deliberative. The theoretical framework of the study is the theory of democratic will-formation of the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas. The comments given on the early version of the core curriculum of mathematics were analysed using directed content analysis, in which the abov…

What is (good) practitioner research?

This special issue recognizes EAPRIL as being a platform for practitioner and practice-based research and by organizing the 10th annual conference for practitioner research on improving learning in education and professional practice. Papers in this conference and in this special issue are rooted in practice-based research or practitioner research. They reflect the popularity of practitioner research in vocational teacher education and in universities of applied sciences. Reason enough for the authors of the current paper to reflect on the question: “What is practitioner research?” And, more importantly what makes good practitioner research? Reviews show that people use broad interpretation…

Mentoring as Dialogue, Collaboration and/or Assessment?

In this chapter, some tensional trends within mentoring, which we call a contradiction between collaboration and assessment, are addressed. The aim is threefold: First, to describe and compare the development of mentoring programmes in Finland and Sweden at the system level; second, to illustrate how the various mentoring systems have been experienced by the persons involved; and third, to discuss the political and ideological circumstances and the possible effects of these solutions. The study is based on empirical data gathered in Finland and Sweden and examines the experiences of mentors and newly qualified teachers (NQTs) as well as the relevant national policies. The findings indicate …

Työelämäyhteistyöstä oppimisen ekosysteemeiksi

Examining how global citizenship education is prefigured in the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence

This study uses the Aristotelian notion of phronesis as a critical lens for examining how global citizenship education is prefigured in the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence. Based on a content analysis of key curriculum documentation, the findings outline the way in which techne and episteme with their associated ways of knowing and acting dominate the curriculum. Nevertheless, the hints of phronesis indicate the potential for developing a more critical form of global citizenship education that prefigures praxis that wisely pursues that which is good for humankind and individual flourishing. This article contributes to the notion of ‘planetary phronesis’ as a critical concept for the furt…