Search results for "16"
showing 10 items of 8074 documents
Equal access to the top? Measuring selection into finnish academia
2019
In this article, we draw a parallel between equality of opportunity in educational transitions and equality of opportunity in academic careers. In both cases, many methodological problems can be ameliorated by the use of longitudinal rather than cross-sectional data. We illustrate this point by using Finnish full-population register data to follow the educational and academic careers of the 1964–1966 birth cohorts from birth to the present day. We show how the Finnish professoriate is highly selected both in terms of parental background and in terms of gender. Individuals of different backgrounds differ greatly in the likelihood of completing different educational and academic transitions, …
Gender segregation in the employment of higher education graduates
2014
This article examines the employment and placement in the working life of Finnish higher education graduates (i.e. graduates from universities and polytechnics), focusing on gender equality. It reports a study on gender segregation in higher education and working life, considered in relation to Nordic gender equality policies. The data were gathered via a questionnaire administered to graduates in business and administration (n = 1067) and in technology (n = 1087), three years after their graduation. The results showed that men were able to secure permanent and full-time employment more often than women, and men achieved better correspondence between their degree and their employment. Howev…
Strategic choices of Finnish universities in the light of general strategy frameworks
2016
This study examines university strategies from the content perspective. Since the early 1980s, the pressure to adopt strategic management in universities and other higher education institutions has increased because of issues including reduced public funding, pressures and possibilities for internationalization, developments in teaching technologies, and demands for increased accountability to stakeholders. The study employs content analysis and multivariate statistical techniques to examine the written strategies of 13 Finnish universities formulated after the University Act 2010 that aimed at enhancing their competitiveness in the global arena. The studied organizations cover practically …
Behavior change types with Pokémon GO
2017
Digital games1 are one of the most popular entertainment media in the world. Teir allure and widespread popularity makes them an interesting and highly potential platform for behavior change atempts. In this paper, we investigate what types of behavior changes Pokémon GO has promoted or induced among its players. Te study is based on an online survey sample of 262 Pokémon GO players, collected using the critical incident technique and analyzed using qualitative methods. Te analysis shows that the behavior changes induced by Pokémon GO are not just restricted to increased physical activity or social behavior but are actually much more multifaceted: players were more social, found their routi…
The Rocky Road of Growing into Contemporary Citizenship: Dewey, Gramsci, and the Method of Democracy
2015
Characterized by globalization, increasing pluralism, and new complexities of citizenship, the contemporary world poses challenges to the ways in which we conceptualize of the processes of searching for shared solutions to ever-complicated social problems. While the political rhetoric emphasizes the value of citizens’ participation, engagement, and “voices,” there are increasing feelings of frustration, incapacity, and disinterest on behalf of the citizens regarding the supposed eff ects of their political engagement. In order to conceptually grasp the problem of searching for shared solutions and the related challenges to education, we draw on John Dewey’s idea of the method of democracy a…
An examination of nonresponse in a study on daily family life: I do not have time to participate, but I can tell you something about our life
2012
The aim of this study was to look at the issue of nonresponse and self-selection bias in the context of a family study on daily family life. Data on the participating families and refusers were gathered as part of the wider Palette study in which questionnaires and diaries were used as data collection methods. On the basis of these data (N = 208 participating families and 119 refuser families), we profile the families left outside the study. The parents who declined to participate in the Palette study were asked to fill in a short refusal form, which included questions concerning their family background and reasons for refusal, and they were also asked to write freely about their everyday l…
Distributed leadership in practice in Finnish schools
2017
ABSTRACTThe aim of this study is to explore what aspects the principals and the members of the management teams in the primary and upper secondary education schools in Vantaa support distributed leadership in their school and how necessary they see that distributed leadership is extended to the students in matters concerning the curriculum and the development of teaching practices. The research method was a survey based on a questionnaire of 48 questions, where the respondents evaluated the preconditions of distributed leadership in their school. The principals and members of the management teams in the primary and upper secondary schools in Vantaa see distributed leadership mostly as deleg…
Phantom/liminal fat and feminist theories of the body
2017
This article brings together two concepts, ‘phantom fat’ and ‘liminal fat’, which both aim to grasp how fat in contemporary culture becomes a kind of material immateriality, corporeality in suspension. Comparing the spheres of representation and experience, we examine the challenges and usefulness of these concepts, and feminist fat studies perspectives more broadly, to feminist scholarship on the body. We ask what connects and disconnects fat corporeality and fat studies from ways of theorising other embodied differences, like gender, ‘race’, disability, class and sexuality, especially when thinking through their perceived mutability or removability, and assumptions about their relevance …
Making the case for policy : persuasiveness in higher education, science and technology policy discourse
2015
Policy texts present problems, propose solutions to those problems and persuade multiple audiences of the legitimacy of the proposed problems and solutions. The rhetorical analysis of two decades of higher education and science and technology discourse in Finland, Germany, UK, Portugal and USA highlights the discursive elements that contribute to persuasiveness of policy, construe it as rational and logical, and create a sense of urgency in bringing it about. I argue that the analytical and hortatory registers of policy discourse foreground competitive and hierarchical relations of countries and their higher education systems. By construing certain state of affairs and courses of action as …
Does Finland Need Raciolinguistics?
2017
A growing number of applied linguists and language educators in the US/North American context advocate for and from a scholarly perspective which views language issues in relation to racial issues and vice versa. The emergent field of raciolinguistics highlights the relationships between language and race/racism and has brought about research that investigates their intersections. Should scholars in Finland adopt (and adapt) such an approach to scholarly work? Three Finland-based scholars explore this question in a question ("prompt") - response format.