Search results for "Finnish teacher"
showing 4 items of 4 documents
Fostering transformational teacher agency in Finnish teacher education
2018
In this article, we studied how well teacher education in Finland is able to answer the changing needs of the contemporary world. More precisely, we focussed on the question of how well an alternative teacher education model guides teacher students’ agency towards a transformational view of the teaching profession, making it possible for schools to enable social change. This question was studied in the framework of critical social pedagogy. The data for this article was collected ethnographically by observing meetings in the Critical Integrative Teacher Education (CITE) programme at the University of Jyväskylä in 2015–2017. The analysis is based on a theoretical background in which we outli…
Finnish teachers as civic educators : From vision to action
2020
In this article, we examine Finnish class teachers as citizenship educators. Over the last ten years, the autonomous position of the Finnish teacher has become a symbol of the world-famous education system, and this study aims to illustrate how this freedom comes true in the framework of teacher as a citizenship educator. A prior study shows that teachers mostly share the same universal values, emphasizing altruism rather than individualism. Socially, teachers are more focused on maintaining the status quo and continuity of society than changing it radically. This article aims to answer the question how teachers define their role between society and individual learners and how they prioriti…
Pedagogical leadership to support new teachers' growth
2016
This study aims to discover the impact of pedagogical leadership on new teachers’ growth. The research is focused on three questions: 1) Are new teachers’ feelings and challenges being understood?; 2) How do new teachers receive support from principals and the school community?; and 3) How does pedagogical leadership impact new teachers’ growth? The research uses the qualitative approach of case studies. Four Finnish schools were selected as participants. The principals of each school and their five new teachers, with less than three years of experience, participated in the interviews. Teachers in Finland have common challenges when they first enter the profession. Finnish school communitie…
EFL Teacher Education in Finland : Manifestations of Professional Agency in Teacher Educators’ Work
2020
English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher educators play a key role in the development of university-based teacher education and the preparation of preservice EFL teachers. However, the professional agency of EFL teacher educators in developing their work remains understudied. Employing a Vygotskian sociocultural theoretical perspective, this research considers the individual and collective professional agency of eight EFL teacher educators at two Finnish universities. Findings demonstrate that individual professional agency is enacted in the expression of professional identity and the development of professional relationships, and in offering and receiving professional assistance. Findin…