Shared Places, Separate Spaces : Constructing Cultural Spaces through two National Languages in Finland

Finland is a bilingual country with 2 national languages, Finnish and Swedish. The Swedish-speaking school institution aims to protect the minority language by maintaining a monolingual school space. In this article, the construction of linguistic and ethnic difference in educational discourse and practice related to the national languages in Finland is analyzed by using discourse analysis, feminist and post-structural theories. By analyzing ethnographic data and public debate, we argue that discursive and material practices related to spatiality have a significant role in constructing difference and otherness in the Finnish school context. Essentialist categories are produced but also contested from the positions within the cultural spaces at school and in society at large.Peer reviewe

Becoming tolerable : Subject constitution of Roma mediators in Finnish schools

Although Finnish politics relating to the Roma tend to be perceived internationally as fairly successful, several obstacles exist for the Roma in education and the labour market. Training of Roma mediators has been actively promoted in Finland to improve the school performance and equality of Roma pupils. This article, based on ethnographic research, focuses on exploring how the current discursive terrain around the topics of tolerance and prejudice functions in the everyday work of mediators. It is argued that the present discourses in school expose the mediators to unequal power relations of tolerance. The terms for being tolerated are set by the potential tolerating actors, the school community. The mediators aim to supply knowledge about the Roma and try to address prejudices as representatives of the Roma. The study identified three different strategies that the mediators used when encountering prejudice: making sure one does not seem too different, parody and feigning naivety. The analysis suggests that the present discursive terrain creates obstacles to addressing inequalities, discrimination and racism in educational contexts. The responsibility for tackling discrimination is placed on the shoulders of individual Roma - not the whole school community.Peer reviewe

The Finnish mathematics teachers' lexicon : A focus on organisation and relationships

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Taking steps towards institutionalizing multicultural education – The national curriculum of Finland

Internationally multicultural education research has pointed to the need to move from superficial to social justice-oriented multicultural education. However, realising this goal in policy and practice is a challenge. This study takes Finland as a case and examines the discursive developments of multicultural education in its national curriculum 1994–2014. Despite being a country which is known for emphasising equity and equality in education, superficial forms of multicultural education have prevailed. However, the results of this study show that the curricular discourse is clearly moving towards social justice education where multicultural perspectives are an integrated part of the curriculum. The 2014 curriculum, which came into effect 2016, emerges as a policy which aims to foster ethical and respectful students with a sense of fairness and an open attitude towards all kinds of diversity. The challenge for Finland is to ensure implementation and advance transformativeness in future curriculum reforms.Peer reviewe

Initiating and carrying out L2 instruction by asking known-answer questions : Incongruent interrogative practices in bi- and multilingual peer interaction

Author's accepted version (post-print).Conversation analytic (CA) studies on second language (L2) learning show that known-answer questions posed by teachers form an integral part of the social interaction in L2 classrooms. However, studies on peers asking known-answer questions of each other when orienting to L2 learning have not been conducted. Focusing on L2 learning as social action, and using the CA framework of epistemics in interaction, this study investigates how peers use known-answer questions as interactional practices in L2 learning. In the epistemic framework, known-answer questions can be called incongruent interrogatives; the results show that they appear to initiate instructional sequences and propose epistemically asymmetric positions when peers engage in the joint activity of L2 learning. This study demonstrates that peers are capable of doing L2 learning and illustrates the need to provide students with the opportunity, and responsibility, to do L2 learning with each other.acceptedVersio

The device on the desk–a sociomaterial analysis of how Snapchat adapts to and participates in the classroom

This study analysed how students’ mobile phones and Snapchat are adapted to and participate in the classroom. Insights from the actor network theory were used to discuss the interconnections between students, mobile phones, Snapchat, desks, and plenary teaching. We applied video analysis to examine the minute details of unfolding sociomaterial practices. The data, which was produced in a Finnish upper secondary school in 2015–2016, is a composition of ethnographic classroom video material and screen-capture video recordings from students’ smartphones. In this study, we asked how the presence of mobile phones and Snapchat become possible in the relatively restricted pedagogical space of plenary teaching. The analysis yielded two important findings. First, students use effort to adapt Snapchat to the demands of the ongoing plenary teaching. Second, the analysis demonstrates the flexibility of the mobile phone–Snapchat entanglement that plays a crucial role in its adaptation.Peer reviewe

Dynamics in education politics : understanding and explaining the Finnish case

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

Finnish lexicon

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Invisible Participation : A Sociomaterial Analysis of a Synchronous Distance Lesson during Emergency Remote Teaching

This research examines the day-to-day sociomaterial practices adopted during a Zoom distance lesson, enquiring into how student participation is enacted in a video lesson assemblage. The research is based on video data recorded by three students and one teacher during the Covid-19 pandemic on an upper secondary school mathematics lesson and interviews with said participants. We approach the distance lesson as a sociomaterial assemblage, applying Actor–Network Theory as a sensitising device. The results highlight the role of four non-human agencies that emerge in the assemblage—the application interface, webcam, microphone and internet connection—which all significantly reconfigure what is understood as participation. Even though the students visibly seek to participate in the lesson, their attempts often go unnoticed because they are not registered by the webcams and microphones or displayed by the interface.publishedVersionPeer reviewe