This article focuses on investigating the possibilities of developing textbooks to help implement... more This article focuses on investigating the possibilities of developing textbooks to help implementation of global education in Finnish basic education (first nine years of education). The argumentation is supported by textbook research conducted in the field. Based on research findings, the textbooks guide teaching more than the official national curriculum at the grass-root level in Finland. Moreover, national research conducted in the field reveal that despite the published guidelines and goals, global education teaching has remained modest and uncoordinated. At the same time, national researches have revealed that Finnish pupils’ negative attitudes towards minority groups and immigrants have increased and that regardless of their high level of citizenship knowledge and skills, pupils are not interested in participating in civic actions. Finnish textbooks evaluation studies, in turn, suggest that the above is mainly due to the pedagogical approach and the perspectives represented i...
This dissertation focuses on global education (GE) and on its implementation in lower level basic... more This dissertation focuses on global education (GE) and on its implementation in lower level basic education in Finland. The aim of my research was to investigate the present position of GE in basic education schools; identify the practices and problem areas in the implementation of GE; find practical solutions to facilitate the implementation; and consequently, to contribute to subsequent decision making regarding successful integration of GE in national basic education in Finland. The research may best be described as a pragmatic, qualitative dominant mixed research study that also had at the beginning features of action research. GE has served as my theoretical foundation and social learning theory has been used for studying teaching and learning from GE perspective. The main research methods were content analysis of the National Core Curriculum for Basic Education (2004) and the GE 2010 programme and research questionnaires that were sent to basic education principals, teachers, ...
This dissertation focuses on global education (GE) and on its implementation in lower level basic... more This dissertation focuses on global education (GE) and on its implementation in lower level basic education in Finland. The aim of my research was to investigate the present position of GE in basic education schools; identify the practices and problem areas in the implementation of GE; find practical solutions to facilitate the implementation; and consequently, to contribute to subsequent decision making regarding successful integration of GE in national basic education in Finland. The research may best be described as a pragmatic, qualitative dominant mixed research study that also had at the beginning features of action research. GE has served as my theoretical foundation and social learning theory has been used for studying teaching and learning from GE perspective. The main research methods were content analysis of the National Core Curriculum for Basic Education (2004) and the GE 2010 programme and research questionnaires that were sent to basic education principals, teachers, and pupils to collect data from the field. A study on textbook research has also been conducted and representatives of the two main textbook publishers in Finland were interviewed for the research. The main findings of the research suggest that GE is not systematically implemented in basic education schools in Finland even though many of the areas of GE are considered important. The main problems in implementation were seen to be the lack of conceptual clarity and the fact that GE was perceived as an additional burden for the schools rather than as an integral part of all school activities. As GE was not an explicit part of the official curriculum, it was not considered mandatory and the schools were not sufficiently resourced for teaching it. All in all, the findings focus on discussing the operational culture of schools and the role of diverse transactions in realising the aims of GE. The role of educational policy documents and the relationship between national and local curricula is found to be complex on many levels. Efficient policy implementation needs attention. This dissertation also gives suggestions on how to improve the current situation. These include clarifying the GE concept, including GE explicitly in the curriculum, defining the short-term objectives and assessment policies, training teachers and principals, resourcing the schools and teachers appropriately to teach GE.
This article investigates the possibilities of implementing global education in national educatio... more This article investigates the possibilities of implementing global education in national education by means of an often referred-to social learning theory ‘communities of practice’. The argumentation is supported by research conducted in Finnish comprehensive schools lower level (the first six years of education). The research findings suggest that at the moment in Finland, global education is perceived as a real challenge for practitioners. In conclusion, it is argued that the use of communities of practice as a basis to implement global education perspectives in basic education has good potential to succeed in developing national education policies and in finding best practices for global education.
Journal of Research in International Education, Jan 1, 2009
This article discusses global education in Finnish basic education with the help of two major pub... more This article discusses global education in Finnish basic education with the help of two major publications in the field: the National Core Curriculum (2004) and the Global Education Programme (2007). The core values and goals of these documents are considered in the light of selected learning theories, and ongoing research is presented which relates to the theme. In summary, it is argued that there are several hindrances that prevent global education from becoming part of instruction in the near future.
This article focuses on investigating the possibilities of developing textbooks to help implement... more This article focuses on investigating the possibilities of developing textbooks to help implementation of global education in Finnish basic education (first nine years of education). The argumentation is supported by textbook research conducted in the field. Based on research findings, the textbooks guide teaching more than the official national curriculum at the grass-root level in Finland. Moreover, national research conducted in the field reveal that despite the published guidelines and goals, global education teaching has remained modest and uncoordinated. At the same time, national researches have revealed that Finnish pupils’ negative attitudes towards minority groups and immigrants have increased and that regardless of their high level of citizenship knowledge and skills, pupils are not interested in participating in civic actions. Finnish textbooks evaluation studies, in turn, suggest that the above is mainly due to the pedagogical approach and the perspectives represented i...
This dissertation focuses on global education (GE) and on its implementation in lower level basic... more This dissertation focuses on global education (GE) and on its implementation in lower level basic education in Finland. The aim of my research was to investigate the present position of GE in basic education schools; identify the practices and problem areas in the implementation of GE; find practical solutions to facilitate the implementation; and consequently, to contribute to subsequent decision making regarding successful integration of GE in national basic education in Finland. The research may best be described as a pragmatic, qualitative dominant mixed research study that also had at the beginning features of action research. GE has served as my theoretical foundation and social learning theory has been used for studying teaching and learning from GE perspective. The main research methods were content analysis of the National Core Curriculum for Basic Education (2004) and the GE 2010 programme and research questionnaires that were sent to basic education principals, teachers, ...
This dissertation focuses on global education (GE) and on its implementation in lower level basic... more This dissertation focuses on global education (GE) and on its implementation in lower level basic education in Finland. The aim of my research was to investigate the present position of GE in basic education schools; identify the practices and problem areas in the implementation of GE; find practical solutions to facilitate the implementation; and consequently, to contribute to subsequent decision making regarding successful integration of GE in national basic education in Finland. The research may best be described as a pragmatic, qualitative dominant mixed research study that also had at the beginning features of action research. GE has served as my theoretical foundation and social learning theory has been used for studying teaching and learning from GE perspective. The main research methods were content analysis of the National Core Curriculum for Basic Education (2004) and the GE 2010 programme and research questionnaires that were sent to basic education principals, teachers, and pupils to collect data from the field. A study on textbook research has also been conducted and representatives of the two main textbook publishers in Finland were interviewed for the research. The main findings of the research suggest that GE is not systematically implemented in basic education schools in Finland even though many of the areas of GE are considered important. The main problems in implementation were seen to be the lack of conceptual clarity and the fact that GE was perceived as an additional burden for the schools rather than as an integral part of all school activities. As GE was not an explicit part of the official curriculum, it was not considered mandatory and the schools were not sufficiently resourced for teaching it. All in all, the findings focus on discussing the operational culture of schools and the role of diverse transactions in realising the aims of GE. The role of educational policy documents and the relationship between national and local curricula is found to be complex on many levels. Efficient policy implementation needs attention. This dissertation also gives suggestions on how to improve the current situation. These include clarifying the GE concept, including GE explicitly in the curriculum, defining the short-term objectives and assessment policies, training teachers and principals, resourcing the schools and teachers appropriately to teach GE.
This article investigates the possibilities of implementing global education in national educatio... more This article investigates the possibilities of implementing global education in national education by means of an often referred-to social learning theory ‘communities of practice’. The argumentation is supported by research conducted in Finnish comprehensive schools lower level (the first six years of education). The research findings suggest that at the moment in Finland, global education is perceived as a real challenge for practitioners. In conclusion, it is argued that the use of communities of practice as a basis to implement global education perspectives in basic education has good potential to succeed in developing national education policies and in finding best practices for global education.
Journal of Research in International Education, Jan 1, 2009
This article discusses global education in Finnish basic education with the help of two major pub... more This article discusses global education in Finnish basic education with the help of two major publications in the field: the National Core Curriculum (2004) and the Global Education Programme (2007). The core values and goals of these documents are considered in the light of selected learning theories, and ongoing research is presented which relates to the theme. In summary, it is argued that there are several hindrances that prevent global education from becoming part of instruction in the near future.
uploads
The research may best be described as a pragmatic, qualitative dominant mixed research study that also had at the beginning features of action research. GE has served as my theoretical
foundation and social learning theory has been used for studying teaching and learning from GE perspective. The main research methods were content analysis of the National Core Curriculum for Basic Education (2004) and the GE 2010 programme and research questionnaires that were sent to basic education principals, teachers, and pupils to collect data from the field. A study on textbook research has also been conducted and representatives of the two main textbook
publishers in Finland were interviewed for the research.
The main findings of the research suggest that GE is not systematically implemented in basic education schools in Finland even though many of the areas of GE are considered important. The main problems in implementation were seen to be the lack of conceptual clarity and the fact that GE was perceived as an additional burden for the schools rather than as an integral part of all school activities. As GE was not an explicit part of the official curriculum, it was not considered
mandatory and the schools were not sufficiently resourced for teaching it. All in all, the findings focus on discussing the operational culture of schools and the role of diverse transactions in realising the aims of GE. The role of educational policy documents and the relationship between national and local curricula is found to be complex on many levels. Efficient policy implementation needs attention.
This dissertation also gives suggestions on how to improve the current situation. These include clarifying the GE concept, including GE explicitly in the curriculum, defining the short-term
objectives and assessment policies, training teachers and principals, resourcing the schools and teachers appropriately to teach GE.
The research may best be described as a pragmatic, qualitative dominant mixed research study that also had at the beginning features of action research. GE has served as my theoretical
foundation and social learning theory has been used for studying teaching and learning from GE perspective. The main research methods were content analysis of the National Core Curriculum for Basic Education (2004) and the GE 2010 programme and research questionnaires that were sent to basic education principals, teachers, and pupils to collect data from the field. A study on textbook research has also been conducted and representatives of the two main textbook
publishers in Finland were interviewed for the research.
The main findings of the research suggest that GE is not systematically implemented in basic education schools in Finland even though many of the areas of GE are considered important. The main problems in implementation were seen to be the lack of conceptual clarity and the fact that GE was perceived as an additional burden for the schools rather than as an integral part of all school activities. As GE was not an explicit part of the official curriculum, it was not considered
mandatory and the schools were not sufficiently resourced for teaching it. All in all, the findings focus on discussing the operational culture of schools and the role of diverse transactions in realising the aims of GE. The role of educational policy documents and the relationship between national and local curricula is found to be complex on many levels. Efficient policy implementation needs attention.
This dissertation also gives suggestions on how to improve the current situation. These include clarifying the GE concept, including GE explicitly in the curriculum, defining the short-term
objectives and assessment policies, training teachers and principals, resourcing the schools and teachers appropriately to teach GE.