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2012, Journal of Educational Change
International Journal of Social Pedagogy
Fostering transformational teacher agency in Finnish teacher education2018 •
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 outline two different discourses on the concept of teachers’ agency. The first promotes schools’ role in conservation; teachers are expected to educate obedient and uncritical citizens to maintain steady economic growth. The second discourse is defined as critical and emancipatory, where the education pursues transformation in students’ underlying attitudes and a deeper understanding of education and society. The results showed that the CITE model fosters teacher students’ critical self-reflection and understanding of group phenomena considering education. The students’ ability to understand schools in a social context also develops. However, CITE seems to struggle in transforming the students’ thinking and understanding into actions. According to the data, feelings of inability, cynicism and a lacklustre ability to understand concretely how teachers can have an impact on society through their profession prevent a more complete transformation in the students’ everyday modes of action. A stronger community perspective, collaboration with institutions outside teacher education, the enabling of group-oriented action and the provision of real-life experiences regarding the transformation could better help to develop future teachers’ agency towards transformational views.
Culture and Education
Relationship between the Finnish Education and Teachers’ Professional Development in the Perspective of Contemporary Challenges: Selected Aspects2020 •
This article presents the relationship between the Finnish educational change in schools (the Finnish Reform Movement), selected aspects of teachers’ professional development and context of educational thinking influenced by John Dewey’s pedagogy. The successful change of schools “calls for a ‘new professionalism’ in which teachers’ work is based on research-based, outcomes-oriented, data-driven and team focused at the same time as it is globalised, localised and individualised, with lifelong professional learning the norm for the specialist in school education” (Caldwell, 2003, p. 8). In this light, the article presents an overview of in-service training of teachers, cooperative learning and teachers’autonomy in schools in the context of teachers’ professional development.
2016 •
A significant body of evidence shows that the goals of educational reforms are seldom fully achieved. Some research suggests that the problem lies in state-level curriculum reform work that lacks a sufficient understanding of the educational reality. However, views and perceptions among the central architects of the reforms have not been thoroughly studied. This study provides an insight into these views. The data comprise 23 semi-structured interviews with officials from the Finnish National Board of Education (FNBE) who conducted the Finnish Comprehensive School Core Curriculum Reform (2013–2014). FNBE officials’ perceptions of the triggers and aims of the reform—considered as their ‘theory of change’—are explored with qualitative analysis by identifying issues they wanted to preserve or react to, and the issues that should be worked towards and positioned as goals in the future. The results show that there is a somewhat shared theory of change among the architects of Finnish curr...
2013 •
This thesis focuses on an investigation which aimed to explore how teachers interpret their roles and construct their professional identities in relation to school improvement and how they can be supported in their contributions in this respect. The initial research questions were set within a conceptual framework linking teacher professionalism and school improvement, in particular the symbiotic and reciprocal relationships between individuals and organisations which were illuminated by the concepts of agency and structuration. Research aims, questions and conceptual development were reflexively and iteratively modified, to encompass the significance of school context in influencing professional identity and agency and to explore intractable dilemmas arising in interpreting external and internal policy requirements in relation to personal values. The implications of narrative enquiry for validity were acknowledged, focusing on distilling the ‘essence’ of situated professional selve...
Journal of Curriculum Studies
A model of teacher agency in professional development and school reform2019 •
European Journal of Teacher Education
Teachers’ changing work and support needs from the perspectives of school leaders and newly qualified teachers in the Finnish context2018 •
Nordic Studies in Education
Teachers’ Expectations and Experiences with Processes of ReformSince 2005, there have been three ambitious Danish upper-secondary school reforms. These reforms reflect broader international educational reform trends. In this article we apply a mixed methods approach to examine whether and how the role of teachers has changed. The article concludes that teachers encounter increasing complexity and a teaching role characterised by the need to make difficult decisions regarding prioritising tasks that, from a teacher’s perspective, all seem essential in order to ensure good teaching, with Bildung as a constant guiding light. We also conclude that reforms may be emotionally exhausting, as they risk undermining or undervaluing the moral purposes of teachers.
Research literature into teacher's work (in compulsory education) focuses by and large on curriculum reforms, massive decentralisation of the education system and sometimes-contradictory orders issued to those involved in education, especially teachers. They are asked, at one and the same time, to be more autonomous and to work more together, while continuing to respect well-defined core competences. In addition, the aim of the teaching profession is not only to instruct (the action of communicating a set of theoretical or practical knowledge related to teaching or studies), but also “to educate” (the art of training someone, especially a child, by developing his/her physical, intellectual and moral qualities so as to enable him/her to tackle the personal and social dimensions of life with a sufficiently fulfilled personality). In 2006, the Directorate General for Education and Culture of the European Commission published a draft entitled Common European Principles for Teacher Competences and Qualifications, in which it is stated that teachers play a crucial role in supporting the learning experience of young people and adult learners and that they should be able to work effectively with information, technology and knowledge “with their fellow human beings – learners, colleagues and other partners in education”, and “work with and in society – at local, regional, national, European and broader global levels”. It is difficult to draw up a typology for research work, as the subjects of study – educational reforms – have an impact on the (de)construction of the professional identity of teacher, on their relationships with others and on representations which interact in classroom management, etc. Most observations, representations and stumbling blocks analysed are quasi-universal. The works given as reference can be considered as (significant) examples of current trends in research into teachers. Starting out from recent developments, convergent reforms and competences expected by educational politicians, we refer to analyses which deal with the difficulties of adapting to changes prescribed by the societal or political environment, in which professional identity, the relationship with knowledge, classroom management, etc. are tackled. The just transmission of a discipline to pupils runs up against contexts in which the teacher must change stance, competences and representations. In his work, the teacher finds himself torn between regulation, rationalisation and the success of his pupils, in a society for which school is no longer “the sanctuary of knowledge”, but which nevertheless expects great things of it.
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Agency at Work: An Agentic Perspective on Professional Learning and Development
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