Inevitable and constant change is challenging school systems worldwide, and COVID-19 has further intensified the debate on the future. This article examines the possible futures of Finnish comprehensive schools through three scenarios generated by analysing data from a Delphi panel of 30 Finnish experts in the field of education. This study…

In this article, we contribute to the research on the process of privatisation of Finnish early childhood education (ECE), describe how the privatisation has proceeded within the legal framework and how profit making has become possible in ECE. Furthermore, we analyse how local key policy actors justify the privatisation of ECE and what the…

This paper provides an overview of the homeschooling movement in Finland focusing on the methods used to monitor the progress of compulsory education of home-educated children. Although the child's home municipality is obliged to monitor the progress of compulsory education, there are currently no national uniform instructions on how monitoring…

The future is rarely problematised in education even though it is self-evident in everyday schoolwork and present also in the management of education. However, we should understand how different future visions influence our understanding of education. In this paper, we apply rhetorical analysis and study how the future of education is rhetorically…

For many years, teachers have been involved in developing the national curricula in Finland in various ways. Teachers' involvement in curriculum design and implementation has, during the last national curriculum implementation process, increased locally to strengthen their confidence in and knowledge of the national curriculum's multifaceted…

Equality work is often conducted as education and teaching, and both are an intrinsic part of equality work. In this article, we focus on equality work and challenging heteronormativity by contextualising our focus both on the educational system as a whole but especially on teacher education. The promotion of equality in teacher education began in…

This case study examines a Nordic on-line course on gender equality promotion in education, in which principals, teachers, school staff and gender equality activists engaged in dialogue regarding contents and practices. The on-line course was designed with reference to promising practices identified in a previous Nordic network project. The…

This paper examines the main rationales for and possible implications of the policy of increasing international student numbers in higher education (HE). Drawing on critical discourse analysis, we map key themes emerging from two sets of data--university strategy documents and interviews with staff--collected at eight universities in four national…

In 2010, the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture formulated Finland's first education export strategy. This policy document attributed Finnish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) a significant role in the emerging sector by declaring them as "engines" of education export. Situated in a phenomenological approach towards…

This study focuses on the degree, nature and consequences of bullying or inappropriate behaviour among faculty personnel (n = 303) in a Finnish university. A total of 114 (38%) faculty members answered the email questionnaire. According to the results, 15% of the respondents had experienced bullying; in addition, 45% had experienced inappropriate…

The convergence of Islam and national and cultural identity in Europe, exacerbated by external events like a murder, assassination, riot, embassy bombing or even a satirical cartoon, has the potential for disrupting civic order and eroding movements towards cultural assimilation and national integration. Clearly, fundamentalism in any religion,…

Studies of education and childhood studies in general tend to focus on the experiences and cultures of toddlers and school-age children. The experiences and cultures of babies and infants are often excluded from the scope of the studies of children. In Gilles Deleuze's (and Felix Guattari's) thinking, a child, and especially a baby or an infant,…

This article focuses on the contributions from the emerging positivist epistemological approach, endorsed by the economics of language and the economics of education, to study the returns to language skills, assuming that language competencies constitute key components of human capital. It presents initial results from a study on economic returns…