The present study set out to explore how a group of Finnish school teachers constructs the meaning of entrepreneurship education and produces related characterizations of the abilities of the pupils in their interviews. In their discussions, the teachers deployed the discourses of "internal entrepreneurship" and "external…

The study set out to explore parents' experiences of their child's upper primary schooling. Academically and vocationally educated mothers and fathers (N = 326) were prompted to give positive and negative comments on their child's school years at the end of his/her 7th and 9th grade. It was found that a great majority of the comments were positive…

This study set out to examine parents' perceptions of the malleability of their child's academic competencies. A total of 97 mothers and fathers were asked to rate their child's potential for improving her/his competencies in mathematics and Finnish, using both intrapersonal and interpersonal criteria in their ratings. These two criteria were…

The present study set out to survey Finnish parents' participation in their child's schooling and related experiences. The subjects were a nationally representative group of academically and vocationally educated fathers and mothers (N = 391) who had a child on the fifth grade. A great majority of the parents reported that they attended the parent…

The attitudes of 563 Finnish parents toward ongoing educational reforms and their satisfaction with the functioning of comprehensive schools were studied. Their appraisals of the schools were fairly positive. Middle-class parents were more likely to endorse selectiveness in the schools; working-class parents were more likely to endorse…

Examined ways in which the educational position of parents organizes the association between their assessments of the competence of their children and their educational expectations for their children using groups of 126 academically educated and 375 vocationally educated parents. Findings suggest that the interpretations parents make of their…

Asked 19 Finnish children, aged 6 and 7, on three occasions in a school year, to group their classmates according to ability. Results suggest that the impact of school and its differential concept of ability changes children's perceptions, lessening social reasons for appraisal and increasing the use of performance-based criteria. (SLD)

The ways boys and girls (N = 119) at different grade levels rated and explained their potential for improvement in mathematics and the mother tongue were compared in order to examine their subject-specific notions of the malleability of their academic ability. The findings indicate that children perceive their potential to improve their…