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ABSTRACT
This paper focuses on teachers’ written memories of Finland’s comprehensive school reform in the 1970s and examines teachers’ reminiscences of this major change, when elementary (primary) schools and lower secondary (grammar) schools were transformed into comprehensive schools, thereby guaranteeing nine-year basic education with a unified curriculum for all pupils. The teachers’ written memories are part of the larger national collection of school memories arranged in 2013 by two academic societies. This study’s focus lies in these teachers’ highly sensitive, grass-roots level personal perspectives. The teachers’ narratives comprised vivid and concrete memories in which they recalled the past nostalgically and in detail. In the reminiscences, the change in the education system was noted and even analysed in a versatile way, but at the same time, the reform was viewed as merely one episode occurring during these teachers’ individual life paths. The writers emphasised the reform’s positive aspects and did not interpret contradictions as overwhelming, although some narratives included reminiscences in which the disputes from that period were crystallised. The collective narrative in the accounts transformed from uncertainty and contradictions at the beginning of the comprehensive school reform to favourableness and positive attitudes toward the new education system after the transition period.
Acknowledgement
The paper was presented at ECER 2017 – the European Conference on Educational Research, network Histories of Education, Copenhagen, 22–25 August, 2017.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 See, for example, Philip Gardner, “Oral History in Education: Teacher’s Memory and Teachers’ History,” History of Education 32, no. 2 (2003): 175–88; Ian Grosvenor, “‘Seen but Not Heard’: City Childhoods from the Past into the Present,” Paedagogica Historica 43, no. 3 (2007): 405–29; Stephanie Spencer, “Reflections on the ‘Site of Struggle’: Girls’ Experience of Secondary Education in the Late 1950s,” History of Education 33, no. 4 (2004): 437–49; Ning de Coninck‐Smith, “The Class of 1980: Methodological Reflections on Educational High School Narratives from Denmark in the 1970s and 1980s,” Paedagogica Historica 44, no. 6 (2008): 733–46; Jane Martin, “Thinking Education Histories Differently: Biographical Approaches to Class Politics and Women’s Movements in London, 1900s to 1960s,” History of Education 36, nos 4–5 (2007): 515–33; Jane Martin, “Interpreting Biography in the History of Education: Past and Present,” History of Education 41, no. 1 (2012): 87–102; Patricia Milewski, “‘I Paid No Attention to It’: An Oral History of Curricular Change in the 1930s,” Historical Studies in Education 24, no. 1 (2012): 112–29; António Gomes Ferreira and Luis Mota, “Memories of Life Experiences in a Teacher Training Institution during the Revolution,” Paedagogica Historica 49, no. 5 (2013): 698–715; Kira Mahamud and María José Martínez Ruiz-Funes, “Reconstructing the Life Histories of Spanish Primary School Teachers: A Novel Approach for the Study of the Teaching Profession and School Culture,” History of Education 43, no. 6 (2014): 793–819; Kate Hoskins and Sue Smedley, “Life History Insights into the Early Childhood and Education Experiences of Froebel Trainee Teachers 1952–1967,” History of Education 45, no. 2 (2016): 206–24; and Brendan Walsh, “‘I Never Heard the Word Methodology’: Personal Accounts of Teacher Training in Ireland 1943–1980,” History of Education 46, no. 3 (2017): 366–83.
2 Alistair Thomson, “Life Stories and Historical Analysis,” in Research Methods for History, ed. Simon Gunn and Lucy Faire (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011), 101–2.
3 The instructions included a long list of questions, but the writers were given the freedom to choose which topics and issues to emphasise and they were not obligated to answer the questions. Thus, the collection can be characterised as more initiated by the narrators than by the academic societies and researchers who arranged the collection (see, for example, Stanley, “Introduction: Documents of Life and Critical Humanism in a Narrative and Biographical Frame,” in Documents of Life Revisited: Narrative and Biographical Methodology for a 21st Century Critical Humanism, ed. Liz Stanley (Farnham: Taylor and Francis, 2016), 4–6; Thomson, “Life Stories and Historical Analysis,” 105).
4 The corpus has been archived at the Archive of Finnish Literature Society (SKS KRA). The archive sign for the collection is SKS KRA Koulu 2013. In addition, the archive has numbered each page of the collection consecutively. The sign and given page numbers are used in this research when referring to the excerpts from a certain page (or pages) of the collection. The references also include information about where teachers had worked before the introduction of comprehensive schools and the pseudonyms given for reminiscence writers by the author of this article.
5 The collection and the collection process are introduced more thoroughly in Pauli Arola’s article: Pauli Arola, “Vuosisadan koulumuistot keruukohteena” [The school memories of the century as a target of collection], in Koulumuistot – kokemuksia koulusta, tutkimusta muistelusta [School memories: experiences of the school, study on remembering], ed. Janne Säntti (Helsinki: Suomen kasvatuksen ja koulutuksen historian seura, 2015), 1–15.
6 Included in the collection were some transcripts of interviews with former school officials and one PowerPoint presentation with pictures and captions done by a former school principal. These are not included in the sources of this study.
7 Civic schools were a part of elementary schools and consisted of classes subsequent to the first six years of elementary school. Another translation is continuation schools for elementary school leavers.
8 Alistair Thomson, “Life Stories and Historical Analysis,” 101–2.
9 Jyrki Pöysä, “Kilpakirjoitukset muistitietotutkimuksessa” [Competition writings in oral history research], in Muistitietotutkimus[Oral history research], ed. Outi Fingerroos, Riina Haanpää, Anne Heimo, and Ulla-Maija Peltonen (Helsinki: SKS, 2006), 221–44. See also Thomson, “Life Stories and Historical Analysis,” 101–17.
10 Pöysä, “Kilpakirjoitukset muistitietotutkimuksessa,” 229–30.
11 Gardner, “Oral History in Education,” 177.
12 Pöysä, “Kilpakirjoitukset muistitietotutkimuksessa,” 229–30.
13 Pat Sikes and Ivor Goodson, “What You Got When You’ve Got a Life Story?,” in The Routledge International Handbook on Narrative and Life History, ed. Ivor Goodson, Ari Antikainen, Pat Sikes, and Molly Andrews (London: Routledge, 2017), 60–71. See, for example: Gardner, “Oral History in Education”; Thomson, “Life Stories and Historical Analysis,” 101–17.
14 Gardner, “Oral History in Education”; see also Ivor Goodson, “The Story of Life History,” in Goodson et al., The Routledge International Handbook on Narrative and Life History, 23–33; Thomson, “Life Stories and Historical Analysis”.
15 Walsh, “‘I Never Heard the Word Methodology’”.
16 Sikes and Goodson, “What You Got When You’ve Got a Life Story?,” 60–71. See, for example, Thomson, “Life Stories and Historical Analysis”.
17 Thomson, “Life Stories and Historical Analysis,” 103.
18 Sikes and Goodson, “What You Got When You’ve Got a Life Story?,” 60–71. See, for example, Thomson, “Life Stories and Historical Analysis”.
19 See, for example: Stanley, “Introduction: Documents of Life and Critical Humanism in a Narrative and Biographical Frame,” 6–7; Thomson, “Life Stories and Historical Analysis,” 109–10.
20 Ivor Goodson, “Studying Teachers’ Lives: Problems and Possibilities,” in Studying Teachers’ Lives, ed. Ivor Goodson (London: Routledge, 1992), 234–49.
21 See also Goodson, “The Story of Life History,” 23–33.
22 Ibid.
23 Kirsti Salmi-Niklander, “Tapahtuma, kokemus, kerronta” [Event, experience, narration], in Fingerroos et al., Muistitietotutkimus, 199–220.
24 Sikes and Goodson, “What You Got When You’ve Got a Life Story?,” 60–71. See also Stanley, “Introduction: Documents of Life and Critical Humanism in a Narrative and Biographical Frame”; Ken Plummer, “A Manifesto for Social Stories,” in Documents of Life Revisited: Narrative and Biographical Methodology for a 21st Century Critical Humanism, ed. Liz Stanley (Farnham: Taylor and Francis, 2016), 209–19.
25 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 1468, Tuula, elementary school teacher.
26 Daniel Schacter, Muistin seitsemän syntiä. Miten aivot muistavat ja unohtavat [The seven sins of memory: how the mind forgets and remembers] (Helsinki: Terra Cognita, 2002), 23–4, 100–29.
27 Thomson, “Life Stories and Historical Analysis,” 103.
28 Schacter, Muistin seitsemän syntiä, 156.
29 Thomson, “Life Stories and Historical Analysis”; Janne Säntti, “Muistin ja menneisyyden välisestä suhteesta” [On the relationship between memory and the past], in Esseitä historiallis-yhteiskunnallisesta kasvatuksesta[Essays about historical-social education], ed. Jan Löfström, Jukka Rantala, and Jari Salminen (Helsinki: Historiallis-yhteiskuntatiedollisen kasvatuksen tutkimus- ja kehittämiskeskus, 2004), 169–86.
30 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0230, Sofia, grammar school teacher.
31 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 1468, Tuula, elementary school teacher.
32 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0044, Auli, elementary school teacher.
33 Anni Vilkko, Omaelämäkerta kohtaamispaikkana. Naisen elämän kerronta ja luenta[Autobiographies as meeting points: narrations and readings of women’s lives] (Helsinki: SKS, 1997), 84–5.
34 For more about institutional and personal narration, see Elina Makkonen, “Instituution suullinen historia” [Oral history of an institution], in Fingerroos et al., Muistitietotutkimus, 245–70.
35 Ibid.
36 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0121, Tessa, grammar school teacher.
37 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 1333, Paula, elementary school teacher.
38 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 1394, Vieno, elementary school teacher.
39 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0241, Heini, grammar school teacher.
40 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 2941, Nelli, elementary school teacher.
41 Thomson, “Life Stories and Historical Analysis,” 107.
42 Some of the excerpts have been shortened by leaving out some sentences which were not relevant to understanding the meanings of the reminiscence writers. The omitted sentences are marked with ellipses. Some words have been added to a few excerpts to improve the clarity and meaning of the sentences: these extra words appear in square brackets.
43 Thomson, “Life Stories and Historical Analysis,” 114.
44 Gardner, “Oral History in Education,” 186–8.
45 Thomson, “Life Stories and Historical Analysis,” 114.
46 Besides Finland, the idea of the comprehensive school was discussed in several other European countries during the 1960s and 1970s. See, for example: Bregt Henkens, “The Rise and Decline of Comprehensive Education: Key Factors in the History of Reformed Secondary Education in Belgium, 1969–1989,” Paedagogica Historica 40, nos 1–2 (2004): 193–209; Erik Wallin, “The Comprehensive School – the Swedish Case,” European Journal of Education 26, no. 2 (1991): 143–54; Hilda T.A. Amsing and Nelleke Bakker, “Comprehensive Education: Lost in the Mi(d)st of a Debate. Dutch Politicians on Equal Opportunity in Secondary Schooling (1965–1979),” History of Education 43, no. 5 (2014): 657–75; Marie Clarke, “Educational Reform in the 1960s: The Introduction of Comprehensive Schools in the Republic of Ireland,” History of Education 39, no. 3 (2010): 383–99; Gary McCulloch, “The History of Secondary Education in History of Education,” History of Education 41, no. 1 (2012): 25–39; and Gary McCulloch, “British Labour Party Education Policy and Comprehensive Education: From Learning to Live to Circular 10/65,” History of Education 45, no. 2 (2016): 225–45.
47 Sirkka Ahonen, “Changing Conceptions of Equality in Education – A Look at the Basic School in Finland during the 1900s,” in Koulutuksen yhteiskunnallinen ymmärrys[Social perspectives on education], ed. Joel Kivirauma, Arto Jauhiainen, Piia Seppänen, and Tuuli Kaunisto (Jyväskylä: FERA, 2012), 260–75; Sirkka Ahonen, “Yleissivistävä koulutus hyvinvointiyhteiskunnassa” [General education in the affluent society], in Tiedon ja osaamisen Suomi[Knowledge and know-how in Finland], ed. Pauli Kettunen and Hannu Simola (Helsinki: SKS, 2012), 144–75.
48 Sirkka Ahonen, “From an Industrial to a Post-Industrial Society: Changing Conceptions of Equality in Education,” Educational Review 54, no. 2 (2002): 173–81.
49 Ahonen, “Changing Conceptions of Equality in Education,” 260–75.
50 Ibid.
51 Osmo Kivinen, Koulutuksen järjestelmäkehitys. Peruskoulutus ja valtiollinen kouludoktriini Suomessa 1800- ja 1900-luvuilla [The systematisation of education: basic education and the state school doctrine in Finland in the 19th and 20th centuries] (Turku: Turun yliopisto, 1988), 295.
52 Ahonen, “Changing Conceptions of Equality in Education,” 260–75; Pauli Kettunen et al., “Tasa-arvon ihanteesta erinomaisuuden eetokseen” [From the ideal of equality to the ethos of excellence], in Kettunen and Simola, Tiedon ja osaamisen Suomi, 25–62.
53 Ahonen, “Yleissivistävä koulutus hyvinvointiyhteiskunnassa,” 144–75.
54 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0068, Saimi, grammar school teacher.
55 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0182, Antti, grammar school teacher.
56 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 1003, Anni, elementary school teacher.
57 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 2946, Ellen, grammar school teacher.
58 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 2406, Heta, elementary school teacher.
59 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 2651, Veera, grammar school teacher.
60 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0302, Heini, grammar school teacher.
61 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 1333, Paula, elementary school teacher.
62 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 1566, Martta, elementary school teacher.
63 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 2935, Nelli, elementary school teacher.
64 Kyösti Kiuasmaa, Oppikoulu 1880–1980[Secondary schools in Finland 1880–1980] (Oulu: Pohjoinen, 1982); Arto Jauhiainen and Risto Rinne, “Koulu professionaalisena kenttänä” [School as a professional field], in Kettunen and Simola, Tiedon ja osaamisen Suomi, 105–43.
65 Osmo Kivinen and Risto Rinne, “Finnish Higher Education Policy and Teacher Training,” Paedagogica Historica 34, no. 1 (1998): 447–70; Jauhiainen and Rinne, “Koulu professionaalisena kenttänä,” 105–43.
66 Jauhiainen and Rinne, “Koulu professionaalisena kenttänä,” 105–43; Annukka Jauhiainen, Työväen lasten koulutie ja nuorisokasvatuksen yhteiskunnalliset merkitykset. Kansakoulun jatkokysymys 1800-luvun lopulta 1970-luvulle[The schooling pathway of working-class children and the social significance of the education of youth: the question of continuation schools for elementary school leavers from the late 1800s to the 1970s] (Turku: Turun yliopisto, 2002), 244–6.
67 Kiuasmaa, Oppikoulu 1880–1980; Jauhiainen and Rinne, “Koulu professionaalisena kenttänä,” 105–43.
68 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0301, Heini, grammar school teacher.
69 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 1394, Vieno, elementary school teacher.
70 Janne Säntti, Pellon pientareelta akateemisiin sfääreihin. Opettajuuden rakentuminen ja muuttuminen sotienjälkeisessä Suomessa opettajien omaelämäkertojen valossa [From the field to the academic sphere – how teachers’ professional identities and roles have changed in post-war Finland] (Helsinki: Suomen kasvatustieteellinen seura, 2007), 255–7. The teachers’ memories of this period of transformation were also written by Tuula Hyyrö, whose report was based on her own recollections and eight interviews with former elementary school teachers: Tuula Hyyrö, “Peruskoulun pioneerit muistelevat” [The pioneers reminisce about the comprehensive school], in Rinnakkaiskoulusta yhtenäiseen peruskouluun [From two-tier school system to the comprehensive school], ed. Jouko Kauranne (Helsinki: Suomen kasvatuksen ja koulutuksen historian seura, 2013), 189–213.
71 Kiuasmaa, Oppikoulu 1880–1980.
72 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0182, Antti, grammar school teacher.
73 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0196, Antti, grammar school teacher.
74 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0229, Sofia, grammar school teacher.
75 Grammar school teachers usually had master’s degrees.
76 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0189, Antti, grammar school teacher.
77 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0453, Kati, civic school teacher.
78 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 2417, Maikki, grammar school teacher. The writer had a bachelor’s degree.
79 Säntti, Pellon pientareelta akateemisiin sfääreihin, 245.
80 Ahonen, “Yleissivistävä koulutus hyvinvointiyhteiskunnassa,” 153.
81 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0302, Heini, grammar school teacher.
82 Ahonen, “Yleissivistävä koulutus hyvinvointiyhteiskunnassa,” 153.
83 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0121, Tessa, grammar school teacher.
84 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0198, Antti, grammar school teacher.
85 Ahonen, “Yleissivistävä koulutus hyvinvointiyhteiskunnassa,” 153–4.
86 Marja Jalava, Hannu Simola, and Janne Varjo, “Hallinnosta hallintaan” [From administration to governance], in Kettunen and Simola, Tiedon ja osaamisen Suomi, 72–5.
87 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0302, Heini, grammar school teacher.
88 Kiuasmaa, Oppikoulu 1880–1980, 437–48.
89 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0069, Saimi, grammar school teacher.
90 The transition period lasted three years from a school changing to a comprehensive school.
91 Kiuasmaa, Oppikoulu 1880–1980, 435; Ahonen, “Yleissivistävä koulutus hyvinvointiyhteiskunnassa,” 153–6; Armi Mikkola, “Opettaja kehittää ja kehittyy” [Teacher educates and develops], in Yhtenäisen koulun menestystarina [The success story of comprehensive school], ed. Kauko Hämäläinen, Aslak Lindström, and Jorma Puhakka (Helsinki: Yliopistopaino, 2005), 152–69.
92 The new curriculum for the comprehensive school defined that its aim was to develop pupils’ whole personality and it divided this aim into three areas: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor areas. Kiuasmaa, Oppikoulu 1880–1980, 460; Erkki Lahdes, Peruskoulun uusi opetusoppi[New didactics of comprehensive schools] (Helsinki: Otava, 1977), 72–3, 199.
93 Kiuasmaa, Oppikoulu 1880–1980, 435; Ahonen, “Yleissivistävä koulutus hyvinvointiyhteiskunnassa,” 153–6; Armi Mikkola, ”Opettaja kehittää ja kehittyy,” 155–7.
94 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 1394, Vieno, elementary school teacher.
95 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 2406–7, Heta, elementary school teacher.
96 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 2935, Nelli, elementary school teacher.
97 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 2936, Nelli, elementary school teacher.
98 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 3037, Hilja, elementary school teacher.
99 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 1333, Paula, elementary school teacher.
100 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 3036, Hilja, elementary school teacher.
101 VESO days refer to the in-service training days according to the teachers’ collective bargaining contract.
102 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 2406, Heta, elementary school teacher.
103 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 2937–8, Nelli, elementary school teacher.
104 Mathematics and language teaching increased from 46% to 48% in comprehensive schools’ classes 5–9 compared with grammar schools. Practical subjects decreased from 28% to 23%. Compared with civic schools the change was even bigger: see Kiuasmaa, Oppikoulu 1880–1980, 461.
105 Ahonen, “Yleissivistävä koulutus hyvinvointiyhteiskunnassa,” 156; Hannu Simola et al., Dynamics in Education Politics: Understanding and Explaining the Finnish Case (London & New York: Routledge, 2017), 90–3; Kiuasmaa, Oppikoulu 1880–1980, 460–2.
106 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0069, Saimi, grammar school teacher.
107 Ahonen, “Changing Conceptions of Equality in Education – A Look at the Basic School in Finland during the 1900s,” 266–7; Ahonen, “Yleissivistävä koulutus hyvinvointiyhteiskunnassa,” 156.
108 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0302, Heini, grammar school teacher.
109 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0566, Elsa, grammar school teacher.
110 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 2564, Senni, grammar school teacher.
111 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0205, Antti, grammar school teacher.
112 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 1394, Vieno, elementary school teacher.
113 The writer did not specify in any more detail the pedagogical novelties to which she was referring.
114 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 2406, 2408, Heta, elementary school teacher.
115 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 2408, Heta, elementary school teacher.
116 Lahdes, Peruskoulun uusi opetusoppi, 54–5.
117 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0043, Auli, elementary school teacher.
118 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 1468, Tuula, elementary school teacher.
119 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0073, Petra, elementary school teacher.
120 Jyrki Pöysä, “Tekstin ajat. Tulkintoja muistelukirjoitusten temporaalisuudesta” [Times in text: interpretations of temporality in reminiscence writings], in Tekstien rajoilla. Monitieteisiä näkökulmia kirjoitettuihin aineistoihin [In borders of texts: multidisciplinary points of view to written sources], ed. Sami Lakomäki, Pauliina Latvala, and Kirsi Laurén (Helsinki: SKS, 2011), 319.
121 Ning de Coninck‐Smith, “The Class of 1980: Methodological Reflections on Educational High School Narratives from Denmark in the 1970s and 1980s,” Paedagogica Historica 44, no. 6 (2008): 733–46.
122 Sikes and Goodson, “What You Got When You’ve Got a Life Story?,” 60–71. See also Thomson, “Life Stories and Historical Analysis,” 101–17; Gardner, “Oral History in Education,” 175–88; Goodson, “The Story of Life History,” 23–33.
123 Säntti, “Muistin ja menneisyyden välisestä suhteesta,” 175.
124 Vilkko, Omaelämäkerta kohtaamispaikkana, 39. See also Plummer, “A Manifesto for Social Stories,” 209–19.
125 Gardner, “Oral History in Education,” 184.
126 Säntti, “Muistin ja menneisyyden välisestä suhteesta,” 169–86.
127 Gardner, “Oral History in Education,” 175–88. See also Plummer, “A Manifesto for Social Stories,” 209–19.
128 Walsh, “‘I Never Heard the Word Methodology’”.
129 Thomson, “Life Stories and Historical Analysis,” 103–4.
130 SKS KRA Koulu 2013, 0129, Antti, grammar school teacher.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Marjo Nieminen
Dr Marjo Nieminen is a senior lecturer in the Department of Education, University of Turku, Finland, and earlier worked as a researcher at the Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning and Education (CELE). Her recent empirical studies have covered the history of education from primary schooling to the upper secondary and university levels, and have included methodological reflections on various historical sources, such as archives, written narratives, and visual sources. Her special interests are the issues of women’s history.