Professionalism and the Rationalism of Hopes: outlining a theoretical approach for a study on educational discourse

ABSTRACT

The starting points of this article are some preliminary findings for a study on Finnish government committee reports on education. Since the reforms of the 1970s, a curious confluence of both the decontextualisation and at the same time the rationalisation of goals appears to be one cornerstone of the official construction of modem comprehensive school teaching. The aim of this article is to introduce certain theoretical approaches that combined might make intelligible this intertwining of idealism and rationalism or, as it is called here, the ‘rationalism of hopes’. The focus is on the role of professionalisation. The rationalism of hopes appears as an intersection between various discourses. In its conclusion, the article emphasises the necessity of scrutinising mass schooling not only as a rational and purposeful enterprise but also as a quasi‐religious foundation of modem society.