Subtle discourses on equality in the Finnish curricula of upper secondary education: reflections of the imagined society

Abstract

Assurance of citizens’ social rights and minimization of social differences have been central tenets that have framed the educational policy of Finland and the other Nordic welfare states. Equality has been on the official agenda in educational politics and policies since the comprehensive school reforms of the 1960s and 1970s. However, the conceptualization of equality has fluctuated, reflecting the political climate in which the policy statements have been created. In this article, we analyse Finnish curricular documents concerning upper secondary education from the 1970s to the 2010s in order to find out how the aims of educational equality are presented. Drawing on different conceptualizations of equality and social justice, as well as feminist theorizations of intersectionality, we scrutinize how gendered, classed and ethnised patterns are emphasized, challenged or muted in documents. Through the longitudinal data of this study it is possible to analyse the growing impact of this neo-liberal educational restructuring into Finland, which has a reputation for equal education and excellent records in the Programme for International Student Assessment tests. Hence, we ask how the Finnish society as an imagined community is reflected in the documents of different decades.

Keywords:

• upper secondary education
• curriculum documents
• equality
• intersectionality
• social differences

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. These are the current names; earlier on the names have varied.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by Academy of Finland: Citizenship, Agency and Difference in Upper Secondary Education—With Special Focus on Vocational Institutions (project number 1131548, run by Lahelma); Learning to become practical nurses: Ethnography on Vocational Education of Health care and Social services (project number 1133632, run by Lappalainen).

Notes on contributors

Sirpa Lappalainen

Sirpa Lappalainen (adjunct professor) works as a university lecturer at the Institute of Behavioural Sciences in University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 9, 00014, Finland; e-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests are focused on the processes in which social divisions and inequality are reproduced. Currently she leads the research group Feminist perspectives on educational cultures and learner subjectivities (FEMCU). The research group focuses on educational processes and pedagogical practices in formal and informal educational contexts, covering the life-course from the early childhood to the late adulthood. Its researchers represent the fields of education, gender studies, sociology, critical disability studies and childhood studies.

Elina Lahelma

Elina Lahelma is a professor (emerita) at the Institute of Behavioural Sciences in University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 9, 00014, Finland. Her focus of research is in the fields of sociology of education and women’s studies in education. She have conducted analysis of gender equality in educational policies, curriculum and school textbooks, ethnographic studies in secondary schools, and longitudinal life history research on young people’s transitions into adulthood.