Session Information
Session 1, Teachers in the History of Education
Papers
Time:
2005-09-07
15:00-16:30
Room:
ENG
Chair:
Dennis Beach
Contribution
During the 1970's, the comprehensive school replaced the earlier Finnish parallel school system, which consisted of public school and grammar school. This was a major change in the status of different teacher categories. In the new school form, elementary school teachers became responsible for the education of all pupils from age 7 to 12 (grades 1 to 6), while subject-specific secondary school teachers, who earlier had began with those 11 year olds, who studied in the grammar school, lost their two youngest groups. The subject-specific teachers resisted this change, but they lost the battle. In this campaign, the subject associations did not compete with each other, but instead had shared goals.However, the final decision was preceded by a long debate, especially in the 60's.For the subject-specific teachers, this transition led to a dramatic growth of organisational activities, as their associations acted as pressure groups, trying to influence the school authorities and politicians. Also the journals of subject teacher associations were 'arenas of conflict', although their role was more that of creating the ethos among the members of respective teacher groups. The present paper analyses the defensive rhetoric of the subject-specific teacher journals, from the mid-60's to the early 70's, when the new school legislation and curricula were under preparation. The data consist of subject teacher journals of the first language (Finnish), foreign languages, history and social studies, mathematics, science, geography, and religion. The paper examines the argumentation and the justifications that each subject sub-group made for its claims.The subject-specific teachers' main argument was that the quality of education would deteriorate, if the subject- specialists would be replaced with elementary teachers too early. This claim was supported with more specific approaches. For instance, subject specialists were needed, because the classes in the comprehensive school would be more heterogeneous than in the earlier grammar school. The subject matter would be too difficult for elementary school teachers, and attaining good educational outcomes required expertise. The subject journals also used educational psychology in justifying their demands. Good and less successful examples from other countries were also used, as well as the necessity of guaranteeing the pupils' chances for continuing their studies in the new school level. In conclusion, each subject-specific teacher group tried to prove their necessity in the teaching of 11 and 12-yeard olds, and the reason behind this was obviously the anxiety about the unemployment of the own membership. This theme was, more or less, hidden behind more general justifications. Furthermore, these subject-specific discourses are closely related to the formation of the teacher identities, teacher professionalism and subcultures of subject-specific teachers
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