Understanding future teachers – Pre-service teachers’ interpretations of the inclusive school reform in Finland

Author(s):

Marita Mäkinen(presenting / submitting)Helena Rajakaltio(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 09 A, Teacher Education: Future, Potential, Image

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-04

11:00-12:30

Room:

B217 Sala de Aulas

Chair:

Peter Gray

Contribution

This paper presents a research project of the Finnish school in an educational inclusive reform process (Rajakaltio & Mäkinen 2013). The project is anchored in the transformative educational reform based on the renewed legislation (Basic Education Act, 2010) and changes in the National Core Curriculum for Basic Education (2010). The reform is consistent with the recent UNESCO (2009) policy guidelines that focus on inclusion by suggesting that the ultimate goal for equity in education is to promote participation and equal opportunities for all students (e.g. Ainscow, Booth & Dyson, 2006; Ferguson, 2008).

In this paper we focus, particularly, on the sub-study within the pre-service teachers as investigators exploring the Finnish schools in the midst of this educational reform. Hence, this sub-study makes a contribution to the teacher education research by presenting insights on the steps the schools are taking towards inclusive school culture examined and interpreted through the lens of pre-service teachers. Accordingly, in this paper we present a study addressed the following research questions:

What are the pre-service teachers’ interpretations of the implementation of inclusive reform at the school level?
What are the key factors that seem to promote or hinder the development of inclusive culture from the prospective teachers’ perspective?

We are inspired by the notion that the challenge for us as teacher educators is twofold: How to challenge pre-service teachers in critical observations and reflections on recently reformed inclusive oriented support system at the school level, and prepare them to meet the challenges of the students by maximizing their growing and learning opportunities in inclusive setting.

Context of the study

It has been quite corollary to agree inclusion ideology in Finland because education has traditionally been perceived as a mechanism for enhancing social justice, equity and equality (Sahlberg, 2011). However, the current education policy has become controversial and complex. The excellent PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) achievement (e.g. OECD, 2010), for example, has created tensions in schools to reproduce the success by raising the effectiveness of practices, by extending the requirements of knowledge content and academic achievement in the National Core Curriculum, facing pressure moving towards standardization and test-based accountability. The Finnish education system seems to be in a turning point in choosing the future way. As yet, Finland has not chosen a high-stakes testing policy as most countries have but is looking for a new way (Sahlberg, 2011; Hargreaves & Shirley, 2009). The question is heard, the Finnish comprehensive school is moving in a more sustainable and creative direction or is it to an increasing extent in the instrumental stranglehold of neoliberal education policy.

The global pursuit of enhancing inclusion stated in the Salamanca Statement (UNESCO, 1994) has been taken seriously in Finland. The amended legislation (Basic Education Act, 2010) has obviated the previous ‘twin-track system’ of labeling ‘exceptional’ students before they are entitled to receive individualized instruction, accommodations, and support most appropriate for their needs within special schools. The purpose of the reform is to focus attention on mainstream student-centered teaching and further reinforce the learning support mechanisms for all students (cf. Mäkinen, 2013). Thus, teachers should encounter and treat all students equally, regardless of their [dis]abilities, social class, ethnicity, religion, or gender.

The student diversity has taken increasingly account in the amended legislation by rebuilding the instructional ‘step-up support system’, where the support is divided into three steps: common, intensified and special support. In addition to these two distinctive educational intentions, the new multicultural approaches are topical in Finland; entailing educational strategies that incorporate previously marginalized racial and ethnic groups into the curriculum (cf. Finnish National Board of Education, 2014).

Method

The ‘lesson study’ approach offers a methodological setting that reveres the pre-service teachers’ reflections to the fullest. The approach is based on collaborative practitioner research tradition primarily used by teachers within school level. According to scholars such as Parks (2008) and Puchner &Taylor (2006), the approach may be potential also within teacher education. As yet, however, scant attention has been paid to its usefulness of engaging pre-service teachers in critically reflecting and interpreting the daily activities within school communities. This study thus focuses on considering how pre-service teachers experience, reflect and interpret the ongoing reform activities in primary and secondary schools during their field experiment that is part of a course program. The participants were 67 pre-service teachers who were completing their teacher qualification for primary and secondary school at a multi-disciplinary research university in southern Finland. The study was conducted in connection with a course entitled ‘Inclusive Education’. The course program focused on discussing the theoretical underpinnings of the student diversity (such as language, abilities, background, religion, gender etc.) and instructional ‘step-up support system’ as a means of enhancing inclusive culture. In addition, the course work included one week field experiment, which aim was to challenge the pre-service students visiting one school community for finding out how the ‘step-up support system’ was integrated into daily school activities. The students were encouraged to observe the school community and classroom practices, conduct interviews with the in-service teachers, special needs teachers, school principals and welfare staff, take part in teacher meetings etc. They also wrote reflections on course readings and field experiments. They were challenged to express their views on what had caught their attention related to the ongoing reform process as a whole. The data set thus comprised of 67 reflective journals written during and after the field experiment. The keys to the analysis were insightful reflection and meaning making. Thus, for analyzing the data we applied Max Van Manen’s (1990) interpretative dialogical technique. Interpretative dialogue (Van Manen, 1990, 1997) refers to the effort to shift the focus between parts and wholes of the texts. We thus aimed at communicating with the texts, allowing participants’ personal experience to be brought to bear, and offering warranted interpretations, which seemed to be shared. The analysis is still going on, and will be completed for the ECER-conference.

Expected Outcomes

The analysis process has raised preliminary findings interpreting the multifaceted views and ways of implementing the inclusive reform. For instance, many pre-service teachers shared the view that the inclusive education reform has had an impact on the formation of the traditional individually oriented working culture into a more collaborative one. In most schools spaces for communication and collective meaning-making have been arranged more or less systematically in order to create shared understanding and enough unanimity for joint actions, e.g. provoke more collaboration between class teachers, subject teachers, special needs teachers and student welfare staff for creating new modes of working and learning practices in classrooms. Teachers had been challenged to re-examine their practices and taken for granted assumptions due to the inclusion pedagogy. According to the pre-service teachers’ reports, the schools seem to differ, especially, in the shared collegiality. In some schools the collaborative work culture was not affecting all teachers. Therefore, the school leaders have a key role in initiating and promoting a successful change process. Consequently, there is a need for developing the educational leadership in arranging the organizational conditions for a more participative work culture and for promoting inclusive settings by challenging and encouraging teachers. Moreover, some significant concerns were identified, such as the lack of shared time for joint actions to create new practices. Many in-service teachers felt that the workload has increased because of the new duties like documentation, negotiations and new modes of cooperation. Accordingly, there seems to be a need for continuing education because many teachers felt the lack of skills and competencies for realizing inclusive schooling. The teacher education was also criticized not equipping the prospective teachers with the competencies needed for the challenges of the inclusive turn. Overall, the inclusive reform requires multi-professional knowledge and cross-sectorial problem solving and collaboration.

References

Ainscow, M., Booth, T., & Dyson, A. (2006). Improving schools, developing inclusion. London: Routledge. Basic Education Act (2010/642). Finlex. http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/alkup/2010/20100642. Ferguson, D. (2008). International trends in inclusive education: the continuing challenge to teach each one and everyone. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 23(2), 109–120. Finnish National Board of Education. (2014). Retrieved January, 30, 2014, from http://www.oph.fi/english/education_development/current_reforms/curriculum_reform_2016. Hargreaves, A. & Shirley, D. (2009). The fourth way. The inspiring future for educational change. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Mäkinen, M. (2013). Narrative reflections as descriptors of teachers’ work engagement in inclusive schools. Teaching and Teacher Education, 35, 51–61. National Core Curriculum for Basic Education (Changes and amendments 50/011/2010). Finnish Board of Education. Parks, A.N. (2008) Messy learning: Preservice teachers’ lesson-study conversations about mathematics and students, Teaching and Teacher Education, 24 (2008) 1200–1216. Puchner, A. & Taylor, A.R. (2006) Lesson study, collaboration and teacher efficacy: Stories from two school-based math lesson study groups, Teaching and Teacher Education 22, 922–934. Rajakaltio, H. & Mäkinen, M. (2013). The Finnish school in cross-pressures of change. In the Proceedings of European Conference of Curriculum Studies. Future Directions: Uncertainty and Possibilities, 530–536. Sahlberg, P. (2011). Finnish lessons. What can the world learn from educational change in Finland? New York: College Teachers Press. UNESCO. (1994). The Salamanca statement and framework for action on special needs education. Paris: Author. UNESCO. (2009). Policy guidelines on inclusion in education. Paris: Author. Van Manen, M. (1990). Researching Lived Experience: Human Science for an Action Sensitive Pedagogy. New York: State University of New York Press. Van Manen M. (1997). From meaning to method. Qualitative Health Research 7(3), 345–369.

Author Information

Marita Mäkinen (presenting / submitting)

University of Tampere, Finland

Helena Rajakaltio (presenting)

University of Tampere

School of Education