Quality of School Life of Adolescents in Finland and Korea: a Cross-cultural Study from ethnographic view

Author(s):

Junghyun Yoon(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

19. Ethnography

Format:

Paper

Session Information

19 SES 02 JS, Geographies of Opportunities, Participation and Mobility

Joint Paper Session NW 14 and NW 19

Time:

2016-08-23

15:15-16:45

Room:

NM-G215

Chair:

Sofia Marques da Silva

Contribution

Since PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) has been implemented in 2000s, Finland and Korea became well-known as their superior academic achievements and competitive educational systems. Finland has become a sacred place for international educators who want to apply implications for their education and schooling systems (Simola, 2015). Korea also has been referred as a model country in terms of academic achievement of students by external education commentators and governments, especially by the United States (Jeynes, 2008). Due to the effect of the international comparative assessment, trend of educational borrowing and transfer has been strengthened. East Asian education systems and Nordic education systems, which are considered to stem from very different political and sociocultural backgrounds, have been cited as superior education models, indicating tension between competitiveness and equality of education (Rajamäki, 2014; OECD, 2011; OECD, 2013a; Schleicher, 2013). However, are Finnish and Korean students, who have maintained top level on PISA for the last decade, happy? How is their quality of school life (QSL)? This paper aims to understand how they experience their QSL.

Defining quality can be ambiguous and difficult since quality is considered to be subjective depending on individuals. Moreover, quality may bring problematic research setting in terms of comparison of QSL between different societies and cultures due to its non-identical characteristics of the meaning and qualitative uniqueness (Lee, 2001). In spite of its difficulty, several researchers conceptualize this qualitative concept. Linnakylä (1996) defines QSL as students’ general well-being and satisfaction from the point of view of their positive and negative experiences, particularly in typical activities of school (p. 70). In her study, QSL was categorized by six domains: general satisfaction, teacher–student relations, status in class, identity in class, achievement and opportunity, and negative affect (ibid., p. 73). QSL in this study is defined as students’ general perception of their school well-being and satisfaction on their positive and negative experiences in their ordinary school life.

This study sheds light on the quality of school life, which has not been actively highlighted, receiving less attention than the cognitive outcomes of schooling as student performance. As worldwide student assessments such as PISA or TIMSS have influenced the direction of national educational policies and discourses, measurable student performance or competencies, which are the main domains of the tests, have become the focal point of discussions regarding the results and league tables of each country in these international student assessments. Similarly, previous academic studies about outcomes of school education have largely concentrated on academic achievement (Baker, 1999; Huebner and McCullough, 2000; Verkuyten and Thijs, 2002; Lahelma, 2002). In addition, there have been fewer studies which studied sociocultural and historical context, which is assumed to underlie QSL of students, by employing mixed-methods or qualitative approaches to study QSL.

Based on this critical point, my thesis research is studied by mixed-methods (quan +QUAL). In this paper, qualitative research part, especially methods and preliminary analyses of data gained from field work will be discussed.

The objectives of this paper are as follows. First, it will discuss the process of field works and rationales regarding the selection of schools and participants. Secondly, it aims to understand Korean and Finnish adolescents’ experiences on their QSL by doing preliminary analyses of data from the field works. In addition, it identifies and illuminates significant events that are related to their QSL.

Method

For this study, schools are chosen among public comprehensive (primary and middle) schools that are located in the school districts with the middle or middle-low socioeconomic status in each country. One general comprehensive school in Turku and one innovative comprehensive school in Helsinki are selected. The two comprehensive schools include both 6th and 8th grades. Similarly, a general primary school, an innovative primary school, a general middle school, and an innovative middle school (4 schools in total) will be selected in Seoul, Korea. Data collection is conducted for 10 days per each school (5 to 10 days per school in Korea) during spring semester 2016. Field work consists of three parts - observation, student interviews, and teacher interviews. First, observation will be conducted in the major parts of school environments such as classrooms, corridors, a playground, and a cafeteria where ordinary school life of students occurs. Next, around 20 Korean and 20 Finnish adolescents considered by their grade (6th, 8th), gender and academic achievement (high, middle, low) will be selected as student interviewees. Lastly, teacher interviews will be administered to attain teachers’ perspectives and thoughts concerning QSL of students. 12 teachers (6 teachers per each country) who are student participants’ classroom teachers or subject teachers will be participating as teacher interviewees. Narrative inquiry will be utilized to identify how students experience QSL. Clandinin and Connelly (2007) argue that narrative inquiry is a method of understanding life, and narrative is the best way of articulating and understanding human experience because human experiences occur in a narrative way. It can be said that narrative inquiry is cooperative research between researcher(s) and participants in the specific space, flow of time and in the social interaction with environments (ibid., p. 64). In addition, in spite of the limited time for field works, this research seeks to collect data from ethnographic viewpoint. It is important to observe the fields with loosely-constructed theoretical frame and to draw crucial issues from the viewpoint of adolescents. Keeping ethnographic gaze at schools as learning, social and physical space (Lahelma, 2002) would help me conduct this cross-cultural study - understanding life of young people from two cultures - by viewing familiar things unfamiliar way and vice versa (Lahelma and Gorden, 2010).

Expected Outcomes

First, this paper will show the process of cross-cultural field works and it will provide basic knowledge and understandings on time, space, and sociocultural contexts where Finnish and Korean students’ school life exists. Secondly, it will create understandings regarding Finnish and Korean students’ experiences on their QSL based on some preliminary analyses from data (field notes and interview transcripts etc.). This study will elaborate QSL by describing crucial events and experiences in their school lives. It would also enable to interpret how specific institutional, sociocultural and historical aspects underlie and are linked to QSL. Education and schooling is not confined to teaching and learning methods, didactics, and curriculums based on each subject; it is deeply rooted in institutional, sociocultural, and historical factors of the society (Simola, 2005). Without underestimating the importance of investigating QSL within the scope of school level, understanding QSL through relevant institutional, sociocultural and historical aspects of the two countries would enhance the validity of this study, which might not be fully captured only by quantitative data. Lastly, this study has a few issues that should be considered and discussed. First of all, ethnographic and narrative insights can be limited due to restricted time schedule to be spent at one school environment and rather wide research design (6 to 7 schools in total) studied by one researcher. Secondly, researcher’s identity as a non-Finnish speaker may cause difficulties and constrains in understanding school lives in the Finnish speaking comprehensive schools. However, attempt at intersubjective understanding through cross-cultural fieldworks, by employing both emic and epic views, may help interpret Finnish and Korean school lives from a new angle compared to previous domestic studies on the school lives in Finland and Korea.

References

Baker, J.A. (1999). Teacher-student interaction in urban at-risk classrooms: differential behavior, relationship quality, and student satisfaction with school. The elementary school journal 100 (1), 57-70. Clandinin, J. & Connelly, M. (2007). Narrative inquiry: Experience and Story in Qualitative research. Translated by G. So, H. Kang, D. Jo, & M. Bak. Paju: Gyoyukgwqhaksa. Huebner, E. & McCullough, G. (2000). Correlates of school satisfaction among adolescents. Journal of Educational Research 93, 331-335. Jeynes, W. (2008). What we should and should not learn from the Japanese and Other East Asian Education systems. Educational Policy 22 (6), 900-927. Lahelma, E. (2002). School is for meeting friends: secondary school as lived and remembered. British Journal of Sociology of Education 23 (3), 367-381. Lahelma, E. and Gorden, T.(2010). Comparative and cross-cultural ethnography In Kauko, J., Rinne, R., and Kynkäänniemi H. (Eds.) Restructuring the truth of schooling –Essays on discursive practices in the sociology and politics of education Lee, Y. (2001). 교육개혁 담론으로서의 ‘국제비교’ – 비교의 이용과 오용(International comparison as educational reform discourse – use and misuse of comparison). 교육비평 (educational criticism)4, 126-139. Linnakylä, P. (1996). Quality of school life in the Finnish comprehensive school: a comparative view. Scandinavian Journal of educational research 40 (1), 69-85. OECD (2011). Chapter 5. Finland: slow and steady reform for consistently high results. In OECD (Ed.) Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in Education: Lessons from PISA for the United States. OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264096660-en OECD (2013a). Asian countries top OECD’s latest PISA survey on state of global education. Retrieved December 4, 2013 from http://www.oecd.org/newsroom/asian-countries-top-oecd-s-latest-pisa-survey-on-state-of-global-education.htm Rajamäki, T. (2014, October 12). Suomalaisprofessori: Koulutusviennille voi käydä kuin Nokialle (The same thing can happen to the Finnish school export that happened to Nokia: Finnish school system has to find the talent of every pupil, says professor of Harvard). HelsinginSanomat. Retrieved November 3, 2014 from http://www.hs.fi/kulttuuri/a1412993780657 Schleicher, A. (2013). Lessons from PISA outcomes, Retrieved December 4, 2013 from http://www.oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/4239/Lessons_from_PISA_outcomes.html Simola, H. (2005). The Finnish miracle of PISA: historical and sociological remarks on teaching and teacher education. Comparative Education 41(4), 455-470 Simola, H. (2015). The Finnish education mystery: historical and sociological essays on schooling in Finland. New York: Routledge. Verkuyten, M. & Thijs, J. (2002). "School satisfaction of elementary school children: the role of performance, peer relations, ethnicity and gender". Social Indicators Research 59, 203-228.

Author Information

Junghyun Yoon (presenting / submitting)

University of Turku

Department of Education

Turku

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