A Narrative Approach to Teacher Quality in Finland

Author(s):

Ashleigh Franco(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

ERG SES E 10, Teachers and Education

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-22

15:30-17:00

Room:

OB-H1.51

Chair:

Agnieszka Bates

Contribution

According to international standardized assessments, including the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Progress in International Reading Literacy (PIRLS), students in the United States are performing poorly in comparison to students around the world. For example, in comparison with other Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, the United States came in 27^th in mathematics, 17^th in reading and 20^th in science on the most recent PISA in 2012 (United States: Key Findings, n.d.). While students in the United States performed below the average of all participating countries in all three subjects assessed, Finnish students ranked 6^th in mathematics, 3^rd in reading and 2^nd in science on the same assessment (“Opetus- Ja Kulttuuriministeriö,” n.d.).

A closer look into Finland’s educational system reveals not only that there is a strong emphasis on research-based approaches (Lauriala, 2013; Toom et al., 2010; Westbury, Hansén, Kansanen, & Björkvist, 2005; Jyrhämä et al., 2008; Sahlberg, 2011; Jakku-Sihvonen, Tissari, Ots, & Uusiautti, 2012), but that Finns have a different perspective on “quality teaching” compared to Americans. For example, literature about quality teaching in Finland concerns achieving the results set forth in the curriculum by means of an in-depth curriculum, aligned teaching methods and assessment, as well as strong pedagogical and scientific knowledge (Goldhaber, Liddle, & Theobald, 2013; Parpala & Lindblom-Ylänne, 2007), opposed to a focus on value-added measures (Ballou & Springer, 2015; Rice, 2003).

Given the emphasis on research-based approaches and differing views on quality teaching in Finland’s educational system within the context of international standardized assessments, the primary focus of my study was to better understand teacher education programs through the lenses of research-based approached, quality teaching, and assessment. This article focuses specifically on Finnish educators’ perspectives on quality teaching. The corresponding research question was “How do Finnish educators perceive quality teaching?” In order to dig deeper, this dissertation adopts the qualitative approach of narrative inquiry. This methodology, which was first coined by Connelly and Clandinin (1990), helps shed light on what we already know through existing quantitative data.

Connelly and Clandinin’s (2000) commonplace, including temporality, sociality, and place, provide the theoretical framework for this study. Together, temporality, sociality, and place form a three-dimensional space. The place of the study is the University of Helsinki, nestled within the capital and largest city of the country: Helsinki. Participants’ past, present, and future comprise the temporality. The University of Helsinki’s Department of Behavioral Sciences also has its own past, present, and future that plays a role in participants’ narratives. Further, participants’ internal conditions and relationships with others form the sociality. Participants’ relationships with one another, as well as with myself – the researcher – are also noteworthy.

Method

Using Craig’s (2007) story constellations approach to narrative inquiry, six Finnish educators shared their stories of experience connected with the University of Helsinki. The participants include two professors – Aino and Kerttu, two current classroom teachers – Millo and Minea, as well as two preservice teachers – Aada and Arttu. Both classroom teachers, both professors, and one of the preservice teachers are female; all six participants are Caucasian and Finnish citizens. With these individuals, this study contains a female to male ratio of 5:1 or 83%, which is similar to the actual female to male ratio of 79% of teachers in primary schools in Finland (Corselli-Nordblad, 2013; Deretchin & Craig, 2007). Participants’ lived, told, relived, and retold narratives of experience are the phenomenon studied (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). The focus of narrative inquiry is on participants’ personal experiences and seeing the world from participants’ perspectives. Consequently, there were no predetermined outcomes (Craig, Meijer, & Broeckmans, 2013). Communication with participants began in the fall of 2014 and continued through the spring of 2015. During the February 2015, I kicked off a two-week trip to Finland with a focus group with all participants present. This was followed by a shadowing experience, where I shadowed each participant in his or her own environment for a minimum of a half day each. For the professors, this meant I observed classes they taught at the University of Helsinki. For the two current teachers, this involved spending full days in their classrooms in elementary schools within greater Helsinki. For the current preservice teachers, I had the opportunity to observe a unique set of classes as well as observe a full-time student teaching practicum experience. Upon completion of the shadowing experiences, I interviewed each participant one-on-one. This narrative inquiry relied on written communication between myself and participants, as well as informal observations, transcriptions of interviews, field notes, journal writing, and other documents provided by participants as the main sources of data. Analytical and interpretive tools included acknowledging my personal biases, data triangulation, a thick description within participants’ narratives, multiple perspectives, open-ended questions, and historical and narrative truth. Perhaps the largest strength of this study is the member checks in which participants reviewed his or her own narrative. Participants either confirmed what I wrote accurately portrayed what he or she intended to get across, or provided changes.

Expected Outcomes

Participants’ unique perspectives and shared narratives – using their own words – come together in this story constellation and shed light on what quality teaching in Finland means to a handful of the nation’s educators. While Kansanen (2004) explains defining “quality teaching” is a contested process that relies on ethical and normative perspectives, participants’ actions and words concerning their professionalism, autonomy and curriculum, moral matters, assessment, and humility, were particularly insightful. To begin with, participants’ lived narratives demonstrate that quality teaching extends beyond the 24 hours a week elementary educators have in contact with students. Minea was a prime example of this with her expanded roles. Further, quality teaching in Finland can be understood through the considerable autonomy educators have. Minea, Milla, and Aada exemplified this in their respective classrooms during my visit to Helsinki where they delivered content in unique, in-depth ways. Beyond the curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professionalism in terms of roles outside of the classroom, participants’ narratives highlight the importance of morality and ethics. For example, Minea and Aada both taught ethics classes during my shadowing experiences. Other ways research participants expressed how they value moral matters included teaching students social skills and genuinely caring for students. Minea, for example, never raised her voice at students and allowed them to move about her classroom as they needed. She also sat with her first graders during lunch, modeled lunchtime etiquette, and enjoyed conversation with them. Finnish educators also demonstrate what quality teaching means through their attitudes and beliefs about assessment. Interestingly, when it comes to formative assessment, however, educators are split on their opinions. Overall, quality teaching in Finland is not connected to students’ performance on standardized assessments or a teacher’s qualifications.

References

Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Connelly, F. M., & Clandinin, D. J. (1990). Stories of Experience and Narrative Inquiry. Educational Researcher, 19(5), 2. doi: 10.2307/1176100 Craig, C. (2007). Story constellations: A narrative approach to contextualizing teachers’ knowledge of school reform. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23(2), 173–188. doi: 10.1016/j.tate.2006.04.014 Craig, C., Meijer, P. C., & Broeckmans, J. (2013). From teacher thinking to teachers and teaching: The evolution of a research community: Thirtieth anniversary volume of the International Study Association on Teachers and Teaching / edited by Cheryl J. Craig, Paulien C. Meijer, Jan Broeckmans. Bingley, England: Emerald Group Publishing. Deretchin, L. F., & Craig, C. J. (2007). International research on the impact of accountability systems. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education. Goldhaber, D., Liddle, S., & Theobald, R. (2013). The gateway to the profession: Assessing teacher preparation programs based on student achievement. Economics of Education Review, 34, 29–44. doi: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2013.01.011 Jakku-Sihvonen, R., Tissari, V., Ots, A., & Uusiautti, S. (2012). Teacher education curricula after the Bologna Process – a comparative analysis of written curricula in Finland and Estonia. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 56(3), 261–275. doi:10.1080/00313831.2011.581687 Jyrhämä, R., Kynäslahti, H., Krokfors, L., Byman, R., Maaranen, K., Toom, A., & Kansanen, P. (2008). The appreciation and realisation of research‐based teacher education: Finnish students’ experiences of teacher education. European Journal of Teacher Education, 31(1), 1–16. doi: 10.1080/02619760701844993 Lauriala, A. (2013). Changing in research paradigms and their impact on teachers and teacher education: A Finnish Case. From teacher thinking to teachers and teaching: The evolution of a research community (Vol. 19, Advances in Research on Teaching, pp. 569–595). Bingley, United Kingdom: Emerald Books. Parpala, A., & Lindblom-Ylänne, S. (2007). University Teachers’ Conceptions Of Good Teaching In The Units Of High-Quality Education. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 33(3-4), 355-370. doi: 10.1016/j.stueduc.2007.07.009 Rice, J. (2003). Teacher quality: Understanding the effectiveness of teacher attributes (Rep.). Retrieved from Economic Policy Institute website: http://www.epi.org/publication/books_teacher_quality_execsum_intro/#ExecSum Sahlberg, P. (2011). Finnish lessons: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland? New York: Teachers College Press. Toom, A., Kynäslahti, H., Krokfors, L., Jyrhämä, R., Byman, R., Stenberg, K., & Kansanen, P. (2010). Experiences of a research-based approach to teacher education: Suggestions for future policies. European Journal of Education, 45(2), 331–344. doi: 10.1111/j.1465-3435.2010.01432.x

Author Information

Ashleigh Franco (presenting / submitting)

University of Houston

Katy

Search the ECER Programme

Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
Search for authors and in the respective field.
For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.