In Finland, the participatory nature of teacher education provision is an area of considerable interest, and the focus of this presentation. How this participation has been constituted, involving engagement between different actors, including researchers, teacher union officials and policy makers, is an important part of this process. This paper draws upon Habermas’ notions of democratic will formation, particularly in his later work (especially as outlined in Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy), to better understand the nature of regulatory and developmental processes, as articulated in the key policy Teacher Education Development Programme in Finland and associated texts, associated with this process. In 2015, the Ministry commissioned a national review of teacher education from the National Network for Teacher Induction, ‘Osaava Verme’, which included all the teacher education units in Finland. The review (Heikkinen, Aho & Korhonen 2015) recommended that policy makers should appoint a broad-based national body to secure the life-long continuum of teacher development. The Trade Union of Education in Finland was an important stakeholder in this work, and developed a similar initiative through their support for the reform at this time. The Ministry appointed a National Forum for Teacher Education in early 2016 to reform teacher education. Nearly 200 experts worked together in the National Forum to outline strategic guidelines which took the form of the Teacher Education Development Programme launched in late 2016. Also, nearly two thousand experts in education, as well as students and teachers, participated in an on-line think-tank. The process looks like a textbook example of how practices of teacher education are reformed in an inclusive way, and in contrast with more ‘fast policy’ (Peck & Theodore, 2015) approaches. Despite the good intentions, however, it is always challenging to ensure that the process is truly inclusive, and the symposium will conclude with an account of the limits of democratic will-formation (Habermas, 2015) under current policy conditions.

Habermas, J. (2015/1996). Between facts and norms: Contributions to a discourse theory of law and democracy. John Wiley & Sons. Heikkinen, H., Aho, J. & Korhonen, H. (2015). Ope ei saa oppia. Opettajankoulutuksen jatkumon kehittäminen. Jyväskylän yliopisto. Koulutuksen tutkimuslaitos. (Eng. Teacher learns not. Development of teacher education continuum.) Huttunen, R. & Heikkinen, H. (1998) Between facts and norms: Action research in the light of Jürgen Habermas's theory of communicative action and discourse theory of justice, Curriculum Studies, 6:3, 307-322. Ministry of Education and Culture. (2016).Teacher education development programme. Helsinki: Ministry of Education and Culture.