What are the limits and possibilities of social justice in terms of equity, agency, critical literacy and cultural and political relevancy (Lipman 200; see also Beauboueuf-Lafontant 1999; Sleeter & Grant 2007) in the official and unofficial practices, structures and contents of schools? This presentation features insight into how Finnish schools at once reflect upon, reproduce and challenge the society with whom it is interconnected. Here schools are defined as agencies that are interconnected with society in terms of educational policy, socio-political and cultural circumstances and, especially in the capital area, increasing socioeconomic and ethnic residential differentiation. Without vigilance schools reproduce oppressive values of the dominant culture. It could be said that Finnish values include a belief that everyone is equal. It can also be said that there are trends toward racism, classism, and exclusionary practices, hegemonic features of the European Union and North American experiences. In any case, the case is made for holistic understanding of schools and their practices, in societal context. Liberalism alone is insufficient to guide us to deeper reaches of equity; theories of critical social theory and multicultural education provide the means for establishing a wider context and interconnections between tiny hints of challenges emerging from the field, namely, from the schools in my data.

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