Finnish gender research in education is highly valued and is networking in all universities. A Finnish national project ”Gender Awareness in Teacher Education” (TASUKO) funded by the Ministry of Education (2008-2010) is currently working towards a research program with a meta-analysis of Finnish research on gender and education. The project has a wide network of experts, teacher educators and researchers of education in all universities in Finland. The responsible leader of the project is professor Elina Lahelma. The research program is being constructed from the following questions:

1. How can research support the applying of feminist theoretizations to everyday life in schools, teaching and teacher education?

2. What kind of research on teaching is needed in order to promote the gender awareness in teacher education?

3. What kind of questions considering teaching and teacher education needs to be asked in order to promote an equal educational system?

Answering these questions mean deconstruction of the concepts of teaching and teacher, as well as the structure of teacher education. The research program is been constructed together with teachers, hence teachers have unique knowledge on these questions.

In project TASUKO "gender awareness" refers to an awareness of the inequalities that are taking form in the practices and processes of schools and education and to an awareness that those practices can be changed. In order to change everyday life and attitudes of teachers and students in schools, curricula, pedagogies and practices teacher training needs to be developed towards sensitivity for social dimensions of differences such as gender, age, ethnicity, sexuality and locality and their interactions.  Even if Finnish gender research in education is highly valued and is networking in all universities, empirical studies that are informed by feminist theoretizations reach teacher education very slowly and meet resistance. Research on teachers and schools constantly suggest lack of gender awareness among teaching staff (e.g. Lahelma & al. 2000, Soro 2002, Juutilainen 2007). In curricula of units of teacher education, it is not easy to find concrete items, courses or text books that suggest that problematizing gender or results of women’s studies will be presented to forthcoming teachers. Whilst understanding about the impact of gendered processes in schools is weak, the travelling discourse of boys’ problems (Arnesen et al. 2008) easily reaches teachers and teacher educators. From the early 1980's on, there has been a constant flow of gender equity projects in schools and teacher education in Finland, as well as in other European countries. Projects generally have aroused enthusiasm and feeling of solidarity among participants, but the common finding is that the results tend not to be sustainable (Brunila et al. 2005). The research program is been constructed to support sustainable developing of gender awareness in teacher education.

Arnesen, A-L., Lahelma, E. & Öhrn, E. 2008. Travelling discourses of gender and education: The case of boys’ underachievement. Nordisk Pedagogik, 28(1), 1–14. Brunila, K., Heikkinen, M., & Hynninen, P. 2005. Difficult but doable. Good practices for equality work. Oulu University, Kajaani University Consortium, Adult Education Unit/The National Thematic Network. Juutilainen, P-K. 2007. Sukupuoli lukion opinto-ohjauskeskusteluissa. [Gender in counselling interaction in secondary schools.] Kasvatus 38 (2), 134-143. Lahelma, E., Hakala, K., Hynninen, P. & Lappalainen, S. 2000. Too few men? Analysing the discourse on the need for mole male teachers. Nordisk pedagogik 20 (3), 129-138. Soro, R. 2002. Opettajien uskomukset tytöistä, pojista ja tasa-arvosta matematiikassa [Teacher’s attitudes towards girls and boys as students of mathematics.] Turku: University of Turku.