New school buildings are often designed for flexible innovative learning environments (ILEs) to support learning future skills better than before. However, little is known about the relationship between environment and pedagogy. This article examines the relationship between the environment and pedagogy from the perspective of primary school…

This study investigated primary school special education teachers' (SETs') (N = 283) conceptions on their work descriptions and uses of pedagogical documents after a reform in the national support framework. The respondents of this survey reported working mostly in Tiers 1 and 2 when all their tasks (instruction, consultation, and managerial…

In this study, we explore teachers' professional space as an alternative to, and/or expansion of earlier conceptualizations of teacher autonomy. Professional space is here understood both as an objective space with e.g., physical, juridical, economic features, and as the teachers' subjective negotiation of this objective space, where teachers are…

Research Findings: The aim of this study was to examine associations between two aspects of teachers' occupational well-being, i.e., teaching-related stress and work engagement, and the quality of teacher-child interactions in Finnish kindergarten classrooms. Participants were 47 kindergarten teachers with their classrooms of 6-year-old children.…

Teacher learning is crucial in terms of good quality education in early years and, respectively teachers' professional communities are crucial for teacher learning. The meaning of engagement in collaborative learning and resources available in professional community are emphasized in educational reforms. In this study, we explored teachers'…

A safe, supportive school climate is critical for school effectiveness. Unfortunately, the research linking a positive school climate to critical student outcomes includes few systematic reviews of the school climate literature and no reviews focused on the effects of interventions to improve school climate. This review examined the methodological…

This paper explores arrangements and conditions enabling and constraining teacher collaboration to extend classrooms through Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). It draws implications from a participatory action research project in three small, rural Finnish schools funded by the European Social Fund (2015-2017). Data were mainly collected…

Recent discussion indicates that the initial enthusiasm of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) teachers can be undermined by the demands of foreign-language mediated education. However, there is a lack of research on the resources and tensions that respectively support or limit the professional agency of CLIL teachers. By means of…

Bullying in school has become an international concern in recent decades. Yet, we know surprisingly little about inhibitors of teacher-targeted bullying. The study focused on exploring the interrelation between the teacher-working environment fit, bullying, experienced exhaustion and turnover intentions. Altogether 2310 comprehensive school…

The extent to which school neighbourhood affects teachers' work commitment is poorly known. In the current study, we investigated whether school neighbourhood socio-economic characteristics predicted teachers' organizational and professional commitment. Primary school teachers (n?=?1042) responded to surveys in 2000-2001 (baseline) and 2004…

This paper reviews research on small rural primary schools in Finland and analyses it under three thematic foci: the relationship between the local rural school and the surrounding community, the small rural primary school as a learning environment, and the teachers' profession in this context. Over 30% of Finnish primary schools are small rural…