Finland has repeatedly been presented as a "success story" of equality and education, promoter of human rights and included equality and human rights as part of national curricula. However, research has shown the slow progress of integrating topics of equality and human rights in teacher education despite hundreds of project-based…

This article discusses the expansion of education systems that now, following international declarations, are expected to offer an "Education for All" to children, young people and adults. Since in these declarations special education and inclusive education are conjoined, sociological questions can be asked as to what sort of social…

Examines the effects of globalization on Finland and changes in educational policy in the context of the European Union. Identifies a radical policy shift involving such concepts as marketization and parental choice. Suggests that the change is more profound in Finland than elsewhere. (SK)

Educational reform in Finland shifted from 1960s welfare state ideology, which viewed education as an instrument of social justice and equal opportunity, to the 1980s neoliberal ideology of competition and individualism, to the economic depression of the early 1990s, which resulted in a new definition of educational equality. (Contains 20…