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…

School lockdowns in response to COVID-19 have forced teachers around the world to quickly and unexpectedly shift from face-to-face to distance teaching. The struggle with the forced transition has been even more severe in the lower levels of schooling than in higher education institutions, which had already established online course delivery…

Background and purpose: In school physical education (PE) lessons, gender is often produced heteronormatively. Lesbian, gay, bi, transgender, intersexual, and queer (LGBTIQ+) students have reported experiences of discrimination and obstacles to participation. This study analyzed Finnish PE teachers and LGBTIQ+ students' talk about discrimination…

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…

The current study examines how teachers' professional wellbeing is affected by teacher-level and school-level factors using the TALIS 2018 data. Teacher-level factors consist of teachers' instructional practices and teachers' professional practices and school-level factors include school climate, school leadership styles and workload. The…

Prejudices are innate to the human condition and at the base of most conflicts between social groups. Yet, despite much local and global educational effort to promote equality and peace, expressions of hate and violence are omnipresent across the globe. For gaining more understanding about the complex relationship between values and beliefs that…

Job satisfaction is important for employee well-being and retention, which are both crucial for high-strained occupations such as teachers and school principals. We investigated the structure and relationship of teachers' job satisfaction (N = 142,280) and principals' job satisfaction (N = 8,869). Results of structural equation modeling using…

This article describes three key principles learned while visiting schools in Finland in May 2017. Specifically, the article explores how trust, collaboration, and well-being contribute to the foundation of student-centered school cultures. The use of trust-based responsibility over test-based accountability allows for greater teacher autonomy and…

This article addresses emotions involved in encountering classroom diversity as appearing in beginning teachers' stories. Previous research has pointed out that teachers' emotions related to growing classroom diversity are seldom addressed, although increasing classroom diversity has been distinguished as a significant emotional challenge for…

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how positive pedagogical practices are implemented by early childhood education (ECE) teachers in Finland. A survey was conducted among 625 teachers, enquiring about specific positive pedagogical practices in ECEC. It was found that the correlation between the sum variables and principal components were…

This study aims to reveal how primary school music education lessons are conducted during the pandemic process. For this purpose, answers to the following questions were sought in the study: How did music teachers adapt to the pandemic process? (Which practices did they plan and how did they manage the course process?); How has the pandemic…

Most of biodiversity is not considered charismatic and from human's perspective it can be indifferent, problematic, harmful, disgusting, or dangerous. Secondary school students' attitudes towards an unloved species and how it relates to their feelings of disgust in the context of a biology course were studied during a citizen science project where…

This article brings climate communication approaches to transformational climate learning by critically evaluating an experimental climate communication retreat that brought 20 young adults from across Europe together in Austria to co-create climate communications as a constitutive dimension of climate action. Structured around the…

This socioculturally framed case study investigates the digital literacy practices of two young children in their homes in Finland. The aim is to generate new knowledge about children's digital literacy practices embedded in their family lives and to consider how these practices relate to their emergent literacy learning opportunities. The study…

The present study aimed to investigate the associations between teachers' observed emotional support and social competence among Finnish pre-schoolers (6-year-olds). The quality of emotional support was observed using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System Pre-K in 47 preschool classrooms twice across the preschool year. Teachers rated children's…