This ethnographic study, carried out in public kindergartens in Finland, traces the enactments of the societal roles of early childhood education. It highlights how the intertwining of governing tools and discourses related to early childhood education's societal role participates in the formation of daily life in kindergarten. The concept of…

In the field of education concerning cultural diversity it has been recognized as vital to address justice in social structures. Although justifications for religious education in non-confessional contexts are heavily based on religious diversity, their advocates have paid little attention to justice and power relations. In this article, I analyse…

This article considers the challenge of epistocracy to the political philosophies of music education. Epistocracy has recently resurfaced in the form of Jason Brennan's criticism of representational democracy. Brennan claims that only the brightest citizens are capable of using decision-making power. As there is only a small number of such…

This paper engages with and reflects on the arguments developed by contributors to the special issue. These papers serve to provide a corrective to English and, on occasion, European perceptions, which often view the Nordic countries as being all of a piece and beacons of progressivism. The contributors provide analyses that not only point to the…

This study investigates the hopes of a group of Finnish of ninth-graders and how hopeful they are. This study also explores how to teach in a way that promotes hope. The theoretical framework of this study combines two different theories of hope, C. R. Snyder's psychological hope theory and Paulo Freire's philosophy of hope. This study holds that…

This study focuses on students' orientations towards multilingualism in a Swedish-speaking educational degree program in Finland. Swedish is one of the two national languages in Finland and basic education is provided separately in Finnish and Swedish, even if the current national policies strongly support multilingualism in education. We analyzed…

To understand the evolution and current status of qualitative research in School Psychology, we reviewed 4,346 articles published across seven school psychology journals between 2006 and 2021. The bibliometric analysis indicates that publication of qualitative research has increased over the years, but remains small (3%) when seen against the…

This paper presents a novel process perspective on educational equality policies by examining the relationship between gender equality discourses and gender binary inequalities in the deliberative design process of the Finnish Basic Education Core Curriculum 2014. The analysis applies Nancy Fraser's theory of three-dimensional justice to feedback…

The Finnish educational system is well known for its excellent learning results, highly trained teachers and egalitarian values. However, when the political leanings of the government change, its policies are usually altered as well. In this policy report we give an account of the recent changes and current trends in Finnish education policy. We…

In the United States, how to provide a high-quality education to all students has been a focal discussion, especially in urban settings. One potential solution that has emerged to confront this issue involves urban teacher residency (UTR) programs that provide innovations concerning the recruitment, preparation, and retention of teachers in…

In early childhood education, the concept of distributed leadership has emerged as a key analytical tool for understanding leadership as well as a normative guide for what leadership should be. The concept originates in Peter Gronn's work, where it is positioned as overcoming the structure-agency debate, which is a foundational question in the…

Hate speech has become a growing topic of discussion and debate on a global scale, especially as advances in the internet transform communication on many levels. Among scholars, hate speech has been defined as any form of expression -- for example by means of speech, images, videos or online activity -- that has the capacity to increase hatred…

This work discusses how the complex relationship between welfare policies of equity and market efficiencies/deficiencies of education policies is handled in local practices. It offers contributions from the five Nordic countries - Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland - and pays special attention to questions about access and diversity in…

Aiming at the equity and peaceful coexistence of multiple cultures and based on the broader ground of multiculturalism, multicultural education stands out as a vital subject. This qualitative study aims to present the state of affairs of the corpus of studies on multicultural education around the world. As a result of a multi-phased search…

The article examines if and how gender diversity and queer are present in the policies guiding Finnish art education and how these documents might influence praxis. The authors explore relations between policy and practice through a close study and analysis of the Finnish national core curriculum for basic education as it relates to the broader…