Finnish legislation and policy on early childhood education and care (ECEC) express sustainability as a basic value. The national core curricula state that, during their years in ECEC, all children have the right to develop necessary values, knowledge and skills for living a sustainable life. Furthermore, early years education should be permeated…

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'…

The aim of this case study is to demonstrate how a co-design approach could be used within design-based research (DBR) with diverse multi-stakeholders in the LUMA1 ecosystem to promote social creativity towards novel student-based solutions and pedagogical innovations. As a case, a national LUMA2020 development program (2019-2020), organized by…

This study builds on previous work in curriculum studies by providing insight into manifestations of the interplay between curriculum traditions, that are interested in education on a global scale and emphasized in the newest curriculum reform in Finland. This reform proposes a shift towards a competency-based curriculum, emphasizes integrative…

This exploratory case study was conducted in two upper secondary schools in Finland and Bulgaria. The aim of the study was to investigate how to apply trialogical design principles could be used to improve students' knowledge work competence, and teachers' re-structured obligatory courses following pedagogical design principles for knowledge…

In educational research, the teaching profession is often treated as interaction located only in the classroom, with less attention to other aspects of school reality. Some studies, and the Finnish national curriculum (2014), suggest that the school system needs more practices that aim at negotiation, cooperation, and interaction with the…

This article investigates multidisciplinary teaching practices through models of General Didactics. Multidisciplinary education is gaining interest on international and national levels through policy reforms. Research on multidisciplinary teaching practices is often descriptive and there is a lack of theories to support teachers. General Didactics…

This study investigated participants' conceptions of the ideal mentor and mentee in the Finnish model of peer-group mentoring (PGM). Existing mentoring research emphasises dyadic practices, yet there is a lack of investigation of participants' roles in group mentoring. The main concepts of this inquiry were "dispositions"…

Background: Teachers' limiting conceptualizations of students influence students' learning opportunities. We analyze teachers' professional conversations to understand how dialogues can expand teachers' conceptualizations. Methods: We examine professional dialogues from nine whole-school intervention meetings. Drawing on discursive psychology and…

Qualitative research methods were used to conduct case studies in three public schools in Finland to explore the changing role of the special education profession in Finland after the legislative reform in 2011 regarding educational support. With the implementation of the three tiered-support system, the special educator has become a profession…

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…

We examine teachers' reflections on incorporating digital instructional resources (DIRs) into their mathematics teaching. We analyze qualitative interviews with 39 elementary school teachers from four educational contexts: Belgium, Finland, Sweden, and the U.S., using a framework proposed by Pepin et al. (Int J Math Educ 46: 645-661, 2017) to…

Inclusive education is an increasingly adopted approach to pedagogy, and it is based on values that should inform school policies and daily practices. It is about creating school cultures that cherish participation: learning, playing and working with others as well as making choices about, and having a say in, what happens in the school community.…

Investigating whether the effects of extrinsic and intrinsic factors on teachers' dissatisfaction with the teaching profession show variation between countries is crucial, especially given the significant impact on quality of instruction, which is also associated with student performance. In this respect, the main aim of this study is to reveal…

This study aimed to investigate Finnish primary school teachers' experiences of the three-tiered support system, which was launched in 2010-2011 with the goal of promoting the inclusive approach in Finnish compulsory school. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with eight teachers in Finland, and the analysis was based on a…