The positioning of dual qualification studies in Finnish upper secondary education and government policy since the 1980s

This article explores the positioning of dual qualifications (DQs) in the Finnish education policy and the education system since the late 1980s. The analysis is carried out in the context of academic-vocational divide. At the end of the 1980s, Finland questioned the functionality of the strict academic-vocational divide in post-compulsory education, and a unified upper secondary education was initiated. DQ was the result of two contradictory political discourses: the aim to make education system more equal and the 1990s’ market oriented education policy. In the 2000s, although segregation at the upper secondary level was strengthened, the DQ simultaneously became an established study route. However, in 2007 due to changes in political power, the DQ was repositioned on the periphery of education policy and academic-vocational divide became stronger. The main focus as regards the functions of DQs until the end of the 2010s was on efforts to enhance the use of educational resources and improve the possibilities for individual and flexible education choices. The aim of the current government, elected in 2019, is to strengthen cooperation at upper secondary level, which is also expected to include DQs. However, the actualisation might be mitigated by the educational reforms of the previous government.

What is the ‘public’ in public education? Mapping past, present and future educational imaginaries of Europe and beyond

This special issue explores past, present and potential future imaginaries of ‘public’ education in Europe and beyond. The special issue is located in a contemporary context of political turmoil, in which one in four European voters allegedly supports populist political parties, with the largest support for far-right forms of populism; it is also set against a historical background of several decades of significant change in the social, political and economic contexts of education, whereby schools and universities have been reimagined and reorganized so as to conform to the marketized and managerialist contours of the neoliberal imaginary; and it is set against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to lockdowns and school closures in many countries and prompted many to question supposedly ‘normal’ ways of doing school and education in less turbulent times. For all these reasons, the special issue is topical and timely.

Navigating European education in times of crisis? An analysis of socio-technological architectures and user interfaces of online learning initiatives

This study casts light on two online learning initiatives funded by the European Commission, and queries their role as policy actors in the long-term project of a “borderless” European Education Area and/or in the remediation of the so-called “refugee crisis.” Particularly, the study aims to contribute to existing research on the policy enactment of European education spaces, while also addressing their implicated times. Social topology has guided a theoretical-conceptual focus on bordering practices, socio-technological architectures, and user interfaces, and their enactment of forms of Europe. This informed the methodology to center around active navigations on user interfaces of these online learning initiatives, based on the argument that these concretize bordering practices and forms of spaces-times. The findings, presented as re-constructions of the active navigations, stress multiple possibilities EC-funded online learning initiatives to evolve, including shifting responsibilities and differentiated learning trajectories. By highlighting these possibilities, the study aims to interpose the relatively short development of digitalization in (European) education, in which digital technologies have been positioned as “flexible” solutions in times of crisis. The study thereby stirs up discussions on how European online learning initiatives could integrate long-term visions with crisis remediations and, accordingly, could support continuously renewable educational spaces-times.

Repair tables, broken vacuum cleaners and posters: Weaving new worlds together in response to breakdowns

When people decide to gather and repair broken devices together, it seems obvious that repairers and visitors gain all kinds of instrumental competences (e.g. repair knowledge, skills, and attitudes) and that they can also experience deeply a transformative learning process about, for example, the need to keep planetary boundaries within the sustainable limits of life. In this article we approach the educational dimension of repair cafés differently and sketch the outlines of a minor public pedagogy. We analyze repair cafés as situated and entangled assemblages of both human and non-human actors; assemblages that are always very local and that need to be analyzed as specific, designated places—and times—where something is at stake. The central focus of this article is on substantiating this notion of a minor public pedagogy by offering a detailed analysis of the particular pedagogic moments that emerge in these encounters between humans and things. The navigational capacity of this public pedagogy is minor in nature as it doesn’t create clear signposts of where to go as humans. Instead, it engenders many moments of and propels humans into a sensory sensitivity for inhabiting the world in the here-and-now.

Museum education and sustainable development: A public pedagogy

The question of how sustainability can be incorporated into all areas of society encourages museums to rethink their approaches to society and education. In this article, we argue that museums have the potential to become key public pedagogies for sustainable development and thereby play a crucial role in encouraging participation in sustainability issues. Due to the complexity of sustainability issues, and the potential disturbances of and difficult experiences resulting from exhibitions displaying them, we suggest that a theoretical framing for the teaching and learning of sustainability issues in museums is necessary. Thus, we argue that in relation to exhibitions displaying sustainability issues, museum education would benefit from a didactical framework in which the relation between teaching, learning, content and situation is taken into account. We also argue that a theoretical framework explaining the relation between exhibition, visitor and educational situation could inform pedagogical discussions about how to incorporate sustainability education into museums. Therefore, we suggest a transactional conceptualization of museum pedagogy for sustainability museum education based on John Dewey’s educational and aesthetic philosophy and Louise Rosenblatt’s theory of reading and writing as a potential approach to the teaching and learning of sustainability issues in museum education.

Tracing the historical construction of a vocational training, adult education and lifelong learning policy space in the European Union from 1951 to present

The purpose of this study is to trace and document the emerging contours of a Vocational Training, Adult Education and Lifelong Learning (VTAELL) space in the EU via an examination of the policy framework built over time in this area over more than six decades, from the inception of today’s European Union to the present day. Nineteen key primary sources were selected from the EU’s legislative record forming the growing overarching legal framework on VTAELL from 1951 to present. These were subjected to a discourse and content analysis, utilizing a process tracing approach to systematically record the gradual construction of VTAELL policy. The narrative shows that policy evolution in this field can be grouped into three distinct stages: policy groundwork; programmatic operationalization; consolidation, integration and expansion. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that the convergence and cross-referencing of EU’s VTAELL policy across education sectors validates the importance and consolidation of this policy space.

Educators’ interpretations of children’s belonging across borders: Thinking and talking with an image

European quality framework for early childhood education and care calls for creating environments that support all children’s sense of belonging. This study aims to advance empirical knowledge on educators’ interpretations of children’s belonging in early education settings. The study is part of a project conducted in five European countries – Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. The following research question guides the study: How do educators interpret children’s belonging in early education across borders? The study draws from the theory of the politics of belonging by Yuval-Davis and employs ‘thinking and talking with an image’ as a methodological approach. The findings explicate educators’ taken-forgranted categorisations, thus portraying their views about educational settings as sites for children’s belonging. Opposing, joint play and being alone were identified as emotionally loaded interactions that educators interpreted as significant for children’s belonging. The educators emphasised democratic values, such as diversity, participation, equality and equity. However, they viewed diverse tensions in embodying democratic values in a diverse group. The shared basis of the profession appeared as a more significant basis for educators’ interpretations than the different societal contexts. The study encourages educators and researchers in European countries to collaborate in promoting children’s belonging.

Theorizing the affective regime of “best practice” in education policy

This paper theorizes the affective and moral grounding of “best practice” policymaking, particularly how best practice operates as an affective regime that encourages certain affective norms. To illustrate this, the author takes up the example of best practices promoted by the CoE’s Digital Citizenship Education Handbook for the acquisition of digital citizenship competences. It is shown that the distribution of best practices creates a set of affective conditions—especially through cultivating certain affective skills/competences and ethics/morals—that govern the ways in/though which best practices ought to be appropriately materialized. The paper discusses two implications of this analysis for education policymaking and policymakers. The first implication suggests that there needs to be work informing policymakers how affect works to create regimes of best practice; the second implication emphasizes the importance of working with policymakers to explore how they could challenge affective regimes of best practice.

Governing through consensus? The European Semester, soft power and education governance in the EU

This paper discusses the workings of the European Semester (ES) in relation to the policy field of education. My study shows how the ES enables the steering of education policy through encouraging specific economic and employment-related actions by European Union (EU) member states. With a focus on the relationship between the EU institutions and member states, this paper examines how the ES discursively promotes certain approaches to education through country-specific recommendations (CSRs). In this study, CSRs are revealed as policy spaces where European and national interests are brought together, enabling shared problem definition and collective learning. The paper illustrates how policy moves through translation and negotiation in the construction of CSR. The evidence drawn on here comes from analysis of CSRs in 2011–2016 and 15 semi-structured interviews with key policy actors, mainly from the European Commission, Council and Parliament. This paper concludes that CSRs work through soft power to manage governing tensions through translation and by building convergence and consensus. The analysis is framed theoretically by research on governing and knowledge and draws on a social constructivist perspective on policy work.

Language teachers’ accounts of challenges in two European settings of integration training

This study investigates the work of second language teachers in two institutional settings responsible for integration training. By exploring teachers’ accounts in Finland and Germany, we seek to deepen the understanding of the daily practice of second language education. Bridging conceptual and practical approaches, the aim is to contribute to the current discourse on the development of adult second language education in Europe. A phenomenographic analysis of semi-structured interviews reveals challenges that influence instruction from inside and outside institutional practice. Accounts in the Finnish setting depict issues in how language education, teachers’ work, and adult education are perceived. Administration and language teachers disagree on what needs to be improved in a changing societal environment. Professional pride and appreciation are strongly demanded in a profession that is still being established, and challenges specific to adult education translate into priorities in delivering instruction. In the German setting, expressions culminate in prerequisites, and challenges lie in the way external factors influence course design and instruction. They also touch upon learning: methods, materials, and abilities. Feelings of inadequacy describe teachers’ psychological working environment. A comparison concludes a need to defend contact teaching in Finland and to improve tracking of slower learners’ progress in Germany.