A comparative analysis of primary teacher professionalism in England and Finland

Policy‐makers' conceptions of teacher professionalism currently differ markedly in England and Finland. In England they are shaped by agendas associated with the drive to raise standards and ‘commercialized professionalism’ whilst in Finland they are influenced by notions of ‘teacher empowerment’. This article analyses findings on the theme of teacher professionalism derived from re‐interviewing a sample of English and Finnish teachers in 2001 as a follow‐up to earlier ethnographic research in six schools in each country during 1994–1996. Issues of professionalism are addressed through three broad themes: the impact of curriculum and pedagogical reforms; working together to implement these reforms; and accountability and control. It is argued that in each country teachers' conceptions of their professionalism were undergoing reconstruction. These conceptions were shaped by past and present ideology, policy and practice and displayed multiple and situational dimensions.     

Highly committed teachers: what makes them tick? A study of sustained commitment

This article focuses on teacher commitment, and particularly on teachers displaying sustained high levels of commitment throughout their teaching careers (over 15 years). Graduates from one Teacher Education programme responded to an open-ended questionnaire conducted on 10 occasions concerning their work as teachers, from graduation in 1993 to 2013. Out of the 72 who responded on all nine occasions, eight teachers stating high levels of commitment throughout their careers were selected for additional interviews. A framework containing four commitment factors was used as the point of departure. Content analyses of the interview and selected questionnaire data then resulted in a revised framework of five factors: personal, teaching, school context, system context and professional development. Accounts from eight teachers with sustained high commitment illustrate the framework. The article offers an extended framework for understanding and categorising the factors that contribute to teacher commitment.     

Specificity of Reading Self-Efficacy Among Primary School Children

We investigated the specificity of reading self-efficacy among second- to fifth-grade children in Finland (N?=?1,327). Bandura (1997 Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York, NY: Freeman. [Google Scholar]) theorized that efficacy beliefs can be assessed at different levels of specificity; however, empirical support for this view is scarce among young children. Efficacy beliefs targeting reading-related activities were assessed at three specificity levels (general, intermediate, and specific). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that these specificity levels are separable, but correlated, and the structure was invariant across gender and grade level. Self-efficacy factors were positively associated with reading fluency, but the strength of these associations varied according to specificity level. Findings suggest that reading self-efficacy in primary grades can and should be assessed at different specificity levels according to research aims.     

Learning the routines: "professionalization" of newcomers in secondary school

Education systems are expected to enhance both social regulation and emancipation of school students. The contradictions between these aims are visible in the everyday life at school in tensions between control and agency. These tensions are explored in this article by analysing the first two weeks in secondary school, on the basis of ethnographic data collected in the project "Citizenship, Difference and Marginalization in Schools: with Special Reference to Gender." Multilayered processes and practices are involved in the induction of new students. Banal instructions in the "official school," the construction of differences and continuities in the "informal" school, and the ways in which bodies of students are placed in the time-space paths in the "physical" school are explored. The authors ask how school students are taught to become "professional pupils" routinized in the everyday life of their new schools, and how students themselves construct competences through negotiation, withdrawal, or resistance.     

Humour as a resource and strategy for boys to gain status in the field of informal school

Through a feminist approach this paper illustrates how humour is used as a resource and strategy for status among Finnish school boys and in constructing culturally accepted masculinity in the field of informal school. Based on interview and observation material collected in three schools, the results suggest that although humour is often affiliative and positive in nature, exclusive, violent humour is also used as a resource and strategy, which might have serious consequences on targeted students’ lives. The effect of humour as a symbolic resource of status depends not only on context and power relations between the agents, but also on a credible, strategic usage of the resources available to a boy. Humour has an important influence on constructing masculinities and the social status of boys. Furthermore, the status of a boy defines the value of his humour among his peer group.     

Documentation practices and recordkeeping: a matter of trust or distrust?

Records are more and more important as instruments of trust, for instance to ascertain accountability. However, they are also objects to be trusted upon themselves. Rather rigorous requirements are established to guarantee the trustworthiness of records; requirements are more elaborated in the digital environment than those that have previously been attributed to analogue records. The purpose of this study is to discuss the conceptualization of trust and trustworthiness in relation to records, and to analyze the relation between the increasing reliance on formal documentation in contemporary organizations and the requirements on records and recordkeeping systems that has been advanced recent years. It can be argued that the effort to enhance trustworthiness actually is a manifestation of diminishing trust.     

Word Reading Skills and Externalizing and Internalizing Problems from Grade 1 to Grade 2—Developmental Trajectories and Bullying Involvement in Grade 3

ABSTRACT

School bullying is associated with externalizing and internalizing problems, but little is known about whether reading difficulties also play a part. We asked how, in Grades 1 and 2, word reading skills and externalizing/internalizing problems predict the degree to which students are involved in bullying in Grade 3. Using a sample of 480 Finnish children (M age = 7 years 2 months at the beginning of the study), developmental profiles were identified using mixture modeling based on reading skills, as well as externalizing and internalizing problems. In Grade 3, one fifth of the students were involved in bullying as victims, bullies, or bully/victims. Poor readers with externalizing/internalizing problems were most involved as bullies and bully/victims but not as victims. Average readers with externalizing/internalizing problems were also involved in bullying, whereas students with only reading difficulties were not. Skilled readers displayed little externalizing/internalizing problems and were not involved in bullying.     

Embodied Reflection of Images as an Arts-Based Research Method: Teaching Experiment in Higher Education

Interchange - This paper discusses a teaching experiment in which 20 university students in Finland participated in the course Critical and Novel Approaches to Management and Organisational...     

Openness in developing inter-organizational innovation

The paper describes empirical findings on how openness is realized in practical innovation projects involving different organizations. The purpose of the study is to increase the understanding of how openness should be managed in the various forms of inter-organizational innovation development. The main research interest is in how openness is manifested in developing innovations with different organizations involved in inter-organizational innovation projects. Subsidiary research questions are: ‘What is open?’, ‘To whom is it open?’ and ‘How open is it?’. The study applied qualitative case study methodology, and empirical data were collected by semi-structured interviews with management personnel in 40 organizations in Finland and the Netherlands. The findings reveal that openness in innovation is a multifaceted issue that can have very different meanings in different contexts. In the context of the study, the answer to the first sub-question (‘What is open?’) is obvious. It is the innovation project; its input, process and outcome. As for ‘To whom is it open?’, interviewees made a clear distinction between projects with known actors and projects that may include unknown actors. Answering ‘How open is the project?’, one can distinguish between different projects according to which attribute best describes the openness of the project – readable, usable, or modifiable. Answers to the three sub-questions conceptualize the issue of openness in inter-organizational innovation development and can be considered theoretical conclusions of the study. By combining the answers, five characteristic levels of openness in inter-organizational innovation were derived as practical implications of the study for R&;D and innovation management.     

Associations of subjective social status with accelerometer-based physical activity and sedentary time among adolescents

This study examined the associations of subjective social status (SSS) with physical activity (PA) and sedentary time (ST) among adolescents. The study population consisted of 420 Finnish adolescents aged 13 to 14 years. The adolescents reported their own SSS within their school (school SSS) and their family’s social position within society (society SSS) based on the youth version of the Subjective Social Status Scale. Adolescents’ moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) and ST were measured objectively by accelerometers and analyzed separately for the whole day and the school day. The associations between SSS and MVPA and ST outcomes were analyzed using multilevel modeling. School SSS was positively associated with whole-day MVPA and negatively associated with school-time ST. Society SSS was not significantly associated with objectively measured MVPA or ST. Both MVPA and ST are important behavioral determinants of health. As an important correlate of MVPA and ST, school SSS should be addressed by providers when discussing obesity risk and healthy behaviors with adolescents.