Early career teachers’ sense of professional agency in the classroom: associations with turnover intentions and perceived inadequacy in teacher–student interaction

Teachers’ capacity to learn intentionally and responsively in the classroom is particularly vulnerable during the first years in the profession. This study investigated the interrelations between early career teachers’ turnover intentions, perceived inadequacy in teacher–student interaction, and sense of professional agency in the classroom. The survey data were collected from 284 in-service teachers with not more than 5 years of experience and analysed by structural equation modelling (SEM). The results showed that the negative relation between turnover intentions and early career teachers’ sense of professional agency was completely mediated by perceived inadequacy in teacher–student interaction. The results indicate that experiences of insufficient abilities to solve pedagogically and socially challenging student situations have a crucial effect on early career teacher’s capacity for adaptive reflection and active transformation of instruction.     

Shared Sense-making in Curriculum Reform: Orchestrating the Local Curriculum Work

This study aims to gain a better understanding of the Finnish national curriculum reform by examining how the educational practitioners, at the district level, orchestrate the shared sense-making concerning the reform work in their school districts. Qualitative focus group data was collected from 12 groups, throughout Finland, that were responsible for orchestrating curriculum reform work at the district level. Results showed that curriculum reform steering groups recognized the importance of orchestrating shared sense-making. They strived to develop functional, context sensitive, and shared strategies for reform implementation across their districts. They employed a range of strategies for managing, navigating, and regulating the shared sense-making of the local curriculum work.     

Sport and civil society in the Nordic region

Abstract

This paper examines the key elements within the relationships of sport and civil society in Scandinavia. The analysis combines themes and developments in Nordic sport and civil society, such as the role of the welfare state and the impacts of neoliberalism, with consideration of specific national experiences, especially in Finland. The discussion has four main parts. First, we set out the principal features of the ‘Nordic model’ of society, and how it shapes sport and civil society relations. Second, we advance a Finnish case study, examining the historical connections of three sectors to the national sport culture. Third, we consider how, in recent decades, the Nordic model has encountered and sought to respond to neoliberalism and globalization processes. Finally, we explore how Nordic societies have sought to influence globalization processes and ‘global civil society’ through sport, specifically through taking lead roles within the transnational ‘sport for development and peace’ sector.     

‘Glocal’ processes in peripheral football countries: a figurational sociological comparison of Finland and Hungary

The aim of this article is to increase the understanding of the global and local contexts in football by finding out what social, cultural and economic dimensions seem to characterize ‘periphery’ football. This study applies figurational sociological perspective, which is applicable to the research on globalization processes and sport. The sources utilized are publications on the history and sociology of football as well as interviews with football practitioners. First, a theoretical framework of the global football figuration is advanced. Second, applying the constructed framework, the concept of periphery football country is discussed. It was found in accordance with previous research that instead of the rigid conceptualization of peripheral football, the various developmental patterns of countries should be studied. Third, the diverse development paths of Finnish and Hungarian football are analysed and compared. It is suggested that in spite of being peripheral, both countries have been increasingly integrated into the global football figuration.     

Teachers’ professional agency and learning – from adaption to active modification in the teacher community

The aim of this study was to examine teacher learning in terms of teachers’ professional agency in the professional community of the school. Altogether 2310 Finnish comprehensive school teachers completed a survey. Results showed that teachers’ active efforts to learn in the professional community and to promote school development cannot be explained, and hence reduced, to a single behavioral attribute. The findings indicated that teacher learning in terms of professional agency in the professional community consists of several elements including: skills, efficacy beliefs, and motivational factors, which entail transforming one’s teaching practices, experiencing collective efficacy, constructing positive interdependency, the appreciation of mutual agreements, and using active strategies of help-seeking. The investigation also suggests that the use of modifying strategies is characteristic of both the teacher’s professional agency as well as the strategies employed to reduce stress.     

Reducing disruptive behaviours and improving classroom behavioural climate with class‐wide positive behaviour support in middle schools

Disruptive behaviour in classrooms is a significant challenge for learning in schools and a risk factor for students’ academic achievement and a significant source of teachers’ work‐related stress. Earlier research shows that clear behavioural expectations, monitoring students’ adherence to them and behaviour‐specific praise are effective practices to reduce disruptive behaviour. Although behaviour problems are common in middle schools, most of the interventions have been developed and studied in elementary schools. This randomised study evaluated the effects of a class‐wide intervention on classroom behavioural climate and disruptive behaviour, on teacher‐experienced stress and on the time needed for behaviour management in middle school. The classes were selected for intervention by their teachers on the basis of poor behavioural climate. The intervention was based on teachers’ cooperation; they collectively agreed on clear behavioural expectations, used positive feedback and, if needed, applied consequences in response to high rates of disruptive behaviour. The results indicated medium to large effects on classroom behavioural climate according to teachers’ evaluations, and somewhat more inconsistent effects on classroom behavioural climate according to student evaluations and in the time needed for behaviour management. The behavioural climate of the classes remained at a constant level during the follow‐up. The intervention was well accepted by teachers and students. The results suggest that an easily applicable intervention may produce significant improvements in classroom behavioural climate in middle schools.     

Educational optimism among parents: a pilot study

This study explored parents' (N = 351) educational optimism in terms of their trust in the possibilities of school to develop children’s intelligence. It was found that educational optimism could be depicted as a bipolar factor with optimism and pessimism on the opposing ends of the same dimension. Optimistic parents indicated more satisfaction with their children’s school and had a relatively positive assessment of their children’s academic success, which they explained in accord with their dynamic notion of intelligence, i.e. the child’s effort and help from the teacher. Parental notions of intelligence seem to serve as an important interpretative source for educational hopefulness.     

Dynamic and shared sense-making in large-scale curriculum reform in school districts

ABSTRACT

Shared sense-making is suggested to be key for curriculum reform. Shared sense-making entails constructing a collective understanding of the meaning for reform, its significance and its implications for schools, through dialogue and negotiation across the levels of the educational system. This study explored changes in hands-on strategies of shared sense-making, and ways of orchestrating curriculum reform work in the districts in Finland, following the introduction of new national curriculum policy. Longitudinal focus group interview data collected from curriculum coordinating groups during the reform work was utilised. The data were qualitatively content analysed. The two sets of shared sense-making strategies were identified in this study, including those strategies utilised by the groups in building their understanding of what the reform is all about, and those concerning the reform orchestration. The strategies employed evolved from simple to more complex, during the progression of curriculum work. Results also showed that the coordinating groups were well aware of their high autonomy and resulting responsibility in orchestrating the district-level curriculum work. However, the advance in shared sense-making strategies employed by the groups indicated that they were highly committed to constructing collective understanding about the reform, its significance and implications for schools through dialogue and negotiation with practitioners.     

The impact of learning difficulties and socioemotional and behavioural problems on transition to postsecondary education or work life in Finland: a five-year follow-up study

Learning difficulties have been found to dilute the possibilities that young adults have in their educational careers. However, during the last few decades, education has become increasingly important for employment and overall life satisfaction. In the present study, we were interested in the effects of mathematical and reading difficulties and socioemotional and behavioural problems (measured at age 16) on three educational situations at age 21: delayed graduation from upper secondary education, short educational trajectory and not being engaged in education, employment or training (NEET). The participants (N = 597; 304 females, 293 males) were one age cohort of ninth graders in general education classes, who were followed for five years after completion of compulsory education. This time frame included two different transition phases: first, from comprehensive education to upper secondary education, and second, from upper secondary education to further studies or to working life. Structural equation modelling was used as analysis method. The findings show that mathematical and reading difficulties as well as socioemotional and behavioural problems had significant long-term effects on the participants’ educational careers. New in part was that these learning difficulties seemed to have somewhat divergent emphases on the three investigated life situations: (1) mathematical difficulties, more strongly than reading difficulties, caused the students to attain lower levels of education, (2) mathematical difficulties and socioemotional problems predicted a student ending up in the NEET group and (3) reading difficulties and behavioural problems predicted delayed graduation from upper secondary education.     

Implications of Overlapping Difficulties in Mathematics and Reading on Self-Concept and Academic Achievement

In this study, the relationship between adolescents’ difficulty in mathematics and reading and the influence on academic self-concept and school grades was examined. The participants (N = 585; 299 girls, 286 boys) were one age group of ninth-graders whose mathematics and reading skills were assessed at the end of comprehensive school at age 16 years. Five student profile groups were found using cluster analysis: best achievers, normal achievers (NA), the reading difficulty (RD) group, the mathematical difficulty (MD) group, and the learning difficulty (LD) group. Post-hoc tests revealed that the RD group and the LD group had a higher academic self-concept than the MD group. In school grades history, surprisingly, the NA group and the RD group performed equally well across all school grades. Students in the MD group performed as poorly as the LD group. The results emphasise the prolonged and generalised effects of especially MD on students’ academic careers.