Anna-Maija Niemi

Framing and classifying the theoretical and practical divide: how young men’s positions in vocational education are produced and reproduced

Research material from ethnographic studies of vocational upper secondary educational programmes in Finland and Sweden presented here indicates that the discourse of schoolwork as being either theoretical or practical is firmly fixed. However, the students on the researched programmes were aware of recent changes in the labour market that raise a need for generalisation, or at least knowledge of both practical and theoretical aspects of their programme-specific subjects. They referred to the changes with notions suggesting that a practical and theoretical divide was neither meaningful nor helpful for their education. We discuss how a stereotyped idea of what was thought of as ‘man’s work’ made it difficult for students who wanted to accomplish tasks considered as theoretical and how the teachers’ framing of pedagogic practice intensified or ameliorated this difficulty. We also address the dichotomy between theoretical and practical by contemplating students’ positions within different pedagogical practices. We suggest that some kinds of practices might diminish the dichotomy and could improve the students’ possibilities for fully engaging in their studies.

Getting on the right track? Educational choice-making of students with special educational needs in pre-vocational education and training

This paper explores the educational choice-making of students with special educational needs in the context of Finnish pre-vocational training and one of its programmes, ‘Preparatory and Rehabilitative Instruction and Guidance for Disabled Students’. The authors enquire into the kinds of educational choices available for students in the preparatory programme, and how student counselling meets their educational hopes and future plans. The analysis draws on an ethnographic study of special needs education in post-compulsory education in Finland. It shows that students need to reflect on their educational plans within institutional and diagnostic restrictions and guidance. The authors state that educational choices can be negotiable, but more attention must be given to deconstructing the self-evidences and institutional barriers linked to the transitions of young adults with special educational needs.

Between hopes and possibilities. (Special) educational paths, agency and subjectivities

The article explores educational paths of disabled young people in Finland. Our approach is life-historical: we are interested in how individual paths are formed by historically and culturally specific discourses and practices, and in the cultural understandings concerning disability and educability these carry. We also focus on questions of subjectivity and agency by asking how individuals positioned in these practices build an understanding of themselves, and of the possibilities and obstacles in their educational path. Two life-history interviews are analysed in detail. Our analysis highlights the persistence of stereotypical cultural narratives of disability in the life stories. In addition, it suggests that disability rights discourse has provided an important counter discourse for disabled young adults – a new way of conceptualizing self and ones educational path.

The academic–vocational divide in three Nordic countries: implications for social class and gender

ABSTRACT In this study we examine how the academic–vocational divide is manifested today in Finland, Iceland and Sweden in the division between vocationally (VET) and academicallyoriented programmes at the upper-secondary school level. The paper is based on a critical re-analysis of results from previous studies; in it we investigate the implications of this divide for class and gender inequalities. The theoretical lens used for the synthesis is based on Bernstein´s theory of pedagogic codes. In the re-analysis we draw on previous studies of policy, curriculum and educational praxis as well as official statistics. The main conclusions are that contemporary policy and curriculum trends in all three countries are dominated by a neo-liberal discourse stressing principles such as “market relevance” and employability. This trend strengthens the academic–vocational divide, mainly through an organisation of knowledge in VET that separates it from more general and theoretical elements. This trend also seems to affect VET students’ transitions in terms of reduced access to higher education, particularly in male-dominated programmes. We also identify low expectations for VET students, manifested through choice of textbooks and tasks, organisation of teacher teams and the advice of career counsellors.

Special Support and Neighbourhood School Allocation in Finland: A Study on Parental School Choice.

Abstract Although freedom of parental school choice has expanded to the Finnish education system, the government has maintained the principle of neighbourhood school allocation. Moreover, the Finnish education system has recently undergone a reform of its special needs education; all pupils are entitled to receive support in three categories of general, intensified or special. The focus of this article is to examine parental positions on school choices in relation to the parents’ social class and their children’s support needs in basic education. The results of the study are based on a quantitative questionnaire, which collected responses from 208 participants drawn primarily from four different municipalities in Finland. The study found that the category of a child’s support, rather than the socio-economic class of the parents, determined the child’s school allocations. Furthermore, the more support the parents felt their children needed, the more importance they placed on special education practices and less on the neighbourhood school allocation. In addition, the parents’ opinions were found to differ based on social class, rather than category of support. In conclusion, we argue that the social segregation of students with special educational needs can be avoided, if the principle of neighbourhood school allocation is preserved.

Integration becoming business: Marketisation of integration training for immigrants:

Today, education is massively affected by marketisation and the drastic demands of the global economy. Integration training for immigrants has fallen prey to that; immigrants are employed to serve market needs, which has been attributed to the creation of “integration as business”. In the article, the authors examine how integration training for immigrants becomes organised within the current market-oriented policies and practices; which kinds of discourses are represented and utilised through which one becomes an “integrated immigrant” and; what kinds of consequences this orientation has on the subjects involved in integration training. By bringing examples from their ethnographic data on integration training for immigrants, the authors investigate the ways in which marketisation of integration training implies and elicits certain kinds of immigrant and teacher subjectivities, and analyse the ways in which these subjectivities become produced through the plural and contingent discursive practices across different sites of integration.

Governmentality of disability in the context of lifelong learning in European Union policy

ABSTRACT The possibility to participate in education and lifelong learning has been introduced in EU disability policy in recent decades as one of the key means to improve the socioeconomic position of disabled persons. Simultaneously, lifelong learning has been developed as the defining concept of EU education policy to increase social cohesion and economic competitiveness. However, the education, employment rate and socioeconomic status of disabled persons have remained far below the EU average. In this article, we theorize governmentality to explore (1) how EU lifelong learning and disability policy discourses constitute and govern disabled persons and (2) how disabled persons are positioned in the policy discourses. The data consist of the most relevant EU policy documents concerning lifelong learning and disability policy in the twenty-first century. We argue that the policies constitute and govern disabled persons as a group who do not fulfil the premises set for the lifelong learner, and that consequently, policy discourses marginalize disabled persons instead.