Hannu Räty

Risk-Taking Abilities for Everyone? Finnish Entrepreneurship Education and the Enterprising Selves Imagined by Pupils.

This article examines the spread of the neo‐liberal educational policy in Finnish schools by considering entrepreneurship education. We examined the kinds of gendered and classed enterprising selves that were narrated in the Finnish writing competition Good Enterprise! written by pupils in the 9th grade of comprehensive school. In their narratives of enterprising selves, the pupils constructed the middle‐class version of the self, where the person was not contingent upon external effects but an autonomous self‐governing individual. Moreover, the possible selves of boys matched the culturally valued representations of the autonomous, risk‐taking entrepreneurial individual more closely than the self‐representations of girls did. However, it was especially the boys’ narratives of modest entrepreneurship with the traditional virtues of the respectable citizen that were successful in the competition. This finding is in conflict with the educational policies of the European Union, which call for risk‐taking abilities and competition as pre‐conditions for achieving progress.

Conceptions of intelligence as social representations

The aim of the study was to investigate the theory put forward by Mugny and Carugati that social representations of intelligence are organised both by social identity and by experiences of unfamiliarity. Parents’, teachers’ and students’ conceptions of intelligence were examined in two separate questionnaire-based studies, the first one (N=196) dealing with views on the development of intelligence, and the second one (N=222) with views on the definitions of intelligence. It was found that social identity (“fostererhood” and teacherhood) tends to organise the conceptions in terms of the “theory of natural inequalities”, as suggested by Mugny and Carugati. However, the experienced unfamiliarity of intelligence had a clear effect only on the conceptions of development, and there were no general associations between social identity and experienced unfamiliarity. We suggest that the social representations of intelligence might be organised in terms of several basic themes, with one dealing with the puzzle of development, another with the definition of intelligence, and a third, more general one, treating the whole concept of intelligence with suspicion and apprehension.

What comes after compulsory education? A follow‐up study on parental expectations of their child’s future education

This paper examines the contribution of parents’ education and children’s gender on parental expectations of their children’s future education and the role of parental perceptions of their child’s competencies in the formation of their expectations. A group of university and vocationally educated parents (N = 418) were asked to estimate the probability of their child entering gymnasium (high school) or vocational education and assess the child’s competencies, first in preschool, and then at the end of the third school year. It was found that the education and gender‐bound differences in the parental expectations were established before the child entered school, and by the end of the third school year the relationships between expectations and competence assessments strengthened and were more uniform among the parents. The findings suggested that the parental assessments of their child’s abilities can be regarded as a potentially important social‐psychological process through which social differences are transformed into the individualized interpretations of the child’s educational prospects.

Parents’ assessments of their children’s abilities

Conducted in the framework of the theory of social representations, the study was designed to examine the dimensions in terms of which parents assess their children’s abilities, the ways in which social positions — here, the parents’ education and gender and the child’s gender — organize these assessments, and the ways in which the assessments relate to the estimated school success of the child. The subjects were a nationwide sample of parents (N=938), who were asked to estimate their children’s school success and to assess these children’s abilities. A factor analysis showed the ability assessments to be multidimensional. The parents assessed girls’ cognitive and social abilities to be better than boys’. Academically educated parents drew a more categorical distinction than other parents between cognitive and other abilities, which suggests that they endorse a differential conception of intelligence. A clear congruity of content was observed between the estimations of school success and the assessments of abilities, indicating that different school subjects are associated with different abilities.RésuméLe but de cette recherche concernant les représentations sociales, était de trouver les dimensions selon lesquelles les parents évaluent les aptitudes de leurs enfants, comment le niveau d’étude et le sexe des parents aussi bien que le sexe de l’enfant influencent ces évaluations, et enfin d’étudier comment les évaluations des parents sont en rapport avec les évaluations concernant le réussite scolaire des enfants. Les parents interrogés constituent un large échantillon (n=938); on leur a demandé d’estimer la réussite scolaire et les aptitudes de leurs enfants. L’analyse factorielle montre que ces évaluations sont multidimensionnelles. Les parents estiment les capacités cognitives et sociales des filles supérieures à celles des garçons. Les parents ayant une formation académique on fait une distinction plus stricte que les parents moins éduqués entre les capacités intellectuelles et les autres aptitudes, ce qui indique que ces parents ont une conception différenciée de l’intelligence. Nous avons également constaté que l’on associe généralement les différentes matières scolaires à des aptitudes différentes.

Learning the Class Test.

The class test is one of the important school practices which construct and convey to the pupils the predominant conception of ability and the related psychometric notion of individuality represented by the school. The aim of this study was to examine how the class test is actually ‘taught’ to children — what sorts of elements the teacher uses to construct it, how the children interpret those elements, and how they, act in the test situations — and how the class teacher tries to find a balance in her work between the dilemmas of pupil assessment. The research was focused on the classroom situations of one first-grade class during one autumn term. The ethnographic findings indicated that the frequency of test-like situations was high and that they started as early as the first few days of school. The instructions which regulated the tests were quite similar in all test situations, and their number and preciseness increased in the course of the school term. The dilemmatic nature of the class test surfaced as the teacher used the techniques of ‘silencing’ and ‘counterbalancing’ to avoid presenting the tests explicitly as tests proper. To the children, the test situations manifest themselves as learning situations. They participate actively, and apparently they do not yet see the differential and evaluative import of the situations. Practicing the class test can then be viewed as an important priming event in the formation of pupils’ social representations of academic ability.RésuméL’épreuve en classe est l’une des pratiques scolaires importantes qui forment et transmettent aux élèves la conception prédominante d’abilité et la notion psychomètrique de l’individualité représentée par l’école. L’objectif de cette étude était d’examiner, comment l’épreuve en classe était réellement “enseignée” aux enfants, quels genres d’éléments le professeur utilisait pour la préparer, comment les enfants interprétaient ces éléments, comment ils agissaient en situation d’épreuve et comment l’enseignant de classe cherchait à trouver l’équilibre dans son travail entre les dilemmes d’évaluation des élèves. La recherche fut concentrée sur les situations en classe primaire pendant le trimestre d’automne. Les résultats ethnographiques démontrèrent que la fréquence des situations semblables à celles des épreuves était élevée et que ces situations débutaient dès les premiers jours de l’école. Les instructions qui réglementaient les épreuves, étaient assez similaires dans toutes les situations d’épreuve et leur nombre et leurs précisions augmentaient au cours de l’année scolaire. La nature embarrasssante de l’épreuve de classe surgissait lorsque l’enseignant utilisait la technique de “silence” et de “contrebalance” pour éviter de présenter les épreuves, de manière explicite, comme des épreuves proprement dites. Pour les élèves les situations d’épreuve se présentaient comme des situations pour apprendre. Ils participaient activement, et apparemment, ils ne voyaient pas encore la portée des situations sur le plan de différentiel et d’évaluation. Par conséquent, l’épreuve en classe peut être considérée comme un événement important décisif dans la formation des représentations sociales de l’abilité académique des élèves.

Parents’ Participation in Their Child’s Schooling

The present study set out to survey Finnish parents’ participation in their child’s schooling and related experiences. The subjects were a nationally representative group of academically and vocationally educated fathers and mothers (N = 391) who had a child on the fifth grade. A great majority of the parents reported that they attended the parent evenings and saw them in a positive light. Most parents helped their child in her/his schoolwork, though some of them were doubtful of their own competence for it. The choice of schools, which was considered mainly by urban parents and academically educated parents, seemed to introduce a new private element into parental participation without changing the existing communal forms of participation.

Parents' Educational Expectations and their Social-Psychological Patterning

This study set out to examine the ways in which the educational position of parents organizes the associations between their assessments of the competence of their children and their educational expectations for their children. The subjects represented two contrasting groups in terms of their post-primary education: academically educated (n = 126) and vocationally educated (n = 375) parents. They were asked to assess their childs abilities and school success and to estimate the probability of their childs entering gymnasium (upper secondary school). The results indicated that for the academically educated parents their childs entering gymnasium was almost self-evident, whereas for the vocationally educated parents it was a choice situation. The educational expectations of the vocationally educated parents were more strongly and in more ways patterned according to the competence estimations than were those of the academically educated parents. The expectations of the academically educated parents were organized by a dualistic differentiation between the cognitive and the practical abilities, while those of the vocationally educated parents were organized by their assessments of the childs cognitive competence and school orientation. The findings suggest that the interpretations parents make of their childrens competence can be regarded as social representations of educability: they organize educational expectations socially, contain an evaluative hierarchy of abilities and their use varies according to the educational position of the parent.

Parents' Own School Recollections Influence Their Perception of the Functioning of Their Child's School.

This follow-up study set out to examine whether parents’ recollections of their own school would predict their degree of satisfaction with the functioning of their child’s school. A group of academically educated and vocationally educated parents with a child in preschool (N=391) were asked to think back to their primary school days and evaluate their school; these parents were then asked to indicate their satisfaction with the functioning of their child’s school once the child had reached the first, the third and the fifth grade. The parents’ recollections were found to influence their degree of satisfaction: among the academically educated respondents, the parents with relatively positive recollections showed higher levels of satisfaction than the parents with relatively negative recollections did; and among the vocationally educated respondents, the mothers with relatively positive recollections indicated higher levels of satisfaction than the mothers with relatively negative recollections did. It was suggested that parents’ recollections may be seen as an experience-based component of their general attitude towards education.RésuméCette étude longitudinale se propose d’examiner si les souvenirs d’école des parents peuvent déterminer leur niveau de satisfaction quant au fonctionnement de l’école de leur enfant. On a demandé à un groupe de parents avec une éducation universitaire ou professionnelle ayant un enfant au cours préparatoire (CP) (N=391) de se souvenir de leur temps à l’école primaire et d’évaluer leur école; on leur a ensuite demandé d’indiquer leur niveau de satisfaction quant au fonctionnement de l’école de leur enfant une fois que l’enfant a atteint le CP (lère), le CE2 (3ème) puis le CM2 (5ème). Il est apparu que les souvenirs des parents influencent leur degré de satisfaction. En ce qui concerne les parents ayant une éducation universitaire, ceux dont les souvenirs d’école sont positifs montrent une satisfaction plus grande que les parents dont les souvenirs sont négatifs. En ce qui concerne les parents ayant une éducation professionnelle, les mères dont les souvenirs d’école sont positifs indiquent un niveau de satisfaction supérieur aux mères dont les souvenirs sont négatifs. Cela suggère que les souvenirs d’école des parents peuvent être considérés comme un composant essentiel de leur attitude envers l’éducation.

Parents' Perceptions of Their Children's Schools: Findings from a Five-Year Longitudinal Study.

This longitudinal study set out to examine, in the light of the parents’ education and gender and the child’s gender, the changes that occurred in the course of five years in parents’ satisfaction with the functioning of their child’s school. Academically and vocationally educated mothers and fathers (N = 391) were asked to indicate their satisfaction with different aspects of their child’s school at the end of the first, third and fifth school year. It was found that the level of parental satisfaction was fairly high at the start, and despite a decreasing trend, it remained high; parental satisfaction was widely shared, and the number of dissatisfied parents remained small and stable. The academic parents displayed more satisfaction with their child’s school success and the fairness of the treatment than the vocational parents did. The results are discussed in terms of educational policy.

“You be Sure Now to be Honest in Your Assessment”: Teaching and Learning Self-Assessment

When taking part in the everyday practices of the school, the pupil ‘metalearns’ implicit institutional knowledge about educability and its proper criteria. The aim of this study was to examine one important school practice, self-assessment: How is self-assessment ‘taught’ to children, what is assessed through the self-assessment method, how is self-assessment introduced to children, and how do they perceive those situations? The ethnographic research focused on the classroom situations of one class of first-graders during one autumn term. The data were collected by means of regular observation, video recordings, short interviews, documents, and informal conversations with the teachers, pupils and parents. The findings indicated that the frequency of self-assessment episodes was particularly high in the domains of writing, mathematics, and social skills and behaviour; self-assessment situations were a ‘natural’ part of everyday teaching practices. According to our observations, the result of the self-assessment was considerably explicit. The teacher made sure that the pupils assessed their performance in the way she wanted. The teaching of self-assessment also teaches the child what assessment criteria the school regards as important and how well the child fulfils these criteria. According to our analysis, these important assessment criteria are objectiveness (compliance to standard), honesty, and individuality (a product that ‘looks like’ its author). The children practised self-assessment actively and were apparently capable of assessing their own performance. Our results suggest that ‘the self’ in self-assessment is paradoxical: you can assess yourself as long as you assess the right things in the right way.