Osmo Kivinen

Expanding Education and Improving Odds? Participation in Higher Education in Finland in the 1980s and 1990s

This article focuses mainly on the key results of research on the differences in participation in higher education in Finland in the 1980s and 1990s. The recent discussion surrounding the methods of measuring participation in higher education is also considered. The results show that, in 1980, the odds for children of the well educated participating in higher education was 13 times greater than that of children of fathers with only a basic level of education. Since then, the trend has decreased slowly from 12 in 1985 to 10 in 1995. Despite the various egalitarian policy measures applied by the State, the difference in participation, indicated by the odds ratio 10, is still enormous, and the actual situation for youth with poor family backgrounds has not changed during the past decades. The persistent inequality of educational opportunity in relative terms revealed by the odds ratio, which the authors argue to be the appropriate measure for changes over time, is analysed further by exploring regional differences and the differences between various fields of study. It is shown that the real competition for higher education is among the well off. This is illustrated by a metaphor from bicycle racing: even if the tail-end cyclists reach the main pack, the front-runners widen their gap between the main pack.

Toward Pragmatist Methodological Relationalism From Philosophizing Sociology to Sociologizing Philosophy

In this article, relationalist approaches to social sciences are analyzed in terms of a conceptual distinction between “philosophizing sociology” and “sociologizing philosophy.” These mark two different attitudes toward philosophical metaphysics and ontological commitments. The authors’ own pragmatist methodological relationalism of Deweyan origin is compared with ontologically committed realist approaches, as well as with Bourdieuan methodological relationalism. It is argued that pragmatist philosophy of social sciences is an appropriate tool for assisting social scientists in their methodological work, especially as regards problem-driven case studies.

Even Higher Learning Takes Place by Doing: From Postmodern Critique to Pragmatic Action.

This article starts out from the postmodern critique on higher education, which presents a challenge to discard the contemplative conception of knowledge and promotes a pragmatic conception of inquiry, knowing how and higher learning. Experimental everyday inquiry and scientific research do not differ from each other in this respect: both entail learning by doing as the experience accumulating through action shapes both the actors habits and the knowing how on which they are based. Under the conditions in which the special nature of traditional scientific knowledge is questioned, students should be acquainted with unprejudiced action that experiments with and questions everything we are used to, and yet is based on consideration even in doubtful situations. The article offers a starting point for embedding learning that is achieved by inquiring, experimenting and doing in the higher education curriculum. Although questioning conventional production of contemplative knowledge, the article calls for a strong academic community which allows researchers themselves to decide in their scientific discussions what is science and what is not.

Didactic closure: Professionalization and pedagogic knowledge in Finnish teacher education

This article concerns the kind of symbolic and strategic value that science-legitimated pedagogical knowledge has in the professionalization of teacher education. The aim is to try to understand certain peculiarities in this body of knowledge through studying the history of the “science of teaching” and of the professionalization of teacher education in Finland. The conclusion is that there are at least three professionalist drifts that produce and reproduce a kind of “decontextualized pedagogic discourse” in Finnish teacher education: the pursuit of science legitimation, loyalty to state educational reforms and a striving for distinction from rival disciplines. The analysis shows that, at least up to the present day, the science-legitimated knowledge system for teacher education has served as a very successful strategy in the struggles on the field of Finnish higher education.

State, Governmentality and Education--the Nordic Experience.

Abstract In our article, we first interrogate the prevailing monolithic concept of the State, and introduce the concept of ‘governmentality’ originated by Michel Foucault. We then explore how governmentality has historically been linked with education, and specifically with the evolution of ‘civilizing the rabble’, inculcating deference, and more recently with the development of the Scandinavian ‘Caring State’. Finally, we explore the changing tasks of education in a society increasingly characterized by risks and uncertainty, and explore the nature of the social contracts which could correspond to the new conditions.

World-wide university rankings: A Scandinavian approach

Although universities’ world rankings are popular, their design and methods still request considerable elaborations. The paper demonstrates some shortcomings in the Academic World Ranking of Universities (ARWU, Shanghai Jiao Tong University) ranking methods. One deficiency is that universities’ scale differences are neglected due to omitting the whole input side. By resampling and reanalyzing the ARWU data, the paper proposes an input-output analysis for measuring universities’ scientific productivity with special emphasis on those universities which meet the productivity threshold (i.e. share of output exceeds share of input) in a certain group of universities. The productivity analysis on Scandinavian universities evaluates multidisciplinary and specialized universities on their own terms; consequently the ranking based on scientific productivity deviates significantly from the ARWU.

Changing relations between education and work: on the mechanisms and outcomes of the educational system

This article analyses the mechanisms of a state-organized educational system as it functions between households and the labour market, regulating the passage of age cohorts from the home via school to the labour market. One question is what outcomes the educational system actually produces and what mechanisms are at work in the distribution of educational advantage. In terms of disadvantage, the paper assesses solutions for overcoming the skill gap and entrapment problems of post-industrial society by means of education. In addition to describing how the educational system worked in the conditions of a mature Nordic welfare state and an industrial society based on paid work, feasible ways of reorganizing education in the changing work conditions of an increasingly crisis-ridden post-industrial society are also sought.

Mapping the Field of Stratification in Higher Education: The Finnish Experience.

In formal terms, Finland has a comprehensive higher education system. There are 20 institutions of higher education in the country, all owned by the state, and one of the central objectives in higher education policy has been to establish all of them on an equal footing in terms of basic resources and status. Not until the 1990s has a shift taken place towards the official injection of a competitive element into higher education policy.During recent decades, the states grip on the steering of the universities has been tightening; but the shift towards increased competition means a shift towards domination by market forces.This article examines both the changing tasks of the university, and the fact, despite the egalitarianism of official ‘democratic’ higher education policy, of stratification. The aim of the article is to analyze the diversification linked to the selection function of the Finnish higher education system, and thus to create a basis for the investigation of changing higher education policy.

The Emerging Field of Biotechnology— The Case of Finland:

This article examines the emerging field of todays superscience—biotechnology— within the context of the national innovation system of one small country, namely Finland. This context is explored primarily through the practices of one particular Finnish biotechnology center, BioCity. The Silicon Valley rhetoric, which every self-respecting technology project around the world seems to incorporate into its own vocabulary, is compared with the everyday “reality” of this biotechnology center. The article focuses on the implementation of technology policy, organized following the “triple helix” model, in the field of biotechnology. Some comparisons with different countries are also made to give a picture of Finland in relation with the European life sciences industry. The article is concluded by a consideration of the future prospects of BioCity and Finnish biotechnology.

The School System and Special Education: Causes and Effects in the Twentieth Century.

SUMMARY The article delineates a line of development in which special education and the increasing need for it are connected with the gradual institutionalisation of the modern school model in the school system. In a model of this type the teacher must use the limited time available efficiently to attain the set objectives, which means that any interruptions or disturbances jeopardise the possibility of achieving important goals with the time-limit, and diversity among students becomes a problem. In other words, the more modern the school, the stricter the criteria for normality, the finer the evaluation system, the finer the screening used and, as a result, the greater the amount of deviance which must be handled by special measures.