Browsing by Subject "education"

In response to the increasing need for an effective method to compare student performance on the international scale, the Organization for Economic Cooperation (OECD) launched the Program for International Student Assessment, better known as the PISA, in 1997. As such, PISA not only establishes an internally agreed upon framework between countries, but it also binds the commitment of OECD member states to regularly assessing the impact of educational systems on student performance. According to the first published PISA results, PISA “aims at providing a new basis for policy dialogue and for collaboration in defining and operationalizing educational goals— in innovative ways that reflect judgment about the skills that are relevant to adult life.” In simple terms, PISA seeks to evaluate how well 15-year-olds are prepared for the challenges they will face in life. Finland has ranked among the top countries since the first administration of the triennial PISA in 2000. Despite measuring well against its OECD counterparts, Finland, which once topped the PISA ranks, has since experienced a relative decline in performance. The mediation of PISA results has undeniably affected Finland’s image of education. This media discourse analysis uses major American newspaper outlets to unearth how Finland’s image has been affected by PISA results. These newspapers’ presentations of Finnish PISA performance further reveal how the US understands its own academic system. Ultimately, PISA asserts that academic institutions can make a profound difference on the individual, country, and global levels. Since PISA results can influence the academic decisions and policies of a given country, then the assessment must also make a difference on the individual, country, and global levels. Since the OECD drives forward the PISA, then the OECD also has an influence on the beforementioned levels. Thus, the OECD not only shapes representations of countries, but it also hinges on media as a vehicle by which to deliver these representations internationally. Although commonly overlooked, the OECD is a relevant and power-wielding actor because its PISA index reinforces and challenges narratives of academic exceptionalism, as exemplified by the case of Finland in this study. Does the OECD’s positioning as an overlooked actor magnify its power?

This thesis answers to a question “Why adolescent girls drop out of school in Northern Uganda?” In Uganda, approximately 70% of the children drop out of public school before 7th grade, the final year of primary school. In northern Uganda, girls drop out of school in more significant numbers than boys, and it happens around the age when girls reach puberty. Northern Uganda is also a particular location because it is recovering from long conflict, affecting strongly the whole population living in the area. The thesis is based on two-month ethnographic fieldwork in northern Uganda during the spring of 2015. To answer the main research question this study seeks to analyse it through taking a look how the school, the community and the girls themselves experience and talk about dropping out, education and growing up in the current post-conflict state of the social life. The thesis argues that the dropout rate is linked to the adolescence as life-stage of becoming an adult that is making the girls to make decisions about the future. The analysis is done through three different perspectives – the educational, societal and personal narratives of the youth. The first perspective is the education and schooling in northern Uganda. It explores the concept of ’educated person’ by Levinson and Holland through sexual education and gender in education. The study shows that Ugandan public primary and secondary education is deriving its ideas and understanding of educated person from the national curriculum, which often conflict with the local concepts of the educated person in the Acholi community, influencing the blamed and real reasons for dropping out. The second perspective looks into the community and the societal pressures the girls are facing when growing up. It will describe family, kinship, marriage and gender in post-conflict context and show how in these areas of life, the past conflict, “loss of culture”, generational conflicts and subsequent disobedience are presented as reasons behind the challenges to stay in school. The third perspective tells the stories of the girls met and talked to during the ethnographic fieldwork in Northern Uganda. It answers the question “What is happening in the life of a girl when she drops out of school?”. It is argued that the girls take actions of a gendered agency to further their lives and become adults. Thus, dropping out of school cannot just be explained as a simple event just suddenly happening without their own will. It will further answer the question “What makes some girls stay in school?” to show how those girls still in school manage the crosscurrents of growing up in Acholiland. The thesis argues that the girls in northern Uganda are active appropriators and social agents who through their own actions contest, struggle and penetrate the structures in their society while also at the same time reproduce them. In Northern Uganda, both the community and the state together with different international agencies will have plans and expectations for the girls’ future. The study shows how the girls navigate the school, community and peer expectations and sociocultural and economic structures to stay or finally drop out of school. These structures are state organised and aid-infused formal schooling and society in amidst of post-conflict recovery which creates a framework where the girls are acting. The school presents the modern and globally orientated educated person, and in contrast to it, the community is looking for to restore ‘traditional’ way of life. It is argued that these two sides are often in conflict and in the middle of this conflict the girls act and solve their way out of it, looking for adulthood and gaining respectable status in the society. The schools, the community and even sometimes the development actors see the girls as passively following the things they will encounter. The thesis will show that they are not. The girls either stay in school or drop out of it, but more often as a consequence of their own decisions and actions than passively because the school or the community could not support them. It is demonstrated that dropping out of school looks more of line a tactic for the future as a respectable grown-up than mere problem to be solved.

The focus of this thesis is on the education of indigenous peoples, especially on how education can facilitate territorial self-determination and political emancipation for them. Indigenous movements world-wide and in Ecuador have focused on creating education respectful of and relevant to indigenous cultural background and knowledge. This thesis explores further the interconnectedness of education and indigenous territorial politics, as they have been together in the forefront of the indigenous movement in Ecuador, and they link the epistemological struggle of recognising Indigenous knowledges to environmental issues prevalent in the country dependent on extractivism. As indigenous peoples often inhabit environmentally vulnerable regions, this thesis examines how for the indigenous groups of Ecuadorian Amazon the relationship between education and territory can aim to be mutually beneficial, encouraging both preservation of the diverse cultures and environment in the biocultural landscapes. The research was conducted as an ethnographical case study on the province of Pastaza, situated in the Ecuadorian Amazon with a special focus on the indigenous group known as Sapara, who are the smallest of 14 indigenous nationalities recognised under the plurinational state of Ecuador. The data of the study consisted of 27 semi-structured interviews and participant observation recorded in the field diary, accompanied by historical analysis of intercultural bilingual education in Ecuador. This thesis illustrates the place-making practices and histories of indigenous peoples, acknowledged under the term Indigenous knowledge, as they form a foundation for territorial politics. Possibility for epistemological diversity in the education system is understood through principle of interculturality, as articulated by the indigenous movement itself as a radical project of recognising lived heritage of cultural and historical differences in dialogue between various segments of society. The topic is examined through the concept of territory, which emphasises a question of governance in plurinational Ecuador, where indigenous nationalities struggle to exercise control over their respective territories. Territory is formed of competing political projects that aim to define and redefine its meaning, which also opens up a definition of territory to scrutinise what type of power actually operates in these political projects and rejects assumptions of simple top-down governance as the only possible territorial form. This theoretical framework facilitates the analysis of education as a part of territorial strategies. The main argument of this thesis is that education constructs a significant part of reinforcing political emancipation and territorial self-determination of indigenous peoples. Based on historical and ethnographical analysis, the thesis illustrates how education functions as a privileged arena of cultural struggle to achieve epistemological diversity that includes Indigenous knowledges alongside with Western science. Simultaneously, education, which is perceived pivotal for living well, acts as a societal force that can transform material foundations of life, since indigenous peoples modify their residential patterns in order to access education. As indigenous territories remain only partly autonomous, since the nation-state retains control over subsoil resources, land continues to be an arena of competing political interests. This accentuates the importance of planning education practices to facilitate living inside the whole territory, since inhabiting space asserts the claims of indigenous groups effectively, allowing them to practice a strategy of dispersal.

Self-rated health (SRH) is a frequently used survey indicator of general health. It is periodically utilised in the study of educational health disparities. Several researchers have, however, suggested that systematic population sub group differences in health self-ratings (reporting heterogeneity) may results in SRH reflecting a different health status, or aspects of health, for different educational groups. Previous studies imply that the associations between SRH and other indicators of health may be strengthened by higher education. However, the studies disagree on the strength and the scope of the interaction effect. Comparability is also an issue due to, for example, the variation in the selected health indicators by which SRH is assessed. No such studies have so far been conducted in Norther Europe. The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to address educational SRH reporting heterogeneity. Using quantitative methods, this thesis analyses which aspects of health are included in dichotomised poor or very poor SRH ratings, and whether education moderates the relationship between SRH and the indicators of health. The selected health indicators represent five health dimensions identified in previous studies: clinical health, functional health, health behaviours, mental health and bodily symptoms and experiences. The analyses are conducted using logistic regression and regression –based nonlinear decomposition methods. The study utilises the Health 2000 data (n= 5586) for the household and institution dwelling population over the age of 30 residing in mainland Finland. The data is nationally representative and consists of a clinical- and mental health examination, and survey sections. Overall, a high volume of somatic complaints was found strongly associated with poor self-rated health for all educational groups. Other significant contributors were functional health, diagnosed mental health conditions, and to some extent diagnosed diseases. An educational interaction effect was found for cardiovascular disease, subjective functional limitations in everyday tasks, and high volume of somatic complaints. In all cases education strengthened the association. However, for the majority of the indicators, SRH was associated with, no interaction effect was found. Compared to those respondents with a higher education, those with lower educational attainments more often reported poor SRH, but the selected health indicators and demographic variables explained virtually the whole difference. The study then, to some extent, concurs with earlier findings of higher education strengthening some of the associating between poor SRH and other indicators of health. However, the effect was statistically significant only when comparing basic education to higher educational attainments, and it was less systematic than some of the previous studies have suggested.

Background and objectives: Currently in Finland, there are over 66 000 women living with breast cancer. The five-year survival rate is 90.6 %. Breast cancer and its treatments are known to impair patients’ health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The current study is a part of an open prospective randomized Breast cancer and exercise (BREX) -study in Finland conducted to investigate whether supervised exercise training shortly after the adjuvant treatments of breast cancer patients could prevent osteoporosis and improve patient’s quality of life. This master thesis examines cross-sectional and prospective associations between the sense of coherence (SOC) and the HRQoL of breast cancer survivors. Methods: 537 long-term breast cancer survivors and controls who participated in a prospective randomized physical exercise intervention with twelve months of supervised exercise training were followed up five years. 406 participants who finished the 5-year follow-up and filled the SOC questionnaire were included in the final analyzes. The SOC was measured by 13-item Finnish and Swedish short forms of Orientation to life Questionnaire (SOC-13) at 3 years. Cancer-specific HRQoL was measured by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30 (EORTC QLQ-C30) version 3 and general HRQoL by the 15D. Associations between the SOC and the HRQoL were studied by logistic regression analyze. Results and conclusion: The SOC was associated with the cancer-specific and the general HRQoL at the 3-year (p < .001) and at the 5-year follow-up (p < .001). The relationship was the most significant for the general HRQoL, global health / quality of life and emotional and cognitive functions. Weak SOC increases the risk of low cancer-specific and low general HRQoL after the adjuvant treatments of breast cancer. Strong SOC as an inner resource may serve as a protective psychological factor in the adaptation process of breast cancer survivors. The SOC-13 questionnaire might be useful in targeting patients vulnerable to decrease in the HRQoL and in planning psychosocial interventions.

EFL Education in Japan has the reputation of being ineffective in teaching students how to speak English. Despite that, there are Japanese who can use English proficiently. This dissertation seeks to answer the question: How do Japanese learners of English obtain language fluency despite numerous flaws in the Japanese EFL education system? The thesis takes a qualitative approach to the issue by interviewing Japanese students at the University of Helsinki to determine how they became so proficient in using English. The results of these interviews suggest that cram schools and university English classes had the most positive influence on the development of their English skills.

This study investigates the relationship between policy and practice of access to education within the architectures of humanitarian action. The importance of education as a human right has been internationally widely acknowledged, and more recently it has gained more foothold in discussions about humanitarian action practices. The thesis deploys a research approach that is based on discourse analysis. To analyse policy, internationally and universally recognized and applicable key documents dealing with access to education have been selected for further inspection. Practice is approached through semi-structured interviews with practitioners in the field of humanitarian action and education, and through a case study of Za’atari refugee camp in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Theoretically this thesis is inspired by poststructuralist development theory (PSDT) and its hyponym discursive institutionalism (DI). Based on these influences, I treat education as an institution that is subject to interventions by different actors and phenomena. The findings of this thesis demonstrate, on one hand, that education has become a more central aspect of policy regarding humanitarian action. On the other hand, the results sheer light on various challenges that actors on the practical side face while intending to implement and follow through on policies and principles of the before mentioned documents in the field. Actors that operate in the field are especially facing challenges with unstable financial resources and shortcomings in bringing policy closer to the needs of the field. The findings of this study also suggest that the importance of education as a central element of humanitarian action in crisis and conflict situations need to be realized further. This applies to both policy and practice, for education is now realized as a mean of protection rather than additional good or service.

Labor market effects of military service have been a popular topic for economic research, and in a subset of these studies, interactions with elements like race, parental socioeconomic status, and ability have been submitted as considerations. Introducing an Mincer-type empirical model for framing the problem, I undertake a literature survey of studies concerning themselves with such treatment effect heterogeneities, complemented by a brief empirical survey using CPS data. It is found that, whether the overall effect of service is positive or negative, comparatively gains/non-losses in earnings and education tend to accrue to the disadvantaged individuals over advantaged ones. The plurality of studies correspondingly find positive-to-neutral effects along this gradient, although neutral-to-negative findings are also featured. The contexts under study commonly involve notable influence from educational subsidies and draft deferment incentives, but there are some counterfactuals, which however are unable to establish a definite causal mechanism between service and earnings or education. The main findings of the paper should be considered in making adjustments to existing compulsory service policies.

Confucianism can be considered as the most important ideology in China, because it was China’s official ideology for more than 2000 years. During this period of time it intertwined with China’s culture, and formed its own discourse to the Chinese society. Confucianism is described as a moral and as a society philosophy, which concentrates on a specific type of education and behaviour. Given this, I will analyse from this point of view how Confucian discourse is expressed in Chinese teachers’ discussion on education and their values. Furthermore, I will survey how they see that Confucianism has affected their values. My material consists of four semi structured interviews, all three of them composed of three bigger themes. Every interviewee is a Chinese teacher, who teaches Mandarin Chinese in Finland. My method of analysis is a discourse analysis, which I see appropriate because I am studying how Confucian discourse occurs in the speech of the interviewees. In my conclusions, I will introduce the three most visible main themes of Confucian discourse. The main themes are communality, seeking for harmony, and respecting the elderly because these themes can be pointed out distinctly from the discourse of the interviewees. The way that interviewees tend to use a passive structure or ‘we’ pronoun, indicates how the communality is a major part of their lifestyle. The respect for elder people and the aim to harmony is visible in concrete examples, like how they try to act obediently, and suppress their negative feelings in the conflict situations. Chinese teachers also openly agreed that Confucianism has affected their value system, since the Confucian values are taught at home subconsciously. Moreover, the values are taught at school consciously, for example by reading Confucian texts. All in all, it would be very interesting to do more research on how Confucian values can be detected in China’s education system.

School-aged children spend an ever-increasing amount of time on social media platforms. Bringing this aspect of students’ lives into the school world has not advanced with the same velocity. The aim of this study was to investigate which obstacles teachers face to implementing social media into their lessons. Previous studies show that there are more advantages to using social media in education than there are disadvantages. The Finnish National Core Curriculum (2014) does not mention social media, but it mentions Information and Communications Technology, multiliteracy and media literacy. Social media can be associated with all the areas mentioned. Many studies published by Finland’s National Board for Education also recommend using social media or its equivalents in schools. In this study the perceptions of five language teachers in an elementary school in Helsinki, Finland were investigated. The teachers were interviewed separately and the interviews were recorded. The data gathered was transcribed and then analyzed by way of qualitative content analysis. The results of the analysis show that according to teachers many obstacles exist. These include the amount of time it would take to find content that fits the purpose of the lessons, the lack of mobile devices and accounts provided by the employer (in this case the city of Helsinki) and the lack of easily accessible and simple guidelines on how to utilize social media in teaching. In the future, similar research on the educational implementation of social media in lower secondary school and high school is needed. It is important to clarify which guidelines steer teachers’ actions, and how much freedom individual teachers have. An easily accessible and straightforward guide on data protection and copyright issues is needed. More research on how teachers could overcome these obstacles would benefit the students of tomorrow.