Browsing by Author "Wiitasalo, Magdalena"

Aims: The aim of this thesis is to study what kind of attitudes Finnish political actors have towards school choice. The purpose is to find out how different attitudes are reasoned and justified. I’m also interested in the societal structure and how school choice affects the Finnish comprehensive school system and the future of our society. School choice has raised a lot of discussion because it has become more common amongst families. Through this literature review I try to find out different ways to approach school choice. It is necessary to study school choice because it is important to provide equal opportunities for everyone. However, we should also take individual freedom into account. Therefore, it is crucial to understand different attitudes towards school choice and what kind of effects they might have on the society. Methods: This Bachelor’s thesis is a literature review. My research material consists of litera-ture concerning school choice, including studies and articles. Before choosing my research ma-terial I defined the research question and the main concepts. This way I cut the research sub-ject into smaller pieces before starting the research process. It also helped me to find key-words. I tried to choose primary sources and be critical when choosing the research material. However, the extent of Bachelor’s Thesis restricted the amount of research material I could choose. The purpose of this literature review is to analyse school choice and find out different ways to approach this subject. Results and conclusions: According to this literature review there are mainly two kinds of ways to approach school choice. The first one is the neoliberal approach that emphasizes freedom of choice and individual rights. The second approach accentuates equality and equal possibilities. Socioeconomic status has an impact on families’ school choice. High-educated parents are typically more aware of the possible negative effects, but they still use the possibility to choose more than parents that are less educated. Parents with lower education are on average more supportive towards school choice yet in practise use the possibility to choose less. The individual right to promote one’s educational path is one way to justify school choice. Some people recommend the public school nearest home because the people there are often familiar and the way to school is shorter. The same people also emphasize equality and uniformity.