Browsing by Author "Öhman, Mikael"

Goals Goal of this study is to analyze the rationality guiding the Finnish educational policy, especially the reformation programs of basic education. In previous studies it has been shown, that the texts guiding these reformations are less and less about school as an institution, and that the national educational discourse is more about the abstract individual subject, learning and idealistic goals detached from the everyday context of school life. In this study the goal was to find out what kind of rationality lies underneath the basic education reforms from the viewpoint of the context – the world – and the goal of education – the man. Method The method of this study is based on the foucauldian analysis of governmentality, which is a form of discourse analysis. Rationality was divided in three different levels of analysis – epistemic, rhetoric and moral analysis. Research material, altogether 11 pages, was chosen from a publication of the Future Affairs Committee of Finnish Parliament called Uusi oppiminen "The New Learning" and it included the publications' introductory chapter and the first part of chapter 1. Results As a result of the analysis it was shown, that the rationality guiding the Finnish basic education reforms is based on a view of a rapidly changing world, to which school reforms must react without delay. In order to produce compatible, flexible, eagerly educable people with required ITC-skills the school must be reformed in a way that makes pupils' development possible in the areas of autonomy, self-guidance and leadership. The role of the teacher becomes an instructor, and in the active center of the school work is the pupil. Similar principles as in the previous studies is shown – individualization and decontextualization – was also found.