Browsing by Author "Riihimäki, Tuomas"

This thesis is about determine the meaning of inclusion in Finnish education system and policies. Defining inclusion is culturally challenging, because it has its own forms in every country and every country has their own educational system with their own history in education policies. Inclusion is the latest newcomer in modern educational discourse and has not yet been generally accepted by common consent. Topic is hot potato in education field and there is a lot of demand defining inclusion in educational sciences, to deeper the understand behind it. My research is founded on valued Finnish scientific publications. My data is collected from Kasvatus- lehti, from which I picked 10 articles among approximately 400 publications. My research methods rely upon content analyse, hermeneutical and phenomenological approaches. Use of my methods require proper review of my background as a researcher to make my study credible, which can be found in this thesis. This way reader can justify my results. The results of this study made even clearer the challenge of defining the word inclusion in Finland is a challenge. Results showed that it is in clear relation to word integration, almost acting as synonym. This confusion of between different ideology and concept has big impact on educational policy, wasting time and resources on developmental projects towards inclusive education in Finland. In brief, in through my comprehensive data, inclusion in Finland would constite to be democratic, accessible and social construct, that welcomes everybody to join in multiprofessional work community, no matter their qualities or disabilities. Importance of this study is to bring definition and continue the debate about inclusive education in Finland and internationally, and how inclusive education would progress in Finnish education system.