Browsing by Subject "Mielipidekirjoitus"

This article-based master’s thesis describes and examines the debate around the comprehensive school through the concept of inclusion. The material was obtained from the opinion pieces, published in the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat in 2009-2019. The dissertation was inspired by the international MAPS (Mixed classes And Pedagogical Solutions) project, which explores the opportunities of schools to meet the challenge of inclusion from a societal perspective. The cornerstone of the dissertation was the Salamanca Statement signed in 1994, in which Finland made a commitment to improve the educational inclusion. The aim was to find out, how inclusive school is constructed in opinion pieces, how the views of different groups of writers differed from each other, and how the core of the idea of inclusion – human rights and dignity – were reflected in the writings. An essential - and also timely - topic of discussion for the dissertation was the three-tier support model that came into force in 2011, which took the comprehensive school into more inclusive direction. In total, 94 opinion pieces was analysed in this study, to increase under-standing of how inclusion is defined in public discussion. Based on the opinion pieces, the inclusion was strongly linked to the relationship between the special and general education. The school was described as a place where the resources available, as well as the resilience and adequacy of teachers, do not meet the challenge of inclusion. In the end, relatively little attention was paid to the core of the idea of inclusion, human rights and dignity. The most challenging barrier for implementing the inclusive school was the behavioral problems. Based on the research data, inclusion was not opposed as an endeavour, but it seems that there are no possibilities to implement it due the lack of resources. This seems to cause a backlash, that turns many thoughts to the opposite, an exclusive direction. To secure everyone’s learning, new ways of discipline are needed. Research article “Savings and non-compliance with international agreements. Inclusion discussion of comprehensive school at the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper opinion column in 2009-2019” is to be published in the NMI-Bulletin magazine in autumn 2020.