Browsing by Subject "mahdollisuuksien tasa-arvo"

The aim of the study was to explore what sort of constructions of educational opportunities appear in applicants' speech who attend a preparatory course in medicine and how is the role of preparatory course constructed in the application process to medical studies in the speech. The preparatory courses and their connection to access to higher education are important when the questions of educational opportunities are taken into consideration. It is also a current theme in education policy. However, there still are only few studies on preparatory courses, which justifies the importance of examining them. I consider preparatory courses as a part of internationally recognized phenomenon of privatisation in public education. Theoretically the theme is connected to the wider discussion about equality of educational opportunities in the context of Finnish higher education. I collected the data for the study with interviews. The data consisted of twelve interviews of applicants applying for medical studies in spring 2016 who attended a preparatory course arranged by private company. I analysed the data by using critical discourse analysis. Educational opportunities appeared as an equal opportunities -discourse and an individual responsibility -discourse in which the opportunities were formed on the one hand as an equality that is grounded in the structures of Finnish education system, and on the other hand they could be returned at the level of individual responsibility. The role of the preparatory course in the application process to medical studies was constructed as a compensation of the disproportion -discourse in which a gap between official and practical level in demands of medical studies entrance examination was produced. Also the position of the course was constructed with an investment -discourse in which it was compared to consuming and to an investment in the future. A conflict between an equal opportunities discourse and these discourses was implementing the problems in conceptualising privatisation of education in the context of welfare state. In connection to the preparatory course speech the educational opportunities appeared primarily from the perspective of individual responsibility. On a discoursive level the need for preparatory courses for applicants applying for medical studies and the culture that accepts the investment to training already exist in the light of the results of this study. Based on the conclusions of the study there is a need to examine widely the role of the private training in Finnish education system and the effects of preparatory courses on equality of opportunity in transitions to higher education.