Browsing by Subject "työntekijäkansalaisuus"
Now showing items 1-3 of 3
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(2016)The purpose of this study was to examine teachers' perceptions about their work in the context of integration training for adult immigrants. In Finland integration training is frequently put out to tender and immigrants' employment is emphasized in the goals of integration training, which reflect neoliberal politics. The theoretical framework of this study was based on theories about neoliberal governance, and my aim was to study teachers' narratives and show how neoliberal governance affects both students studying in integration training and teachers working there. The Finnish National Board of Education published a new framework for integration training in the spring of 2016, after I had already started this research process, and those frameworks became and an essential part in producing data and analysing it. My study was a qualitative research. I conducted six interviews with teachers who work in integration training for adult immigrants. I analysed the data with narrative methods. My main interest was in small stories the teachers told about their daily work, encounters with other people and future. Since integration training is going through extensive changes that affect teachers' work, I focused more on the future than on the past in teachers' stories. In the teachers' stories, neoliberal governance seemed to cause weakening of collectivity in integration training. Because of the new framework published for integration training, the learning environment is about to change and students will be learning more on the Internet, in work places and vocational institutes. The teachers were concerned about what kind of an impact more individualised study paths would have on language teaching and career counselling. For teachers, changing work environment, increasing vocational contents in curriculum and tendering indicated that they have to keep on educating themselves and be prepared to move from one teaching environment to another in the future. For immigrants, vocational education was one of the main factors that defined their worker citizenship, since in the new framework for integration training, vocational education is considered as the main asset in promoting labour market integration. However, in the teachers' stories, the most important factor that defined immigrants' worker citizenship was Finnish language skills, but teachers wanted to emphasize that immigrants should not be seen only as a workforce but individuals who have diverse and personal needs.
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(2019)The reform of vocational education took effect in the beginning of 2018. New legislation extensively reformed the field of vocational education in Finland. The aim of this study is to explore this reform from the worker-citizenship’s perspective. Former studies have shown that there is a clear link between worker-citizenship and vocational education. This link has had an effect both on the curriculum and the expectations for students and the education system. In the beginning of the study I examine the dimensions of the societal debate that raise the concept of worker-citizen to the center of vocational education. My research questions are: What kind of claims for worker-citizenship can be identified in the reform? How are these claims justified? My data consists of 1) the government proposal for the new legislation and 2) the speech of the Minister of Education in the Parliament. My study method is a critical discourse analysis combined with Carol Bacchi’s idea of “What’s the problem represented to be?” My key findings are that the claims for worker-citizenship are strongly present in the reform. I identified two discourses that illustrate these claims. I call these discourses “the claim of flexibility and agility” and “the expectation of active and individual customership”. These claims find their justification from the idea of inevitable change. This change and adjusting to its needs seem to be the primary task of the worker-citizen. My findings also localize vocational education reform as a part of the neoliberal development that has been gaining ground in Finnish education politics.
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(2020)The aim of this study was to explore dimensions of worker-citizenship in apprenticeship training. Also, the aim was to study which kind of positions there are for young apprenticeship students within apprenticeship training through the perspectives of apprenticeship experts. Basis for this study is post-structuralist research and I approach apprenticeship training as a discursive practice. Previous research has shown that there is a strong worker-citizenship ethos which connects to neoliberalism in vocational education. Worker-citizenship in apprenticeship training has not been studied before in Finland. Overall, there has been little research about apprenticeship training in Finland and especially critical studies are missing. The data was collected via six individual interviews that were conducted in spring 2020. The interviewees were six apprenticeship experts, and the data was analyzed using discursive reading method. The results of my study give some insight to apprenticeship training practices and the youths` position in apprenticeship. Based on my analysis worker-citizenship discourse is upheld within apprenticeship training. Apprenticeship experts argued the benefits and disadvantages of apprenticeship through dimensions linked to worker-citizenship. In addition, the positions of young apprenticeship students were defined from worker-citizenship. This appears in a sense that young students are guided to a position of self-responsible and active yet self-aware of their deficits. Along with the ideal subject an opposite was defined which was seen for example as a “reader type”.
Now showing items 1-3 of 3