Browsing by Subject "toiveiden rationalismi"

Purpose The purpose of my study is to examine school discourse in the draft of new Finnish national curriculum in 2014 and to analyse to what extent the theory of Wishful Rationalism reconstructed by Hannu Simola applies to it. According to Simola (1995) one explanation to the continuous need for school reform might be the new principles in school discourse which have emerged during the development of basic comprehensive school since 1970s. Simola calls this new way of speaking wishful rationalism. The main point of the theory is that the official school discourse has decontextualized which leads to the failing educational reforms. My study tests the theory of Simola in a new context. Method The method of my study was a qualitative theory-based analyse of the contents. The precise objects of my study were chapters 1-12 of the draft. Based on the theory of Simola, I created six categories which functioned as a frame for my analysis. These categories consisted of three truths of school discourse which Simola had created and of their counter-truths. With these counter-truths I could better test the theory of Wishful Rationalism. To these categories I collected thought-units from the draft using principles of inductive analyse of the contents. Results Based on my analysis I could say that the theory of Wishful Rationalism was still alive in the draft of new curriculum. Truths of school discourse and some dominant models and paradigms of schooling could still be detected from the draft and they were keeping this old discourse alive. Especially the truths of school as rational and of decontextualized learning were strongly alive. Also the truth of individual-centered school was stronger alive than its counter-truth although the truth of group-centered school was also strongly alive again especially in the form of education for the society. From the models and paradigms keeping the discourse alive the most important was the model of Tyler Rationale. Central meaning of my study is to bring these subconscious elements keeping the discourse alive more visible now that the school reform is taking place again.