Browsing by Author "Harjula, Samira"

The goal of this thesis is to study the definitions of educational equality expressed by the National Coalition Party of Finland. The purpose is also to create a timeline concerning the birth of the Finnish comprehensive school and focus on the party’s views about it. The Finnish comprehensive school was based on educational equality, where every student had equal opportunities regardless of their socioeconomic background. The research method was a qualitative theory-based content analysis. The material was collected educational science literature, political platform database Pohtiva and the party’s official web pages. The literature provided a historical overview about comprehensive school and equality concepts. The analysis itself was conducted by studying expressions from the platforms. The expressions were summarized, grouped and modified into equality definitions, which were based on previous theories about equality concepts. The conservative equality concept was a dominant concept in the party’s platforms throughout every decade studied. Neoliberal concept of equality was the second most dominant concept. Sometimes the concept of equal opportunities appeared in the platforms, but in small amounts. The party’s stance towards comprehensive school was doubtful. Individuals were seen as different from each other and they feared the school’s homogenous effect on those individuals. However the party had little power when the school system was being built in the 1960s and 1970s because of their oppositional position in the parliament. In the 1980s the faith toward the welfare state started to crumble and at the same time the National Coalition Party rose to government. This meant big changes in comprehensive school and individual’s choices.