Browsing by Author "Lipponen, Elsa"

The aim of my bachelor's thesis was to produce information on how the concept of equality of educational opportunities has been used and defined in the studies conducted in Finland. The thesis was carried out as a descriptive literature review, in which the definitions and research topics of the material studies were analyzed using Espinozas (2007) concepts of 'equity' and 'equality'. In addition, the main source of the thesis was Jakku-Sihvonen's definition of equal opportunities, which was also used in analyzing and comparing definitions in the research material. The aim of the study was to find out how the definitions used by researchers reflect individual ‘equity’ and ‘equality’, and how the definitions can be compared to the educational ideal of formal equality of opportunity. The Thesis was carried out as a descriptive literature review. The research material consisted of eight peer reviewed articles. Analyze was executed as a content analysis. The focus in analysis was on those sections of the articles where the equality of educational opportunities was defined by the researchers, and these definitions were analyzed in the light of the background theories. In addition, research topics were analyzed in relation to the definitions of equality of educational opportunities used in the articles. The result of the study is that the formal equality of opportunities in the majority of the studies was not seen by the researchers as sufficient to achieve an equal society. The second result is that the ideals of justice were strongly represented in the material definitions. However, the perspectives of individual equality did not appear to be neoliberal, but rather to defend weaker rights. The study also revealed that, despite the relatively individual-centered definitions, the selection of research subjects was still largely based on formal equality issues.