Finnish Education System: Diversity and Welfare Case Study

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ASSESSMENT 2 - CASE STUDY
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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Historical Background.................................................................................................................................4
Concepts and theories of education and development.................................................................................5
CIE research literature (Support).................................................................................................................7
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................9
References.................................................................................................................................................10
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Introduction
The educational institutions of Finland are considered to be one of the most prominent education
systems in the world. The education system makes sure that in the early years of an individual's
life they learn the values and beliefs that are to be used for the future. The teachers of Finland are
considered to have very much of respect as their profession is regarded to the same level of
degree as a doctors' one. This shows how much of focus Finland is putting on its educational
system. There are many problems that an educations system may face but diversity and welfare
are the hardest ones to be dealt with. The educational institutions of Finland are currently facing
both of these issues at the same time.
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Historical Background
Finland has one of the most prominent educations systems present in the world. The education
system has taken a lot of time and effort from the whole country in doing so. One of the reasons
that the education system has risen this far is because it promotes high-quality education to all of
the public and has no biasness done in it. The profession of a teacher is not considered to be a
low and useless one in Finland but rather is considered to be a highly respectful one due to which
it gives the teachers motivation and confidence hence making the education system valuable.
Though Finland provides in top-notch education systems, one of the issues that are faced by the
school teachers is how to face the challenge of diversity that is on the rise in the country. More
and more urban schools are being established which have increased the number of international
students. Individuals prefer that their children go to schools in Finland so that their learning
abilities can increase in a professional manner (Book and Film Reviews., 2013). This has caused
problems for the teachers as the Finland community is reflected to be a disclosed community in
which they are more comfortable working in their own community rather than getting used to
outside people. The teachers are having a hard time in adjusting to this new diverse culture
which is causing challenges to occur in the teaching methods and the education system as a
whole. The education system had designed is curriculum according to the homogeneous
community but did not expect that such an issue of diversity would arise. The education which
was provided to the students use to involve only text from European scholars but now due to
diversity being established the education system would have to include texts from other scholars
so that a sense of racism is not felt. This creates more of a workload on the teachers as it is a part
of their job to research various articles and apply them into their teaching methods. This can
cause problems as other scholarly articles may have a different understanding of the teaching that
what the teachers of Finland are used to.
This multicultural system of education has been an issue because of such factors such as ethics
and language. It is hard for the teachers and the education system to establish their beliefs and
values into the students from other nationalities. This has become a problem because the parents
may not want these beliefs present in their children but would rather want their own values to be
present in the children. The education system of Finland would have to keep this in mind while
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designing the curriculum of the schools. The problem of diversity is not only with the teachers
but also with the students that are studying in the schools. These students have been bought up in
a homogenous community and may feel challenged by the other students from various nations.
This would create a sense of competition among the students which would make the education
system unstable.
It needs to be made sure that education services do not include any type of inequality between
the students. There should not be gender diversity present in the school system. The education
system of Finland does not have any gender biasness as it had established an equality system in
which it gave education to all of the students and provided the occupation of the teacher to both
of the genders. But the problem of diversity also arises here as there would be people coming
from other nationalities who would like to apply for job roles as teachers in the country. The jobs
specifications would have to be amended a little bit so that individuals coming from other
nationalities can work as a teacher in the country.
The welfare of the students is another issue which has been on the rise in schools of Finland. The
teachers need to establish a strong moral character so that in the future if the student faces any
problems then they would make proper decisions. Also, recently there have been shooting
incidences in the schools which have created a sense of fear among the parents. They are having
second options of sending their children to such schools. The history of the education system has
been mostly focused on increasing the student’s morals and values without having any
importance put on the welfare of the students (Tirri, 2014).
Concepts and theories of education and development
There are various policies that would help in establishing diversity in the education system of
Finland. One of the policies which can be used to help the education system is a social policy
which will outline what is expected from both the public and the government to make sure that
diversity is not an issue anymore. This policy would make the course structure tangible so that fit
there are problems regarding diversity then they could be implanted into the structure without
causing too much of problems. The policies would also point out the factors which are wanted by
the public to be included in the education system. This could be beneficial for the parents of the
students as they could ask for better welfare services to be included in the education services.
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This would also be a good way for the educational department to gain feedback from the parents
and teachers on what they would like to have included in the curriculum. Also, the policy would
include making sure that all of the fields that are involved inter-connected (Rawolle, 2013).
Meaning that international teaching methods would also be taken into account so that
discrimination is not done in the schools.
The use of media literacy for teaching is another method for education and development. The
use of media will also help in curbing the issues of diversity and welfare in the education system
of Finland. It is seen that this type of teaching has become popular in today's developing world.
The use of the internet and various other technologies has become one of the ways that students
like to use to learn from. The issue of diversity can be dealt with as the teachers could use video
presentations in class so that all of the students can understand what is being taught (Graber, &
Diana., 2012). The education program which is set out for the teachers could implement that they
use such types if methods and techniques into their teaching. The teachers could also learn from
the media on how to deal with students from various countries so that the atmosphere of the class
can be more friendly which is the goals of the education system of Finland. Another aspect that
can be achieved from media literacy is showing the students videos on how diversity is a bad
practice. This will allow the student to get a better message on why racism is bad and how it
affects the other person as well as society as a whole. The issue of welfare can be also be
addressed by using media literacy as it will help the education system as a whole in
understanding how to increase the welfare aspect into educational institutions.
The sense of diversity can be helpful in educational institutions as it helps in making sure that
students do not become an outcast. The use of media is considered to be powerful as people are
mostly influenced by it. The educational system of Finland could use this to make sure that the
students and the teachers both understand the importance of having a diverse culture in the
institutions. Also, the education system could implement the use of various media through which
the teachers gain a better understanding of how to handle the diverse culture present in the
institutions (Piotrowski et. al. 2012). For the students, on the other hand, they would be given
different types of media in which they are shown that diversity is not a bad influence and the
benefits of what could be achieved by having a diverse culture. By using this method, education
through media, the educational institutions would also gain a better meaning of what the other
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cultures are so that the student’s feelings are not hurt while teaching a certain subject. There are
different cultures that do not share the same values or beliefs that the educational institution may
be trying to establish so it is important for such institutions to take into account these aspects.
To make sure that proper welfare services are being provided to in the education system the use
of media as a method can be adopted. There is news from various countries on which it is seen
how the educational institutions have handled the issue of welfare. From this, the education
system in Finland will get a better understanding of what strategies to implement so that its
welfare system can increase (Sela-Sheffy, 2017).
CIE research literature (Support)
It has become important for teachers to gain more knowledge so that their teaching can become
more efficient. So training of old and new teachers has become essentiality for mostly all of the
educational institutions around the world. This would help in understanding and helping the
education system of Finland to get a better perspective of diversity that is going on in its schools.
Though the teachers of Finland do research so that their teaching can increase but now they
would have to do research regarding other diverse students so that these students do not feel left
out. The training program for these teachers would have to be set out in such a manner so that
the rise in diversity does not have a negative effect on their teaching (Lander, 2013). There
should be not be any gap present between curriculum of the educational system and the race of
the students or else the education system will be nothing but a loss. Also, there would be an
increase seen in the number of individuals who would apply for the jobs of teachers whom would
be from different nationalities. The education system would have to make sure that the courses
offered to get this job do not offend the culture of other countries.
For growth to occur in the educational sector of Finland it is necessary that development occurs
on a global scale. This should be done so that the knowledge and skills of the teachers would
increase. This is important for the teachers as the factor of diversity has become an issue in the
educational institutions of Finland. By developing on a global scale the inequality that is
occurring because of diversity can be handled in a more efficient way (Fischer, 2019). The
educational system would be able to adopt and implelement policies that would get rid of the
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diversity problem that the teachers are facing. The teachers would be provided training under the
development program so that the teachers would know how to handle the students who are
coming from various nationalities. The process of global development would make the teachers
ready to face various culture values that the students would bring with them. Global development
would also transform the structure of the educational institutions so that diversity would be
accepted easily and more efficiently. In the manufacturing sector when a value is added to an
employee, it is seen that their work performance increases. The same can be said for the
education sector in which global development will add value to the teachers hence increasing
their teaching qualities (Abu-Rabia, 2014).
Globalisation has also made educational institutions realise how to to increase the welfare for the
students. Through globalisation, the education system can see what other counties education
departments have done so that their student welfare can increase. Some of the countries have
introduced health care for their students while another school offered various services for
disabled students. The Finland educations institutions can learn from these welfare services and
apply them into their schools and colleges. By doing this it would also benefit the society as they
would be satisfied by the welfare services that are offered by the education systems
(Papastephanou et. al. 2013).
Peace education is one of the aspects that help in supporting the methods to solve issues of
diversity and welfare. If other means or methods were used to solve these problems then major
changes would have been done that could have caused more serious issues and problems to arise.
The methods that were used helped in making a step toward peace education. The issues of
diversity and welfare were solved using media as a method, so that a better understanding of how
these two can be dealt with. There have been awards for educational institutions that have done a
good job in maintaining peace throughout the year (Stephenson, & Carolyn., 2012). More and
more school or colleges would make sure that they provide the best education and welfare
service so that they can achieve the peace education award.
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Conclusion
It can be seen that the introduction of diversity in an educational system can cause many
problems to occur. The educational system of Finland did not have a diverse student culture
before so the introduction of various students from different places caused problems to arise in it.
The welfare system of these educational institutions was also not up to the mark as compared to
the reputation that it had gained. The use of methods like media literacy showed how to get rid of
these issues and introduce new students into the school structure with a positive impact. The use
of globalisation and peace education made sure that the methods were adopted in order to make
the system of education more efficient and effective. In conclusion, it can be said that though an
educational system may be highly regarded by the world but there are some problems that can
cause disturbance to occur in it.
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References
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 Graber, Diana. (2012). New Media Literacy Education (NMLE): A Developmental
Approach. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 4(1), 82-92. Retrieved From:
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 Sela-Sheffy, R. (2017). Two-way cultural transfer. Media, Culture and Society, 39(6),
781-797. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0163443717693679 Retrieved From:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0163443717693679
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 Fischer, A. (2019). Bringing Development Back into Development Studies. Development
and Change,50(2), 426-444. DOI:
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 Abu-Rabia, S. (2014). "Our problem is two problems - that you're a woman and that
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 Stephenson, Carolyn M. (2012). Elise Boulding and Peace Education: Theory, Practice,
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