Democracy as Othering Within Finnish Education

Theworddemocracyisfrequentlyutteredbyacademics,politicians,and,generallywithinsociety. Phrasessuchas‘democraticeducation’,‘democracyeducation’and‘(student)participation’areoften referredtowithinnationalcurricula,policybriefings,and,teachereducation/trainingandresources. LittlecriticalattentionhasbeengiventothewordwithinthecontextofFinnisheducation.Inrecent yearstheeducationalsystemofFinlandhasbeendescribedasa‘miracle’andcommentatorshave notedits‘successes.’ThisarticleoffersadeepergazewithinFinnisheducationbylookingatthe waysdemocracydiscoursesareutteredbypractitioners.Forthepurposesofthisarticletheauthor analysestwoin-depthconversationextracts,onewasfromayouthparticipationconferenceinHelsinki in2015,theotherisaconversationfromaconferenceheldinFebruary2016.Thisarticlefocuses ontheusesandfunctionsofdiscoursetouncoverculturalstereotypingandotheringintermsofhow democracyisdiscussedandexpressedwithinthecontextofFinland. KEyWORDS Democracy, Discourse, Education, Finland, Heteroglossia, Othering INTRODUCTION: DEMOCRACy IN FINNISH EDUCATION Theaimofthispaperistofocusonthewaysdiscoursesaboutdemocracyandhumanrightswithin Finnisheducationareframedthroughnationalisticand/orethnocentricideologies.Finlandhasbeen ‘described’asacountry‘thatshowswhatequalopportunitieslooklike’(Sahlberg,2012),andacountry with‘highlevelsofequality’(Aylott,2016).Inafurtherexample,Niemi,Toom,&Kallioniemi.(2012) notetheimportanceofteachersasactorsofdemocracyinFinlandandstressstrongsocialcohesion asafactorinFinland’seducationalsuccesses.TheMinistryofEducationandCultureinFinlandhas publishedontheneedforFinlandtodobetterintermsofinclusionandparticipationinitsschools (MinistryofEducationandCulture,2008).Moreover,theMinistryhasgoneontostressthatFinland recognisestheimportanceofcurriculumdevelopment,literacy,and,teachertrainingforhumanrights education(MinistryofEducationandCulture,2011).Incompulsoryeducation,section2oftheBasic EducationActinFinlandstates:‘(2)Educationshallpromotecivilisationandequalityinsocietyand pupils’prerequisitesforparticipatingineducationandotherwisedevelopingthemselvesduringtheir lives’(MinistryofEducationandCulture,2016,p.1).Thetranslationandinterpretationofwhat thesewordsmeaninpracticeisyettobeseen.Lappalainen&Lahelma(2015)arguethatdiscourses onequalityinFinlandhavegeneratedanumberofassumptionsaboutwhatsocietyshouldbelike, International Journal of Bias, Identity and Diversities in Education Volume 3 • Issue 2 • July-December 2018 78 incontrasttowhatFinnishsocietyislike.Simola(2014)arguesthatwithinFinlandanumberof discursiveformationsovertimehaveproduced‘myths’around‘educationalclientelism’andnotions of‘socialdemocracy’.Indeed,somestudiesonFinnisheducationhaveindicatedthatFinnishschools donotencouragestudentstodeveloptheirown‘politicalvoice’(Sandström,Einarson,Davies,& Asunta,2010)incomparisontoothercountries.Finally,somecommentatorshaveindicatedapotential ‘democraticcrisis’insectionsofFinnishsociety(Andersson&Sjöblom,2013).Seemingly,anumber ofquestionsremainsurroundingthemeaningsandpracticesofdemocraticvalueswithinFinland. The paper offers a deeper gaze within Finnish education by looking at the ways the word ‘democracy’isutteredbypractitionerswithinthefieldofeducation.AsIhavepreviouslynoted,within Finnisheducationdemocracydiscoursesarepresentinpolicydocuments,teachertrainingresources, and,nationalcurriculardocuments.Itisthereforeimportanttodeconstructthewayspractitionersutter andusetheworddemocracyasthespeakersthemselvescarrysymbolicsignificanceinhowother interlocutors(teachers,students,etc.)areinfluencedbytheirutterances.InspiredbyMikhailBakhtin’s (1981)workondialogism,thispaperfocusesonheteroglossicdiscoursefunctionstouncovercultural stereotypingandotheringintermsofhowdemocracydiscoursesarediscussedandexpressedwithin thecontextofFinland.Excerpt1isshownbeforeexcerpt2inordertosituatethemeta-discourses aboutdemocracywithinFinnisheducation,thus,onecanthengoontodemonstratetherelationships betweenthemeta-discoursesaboutdemocracyandindividualutterances.Excerpt1showsadiscussion ataconferenceondemocracyandhumanrightsandshowsthediscursiveinteractionsofinterlocutors withinadialogue.Excerpt1istakenfromaconferenceIco-organisedondemocracyandhuman rights.This dialogueoffers a rare insight into thedialoguesbetweenhuman rights practitioners withinFinland,internationalscholars,andexpertsinthefield.Theconferenceinexcerpt1showsthe contestationofideasbetweenacademicsandhumanrightspractitionersontheissuessurrounding democracyandhumanrights,generally,andspecifically,withintheFinnishcontext.Excerpt2,like excerpt1,focusesontheutterancesofNGO[Non-GovernmentalOrganisation]practitionersbeing confrontedbyanother–inthisinstance,me(anon-FinnishcitizenlivinginFinland).Excerpt2,like excerpt1,offersaninsightintothediscoursesofhumanrightspractitionerswhenconfrontedbyan other.Here,Iplaytheroleofa‘devil’sadvocate’intheconversationwherebyIcontestthenarratives andideologiespresentedbythespeakers.Inexcerpt2theyouthparticipationconferencewasmainly attendedbyFinnishschoolstudentsandFinnishteachers,thus,theexcerptshowshowpractitioners utterdiscoursesaboutdemocracyandhumanrightsamongstotherpractitionerswithinthefieldof education.Onlytwoexcerptsareusedasthefocusistoshowhowtwosetsofpractitionersfromtwo differenteventsutterdiscoursesaboutdemocracy.InusingthetwoexcerptsinmyanalysisIamnot attemptingtogeneralisethewholeoftheFinnishcontextfromtheseexamples,rather,theexcerpts usedindicatesentimentsthatcanbehiddenwithinconversationsaboutdemocracyandhumanrights (suchas,culturalstereotypes,essentialisms,ethnocentrismsetc.)wherebyspeakerutterancesand discoursestrategiescanbetraced. DEMOCRACy, EDUCATION, AND DISCOURSE: THE PROBLEMATIQUE Theroleofeducationanddemocracyhasbeenmuchdebated.JohnDewey(1916)exploredtherole thateducationplaysinademocraticsocietyandfocusedoneducationaspartofabroaderproject thatencompassedanexplorationofthenatureofexperience,knowledge,societyandethics.Dewey arguedthatthelinkbetweencommunityandpedagogywasparamountandthateducatorsneededto considertheconnectionbetweencommunitylifeandthelifewithintheclassroom(Dewey,1916). Dewey’sworkisoftencitedand/orquotedonissuesofdemocracywithineducationwithoutmuch criticalinquisition(Forexample,Mintz,2000;Hecht,2010).Itisimportanttonotehoweverthat Dewey’sworkhasbeencriticallyexaminedbyanumberofcommentators.Somescholarshavenoted thecontradictionsofprogressiveeducation(Howlett,2013)andDewey’sfailuretoaddresstheroleof democraticcommunitiesandhowdemocraciesemergeandcomein-to-being(Joas,2000).Thishas 15 more pages are available in the full version of this document, which may be purchased using the "Add to Cart" button on the product's webpage: www.igi-global.com/article/democracy-as-othering-withinfinnish-education/204616?camid=4v1 This title is available in InfoSci-Select, InfoSci-Educational Leadership, Administration, and Technologies eJournal Collection, InfoSci-Select, InfoSci-Select, InfoSci-Journals, InfoSci-Journal Disciplines Library Science, Information Studies, and Education, InfoSci-Journal Disciplines Communications and Social Science. 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