School Choice in Finnish Comprehensive Schooling – A Case Study of Educational Strategies in the School Political “Playground” of Vantaa Ulla Gratt In meiner Masterarbeit (2010) untersuchte Finland – “wonderland” of education? ich die Schulwahlstrategien von Eltern in der Stadt Vantaa, Finnland. Im Jahr 1998 wurde Everybody, who has something to do with edu- die Schulwahl zu einem wichtigen bildungspo- cation, has probably heard of the “wonderland” litischen Thema in Finnland. Neue Regelungen of education – Finland. The otherwise not that ermöglichten den Gemeinden, eigenständig über well-known northern country situated between die Organisation der Pflichtschulen zu entschei- Sweden and Russia must have made something den. In Vantaa zielt die lokale Schulpolitik auf right in the 1970s. According to Pekkarinen, Gleichheit und die Verringerung von Unter- Kerr and Uusitalo (2009) the founding of the schieden ab. Vor dem Hintergrund der unter- nine-year-long compulsory comprehensive schiedlichen Ansätze kommt dem Verhalten der school “for all” did indeed improve the social Eltern bei der Schulwahl besondere Bedeutung justice in education. More and more individuals zu. Besonders das Verhältnis zwischen lokaler could reach a higher educational level than the Schulpolitik, den Bildungsstrategien der Eltern earlier generation had reached. As well accor- und der Schulwahl der Eltern ist von Interesse. ding to PISA, everything seems to be just perfect Im Rahmen dieses Artikels wird vor allem das in Finnish educational system. Thema der sozialen Gerechtigkeit in finnischen Gesamtschulen beschrieben. In this article I will present some insights into social justice in Finnish comprehensive schoo- In my master’s thesis (2010) I studied the ling. I might disappoint you a little. The Finnish school choice strategies of parents in Vantaa, comprehensive schooling is not organized in a Finland. In 1998 school choice became a cen- way that there would be no worries about social tral theme in school policy in Finland, as the justice in education. new School Act enabled communities to take over the main organization of comprehensive The biggest reasons for these worries are neo- schooling. Local school policy in Vantaa is liberal school policies, like for example the free directed towards equality and the reduction of school choice policy. Nevertheless, the Finnish disparities. Taking into account these aspects, school system still creates a great image of the behavior of parents in school choice plays social justice in education and many school aut- a big role. Especially the relationship between horities have the will to keep up the scene. local school policy, parents’ educational stra- tegies and school choice is interesting. This In this article I will discuss issues of social justi- article discusses the theme of social justice in ce and school choice in relation to neo-liberal Finnish comprehensive schooling. politics in education. I will bring the idea of the Pädagogische Hochschule Vorarlberg | F&E Edition 18 | 2012 39 free market principle in education from interna- velopment. The state, who was clearly the main tional level to national and down to local level. provider of education, saw the development of the compulsory nine-year-long comprehensive As an example of school choice I will use my own schooling as an important investment. Jaana case study of Vantaa, which I completed in spring Poikolainen (2011, 133) writes in her article 2010 at the University of Helsinki. The city of how one main aim of the school reform was to Vantaa has chosen an “anti-school market” school “get rid of the dualistic schooling system, which choice policy, which differs a lot from the school was seen as unequal”. Lampinen claims that choice policies of the neighbour cities. I will first since the 1980s the Finnish education policy give a brief introduction into the Finnish school has been lacking the ideology of social justice system in general and school choice policies while economical issues in education have been in Finland. Then I will discuss marketization in becoming more and more important. (Lampinen education and point out some ideas about the 1998, 27-30) relationship between marketization, neo-liberal ideology and globalization. Before presenting After the big school reform in the 1970s, an my own study, I will discuss school choice and important turning point in Finnish school policy social justice issues. In the discussion I will try to has been the change in the state’s support of construct some idea about how social justice in individual schools in 1993. Since 1993 schools education can be sustained in the framework of could receive financial support according to the neo-liberal school policies. number of their pupils. The communities could themselves decide how they would distribute the support between different social sectors. Some Finnish school system in a nut shell schools were privileged, others received only few and Finnish school choice policies resources. This shift in the Finnish educational policy was the starting point for the competition In Finland, like in many other countries, was the between schools (Ahonen 2003, 180-181). In development of institutional schooling based on small communities, small schools needed to be the idea to educate “the vulgar” and to create a shut down and in bigger cities schools started to tight national identity (Lampinen 1998). Before look for ways of recruiting more pupils. At this the big school reform in the 1970s, the Finnish point, in 1993, school choice wasn’t free. Pupils school system looked pretty similar to the Aus- would enter the school to which school authori- trian one. Everybody started their school career ties allocated them. The closest school principle in folk school (kansakoulu) which took four was determining the school choice. years. After that there were two options: 5-year- long grammar school (oppikoulu) or additional Later, in the year 1998 the new Basic Education two years in folk school plus two years in a civic Act made school choice possible – a commu- school (kansalaiskoulu). The only way to high- nity could open the school catchment areas, er education at universities would go through which have been in place since 1898. The old grammar school. A pupil could visit an upper principle of the closest school was challenged. secondary school (lukio) only after finishing When speaking about school choice in Finland, the grammar school. Successful studies in an there are two main points in the school career upper secondary school would lead to a place at to take into account. School choice is actual university. School choice was very simple in that when attending the first grade (the year the time and had a very tight relation to social class child turns seven) and between the sixth and and resources of the family – sometimes already seventh grade. Even if the school type stays the the place of living was determining the school same for nine years, many school institutions choice. According to Osmo Lampinen (1998) the are built like this that pupils have to change two leading ideologies behind the big school re- the school building between their sixth and se- form in 1970s were equality and economical de- venth grade. Also the teacher system is a little 40 Pädagogische Hochschule Vorarlberg | F&E Edition 18 | 2012 different on the upper level of comprehensive the enterprising individual (p. 409). Globalisati- schooling than on the lower level because the on, whether it is cultural, economical or politi- class teacher system ends with the sixth grade. cal, doesn't follow the same lines in every coun- The upper grades are taught by subject te- try. Ozga and Lingard (1997) use the concept achers. There are often several schools for the of vernacular globalisation, when describing first six grades, but only one school for grades different countries implementing best practices. seven to nine in rural areas. Lampinen (1998, To add here, not only countries implement new 78) sees the education act reform in 1998 as policies differently, but also communities might a climax point of decentralization. To most make their own local decisions. Of the many Finnish towns and cities this meant nothing, conceptualizations of globalisation, the one because there is only one school to choose – from Taylor, Rizvi, Lingard and Henry (1997) especially on the upper level of comprehensive seems to be the most useful one. According to school. However, in bigger cities with several Taylor et al. globalisation is all those processes, schools also in upper level of comprehensive which build supranational connections in vario- school, the Basic Education Act allowed to open us ways – for example economically, culturally the school catchment areas into one big school or politically. Education has become more and market. more globalised. For example universities follow same degree systems and there is a lot of mo- In the following part I will discuss school choice bility between countries in education, like the more widely. What is the ideology behind it? study exchange program Erasmus. What has globalization and neo-liberalism to do with school choice? I will now try to conceptualize neo-liberalism. In neo-liberalism, it is assumed that a human being naturally behaves out of self-interest A wider perspective of school choice (Apple 2001, 414). To put it very simple, and marketization in comprehensive according to Therese Quinn (2009) neo-liberal schooling: Globalization in education ideology is about privatizing everything, free and neo-liberal principles markets, individualism, competition, intellectu- al property, choice, innovation and flexibility. Jenny Ozga and Bob Lingard (1997, 65) argue What does neo-liberalism then mean on the that the effects of globalisation in education are national or local level? Marketization of schools almost always described in the form of neo-libe- can clearly be seen as an attempt to implement ralism. Fazal Rizvi and Laura Engel (2009) write economic frames and neo-liberal ideology to that globalisation can be interpreted different- the educational field.