Dynamics in Education Politics

Hannu Simola, PhD, is Professor in Sociology and Politics of Education, at the Universities of Turku and Helsinki, Finland. His research interests are currently focused on socioanalysis of teacherhood, contextual analytics of educational innovations and local educational ethos. His recent book is The Finnish Education Mystery (Routledge 2015).Jaakko Kauko, PhD, MSocSc, is Associate Professor in Education at the School of Education, University of Tampere, Finland. His research is situated in the fields of politics of education and comparative education. He is interested in the questions of power, contingency, and complexity.Janne Varjo, PhD, is Lecturer at the Institute of Behavioural Sciences, and more particularly within the Research Unit focusing on the Sociology and Politics of Education, at the University of Helsinki. His research interests include sociology of education, history of education and administration, economy and planning of education.Mira Kalalahti, DrSocSc, MA, is Post-doctoral Researcher in the Research Unit Focusing on the Sociology and Politics of Education at the Department of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki, Finland. Her research interests involve sociology of education, especially questions concerning the equality of educational opportunities and educational transitions.Fritjof Sahlström, PhD, is Professor in Education at Åbo Akademi University, Finland. His research has focused on the organization of interaction in educational settings, on developing ways of documenting and analysing classroom interaction relying on conversation analysis, and on the relationships between interaction, participation and social reproduction.

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction1. Comparative Analytics in the Dynamics of Education Politics1.1 Comparative education as a contested terrain1.2 A proposal for a more systematic, flexible and vivid approach: CADEP2. Orienting to the Finnish case2.1 The history of political situations2.2 The history of political possibilities2.3 The history of politicking3. Dynamics in Policymaking3.1. Late but enduring structures reflecting a belief in schooling3.2. Middle-class liberalist equity meets factory- and farmland-based equality3.3 Equality enhanced by the recession and PISA3.4. Conclusion: buffering and embedded egalitarianism4. Dynamics in governance4.1 From strict centralisation towards NPM and decentralisation4.2 Punctuated trust4.3 Non-materialised QAE4.4 Conclusion: redistributing but punctuated trust5. Dynamics in family educational strategies5.1. Leaving the Peruskoulu monolith behind5.2. Contradictory school choice5.3. Local politicking for soft school choice5.4. Conclusion: reliable but diverged parenthood6. Dynamics in classroom cultures6.1. From Herbart-Zillerian and social pedagogy to Peruskoulu didactics6.2. Individualised Peruskoulu pedagogies since 19706.3. A hybrid of tradition and progress6.4 Conclusion: consolidating but paternalistic progressivism7. The dynamics of Finnish basic-education politics: from understanding to explanation