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Journal of Educational Change

, Volume 13, Issue 1, pp 95–116 | Cite as

Do comprehensive school teachers perceive themselves as active professional agents in school reforms?

  • Kirsi Pyhältö
  • Janne Pietarinen
  • Tiina Soini
Article
First Online:

Abstract

This article focuses on exploring comprehensive school teachers’ professional agency in the context of the most recent school reforms in Finland (i.e., developing undivided basic education). In this article, the emphasis is on analyzing the premises on which teachers view themselves and their work in terms of developing their own school, catalyzed by the national school reform. Teachers’ perceptions and the relation between their perceptions of the development work and their educational backgrounds were empirically examined by means of essays entitled “Remembering the Future.” Results suggested that both teachers’ perceptions of undivided basic education and their perceptions of themselves in the development process varied considerably. Further investigation showed that teachers’ perceptions of the reform and of themselves within the reforms were interrelated. More specifically, perceiving oneself as an active subject in the development work seemed to promote a holistic and functional perception of the object of the development. On the basis of the results, it seems that as highly educated professionals, teachers were very capable of identifying and analyzing what should be changed in schools and/or the school districts. However, a challenge for the teachers’ active professional agency in educational reforms seems to be the lack of shared and informed assumptions of how change can be brought about.

Keywords

School reform Comprehensive school Agency Teacher development 
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© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011

Authors and Affiliations

  • Kirsi Pyhältö
    • 1
  • Janne Pietarinen
    • 2
  • Tiina Soini
    • 3
  1. 1.Faculty of Behavioural SciencesCentre for Research and Development of Higher Education (YTY)University of HelsinkiFinland
  2. 2.School of Educational Sciences and PsychologyUniversity of Eastern FinlandJoensuuFinland
  3. 3.School of EducationUniversity of TampereFinland

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