Empowered Educators in Finland: How High-Performing Systems Shape Teaching Quality

Part of a series, with a main volume by Linda Darling-Hammond and Dion Burns: EMPOWERED EDUCATORS: HOW HIGH-PERFORMING SYSTEMS SHAPE TEACHING QUALITY AROUND THE WORLD.

This work delves into a number of high-performing educational systems, and describes how they create a coherent set of policies designed to ensure quality teaching in all communities. The authors also closely examine how these policies are translated into practice. The series spans systems across three continents and five countries.

Upon the occasion of the birth of a new baby in Finland, since the 1930s, the Finnish government has been providing every new mother with a cardboard box filled with clothes, sheets, toys, diapers, and other essential items. The box even includes a small mattress, and the box can actually (and often does for many newborns) serve as a simple crib. The intention of the box is to ensure that all children in Finland have an equal start; but it serves also as a symbol of the centrality of equity and children in Finland.

In EMPOWERED EDUCATORS IN FINLAND, the authors explore Finland's unique teacher preparation approach and other aspects of the educational system that contribute to the capacity of the country to create a strong and quality teacher workforce. There are many lessons to learn, as the country is producing strong student results on international tests such as OECD’s PISA.