Gender inclusion and teacher education in Finland and Sweden: comparative perspectives on theoretical foundations, local practices and challenges

• In Event: Critical and feminist analyses of policy and media discourses

Proposal

Relevance of this study
Feminists have for decades lifted the importance of gender theory in comparative education. Stromquist and Fischman (2009) argued for the need for training of teachers and school administrators on conflict, misunderstanding and miscommunication regarding gender issues. Educational actors need to acquire knowledge and skills, to understand school culture from a gender perspective and to deal with particular situations, instead of avoiding or ignoring them. UNESCO (2015) demanded that curricula adopted by TEIs needed to be globally revised. “A quick look at the curricula set by many TEIs around the world […] reveals a grave shortcoming regarding issues of gender equality” (UNESCO, 2015, p. 60). They argue that teacher education (TE) provides courses on education theories, the psychology of learning, teaching methodology, curriculum design and class management, evaluation and assessment, and also practicum courses. However, an emphasis on gender equality issues is not evident according to this source. This “problem of omission” needs to be addressed by curriculum designers of TEIs and illustrates the relevance of an investigation of theoretical foundations, local practices and possible challenges of working with gender awareness in different TEIs, for both practitioners in the field and researchers in comparative education.

Choice of geo-political context
International comparison is inevitably bounded by particular epistemology and formed by communities of education practice. North-European countries are known for their pro-active gender policies and regarded as leading in terms of gender equality, at least in the European context (European Institute for Gender Equality, 2017). A special feature in the Nordic history of gender equality is the strong alliance between feminist movement, state feminist equality officers and gender researchers. Already in the 1980s the Association of Teacher Education in Europe worked towards gender equality and provided, for example, a curriculum framework on gender equality (Lahelma & Tainio, forthcoming). The Nordic Council of Ministers provided resources for a large project on gender equality in education, with sub-projects in every Nordic country (Arnesen 1995). Later-on projects supported by national governments have taken place in Finland, Island and Sweden. Teacher educators in several Nordic countries have kept on working with gender inclusion and gender awareness in TEI over the last decades (e.g. Lenz-Taguchi, 2005; Reimers, 2006; Lahelma, 2011; Kreitz-Sandberg, 2013), but with rather modest results in many cases.

Objective of the study
The purpose of this paper is to explore the rationales, practices and results in work with gender inclusion in Sweden and Finland. Gender inclusion is understood as a pedagogical answer to politically motivated gender mainstreaming. It consists of gender sensitive teaching (gender as a form) and integrating a gender perspective (gender as a content). Gender equality, equity and awareness are other concepts that are used. The study starts with analysis of concepts, then revisits results from recent research on gender in Swedish and Finnish TEIs in order to describe, analyze and compare theoretical frameworks, local practices and challenges in these two Nordic countries.

Implications for practices, policies and theory
The paper analyses specific examples that are chosen from a variety of teacher education programs in Sweden and Finland. These studies build on different methodological approaches, from ethnographic observations and document analyses of program curriculum, course of studies and study guidelines to interview and survey studies. The results will be discussed in the light of discourses on gender and diversity and in the context of Northern European policies for higher education. The chosen comparative methodology may contribute to our understanding of working with gender inclusion in teacher education as a sustainable strategy for introducing more gender equity in schooling.

Contribution of this study in the context of the 2019 CIES conference
The results from earlier studies were re-examined in relation to possibilities for building socially sustainable structures in TEIs. Gender equality is an important dimension in policies for sustainable development. The paper addresses the role of working with equity and equality in TEI as part of social sustainable pedagogical processes. This presentation conceptualizes on the issue of sustainability more generally and particularly in relation to its social role for providing equity in and through education. It frames the discussion within the UN Sustainable Development Goals (2015) and their accomplishment in and for educational practices.

Originality and knowledge contribution
The selected examples from two neighboring countries show how policies for gender awareness and gender inclusion show potential for mutual learning. Possibilities of international transfer seem to depend on broader and extensive work with related questions in order to ground questions of gender equality within the local context. Addressing gender issues is a complex field in education. A review of related studies shows that we can find a variety of theoretical schools underpinning the relevance of working with gender and equity in specific ways. In order to gain an understanding of different possible strategies, we have studied the literature on gender in TE in Nordic countries. Finland and Sweden are the two countries where the discussion on gender in teacher education is most active. There are however also specific differences between the two countries, which become evident in national and Nordic networks and in diverse academic publications.
Constant efforts for building a consensus regarding the importance of and strategies for gender equality seem to be inevitable according to the studied examples. Gender equality is nothing that can be achieved over night and appropriate strategies need to be negotiated constantly in specific national and institutional contexts in universities and TEIs. The results of the study can elucidate that working with gender inclusion can be organized systematically within teacher education programs at university. We also highlight that challenges are to be expected and that actors in the field need to be prepared to meet resistance. A combination of top-down mainstreaming initiatives and grassroots activism seems to promise good results in relation to possibilities of facilitating gender equality in and through education. Analysis of the theoretical foundations of the re-investigated studies imply that local practices are not only influenced by policy makers or context factors but also by theoretical prioritization of stakeholders in the field.

Authors

• Susanne Kreitz-Sandberg, Stockholm University

• Meeri A Hellsten, Stockholm University

• Elina Lahelma, University of Helsinki, Faculty of Education