Learning from Finland (PDF)

Since its successful performance in the PISA studies, at the latest, the Finnish education system has become the focus of public interest. In the media coverage of recent years, the Finnish school system has often been brought into play as a prime example of important challenges for educational policy.This is particularly true of the issue of inclusive education. While few studies to date have seriously questioned the Finnish "educational miracle", this book aims to provide an objective account of the current situation in Finland. In doing so, it takes a differentiated and critical look at inclusive schooling in Finland. In order to achieve this, the inclusive school and classroom culture is examined using qualitative research approaches in selected Finnish schools. The building blocks of an inclusive school developed by Reich (2014) are used as criteria for analysis. Based on the findings of this research, the book concludes by examining and discussing what Germany (and other countries) can learn from Finland with regard to the topic of inclusion. The author Christopher Mihajlovic (born 1984) studied education and special education (with the subjects of physical education and English) in Frankfurt am Main and Heidelberg. Since 2011, the author has been working as a special education teacher in inclusive learning environments and is currently lecturer at University of Education, Heidelberg. In 2016/2017, he spent a year studying and researching Finnish school culture at the University of Helsinki (Finland).