Why leave the teaching profession? A longitudinal approach to the prevalence and persistence of teacher turnover intentions

Social Psychology of Education - Teacher turnover has been recognized as a significant problem in the education worldwide. This study focuses on exploring reasons behind the turnover intentions,...     

Gender variance in interreligious sensitivity among Finnish pupils

This paper examines gender variance in the interreligious sensitivity among Finnish children and youth using a non-probability sample of 1000 Finnish lower secondary school pupils representing the age group 12–16. The data were gathered in three geographical locations: the capital city of Helsinki area, and two smaller municipalities in other parts of the country. The pupils’ self-reported attitudes towards interreligious sensitivity were measured using the Interreligious Sensitivity Scale. The results showed significant variation between the genders in the pupils’ interreligious sensitivity. Also geographical variance (city of residence) and pupils’ religious affiliation influenced their interreligious sensitivity.     

Sexual freedoms

Women—still—experience different forms of sexism in their daily lives. After the sixteenth‐century Protestant proclamation of the blessings of motherhood and women's bodies, and the women's sexual liberation movement of the 1960s, women's real freedoms and rights with their bodies, including sexual relations and procreation, are still being negotiated. Violence against women's bodies, including sex trafficking, relates to both the lack of appropriate education and fundamentally distorted views of humanity. Considering Luther's teaching on women as imago Dei, and attending theologically to the issues pertaining to misogyny—such as reforming the traditionally male‐centered God‐language and challenging the culture's implicit permission for ongoing violence against women—are some of the concrete steps that can be taken. Given the revelations with the #MeToo movement, the ELCA's 2018 draft on the Social Statement on Gender and Justice is timely.     

Inclusive Essential Luther—Invitation for Global Scholarship

Lutheran theology does not have a monopoly on grace. “Grace alone” statements do not suffice in unfolding what “all” grace is and does. In comparison to Catholic tradition, the Lutheran imagination of grace appears abstract and excludes experience. Feminist theology, in conversation with the tradition, promises to expand Lutheran hermeneutics and epistemology, starting with grace. In the footsteps of Tuomo Mannermaa, returning to Luther's transformative experience of grace, new avenues open up for reforming Lutheran grace‐language. With Luther, a holistic approach to grace can be developed, one that includes Mary the mother of God.     

Narrating career, positioning identity: Career identity as a narrative practice

In contrast to traditional definitions of career identity as an individual construct, this article argues for a discursive approach to career identity as a narrative practice. Career identity is conceptualized as a practice of articulating, performing and negotiating identity positions in narrating career experiences. By using the concept of positioning, this approach situates identities within particular historic, cultural and interactional contexts via the discourses and master narratives that position identity. It also leaves space for individual agency and change via the reflexive capacity of the person to modify and negotiate the competing positions available. The methodological implications are considered, and illustrated with an empirical case analysis. The contribution of the proposed approach is in offering contextualized understandings of actual practices, resources and constraints of identity construction while also allowing for in-depth analyses of the particularities of identity work and possibilities for change in careers.     

Beliefs and Values of Successful Scientists

This article discusses a construction of academic work ethic among 16 gifted Finnish scientists. It highlights theoretical assumptions and practical implications of values and beliefs in the context of scientific work. Following the work of Kolhberg (1969, 1984) and Gilligan (1982), we build our theoretical pre-understandings on the ethics of justice and care. However, these orientations are insufficient to explain all the beliefs and values associated with academic work. Various forms and levels of negotiations help us to construct a new structural illustration of scientists' moral orientations, which include an additional, previously less recognized ethical component--the ethic of empowerment. Those negotiations between different data sets, existing theoretical frameworks and researchers' differing epistemological assumptions characterize our research process and guide the creation of an ethic of empowerment, which describes scientists' beliefs and values established and practiced by individual and independent academics.     

The core of religious education: Finnish student teachers’ pedagogical aims

This article investigated the core of religious education (RE) by examining Finnish student teachers’ pedagogical aims in the context of Lutheran RE. The data consisted of essays (N=82) analysed in a deductive manner using the main concepts of the didactic triangle together with the aims of the Finnish National Core Curriculum. The student teachers identified familiarising oneself with one’s own and other religions in addition to growing ethically and understanding the religious dimension of life as the core goals of RE. By attaining these goals, pupils may also achieve the higher order aims of RE and cross-curricular goals of the curriculum. A teacher’s pedagogical and moral competence as well as expertise in subject matter was emphasised, and the pedagogical relation with students was also seen as important. A deeper understanding of pupils and the importance of a didactic relation in teaching were identified as pedagogical aims that need to be pursued further.     

Ethical Issues in Doctoral Supervision: The Perspectives of PhD Students in the Natural and Behavioral Sciences

Our aim was to identify the ethical issues faced by students in the behavioral and natural sciences during their doctoral programmes. The participants were 28 PhD students who were interviewed about their doctoral study and supervision experiences. We identified a total of 102 ethical issues compromising the principles of nonmaleficence, beneficence, autonomy, justice, or fidelity. There were some differences in emphases, with the students in the behavioral sciences displaying a broader range of ethical compromises than the students in the natural sciences. Ethical problems emerged in the individual supervisor–student relationships, but often problems involving the scholarly community appeared in the background.     

Finnish Teachers’ Attitudes About Muslim Students and Muslim Student Integration

Although there is much discussion of educational needs and how to integrate Muslim students into modern Western contexts, there is a shortage of research on teachers’ attitudes about these issues. Finland offers a particularly interesting context for research, given its relatively new, small, yet rapidly growing Muslim population, its prominence of negative attitudes to visible religiosity, and its official policy of multiculturalism. This article presents the results of a quantitative study of Finnish teachers’ attitudes to Muslim students and to their integration into Finnish schools. A nonprobability sample of Finnish preservice and practicing teachers (N = 864) was surveyed and the resulting data analyzed with exploratory factor analysis, t‐tests, and ANOVA. The results indicate that Finnish teachers consider learning about general democratic values important, but their attitudes to dealing with Islam and Muslims are not quite as positive. However, previous involvement with other cultures indicated more positive attitudes among preservice teachers. Female teachers and practicing teachers were more oriented toward the teaching of commonality, and teaching at a more advanced level indicated more positive attitudes to Muslims and Muslim integration.