Finnish education

I’ve read a very interesting article about what educational lessons there might be for the Arab world from Finland’s continuing academic success. The article is really an interview with Pasi Sahlberg, Finnish scholar and educator, who points out some socio-cultural idiosyncrasies of their system and cautions against its wholesale transfer elsewhere. For instance, Sahlberg talks about “the power and importance of the entire Finnish culture toward children” and about their de facto education starting at a very early age through government-run institutions, etc.

Despite some obvious differences in their approaches to transfers of educational innovations/systems, it brings to mind Holliday’s concept of “tissue rejection” in TESOL (Tissue Rejection and Informal Orders in ELT Projects: Collecting the Right Information, 1992) which may take place when curriculum innovation is transplanted from one context to another.

Here is the link to the article:

http://www.al-fanarmedia.org/2014/05/lessons-finland-conversation-pasi-sahlberg/?utm_source=Al+Fanar+list&utm_campaign=fb6ce131e4-Al_Fanar_English_newsletter_no_323_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8b6ddcac65-fb6ce131e4-57071609

Magda