What Should Finland Do with Its Famous Education System?

Samuel Abrams is the director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and the author of Education and the Commercial Mindset (Harvard University Press, 2016).

He is serving during the 2022–2023 academic year as a Fulbright visiting professor at the University of Turku.

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Marcelo Parreira do Amaral is Full Professor of Education at the Institute of Education of the University of Muenster, Germany and Visiting Professor at the University of Turku, Finland.

Parreira do Amaral teaches and researches in the field Comparative and International Education, Education Policy Studies, Comparative Higher Education, Lifelong Learning, and (National) Education Institutions.

His current research focuses international educational policy and governance issues at various levels and scales. More recently, his work concentrated on the geopolitical transformations in higher education and more generally on the emergence and expansion of a Global Education Industry (GEI) and on how it is transforming conceptualizations of ‘good’ education.

His research on (new) providers and policy actors within education aims at analyzing the possible consequences for education research, policy and practice. Beyond discerning particular expressions and manifestations of the GEI phenomenon in international contexts, it also looks into the rationales, processes and impacts of the GEI developments on education systems.

Parreira do Amaral has collaborated to and coordinated several national and international research projects, including the EU-funded projects Constructing Learning Outcomes in Europe: A multi-level analysis of (under)achievement in the life course (CLEAR, Horizon Europe 2022–2025) and Policies Supporting Young People in their Life Course. A Comparative Perspective of Lifelong Learning and Inclusion in Education and Work in Europe (YOUNG_ADULLLT, Horizon 2020, 2016–2019). Parreira do Amaral is also member of NESET (Network of Experts on the Social Aspects of Education) funded by the European Commission

The focus of attention of his research lies on understanding how education institutions and systems are impacted by the relationships between the local, national and international levels, with a particular attention to issues of access to and equity in education.

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Erno Lehtinen is a Professor Emeritus of the Faculty of Education at the University of Turku. His research has focused on learning and motivation in different learning environments. Lehtinen's research has focused especially on mathematics learning, the use of information technology in education and the development of expertise in networked environments.

Lehtinen has also worked as an Academy Professor and as Vice Rector for Education and Teaching at the University of Turku.

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Dr. Piia Seppänen is Professor of Education at the University of Turku and works as Vice-Dean for research in its Faculty of Education.

Her research with research groups at the Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning and Education (CELE) focusses on pupil selection, urban social segregation and classed practices within comprehensive schooling as well as on commodification in public education systems and its connections to the global education industry.

She is co-editor in 2023 published volume Finland’s Famous Education System – Unvarnished insights into Finnish schooling (open access, Springer).

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