Overview

In just a couple of decades, Finland evolved from one of Europe’s lowest educated countries to the top performer of the international PISA ranking. Behind this «success story», there was a conscious strategy to use educational policies for creating a more equal society. Tracing the development of Finnish higher education system after WWII, this book depicts the role of educational expansion in the making of the welfare state. It focuses on the 1970s degree reform and the challenges brought by the 1973 Oil Crisis, resulting in the rise of New Public Management. Though meticulously planned, the reform was a struggle between various actors with conflicting strategies and goals; between educational optimism and scarce resources, academic values and instrumentalism, social justice and elitism.

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9783631584613

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Reviews

Dieses Buch ist eine herausragende Studie. Zum einen zeigt seine Autorin, die finnische Historikerin Marja Jalava, wie gewinnbringend die Geschichte der Hochschulreform geschrieben werden kann, wenn man sie nicht als kleinteilige Universitaetshistorie, sondern als Geschichte eines durch gesellschaftliche Aushandlungsprozesse gekennzeichneten und auf vielfaeltige Weise interagierenden sozialen Feldes konzipiert. Zum anderen macht die gerade einmal 170 Seiten zaehlende Monographie eine eklatante Forschungsluecke innerhalb der europaeischen Bildungs- und Zeitgeschichte sichtbar. (Anne Rohstock, H-Soz-u-Kult 106, 2013/1)

Author Information

Marja Jalava is Academy Research Fellow in the Department of Philosophy, History, Culture and Art Studies at the University of Helsinki. She has published widely on modern and contemporary Finnish and Nordic history, intellectual history, and the history of historiography.

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