The Finnishness in exporting Finnish education

Abstract

Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture (MOEC) made an ambitious aim in 2010, which was to become “one of the world’s leading education-based economies” (MOEC, 2010, p. 5). Since then, education export is officially a profitable business in Finland, a top-down national branding movement has begun and the concept of “Finnish Education” as a brand, a national identity has been created. As education is not possible to be copied as a whole, what can other countries really “borrow” from Finland would be an interesting area to explore. This article aims to identify Finnishness in exporting Finnish education in order to promote Finnish education globally. In this qualitative research, two research questions have been formulated: 1) What is the “Finnishness” that current education exporters are promoting? 2) How Finnishness is exported in current education export activities? The research was conducted through eight semi-structured interviews on current Finnish education exporters. Inductive qualitative content analysis was implemented in this study. Finnish education’s identity, Finnishness mindset, how Finnishness is exported and the challenges of exporting Finnish education have been recognised at the end of the study. Finnish education exporters identified Finnish education as an evolving process which provides soft skills for learners. Finnishness is a term that Finnish education exporters rarely heard of, four themes on Finnishness: Empathetic, Supportive, Critical and Communitarian were identified from Finnish education, and they have impact on Finnish education exports through at different stages of exporting activities. Finnishness in exporting Finnish education is more about the ‘Finnish way’ of carrying out education export, with its own challenges as well.