Doctoral-Level Teacher Educators in Finland

Abstract

Teacher education in Finland has reached a respectable 160 years of age. However, only for the past fifty years teacher education has been a part of the university institution. Before that, teachers were educated in teacher seminars. The changing educational needs of the welfare society caused teacher education to become part of the university institutions. The academization process of teacher education has not been smooth as the historical conditions of Finnish teacher education have emphasised strict norms and teachers’ practical skills have clashed with the need to train teachers who can do research and understand educational theories in relation to society. This push-and-pull process of practice versus theory provides even today ground for debates in Finnish teacher education. During the time that teacher education has been a part of universities, the relationship between training doctors and teacher education has varied. First, teacher educators were trained to become doctors mostly out of their own interest. In the second phase, teacher education had a strategic need to become more academic through training doctors. In the third, and current, state, teacher education departments all around Finland are systematically training Doctors of Education to meet the needs of changing society. Teacher educators of today are expected to both teach and research, and training doctors in education is at the heart of this process. Indeed, Finnish teacher education departments are trying their hardest to find answers through research-based methods to answer the needs of society, to advance teacher education and to make education in general better. In addition, larger and more complex funding programs have made it possible to have national and international collaboration between teacher education departments. Hence, we think that the future of Finnish research-based teacher education revolving around Doctors of Education is positively open.