Law is order, and good law is good order.
Aristotle
Why do we need to know laws? Laws regulate our actions in our daily private and professional lives, they are the written guidelines on what we can or cannot do. Breaking a law in all spheres of our lives can have deem circumstances. As teachers we need to know how our actions in the classroom and in communication with students and their parents or community are legal, what we obliged to do, what we can do, and what we cannot do. Laws serve as such light houses that also guide us in difficult situations to do the right thing and tell us what is going to happen if we do the wrong thing. It was a very important session for me as the laws and regulations are very different in every country and it is of paramount importance for us to know the laws and regulations governing the Finnish society and Finnish education system.
If we need to find any law in Finland the place to go is Finlex.fi. Its the online collections of all laws in Finland. Some laws can be found in English, some are only available in Finnish. Finnish parliament is responsible for passing the laws. The up-to-date changes and enactments can be found at https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa.
How is a law born in Finland? The enactment of the law starts with an initiative: it could be a governmental proposal, an initiative of people’s representative or citizen’s initiative. It’s followed by the discussion on the topic in the parliament, where it is then handled by special committee (erikoislaliokunta), where the proposal is discussed by the specialists in the field and some changes to the proposal can be made. Then comes the plenary hearing, review by the government, where people’s representatives discuss the contents of the law and section division. Then the parliament votes for the law. If it passes, the president’s signature is required to finalize it, after which the law is officially enacted. The amendments are made so long as the law exists.
The main body to govern and develop the field of education in Finland is Ministry of education and Culture. Their areas of expertise include: early childhood education and care, general education, vocational education and training, higher education and research, student financial aid, culture, copyright, libraries, sport, youth, religious affairs. On their website we can find many useful articles, news and documents concerning all the above areas. There we can also find legislation governing general education : pre-primary and comprehensive school education acts and decrees, general upper secondary education and matriculation examination acts and decrees, basic education in art act, liberal adult education act, financing acts and decrees, administration and teaching staff qualification acts and decrees.
On the vocational education page we can find information on policies and development of vocational education, administration and finance of vocational education and qualifications and studies offered in vocational education institutions. The laws governing the vocational institutions can be found at https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/alkup/2017/20170531, https://minedu.fi/ammatillisen-koulutuksen-lainsaadanto .
More information on the vocational education regulations and implementation in Finland we can find on the Finnish National Agency for Education web pages at https://www.oph.fi/fi/koulutus-ja-tutkinnot/ammatillinen-koulutus. There we can learn more about for example studying in VET, student welfare, assessment in VET, development projects, internalisation of VET and much more.
The law governing vocational higher education can be found at https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2014/20140932?search%5Btype%5D=pika&search%5Bpika%5D=toisen%20asteen%20opetus
and the law governing universities is at https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2009/20090558?search%5Btype%5D=pika&search%5Bpika%5D=yliopistolaki.
PREPARATION AND GROUP WORK
Our group’s task this week was to teach about the principles of good administration and how we can see these principles at work in everyday life of a teacher. The material at hand was quite theoretical. We met with our group members twice to discuss the work division and then to discuss the exercise we’ve developed. We researched and found sources from which we took the information. The real-life examples included in our presentation as an exercise were predominantly were written by me and taken from my personal experiences and observations of teaching work. My idea was to put the list of principles on every page next to every example in order to make it easier for the students to recall the big list of principles from the theoretical part and by the end of the session remember the principles better by going through them again and again by doing this exercise. The group work goes very smoothly these days. There are only three of us left in the group, very small, but at the same time we’ve become a rather close-knit unit and learned very well how to work together by now. We support each other by giving advice and sharing the knowledge when someone does not have any expertise on the topic. Communication is efficient and everyone does their part in order to deliver a good session. I’m very happy in the way we now function as a team.
SESSION
Bastu team taught about where we must go in order to find laws in Finland. They provided many useful links on the topic so that we can find the information we need easily. The objectives of the session were stated clearly and, in my opinion, they were achieved at the end of the session. Bastus talked about the confidentiality law, what students’ information can be shared and what information is strictly forbidden to share. Confidential is/are:
-documents containing information on a person’s lifestyle, participation in voluntary associations, or leisure-time activities, family life or other comparable personal circumstances of the person
-marital status
– the test results of students and candidates and the school diplomas and other documentscontaining a verbal assessment of the personal characteristics of the student
– information about psychological evaluations of aptitude tests
– information about special support for the student
– information about the student welfare services received by the student
– information about the health and welfare, sexual orientation, disability or invalidity of the student
Marital status was a surprise for me as back in my country access to this information is rather open to the public.
The information that can be disclosed includes exam and test results, transcript of records, period reports, school year reports, final reports, matriculation examination report. I believe that was a very important piece of information, because if I had no knowledge about that, I could get myself in a serious legal pickle. For example in my country its a normal practice and a very common one to read the lists of students’ names and their grades in front of the whole class. Moreover, a teacher can easily discuss a grade and progress of a student freely in front of everyone else.
Also a very important information in Bastu’s presentation was about sharing the information we get in school with our family members and friends. Only the information that is public can be disclosed to them, but the general rule for it is : what happens in school, stays in school.
Bastu chose lecture as the method of instruction and for me it was sometimes rather challenging to follow as the information was rather theoretical and there was little interaction. But that is just the nature of the topic, I think. I also noticed about the teacher in Bastu, that when it comes to the discussion and feedback, he calls immediately on a person by name, usually without giving a moment or two for all students to gather their thoughts on the question and come up with an answer. Being called on immediately the moment the question’s been asked, in my opinion, may perplex a student. In my belief its better to stop and give students half a minute to gather their thoughts and then call on someone. In general, the presentation was informative and gave very good references.
Owls presented on the topic of ensuring safety of the environment in school. They chose to start with a diagnostic quiz for us to check the gaps of our knowledge on the topic. In my opinion it was a nice and smooth transition to the topic, when we had to think beforehand what we really know about it. Owls discussed about the physical, psychosocial and social safety in school. They gave information on what the safety documents in an educational institution are: fire safety, campus maps, instructions for chemical accidents, instructions for sheltering and exiting inside, etc. I remember when I came for training in one of the Oulu schools, part of the training was to acquaint myself with the safety regulations in that school. Head teacher gave me a manual which I had to go through during the working day and return the same day as it was forbidden to take it out from the school premises. The manual was rather extensive, and it contained the instructions on how to act in certain dangerous situations, for example, the explosives in school, a dangerous individual, fire, etc. The teaching stuff must all know the drill in every situation in order to act promptly and effectively.
Owls talked about bullying in school. It is the right of every student and a teacher to have a safe study and work environment. They introduced us to KiVa program which is implemented in Finnish schools, where the participants are taught empathy through gaming and simulations, where a bully can be placed in the position of a bullied and feel how it feels. The bully then adjusts his behaviour.
Every educational institution has its internal policies on safety. When I was doing my training in the school mentioned above, one of Oulu public schools, the headmaster also shared the Oulu city policy on bullying at the workplace, which is followed by Oulu schools. The policy has 0 tolerance towards bullying and all the instances of bullying at the workplace must be reported to the head teacher of school.
Owls gave us helpful tips on what we can do as teachers, such as letting students know the laws that protect them, notifying students of all emergency exit doors, making sure there are fire safety measures, creating rules and guidelines for students to follow, striving to create a space, free from haters and bullies.
Two Owl teachers presented today, and they did it in a very professional way. Their pace was good, they encouraged feedback from the participants and answered the questions addressed to them confidently. Well done.
ANALYSIS OF OWN TEACHING
I felt rather anxious before teaching this topic as teaching about laws and constitutional rights and principles is rather intimidating for someone who doesn’t have any legal background. I studied the material we prepared very well in my opinion, but however well I knew all the principles I was to teach about, I was anxious of wording basically everything in the presentation so that it makes sense and stays true and is not too complicated to be perceived well by the students. I was afraid that I would lose my students and the scenes from old movies or my previous university classrooms where students are sleeping during the lectures were rather alive in my mind. We had a rather theoretical first part of the presentation, but I believe things got better when we got to the exercise. This part became truly interactive and I believe I succeeded in guiding the students through it and encouraging their feedback. Once again, I proved for myself the merit of making classes interactive, making students think and discover the knowledge.
CONCLUSIONS
Laws are different in every country and different political systems function differently. Finland is a democratic society and the principle of democracy in education is the guiding one. I come from a democratic society in Europe as well. On paper. In practice the political regime is authoritarian. The human rights are defined as” poor” by United Nations human rights. The general secondary education in Belarus is free and it is the right of every citizen to get it. However, practices in the education system mirror quite much the whole political situation in the country. Authoritarian methods of educational administration, the repressed freedom of student expression, the psychological safety is not guaranteed, and the bullying directed at students is rather common among the university teaching and administrative stuff. It was a very important session for me to prepare for and participate in as I plunged into the functioning of a truly free and democratic country and educational system based on principles of equity, justice, impartiality, cooperation and more. Having gone through rather undemocratic practice in my student career, I believe I truly appreciate the difference now and I know that I will be a teacher who will build her professional career on sticking to the good principles of administration, because I know it firsthand what the alternative is and how it feels.
Ammattikorkeakoululaki. (2014, November 14). Retrieved from https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2014/20140932?search%5Btype%5D=pika&search%5Bpika%5D=toisen%20asteen%20opetus
Laki ammatillisesta koulutuksesta (2017, July 11). Retrieved from https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/alkup/2017/20170531
Lainsäädännön kiemuroita – miten laki syntyy (n.d) Retrieved from https://verkkolahetys.eduskunta.fi/fi/esittelyvideot/miten_laki_syntyy
Ministry of Education and Culture ( n.d.) Areas of expertise. Retrieved from https://minedu.fi/en/areas-of-expertise
Ministry of Education and Culture ( n.d.) Key legislation of general education. Retrieved from https://minedu.fi/en/legislation-general-education
Ministry of Education and Culture ( n.d.) Ammatillista koulutusta koskevat lait ja säädökset https://minedu.fi/ammatillisen-koulutuksen-lainsaadanto
myteachingpath.home.blog 