Far at home : Finnish emigrants' views on basic education in Florida
Järvikylä, Heli (2015)
2015
Kasvatuksen ja yhteiskunnan tutkimuksen maisteriopinnot - Master's Programme in Educational Studies
Kasvatustieteiden yksikkö - School of Education
This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2015-01-22
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201502191136
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201502191136
Tiivistelmä
The purpose of this research was to explore Finnish emigrants' views on basic education in Florida compared to their experiences in basic education in Finland. Another perspective of this research was to examine what factors do the emigrants believe to have an influence on school success in Florida compared to their experiences in Finland. The third perspective was to find out if the emigrants believe that their immigrant background has any relevance on their children's school success in Florida. The goal of this research was to widen the perspective from only one school system and learning from another system in order to strengthen the understanding of school system's dependency on nations dynamic development. Most of the answerers (n=23) have done studies at the basic education level in Finland and their children are studying or have studied in Florida at the basic education level. Two of the answerers themselves have studied both in Finland and in Florida (n=2).
There were two methods used for collecting the data to enhance the trustworthiness of the research. Out of all 25 answerers (n=25) twenty answerers (n=20) filled an internet based survey and five answerers (n=5) were interviewed in Florida in January 2014. The philosophical approach behind the research is hermeneutic phenomenology. Phenomenology is about the lived experience, but to understand the experiences we need to do interpretations. Understanding is about interpreting and that is the purpose of hermeneutics. Understanding is always built on pre-understanding. The answerers see the differences of these two school systems through their Finnish background and their pre-understanding. Also having to be in a new situation and new environment they are able to see the normal every day life things in a new light when compared to parents who do not have the multicultural background. This approach to the research also brought up an interesting multicultural perspective.
The main findings were that functional issues of school culture in Finland are much more emphasized than in Florida. The importance and positive effect of healthy school food, recesses, arts and physical education, decent amount of homework and free time on school success is understood and much effort and resources are put on them. These issues are less emphasized in Florida. The social issues however; social activity, parental involvement and free time activities are much more emphasized in Florida compared to Finland.
Some aspects behind the school success were seen as worldwide and some cultural. The child's own motivation for studying is one of the factors behind school success in both countries. The culture in Florida values more social aspects: social activity and parents' participation. In Finland students are expected to have more independency. The quality of schools in Florida vary a lot by the area where they are located and therefore the success is dependent on the school and the teacher the student has. In Finland schools are quite the same quality all around the country.
Most answerers believed that their multicultural background has a positive influence on their children's school success. The background was seen as richness when working together with people with different kinds of backgrounds. The Finnish background was seen as an especially positive factor and bilingualism as an advantage when learning new languages.
There were two methods used for collecting the data to enhance the trustworthiness of the research. Out of all 25 answerers (n=25) twenty answerers (n=20) filled an internet based survey and five answerers (n=5) were interviewed in Florida in January 2014. The philosophical approach behind the research is hermeneutic phenomenology. Phenomenology is about the lived experience, but to understand the experiences we need to do interpretations. Understanding is about interpreting and that is the purpose of hermeneutics. Understanding is always built on pre-understanding. The answerers see the differences of these two school systems through their Finnish background and their pre-understanding. Also having to be in a new situation and new environment they are able to see the normal every day life things in a new light when compared to parents who do not have the multicultural background. This approach to the research also brought up an interesting multicultural perspective.
The main findings were that functional issues of school culture in Finland are much more emphasized than in Florida. The importance and positive effect of healthy school food, recesses, arts and physical education, decent amount of homework and free time on school success is understood and much effort and resources are put on them. These issues are less emphasized in Florida. The social issues however; social activity, parental involvement and free time activities are much more emphasized in Florida compared to Finland.
Some aspects behind the school success were seen as worldwide and some cultural. The child's own motivation for studying is one of the factors behind school success in both countries. The culture in Florida values more social aspects: social activity and parents' participation. In Finland students are expected to have more independency. The quality of schools in Florida vary a lot by the area where they are located and therefore the success is dependent on the school and the teacher the student has. In Finland schools are quite the same quality all around the country.
Most answerers believed that their multicultural background has a positive influence on their children's school success. The background was seen as richness when working together with people with different kinds of backgrounds. The Finnish background was seen as an especially positive factor and bilingualism as an advantage when learning new languages.