Emphasized teaching in comprehensive schools in local curricula

The distribution of lesson hours, teaching content and justification for pupil selection

Authors

• Terhi Pasu Elinikäisen oppimisen ja koulutuksen tutkimuskeskus CELE, Turun yliopisto
• Piia Seppänen suomi https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0156-6412

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33350/ka.140960

Keywords:

emphasized teaching, curriculum, pupil selection, educational inequality

Abstract

In the Finnish basic education legislation, the justification of pupil selection in comprehensive schools arises when teaching is based on an emphasized curriculum. The national core curriculum oblige education providers to describe their solution for an emphasized curriculum. There is no overall national picture of how emphasized teaching is organised in the curricula of municipalities and schools. We examined the descriptions of the curricula of large Finnish cities (n=12) and their comprehensive schools on the distribution, objectives and content of lessons in emphasized teaching as well as how the curricula construct justification for pupil selection. The data, collected from public internet sources in 2022, was analysed using content analysis. Emphasized teaching typically included weekly lessons of optional studies. It aimed to deepen the objectives of the mainstream education, highlighting cooperation and individual competency. Some local curricula had no descriptions of emphasized teaching content, therefore not building justification for pupil selection through educational objectives. Collaborative objectives were mostly centred within or between the emphasized classes, or between them and stakeholders outside the school. In contrast, cooperation between emphasized and mainstream education classes was hardly described in the curricula. The study raises questions about the justification for pupil selection and the need for a nationally regulated educational policy.