The short and difficult history of Finnish didactic studies from the 1960’s until the new millennium

Authors

• Jari Salminen Helsingin yliopisto
• Janne Säntti

Abstract

In this study, Finnish didactic textbooks are analyzed from the end of the 1960’s until the beginning of the new millennium. We pursued to find and understand the changes that didactic studies have undergone during that period. We believe that these books, made by the leading educational experts of the time, embrace the core and the newest findings of didactic research and also show how educational matters should be taken care of in the teaching practice. On the basis of our analysis, we formulated three different eras and four themes, which were answered variously in different times. These subjects were the relationship between didactics and normativity, the escalation of didactic content, the relationship between theory and practice and finally the societal matters. It seems that systematical and societal approach has diminished while a new kind of normativity has been on the rise. In addition, writers have not been successful in deciding what didactic studies should comprise.