Together but apart – combining two different schools, as experienced by students and staff

Authors

• Kristiina Samppala Tampereen yliopisto
• Pekka Räihä

Abstract

School amalgamation has been studied chiefly from the economic viewpoint. Our research study, which deals with the joining of two different lower schools, gives a voice to the students and teachers affected by the change. The research data consists of interviews and observation notes as well as a field diary. Amalgamating schools is a more complicated process than is commonly assumed, and the students and staff in our study had very different experiences of the progress of the amalgamation. The teachers’ experience was that students had quickly adapted to the amalgamation, even though the students themselves felt there was considerable separation between student groups. Attempts were made to speed up the process through rhetoric, but without success. The study shows, among other things, that instead of suppressing discussion about the former schools, experiences related to them should be dealt with systematically.