How are pupils guided?

The rationalities of career guidance in the national core curricula in Finland

Authors

• Janne Varjo Helsingin yliopisto
• Mira Kalalahti Turun yliopisto https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1254-9351
• Jussi Silvonen Itä-Suomen yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33350/ka.91517

Keywords:

Career guidance, National core curriculum, Rationalities

Abstract

Career guidance policies have recently attracted considerable attention, both among supranational organisations, such as the OECD, and domestically in political debates on Finnish education and employment policies. Career guidance has been seen as a panacea for a wide range of societal ills related to education, labour force and the socialisation of young people. This article analyses the justifications for the aims and contents given to career guidance in Finnish national core curricula. The data consists of all the national core curricula 1970–2014 (N = 5). Our approach emphasises the societal context of career guidance (comprehensive school) and its temporality (the stages of Finnish education and social policies).

We see career guidance as an instrument of governance, which is based on given moral and ideological premises, rationalities. Our analysis illustrates how the supranational discourses of knowledge economy, lifelong learning and equality have set the justification for career guidance and have impacted on the rationales of the aims and contents given to career guidance from the 1970s to the present, i.e. throughout the entire history of the Finnish comprehensive school. Nevertheless, the rationalities given for career guidance have altered substantially since the 1990s.