Quality assurance and evaluation (QAE) in Finnish compulsory schooling: a national model or just unintended effects of radical decentralisation?

Author: Simola Hannu   Rinne Risto   Varjo Janne   Pitkanen Hannele   Kauko Jaakko  

Publisher: Routledge Ltd

ISSN: 1464-5106

Source: Journal of Education Policy, Vol.24, Iss.2, 2009-03, pp. : 163-178

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Abstract

This article traces quality assurance and evaluation (QAE) developments in Finnish compulsory schooling. The central question is this: Is there a Finnish model of QAE? We conclude that it may be a rhetorical overstatement to speak about a specific Finnish 'Model' of QAE in a strong sense. However, neither is it valid to conclude that what happens in Finnish QAE merely reflects the unintended effects of radical decentralisation. The Finnish consensus on certain issues in QAE could be characterised as silent, and based on antipathy rather than on conscious and articulated principles. Finnish hostility towards ranking, combined with a bureaucratic tradition and a developmental approach to QAE strengthened by radical municipal autonomy, has constructed two national and local embedded policies that have been rather effective in resisting a trans-national policy of testing and ranking. It is significant, however, that both represent a combination of conscious, unintended and contingent factors.