Finnish Education Export meets Islamic Culture : A case study from Finnish and local teachers’ perspectives

Abstract

In recent years, Finnish education export has grown rapidly and aimed to become a nationally significant business. This study delves into the field of Finnish education export, especially in the context of Islamic culture. It is a qualitative case study conducted with Finnish and local teacher interviews, who at the time of the study worked as classroom teachers in a Finnish international school located in an Islamic country. The theoretical background lies within international and comparative education, the concept of education export and its many dimensions, and the differences between Finnish and Islamic cultures according to Hofstede's cultural dimension model. The aim of this study was to find out from a teacher perspective what kind of cultural differences emerge in such an education export context and how these differences possibly affect the implementation of the Finnish education system in practice. The study considered the connections of these cultural differences with Hofstede's theory. In addition, focus was on how the two different education systems co-exist and what kind of local customs were visible in the school's everyday life. In a multicultural education export project, knowledge transfer plays a crucial role, particularly in terms of how well essential information is shared with teachers from both pedagogical and cultural perspectives. The study examined how knowledge transfer was conducted within this education export project. Finally, some comparisons between Finnish and local teacher perspectives were drawn.

According to the results, some cultural and religious differences do arise in a multicultural education export project and they may act as background factors and impact how teaching is carried out, especially from the Finnish teachers’ perspective. In addition, the results suggest that knowledge transfer had been partly insufficient. Finnish expat teachers called for adequate cultural knowledge, whereas local teachers felt that they were not familiar enough with the Finnish education system. The matter of insufficient resources was raised, which in themselves are not an obstacle in education export, but may affect the success of such a project, financed by paying customers. In the case-school, teamwork was implemented with one Finnish and two local teachers, and the results revealed an inequality between the teachers. In theory, teachers within a team ought to be equal, but based on the interviews, class teachers felt that the students, parents and other school staff often prioritized the Finnish teacher. For local teachers, this was even perceived as a preference for white skin colour. Although there were some differences in the Finnish and local teachers’ perspectives, there were also similarities. Above all, teachers valued each other and saw multicultural teamwork as an asset.

The results of this study depict that education export is a culturally sensitive activity and its practices are still partially deficient from the teachers' perspectives. Education export projects contain diverse aspects to take into consideration. Along with cultural and religious aspects, sufficient attention needs to be paid to knowledge transfer. In addition, teacher roles in a multicultural education export project need to be carefully planned and executed. All in all, there is no one magic formula in any country that is transferable to another context as such. A successful education system is a combination of several factors and thus, education export is intricate, compelling, and deeply contextual.