Dr. Anu Warinowski, University of Turku, Finland

For decades, Finland has had a reputation of a country with a high-quality education. This respect has included both individual teachers and the education system, including basic education and teacher education. However, this good reputation and respect have recently been challenged. On a national level, especially the decline of PISA results, has resulted in a wave of criticism towards current education in Finland. Moreover, country-specific challenges have been combined with global challenges, such as racism and polarization, the safety situation linked to the war in Ukraine, and also the worsening ecological crisis. There are dark clouds in the blue sky of Finnish education.

On the other hand, there has been some progress also. An approach for developing teacher education in Finland in a national collaboration has widely strengthened since 2016. Launching the Teacher Education Forum in Finland was one of the positive events linked to enhancing national collaboration. The Ministry of Education and Culture also
funded several developmental projects in Finnish teacher education. Two of those have been the DOORS and FinTED projects, which will be described in the presentation.

In the DOORS project (2017–2020), a national selection system to Finnish teacher education was constructed. Also, in the project, eight universities created collaboratively a research-based model of teaching competenc(i)es as a framework for quality teaching in
Finland. This is called the MAP model. It is based on the idea of a continuum of teachers’ professional development combining the selection, pre-service, and working-life phases of a teaching career. In the FinTED project (2023– ), a national database and research infrastructure for Finnish teacher education will be constructed in a national collaboration.

Some solutions for tackling the national and global challenges of education can be found in emphasizing these two approaches. First, strengthening even further the research-based approach for teacher education and its development. Second, enhancing collaboration on both national and global levels in teacher education. Creating new futures through education should be done collaboratively and based on research.