Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Art and Design Theses Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design Summer 8-12-2014 Art Education in Finland and the United States: A Qualitative Inquiry into Teacher Perceptions Lauren E. Knight Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.edu/art_design_theses Recommended Citation Knight, Lauren E., "Art Education in Finland and the United States: A Qualitative Inquiry into Teacher Perceptions." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2014.edu/art_design_theses/165 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University.
It has been accepted for inclusion in Art and Design Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact scholarworks@gsu. ART EDUCATION IN FINLAND AND THE UNITED STATES: A QUALITATIVE INQUIRY INTO TEACHER PERCEPTIONS by LAUREN KNIGHT Under the Direction of Melanie Davenport ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to gain insights into the educational system in Finland, where art seem to be valued, and America, where it seems to struggle. I first studied how policies that promote a business-like ideology and standardized testing in schools have impacted art education in the United States.
Then I investigated Finland’s educational system, which does not rely on standardized testing to monitor student learning and teachers. During my research I noticed that Finland uses a noncompetitive approach to education, which I assumed was connected to the art Folk School that originated in Denmark and moved throughout Europe. Based upon this information, I anticipated that art education was valued more in Finland than in the United States. I also anticipated that Finland’s educational success had a connection to its non-competitive system and its inclusion of the arts.
In order to explore this idea, I investigated Finland’s approach to art education by interviewing Finnish professionals in the art education field. INDEX WORDS: Art education, Folk schools, No child left behind, Nikolai Frederick Severin Grundtvig, International review board, Program for internal student assessment ART EDUCATION IN FINLAND AND THE UNITED STATES: A QUALITATIVE INQUIRY INTO TEACHER PERCEPTIONS by LAUREN KNIGHT A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Art Education in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2014 Copyright by Lauren Knight 2014 ART EDUCATION IN FINLAND AND THE UNITED STATES: A QUALITATIVE INQUIRY INTO TEACHER PERCEPTIONS by LAUREN KNIGHT Committee Chair: Melanie Davenport Committee: Melody Milbrandt Kevin Hsieh Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University August 2014 iv DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis to my family. For their endless love, support and encouragement. I am particularly grateful to my fiancé Josh who has kept exemplary patience and support while I completed my thesis.
I am indeed blessed to have him in my life. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge my professors Dr. Melanie Davenport, Dr. Melody Milbrandt and Dr.
Kevin Hsieh for their patience, encouragement, and professional guidance through my graduate studies. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. v LIST OF TABLES. viii KEY TERMS.
ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .1 Purpose of the Study. 4 CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE .1 The Business Model of Education .2 Impact of the Business Model on Arts Education .3 The Stress of NCLB and the De-stressing Effect of Arts Education in Urban Schools .4 A Successful Model of Standardized Testing in South Korea .5 The Danish Inception of Folk School.1 National Development By Educating the Folk .2 Contrasts and Comparisons of the U. and Finnish Approaches .3 Finland’s Homogenous Population vs. United States Diverse Population .6 Implications of the Literature Review about the U.
and Finnish Educational Models. 40 vii CHAPTER 4 ANALYSIS .1 Data Analysis and Findings .6 Evaluation of Data. 76 viii LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1………………………………………………………………………………………16 TABLE 2………………………………………………………………………………………17 TABLE 3…………….34 ix KEY TERMS 1. No Child Left behind Act 2002 (NCLB) – An act signed into law on January 8, 2002 by President George Bush, which relies on testing to improve student achievement gap and teacher accountability.
Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) – An exam in reading, math, and science, given every 3 years since 2000 to approximately 5000 15-year-olds per nation around the world. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – Provides a forum in which governments around the world can work together to share experiences and pursue solutions to common problems. Folk School (folkehojskoler) – Focused on critical thinking and vocational skills for the rural population through a non-competitive educational environment of arts and crafts. Race to the Top (RTTT)– A law passed in 2009 by President Barack Obama, which relies on test scores to evaluate teachers and education administrators.
Elementary and Secondary Education Act 1965 (ESEA)– A law passed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, which funds primary and secondary education, while emphasizing equal access to education, high standards, and accountability. Improving America’s Schools Act 1994 (IASA)– A reauthorized version of ESEA by President Bill Clinton, which provides extra help to disadvantaged students and holding schools responsible for their results at the same level as other students. Texas Assessment of Academic Skills – Was a standardized test which focused on reading, writing and math, used in Texas from 1991 to 2002, then was replaced in 2003 by the TAKS test.
Grundtvigians – Followers of Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig, that established free schools and Folk School. Center for International Mobility and Cooperation – Provides expertise and services to promote international cooperation and mobility with emphasis on education, training, working, life, culture, and young people in the Finnish Society. Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture – An organization within the Finnish government that is responsible for developing educational, science, cultural, sport and youth policies and international cooperation in these fields. Atlanta Federation of Teachers – was founded in 1916, and represents Pre-K through 12th grade teachers; paraprofessionals; higher educational faculty and professional staff; state and local government employees; nurses and other healthcare professionals.
The Rand Corporation – a nonprofit organization that aids in improving policy and decision making through research and analysis. Open-coding – Strategies used to reveal common themes and outlying remarks. 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In the early 21st century, Finland and the United States seem to have dissimilar approaches to education in terms of the value placed upon the skill sets that art education provides. Whereas the United States relies heavily on a business model of schooling with a focus on annual standardized testing which allows success for some but sets up many to fail as it marginalizes the arts, Finland's system has a more decentralized authority and produces more student success in a system that requires less time in school, uses cohort testing sparingly, while valuing and integrating the arts throughout the curriculum.1 Purpose of the Study I began this study with the perception that art education in Finland is stronger and has a higher status than art education in the United States.
To investigate my perceptions, I reviewed below how NCLB came to be and summarize evidence of how it appears to be undermining art education in the United States public schools. I then explore comparisons drawn from my investigation of art in the educational system of Finland, where art seems to be valued, and in America, where it seems to struggle for its very existence in public schools. I look into how Finland’s approach to education and art differs in an effort to inform contemplation about how art in American schools might be reprioritized if standardized testing were not central to schooling in the United States as it is not in Finland. Based on this information I collected from Finnish art educators, I perceive certain methods for creating pedagogically sound instruction in the United States that emphasizes the importance of the art education curricula.
I reviewed both quantitative and qualitative studies as a foundation for conducting a set of interviews with educators familiar with the Finnish educational system. The quantitative research I reviewed provides statistics on the results of NCLB and its effects on art education. In 2 addition, I looked for research showing the positive effects of art education on children and interdisciplinary instruction, especially for children taking standardized tests. The qualitative data I gathered include first-person insights of art educators who have experience with the Finnish educational system, which does not depend heavily upon standardized testing.
The personal reflections of practitioners directly involved are invaluable because they reveal their perceptions of how policies impact their students. It concerned me to learn during my investigation that people in power who make policies regarding education, often have no classroom experience. So, I have thought the voices of actual teachers who could perhaps shed light on the impact of testing on art education, in the shadows where policy makers or regulators or administrators tend to have a blind spot. I try to I honor the voices of teachers whose perspectives are typically not included in much of the discourse pertaining to educational policies.
Studies suggested that education in Finland values art experiences. It came as a surprise to me to learn that “Finland has a long term approach to arts in education. Rather than valuing STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) over the arts like many Western countries, Finland considers the arts to be vital and weaves it through their entire education system” (ianchia, 2011). This is the impetus for me to look more closely at art instruction in Finland for my research.
However, art education in Finland may not be entirely free of challenges similar to NCLB because there were articles that also suggested that art education in Finland is fighting for survival. My assumptions were that in Finland art was treated as important as other subjects and received the same amount of funding as other subjects as well. However, this assumption proved to be too narrow. One article entitled, Naked model raises eyebrows; makes statement for art teaching, described a peaceful demonstration in Finland protesting the 3 “elimination of teaching art in the country’s second most populous municipality outside of the Helsinki metropolitan area” (Naked model raises eyebrows; makes statement for art teaching (2013), p.
The demonstration involved a student in the nude posing in the Tampere railway station while her fellow students sketched her figure, as if they were in class. The protest lasted 15 minutes after a security guard politely asked the nude student to step down. The art teacher, Pekka Niskanen, sexpressed her advocacy of art and her surprise that others would find it unimportant when she explained “that it was peculiar that the country’s second largest city should be ready to draw a line through art teaching, something that is an important part of culture and education” (Naked model raises eyebrows; makes statement for art teaching (2013), p. This article made me question if my assumption about Finland maybe was somewhat different from what really is happening in the country.
To calibrate my assumptions with reality is why I sought insights from teachers working in Finland. I found this article disturbing because it showed that art education is still being threatened even in a very progressive country. In a study about teachers of art in Finland, Rasanen (2005) from the University of Turku, found that “a traditional dichotomy between arts and academic subjects was evident. The majority identified arts as either the most pleasant or least useful school subjects” (p.
This statement shows that some people in Finland hold similar positions as some testing-focused administrators in the United States in seeing art as an outlier, which may not contribute to the goal of academic instruction. This statement also reflected a conflict about the role of art vs. academic subjects as though art is not academic. That is an assumed ideological difference.