Finnish educational scientist Tero Autio worked in School of Educational Sciences of Tallinn University as the study theory professor. He was visiting professor in the universities on different continents, currently, he is working at Luxembourg University. Tero Autio has published books in major publishing houses and often shared the professional consultations with colleagues world-wide. How does professor Autio characterize the Estonian education/situation in the educational policy on a global level and compared with the Finnish experience?

Tiiu Kuurme, TLÜ docent

How do you assess the situation in our field in broader terms?

Tero Autio: “Education is the human shaping force. During the existence of the mankind, there was always something that could be named education. This is the application area of forces that shapes us. Education has different measures: moral, scientific, practical, aesthetic, physical, mental. Education is what remains after studies and expresses the human quality. Nowadays is the time of quick diminishing of ideas and ideals. Handling of knowledge, even at universities, has become superficial. We talk about skills, competences, quality, not the science or knowledge. Behaviourism comes back in the caricature forms, it is impossible to speak about the open and deeply penetrating education anymore. If the ideal of a human always used to be in focus of educational sciences, nowadays the desired ideal is an obedient body that can be commanded in the labour market. Atrophying of ideas has led to the situation when instead of education we are talking about studying. A human has become a study machine – subject to control. However, education is not a scheme prescribing how to teach or study, but a free self-creation in relation to the opposite poles of reality. Why education has diminished just to studying, can be explained by the long historical reasons, unfortunately, the education today has become a facility.

Development and education has always been hostages of mind. What patterns the mind of today has created?

Education and educational sciences were considered (with the exception of critical theory) to be the apolitical activity. In fact, education is the political activity as here both people and society are shaped. The world political trends largely define the forms of things related to education. Currently, economics is a single argument, that defines development and directions. Global new-liberalistic education reform kills personal education. The cause of the crisis is that there is only economic calculation that matters. A glimpse at development over the last decades allows us to conclude that collapse of the Soviet Union was in a sense a geopolitical catastrophe – while before America was considered to be a moral pawn, driven by a rush for excessive profits at the expense of social values. The Soviet Union collapsed and the forces of capitalism, that had been kept in leash, broke out – a rule of the financial capital, market liberalism, superficial understanding of measurability of everything, the production of seeming results and belief into them. Business success as the ideal of all social organisations became the example model and logics for personal development/education. If liberalism is associated with the idea of freedom, the neo-liberalism means the fox’s freedom in hennery.

During the ‘cold war’ a shock from launching the first Sputnik broke out, when many were afraid to drag behind the Russians in technological development, so the education priority was to learn the so-called ‘strong’ sciences. Dewey and progressive pedagogics were announced the enemy number two, the core of which was proficiency, activity, focus on people and democracy. The idea of democracy in the world of education kicked off, the schools based on the hierarchic subordination and strong values were retained. Everything taken together lead to creation of the OECD, which regulates educational systems on a global level. The educational-political basics were developed by experts, invited from the military and economic spheres. Mathematics, natural sciences, foreign language became the core competencies; PISA myriad broke out where accomplishment and education were assessed from the perspective of fixed formal final results.

The intellectuals worldwide are worried about the changes of universities. The form is gobbling the content …

The reforms, harmful for the higher education basics, are taking place everywhere. The initial idea of the universities is forgotten, and they are becoming the vocational schools. Bureaucracy and all kinds of bustle have colonized the universities, and the main subjects of discussions align with the economic rationality. Humanities, a traditional core of education, suffer and diminish. The subject preferences are based on utilitarianism: on the foreground there are things beneficial for the economic competition, for instance, today, they include IT-technologies. This is true for the whole, not only Anglo-American, world. Some time ago, Germany and Sweden used to be an example to the Western world, but now they have come down. The process of school, university and even people standardisation is taking place, and it does not serve the economy any more – it is actually in a steady decline.

Where does the educational science head?

Between the two big wars, the educational science was a part of the cultural sciences, and it developed strongly. The concept of Bildung – the road of the human mental advancing – was thriving. Though, Bildung’s theories proceeded from the masculine rationality, that had also to be learned by women, so the women’s essence was underestimated. The morality philosophy as a tool of educating people was on the important place as the morality was considered to be a core of education. After the war, the leading position was overtaken by contemplation of education through the prism of the natural science, when a requirement of measurability came to the foreground and the science was declared to be value-free. Everything in respect to curricula was psychologised to the cognitive process level while the turn from the morality was happening. However, the morality is such sphere of freedom, which creates the teacher’s autonomy and brings the pedagogical aspect into the studies, educating both the teacher and the student: teaching and studying machines without morality … Though many years ago Kant said: we cannot be moral people if we lack freedom. Therefore, the teacher’s autonomy in Finland is protected.

The science today is instrumental; the tools have replaced the aims. It is comical that digitalising can become the aim though actually it is a tool. The aims are born in a free exchange of ideas. But the free discussion atmosphere is disappearing both from schools and universities, the assessors come outside and you should be liked by them. The methodologic culture has come to rule, which empties the content. Though methods are ways of the process control and governing, not the content, step by step they are becoming the most important part in the professional education of teachers.

In Finland, they have always believed that education which is only aimed at reasoning is insufficient, the education of ‘heart’ is necessary, that gives human shapes both to humans and educational science, without which both will remain the halves. The history of education, i.e. the basis of the theory, should be an important part of the theoretical and pedagogic studies. Only pseudo-sciences can be satisfied with the current situation.

During the entire period of independence, the attitude to the idea of education in Estonia was full of doubts, and now it is simply vanishing. Once I thought: maybe the idea of education is being hidden in shadow in order that we would not understand how a human is shaped? Because, if there is anything we are not talking about, it remains outside the perception processes, i.e. grows wild.

The OECD, which is actually the economic organisation, did anti-education from the educational process. The internationally acknowledged Finnish educational scientist Pasi Sahlberg, whose book about the Finnish story of success became the international bestseller, claimed that a virus called GERM (Eng. virus) kills both the education and pedagogics. GERM (Global Educational Reform Movement) started up in the year of 1980 and triggered the orthodox educational reforms all over the world, of course, under the flag of promoting education. It has five central characteristics, or principles: education standardization, concentration on basic skills (calculation, writing, etc.) (they have become the single criteria of the educational system well-being), search for simple teaching methods to limit risks and testing (it restricts understanding of teaching and studying), adoption of economic models (eliminates the logics of the system itself), and, finally, the test-based assessment and concentration on numeric results. Such approach simplifies and restricts human studying, trains to depend on the external assessment and leaves out the seriousness and significance. A new generation of the US scientists name it neo-fasсism.  Finland adopted none of those, and PISA success was a surprise, it was a by-product to everything else, that has been made in our country so far. And we have never had doubts in concept of pedagogy.

I remember your far-off surprise as to how such a small country like Estonia wastes its mental resources – in the context of the educated people emigration …

Educational policy is always a part of the national politics. In the opinion of Finns, Estonia is characterised by an unbelievable lack of solidarity. One of the examples is the children poverty – it should have become a political scandal, but it’s not. In Estonia you deeply believe in the neo-liberalism. In my mind, it is the authoritarian society, here govern the authoritarian managerial practices, obedience and fear. As a scientist, I am astonished to admit how firmly thinking patterns from the Soviet era stay in people’s minds. The Soviet era footprints should be honestly realized to get rid of them. As a nation, you should ask yourselves: who we are? And as the individuals: where such things, that determine life practices today, will bring us?

Where does the Estonian education head?

Estonia seems to lack its own education-political profile, and you are not sufficiently informed about the processes in the broader world. It is replaced with deeply unreasonable, critics-free and serves the market interests execution of instructions. It is difficult to understand one-sidedness of the school system and the commercial choice of direction and digital charm of imitating the worst side of the anglomanian world. We are witnessing instrumentalisation of education. This is abnormal that in such a small country the schools have to compete with each other. There is a big difference between the Estonian and Finnish mentality. The Finnish education is like a bow, and we use it for choosing the direction into the future. We do not imitate the others or allow the empirical science, which serves the interests of bureaucracy, to govern us. The Finnish education pays great attention to philosophy and arts, it boasts a strong pedagogic heritage and the curriculum with basic philosophical back and independent thinking. In addition, over the years Finland has had good educational policy heads, that made the Finnish educational system immune. If Finland had started to standardise the teachers, it would be a national scandal. However, the latest trends have affected the universities and weakened the philosophical back of education in our country too.

Estonia should find real experts for the educational policy, not the so-called people from the politicians’ anterooms. Without the theory, philosophy, history and solid international researches, in other words – without learning the essence, nothing will germinate that could develop and ensure sustainability. The independent educational thinking is of the utmost importance – the theoretical thinking, which would tap into the international context and exist in mutual influence. As the Estonian educational background is really good. If Finnish state in 1939 was saved due to the military training and resistance, Estonia was saved due to a tradition of education, kept alive from the first year of independence, which helped to survive the occupations. The smaller nations should find a balance between the true independence and international trends. How do local politicians direct it? Estonians feature the excessive obedience though now they should rather trust their senses. If such large states as the USA are rich in resources, and can waste human talents, the smaller nations cannot afford such attitude. 

Estonia should get rid of the methodology cult. What I mean is setting the priority of the study and research methods. Only the essence of the learned material changes a person into the human. There are lots of talks about handling the study material instead of talking about the essence of that. A loss of the meaning is connected with a German tradition of weakness and surrender, which put the methodologyzation in the first place. Studying is a mystery, very individual activity, which cannot be easily explained. If a person can study freely and interpret the learned material themselves, they won’t become blind executor of rules, but a creative person. Creative person will spot the opportunities in every situation.

Sorce: Õpetajate leht