Innovation and Human Capabilities in an E nabling W elfare S tate

1. Innovation and Human Capabilities in an EnablingWelfareState Oxford International Seminar of FiDPEL in Oxford, April 9-11, 2013 Reijo Miettinen, CRADLE, University of Helsinki

2. Contents • Background and goals of the bookproject • Interpretations/rhetoricaluses of the results of the OECD PISA studies 3) How shouldinstitutionalchange and learningbestudied? Institutionallearning as a mode of governance. 4) The Finnishcomprehensiveschool and itsspecialeducationsystem as a case 5)  The concept of an enablingwelfarestate

3. Background of the book project • The book project emerged out of two previous projects (1) National Innovation System: Scientific Concept or Political Rhetoric? Helsinki: SITRA/Edita(2002) The Finnish National Innovation System. From technology to human capabilities (2010). Tokyo: Shinhyoron Inc. (2) Sabel, C., Saxenian, A-L., Miettinen, R, Kristensen, P-H. and J. Hautamäki (2011), Individualized service production in the new welfare state: Lessons from the special education in Finland. Sitra Studies 62. (Helsinki: Sitra). http://www.sitra.fi/fi/Julkaisut/sarjat/selvityksia/selvityksia.htm • An attempt to construct bridges between the economics of innovation, the study of the future welfare states, new institutionalism in sociology and organizational studies, cultural-historical activity theory and pragmatist/Deweyan concept of democracy.

4. Methodological goals 1: An attempt to construct bridges between • Economics of innovation/innovation studies, • Welfare state studies, • New institutionalism in sociology and organizational studies, • Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) • Pragmatist/Deweyan concept of democracy.

5. Methodological goals 2 • Institutional economics (including the NIS approach) tries to explain how national institutions explain the economic growth of nations. Theorizing of institutional change and learning in organizational studies needed be used here. • Both economic and social political debates regard “investment in human capital” and capabilities as a central starting point for policy making. However, they have little to say of the nature of development of self or (creative) capabilities or the quality of capability cultivating services such as education.

6. Distribution of expertise in natural scientific knowledge of the 15-year old students in Finland and in OECD average, PISA 2006

7. Consequences/rhetorical uses of the PISA results • They helped to ‘rescue’ the public comprehensive school from the intervention of neoliberal education policy – the public school system is today regarded by the Finns the most important achievement of the national history. • The connection to innovation and knowledge society policy. Strategic literacy as the individual foundation for absorptive capacities of firms and other organizations (capability of following, evaluating and utilizing the development and new results of a knowledge field) • The PISA results show that a public school system inspired by educational equality is able to – against the of neoliberal thrust – produce both excellent results and equality with moderate costs.

8. The explanations for the success ofof the Finnishstudents in PISA tests • The Finnish language and population • The political history of Finland • The late economic transformation of the country and the need to integrate of the population • The popularity and esteem enjoyed by the teaching profession as well as the university-level education of teachers • The decentralized, trust-based governance of the comprehensive school system • Special education systems based on the early recognition of learning difficulties and the immediate provision of • Otherservicessuch as maternity and familyclinics, daycare and the publiclibrarysystem

9. School governance: The Finnish way • The 1970 Comprehensive school curriculum was detailed. National test were never issued in Finland (except the matriculation examination). • The decentralization started in 1985 core curriculum. The municipalities and schools were required to write their own curricula. It delegated student evaluation to schools. “The passing the authority to a place where the actual school work is being done was carried out to make the possible remedial measures easier.” • National evaluation are sample-based. Rectors, teachers, educational officials and politicians almost unanimously resist the provision of ranking lists because they increase differences between the schools • The Local Government Act (1995) rendered responsibility of organizing basic services to municipalities. The Board of Education lost its normative power: the introduction of developmental projects with local experimentation as a form of governance.

10. The rector and a teacher of a comprehensive school in Espoo: “A great deal of confidence is placed in teachers [in Finland]. A great deal of power, responsibility and freedom is given to them, and they deserve it. No ponderous control mechanisms are needed. In many countries inspections and constant testing form a barrier to creativity and misdirect the teacher’s energy. In Finland the teachers plan their teaching, from the curriculum design to the individual lessons. (…) Subject teachers in Finland follow the same curriculum as university students who are majoring in the subject. The teacher’s network therefore includes people who are active in their areas of research, and new achievements in science trickle down to schools through unofficial channels.”

11. How to studyinstitutionalchange and learning? • Multi-levelheteogenuousorganizationalfield as a unit of analysisfrom the neoinstitutionaltheory. • Using Activity theory to find a change-orientedmicrofoundations for the analysis. Instead of norms, habitsorsharedsystembeliefs, itfindscontadictions and culturalmediationbysigns and tools (Vygotky 1978), and remediation, that is, creation/transformation of relevantconcepts and tools as central for understandinginstitutionalchange.

12. Institution as a multiorganizationalfield • DiMaggio and Powell (1982, 148) define an organizational field as follows : “Those organizations, that in the aggregate, constitute a recognized area of institutional life: key supplies, resource and product consumers, regulatory agencies, and other organizations that together produce similar services and products”. • They further suggest (ibid.) that the virtue of this unit of analysis it that it does not direct attention only to competing firms or to networks of organizations that actually interact but to the totality of relevant actors. • The Finnish basic education: Basic Education law and National Curriculum, budget funding, evaluation, National Board of Education, 3263 basic schools, 336 municipality school administrations, Association of Finnish Regional Authorities, departments of education and teacher training as well as research centers in universities, textbook- and test editors, professional and civic associations.

13. Startingpoints for the analysis of the development of a multiorganizationalfield • Multi-level, heterogenuousorganizationalfield with a common purpose as a unit of analysis • Politicalprograms (of solvingproblems) and fundingdecisionsconstitute a keyfoundation for institutionalactivities. Theirimplementation is dependent of the levelunderstanding of the relevantphenomena as well as of technologies and toolsavailable/developed as well as of the contributionvariousorganizations and professions of the field 3) Anyinstitutionoractivityconfrontscontradictions and problemsthatcall for solutions. Theyconstitute a startingpoint for for development and learning.

14. Mediationbyartifacts 4) Mediationbysigns and tools/culturalartifacts (Vygotsky). The theoretical and practicaltools of activityareessential for the development: “All forms of activity (active faculties) are passed on only in the form of objects created by man for man” (Ilyenkov 1977b, 277). a) The results of activityareobjecfied into culturalartifacts (systems of means, signs and tools) thatcan the tranferredacrossorganizationalboundaries b) Learning is organizedaroundremediatione.g. development and use of new relevantmeans and instrumentalities.

15. Forms of interactive-collaborativelearning • 5) Development and exchange of knowledge in (a) localmultiprofessionalcommunities (b) horizontalnetworksbetweenlocal (orregional) actors/communities, (c) networks and projectscrossing the hierarchicallevels (state, municipalities, schools) areallbecoming an essentialforms of learning in the development of an organizationalfield and need to bestudied and furtherdeveloped.

16. The emergence of the Finnish compehensive school and the political ideal of equality • The School System Act in 1968. The dual track school was replaced by the Comprehensive school in which the whole cohort of pupils was educated for nine years. It was expected to secure equal opportunity for further studies for the whole age cohort. The reform was realized in the years 1972-1977. • The ideal was “to provide all citizens with equal opportunities to receive a high-quality, free of charge education, regardless of age, domicile, economic situation, gender or mother tongue.” • The challenge of diversity of students was met. Nobody knew how manage it (implementation problem) all students should achieve the goals of the 9-year school curriculum (to be able to proceed to secondary education)

17. The crisis of abilitytrackingsystem in the 1980s • The first solution was tracking: Upper-grade students (grades 6-9) were grouped by ability in math, Swedish, and foreign languages. • It turned out that a part of the students (especially boys) who selected low tracking groups on grade 6 were practically excluded form the secondary education. The system reproduced the dual track system and was against the principle of equal educational opportunity behind the comprehensive school reform. • The tracking system was abolished in 1985.

18. A solutiondeveloped out of the specialeducation • Special education used to be diagnosis and direction of “deviant” or “exceptional” children to special classes – a psycho-medical approach dominated • In the 1970s the understanding of specific learning difficulties (reading and writing difficulties, dyslexia) increased and a part time special education in small groups to overcome them was developed. The training of “classless” special education teachers started in 1972 • The pedagogical principle of “overcoming the learning difficulties” (of achieving curriculum goals) was formulated.

19. Earlyrecognition of learningdifficulties and immediateintervention – and the development of the parttimespecialeducation A core principle of the Finnish special education system in the 1990s became early identification of learning difficulties and immediate provision of sufficient support to meet the school’s learning objectives while allowing the student to remain in class with his/her peers. The intervention in firstgradesprevents the accumulation of learningdifficultiesduring the schoolcareer. While some 5 percent of students received special education in 1970, by 2010 approximately 30 percent of all Finnish comprehensive school students receive at least some special education; most of them part-time assistance for minor learning difficulties. This is the highest figure among the OECD countries.

20. The provision of diagnostic and remedial tools • The coreprinciple (earlyrecognition and immediatesupport) wouldwefutileunlessrelevanttools of recognizingthe learningproblems and interveningwerenotavailable • The use of toolsconstitutesthe backbone of the expertise of the special education teachers. Variety of toolsetsused for differentproblems, age-groups and subjectshasbeendevelopedbypsychologists, logopedists and special education teachers. Thesemeansarecomplementary.

21. Providers of diagnostic and remedial toolpackeges used by the schools of Espoo

22. Example of research-based tool. Graphogamefor the prevention of dyslexia • A research group from NiiloMäki Institute in the University of Jyväskylä found in a longitudinal study of Dyslexia that the difficulty of connecting sounds and letters by young children is a precursor of dyslexia. The group developed a training tool, Ekapeli(Graphogame), based on this findings. It is freely available in the Internet and lodable to mobile phones.

23. The uses of Graphogame “The game is available via the Internet to children who have parental permission. (…) We have recommended kindergartens where all children in Finland have their pre-school year before school that the game should be used during the last two months (April-May) and preferably with massed practice. This means short 5-15 minute periods several times per days for as long as children have learned letter-sound connection (…). Today, more than 50.000 children in Finland have tried the game and very few have failed to benefit.” (Lyytinen et al. 2009, 672)

24. Graphogame (G) as a mediating toolin different scales • G is an artifact that helps children to learn a particular skill of reading and writing in a culture based on the Greek alphabet: the construction of the connection between letters and sounds. • As an open software artifact G can be distributed extremely rapidly in the field of special education and was immediately and freely available to children, parents and teachers all over Finland. • G became into an instrument of (special) educational policy: it was integrated into the Finnish policy of early recognition of learning difficulties and immediate intervention by recommending how it should it be used in Finnish kindergartens. • G functions as a mediating artifact on individual, family, organizational and field levels, and is also an instrument of special education policy

25. The organizational field of special education

26. Civilsocietyactors/associations • Vocational associations (such as Finnish Union of Speech Therapists, Finnish Union of Special Education) • Civic associations: Central Union of Child Welfare in Finland, Finnish Reading Association established to advance reading competencies of children and adults, Finnish Different Learners’ Association (mainly adult dyslectics). Key role in “normalizing” learning difficulties • Disability organisations are the most numerous group of associations, Association of Asperger and Autism, The Finnish Association on Intellectual and DevelopmentalDisabilities (FAIDD), etc.. All of them provide some kind of tools, education thand peer-support 4) Methods associations organized around a method, such as the Instrumental Enrichment method and Varga-Neményi method of teaching mathematics.

27. The problem of institutional learning: how can a multiorganizational field learn? • How the research results and new tools are transmitted to the field: professional training further education and training, expeditions • How the new solutions developed in local schools (or municipalities) can be articulated and transmitted to other schools (visits, best practice fairs)? • How national norms, plans and practices can collaboratively prepared and be based on reality and emerging good practices in schools?

28. Examples of boundarycrossinghorizontalforms of learning • Local: Within schools: multiprofessional peer-evaluation organ, student welfare group (rector, school psychologist, SE teachers, teacher, school nurse, tutor) regularly evaluate the situation of classes, discusses about measures of support the students and to evaluate their progress. • Municipal: Mathlands, learning centers for math learning and math learning difficulties Regional student welfare groups Organized study visits to other schools • Municipal and regional: Development networks and non-commercial good-practice fairs where schools represent and exhibit their practices and tool novelties and services of municipalities and associations are exhibited.

29. Across hierarchical boundaries: A national project for the implementation of the special education strategy • The implementation of the 2007 strategy of special education was realized by a four-year developmental project (2008-2011) funded and headed by Board of Education with a participation of 233 municipalities geographically covering the whole country. • The project was aided by two university institutes which provided training and feedback on the plans for student care written by the pilot schools as a part of the project. The plans ‘experimented’ and developed various various concepts and practices (inclusion, intensified support, learning plan etc.) included in the strategy . • To allow learning from pilot experiments three methods was used: 1) Descriptions (with videotapes) in an internet platform, 2) Organized visits between schools, 3) Good practice fairs where pilot schools presented their solutions. These forms became established as a part of the municipal school governance in many municipalities.

30. Reading eargerness program • The Ministry of Education and culture because concerned about the diminishing reading of books among school children. • A 3-year project was established coordinated by University Oulu. The school-library pairs applied funding for develop practices for increasing increase the reading among the students. • 100 hundred applied 32 pairs were given funding for development projects. Relevant knowledge of the development of literacy and reading activity of children in Finland is provided. The solutions and models developed will be effectively distributed so that other schools can adopt aspects of the practices developed (to construct their own that fits their local circumstances)

31. The concept of enabling welfare state • A “new active and dynamic WS” in the EU social model documents. • A social investment welfare state (Giddens 1998) Social policy is an investment not a cost , “investment to human capital whenever it is possible rather than the direct provision of economic maintenance.” It does not deal with the nature of individual development, the quality of capability cultivating services and it has “almost religious faith in the capacity of target andauditing to produce positive change.” (Pierson 2006). • There are also several interpretations of enabling welfare state (liberal, third way, social democratic, pragmatist). My interpretation find it as a possible new stage in the development Nordic welfare state (in Finland). Dorf & Sabel’s (1998) Dewey-inspired democratic experimentalism connects the solving of social problems, learning and democracy to each other.

32. Bildung, rich development of all individual potentialities as a basic value • The development of individual potentialities and self is an essential foundation for welfare and good life and a basic value as such. • In addition it contributes to work and productivity (general and specific skills) and economic development (human capital). • A due understanding and advancement of the development individual and her capabilities needs the contribution of developmental psychology, anthropology and educational theory. • Attempts to reduce capabilities to skills needed labour market may hinder the development of independent critical thought, imagination and creativity badly needed in a knowledge-based society. An instance of pedagogical paradox, “adult’s wisdom does not provide a teleology for child development.”

33. Features of an enabling welfare state • It focuses on the quality and collaboration between the capability-cultivating educational, social and cultural services • It develops tailored solutions that take into account of differences/specific needs of the individuals • It regards equality an important condition for social investment and does not (like liberalism and ‘third way’) see inequality as a necessary ingredient of economic dynamism. It regards the idea of virtuous cycle between high-quality education, equality, welfare and economic growth a viable concept in a knowledge-driven society. • The mechanism of developing the services is local experimentation and institutional learning organized and supported by municipalities and state (second order role of state) • It does not regard privatisation of public services a good solution, because it a) increases the social differences and b) hinder institutional learning