Teacher Training: Background

The teacher training programs of Finland reflect the high status of teachers and the professional reputation of the teaching profession. In the Nordic countries, teaching has an element of professional competition, as those unqualified for teaching become excluded from the labor market. The trend towards professionalism and the movement towards university training also affected teacher training in Finland. The "academic drift" of teaching and other professions to the university level provides examples of this new trend of "neo-academic higher education curricula" (Kivinen & Rinne, 1994). In both Sweden and Finland, th emovement of teacher training to the university level coincided with the reforms of the comprehensive school, showing some consistency between the two countries (ibid.).