The Cultural and Social Foundations of Ethical Educational Leadership in Finland

Abstract

This chapter provides the Finnish scope on cultural and social foundations of ethical educational leadership. Finland is often seen as an outlier. Predominant transnational trends are recognized but they tend to reach Finland with a delay and manifest themselves somewhat differently from the mainstream. There are contextual reasons for the deviance. We will present these focusing on how cultural and social aspects have been evolving in Finland. Furthermore, we will analyse the constituents, organisation and responsibilities embedded in the Finnish education system. This analysis makes use of contemporary education policy documents including legislation and other regulations, curricula, and trade union ethical recommendations for educational leaders as well as of research on them. In the analysis, we illustrate values and general ethical principles behind educational leadership practices in Finland. In addition, we describe recent empirical results on how educational leaders define moral professionalism as a part of their educational leadership competences and professional development plans. As a conclusion, we provide a characterization of the concept of educational leadership as it is understood in the culture of Finland and by Finnish educators. These are based on the analyses for the present study supported with other relevant contemporary research.