Recent research has indicated global trends of decreasing teacher autonomy and increasing teacher accountability. Standardised national tests have been identified as one of many factors constraining teacher autonomy. Another trend influencing teachers’ scope of action is the profiling and branding of schools that compete for students. This qualitative case study concerns the general upper secondary level in Finland, the only level of education in the country with a high-stakes final examination—the matriculation exam. The upper secondary level is generally regarded as Finland’s most subject-focused level of education. In contrast to this subject-focused tradition, the case school for this research has developed a cross-curricular profile emphasising creativity, boundary crossing and an outward orientated approach. The study explores the teachers’ perceptions of how their autonomy is constrained in this context characterised by tensions between the cross-curricular school profile on one hand, and the subject-focused tradition and student evaluations on the other. Although one might expect these tensions to constrain teacher autonomy, the results show that the teachers, in fact, experience the cross-curricular school profile as increasing their individual autonomy. The study demonstrates that upper secondary teachers can experience extensive autonomy despite global trends of increasing teacher accountability and diminishing teacher autonomy.

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External organizations offer schools projects with different content, so-called external school projects. This type of external projects is mainly implemented by people or an organization outside of the school. The projects may be within the framework of a nation's political aspirations. The educational goals of the projects are often far-reaching, focusing on personality or attitudes. This article questions whether external school projects can achieve such far-reaching goals. The aim of the research is to explore the views of young adults regarding how participating in an external project influenced them. In-depth interviewing were used when eleven young adults, at the time 25 years old, were asked about their opinions of an external project in entrepreneurship , implemented as an optional course, ten years after taking part. They were asked how they considered the course have influenced them, their choices and their attitudes. The statements of the informants show that the project had some long-term impact. The results of the research provide insight into whether an external temporary school project may have long-term educational values.