Coping with the Threat of Closure in a Small Finnish Village School

Abstract

W orking in a small school threatened with closure creates a certain kind of teacher vulnerability. By analysing one teacher's story, this article contributes to understanding how teachers cope with the external and internal challenges of teaching and leadership in small rural schools. Research about teachers' work in a small village school in Finland, where about 100 schools have been closed each year, explores how discovery of and reflection on the solid moral base of being a teacher may contribute to and promote the teacher's endurance during times of change. A teacher validates pedagogical thinking and practical knowledge into a contextual, temporal and moral interpretive framework. In doing so, a teacher evaluates the choice to remain in the same school for almost all their career and reveals reasons for staying-a topic that is of interest in research about retaining teachers in rural areas.

Rural Municipalities and Change in Local School Structure: Comparing Room for Manoeuvre among Rural Municipalities in Latvia and Norway

“…On the other hand, in the two municipal cases where there are still small rural schools, interviewees with teaching background held that these schools' overall teaching and learning environments are attractive and often better than in bigger schools, but vulnerable because of few teachers and pupils. This supports former research about the vulnerability of schools in sparsely populated Nordic countries (Germeten, 2011, Karlberg-Granlund, 2011. The different objectives and kinds of means at national, municipal and local levels affect the municipalities' priorities, and how they navigate the local educational system.…”

“…The former Norwegian generalist model was more open for a constructive relationship with the community, than the Latvian specialist model. The small Norwegian case schools and other studies underline the specific educational environment in rural schools where the teacher include local conditions and practical knowledge into a contextual, temporal and moral interpretive framework (Karlberg-Granlund, 2011;Tūna, 2016), as a way to make the specific learning environment meaningful.…”

“…Rural areas around the world are going through population changes affecting local school structure. While rural areas in Australia face population increase and need for more school facilities, rural areas in other Western societies like Canada and Europe have to cope with rural depopulation and decreasing numbers of children (Halsey, 2011;Harris, 2014;Karlberg-Granlund, 2011;Solstad, 2016;Wildy 2011).…”

Tutor Support in the Ungraded School of the North

“…According to Karlberg-Granlund (2011), 513 schools were closed or enlarged in Finland from 2005 to 2009, emphasizing at the same time that working in a small Finnish rural school requires the maximum manifestation of all competencies from the teacher and allows for more professional satisfaction from full communication with children and their parents, and from the opportunity to observe their personal contribution to the development of children in the long term. Consequently, the role of rural Finnish schools in developing the country's educational potential should be highly appreciated by the state and government.…”

Consultation in Special Needs Education in Rural Schools in Sweden– An Act of Collaboration between Educators

“…Schools in remote areas in particular face difficulties attracting and retaining qualified teachers and specialist teachers, for example, special education teachers (Berry, Petrin, Gravelle, & Farmer, 2011;Pettersson, Ström, & Johansen, 2016). Furthermore, many rural schools constantly live under the threat of closure (Autti & Hyry-Beihammer, 2014;Cedering, 2016;Egelund & Laustsen, 2006;Karlberg-Granlund, 2011;Pettersson et al, 2016;Solstad, 2009). …”