A historical insight on Finnish education policy from 1944 to 2011

This paper examines the Finnish education policy from 1944 to 2011 describing historical and social contexts and revealing underlying societal aims and approaches. The examination is based on the institutional strand of contingency theory and focuses on two key progressions. The first one deals with social justice and the second one with the relationship between the State and the municipalities. Two fundamental political eras are identified and examined. The first one, 1944-1980, comprises the State’s will to achieve social justice through a centralized, norm-based and system-oriented administration. The second one, 1980-2011, involves the decentralization of administration with which the State tries to preserve and advance social justice, and to develop local autonomy.