The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) created the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Almost 4 million students and over 100 countries have participated in PISA since its inception in the year 2000. According to the OECD website, “PISA measures 15-year-olds’ ability to use their reading, mathematics and science knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges” (PISA, 2024) .
While our focus in the United States is often on the performance of our American students, in recent years, researchers have shown great interest in Finland and how Finnish students perform on the PISA assessment. For a relatively small country, their PISA scores showed high levels of performance and equity (Sahlberg, 2012).
The Canva slides below present information about Finland’s education system and suggestions regarding what the United States can adopt after viewing the data.
I did not try to create my own theory of curriculum development. I did not scour piles of textbooks or peer-reviewed articles to arrive at a logical and evidence-supported conclusion that I hold an empirical-conceptual critical theorist view of curriculum writing.
My philosophies actually emerged by accident.
I teach 7th grade in a public junior high that happens to be in the most diverse school district in the entire state of Texas. Last year, the Student Council conducted a survey, and students revealed that over 30 different languages are spoken on our campus. In my 3rd period class alone, students speak English, Nepali, French, Urdu, and Spanish. If you include two of my other classes, my students also speak different versions of Arabic, Vietnamese, and Bengali.
As an educator, I want all of my students to feel valued. I want them to know that they have a right to let their voice be heard, and I want them to know that I hear their voices. Some of the young minds in my classroom come from the homes of refugees, asylum-seekers, and adventurers looking for the American dream. Some of my other students are 6th-generation Texans who live in the homes their great-grandparents bought before mortgage rates made home ownership a distant wish for most. Last year I had Israeli immigrants and children from Palestine in the same table groups, and I have Muslims and Coptic Christians from Egypt who share lunch together in my 4th period. The world has come to my classroom….
And somehow I have to teach everyone.
But, the beginnings of my educational philosophies started emerging much earlier in life, years before I even knew how much I wanted to be a teacher. I am a WASP (a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant); however, my upbringing did not create in me a sense of privilege and status. Rather, my family made certain that I grew up with a strong conviction that I had a responsibility to make the world a better place.
My Grandma Grace sat at lunch counters in the 60s with her African American friends. She also caused a scandal in her church when she invited the janitor and his family to the service. Many decades later I caused people to whisper behind my back when I invited my HIndu and Sikh friends to a youth meeting at my church. I was denied apartments in France because I was American, and I was barred from community events because of my religion.
However, I cannot fully embrace Critical Theory in education. I cannot say that racism is ubiquitous because I see where it isn’t. I cannot say that the entire educational system must be overturned because I see progress and change shining light into the shadows. I see hope already. I see the light at the end of the tunnel. And, I see my students living as if change is here and not on some distant horizon.
