ABSTRACT
In many countries, egalitarian educational policies adopted after World War II have recently come under question, and in the Scandinavian countries, where Finland and Sweden are reorienting themselves from their status on Europe’s geopolitical periphery to full membership in the European Union (EU), similar challenges have been made against the characteristic “social democratic” model of welfare. With the opening up of educational policy toward new kinds of opportunities, what should be the relationship between elite and mass education? Which countries and which models might offer appropriate paths for developing alternatives to traditional State-centralized educational systems? In a “post-Fordian” society, how can the link between school and work and a new division of labor be organized? In the following pages, we shall be looking for answers to questions such as these. We shall consider educational systems elsewhere in the postindustrial world as alternatives to schooling as it has evolved in Scandinavia; we shall be looking closely at alternative interpretations of “egalitarian educational policies,” with reference to their historical applications in the Nordic countries and especially in Finland. We shall also ask what the tasks of education are and how they are shifting in a changing society. Finally, we shall consider the problems posed by over-and underutilization of education on the labor market and in the lives of individuals.
