ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the definition of organizing concepts, and follows some historical background information on Finland with regard to higher education. It discusses intellectuals and nationalism with an illuminative example taken from teacher training. The chapter also discusses the Fennoman tradition of intellectuals that leads to creating and distinguishing between public and private intellectuals. It describes the prestige of higher education and the interconnectedness of the theoretical approach. Both culturally and politically, Finland belongs to Scandinavia. As a consequence of this relationship, Finland has had a traditionally weak feudal class structure and a strong tradition of independent peasants leading the way to modern society with an emphasis on social and democratic ideas. Geopolitically Finland is a small nation situated between Western and Eastern Europe that has one dominant language group. The foundations of Finnish national higher education were laid during the seventeenth century when Finland was part of the Swedish Kingdom.
